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STOPpre posted:I'm trying to plan a two-ish week trip to Italy I've spent a lot of time in Italy, mostly all over the north, but also to most of the touristy areas further down except for the islands. 1. Depends on how much you like museums. Although all of Italy is an open-air museum, if you don't like inside-building-look-at-paintings-n-poo poo museums that cuts off a lot of time, especially in Florence and Venice. (Rome's only super famous painting-and-artifact museum of note that I can think of is the Vatican museum and I've spent probably 3 weeks in Rome all together.) 3.5 days in Rome is barely enough to cover the super most famous open-air sites. Venice 2 days is OK. Florence IME 1 day is enough to walk around before you say gently caress it and want to jump into the river to avoid zombie tours of 500 people with selfie sticks listening to someone yammer about the Medici. YMMV. 2. Depends how much you hate crowds. All of the towns are jam packed to the walls during the day and only relatively busy at night. Vernazza is the most crowded town. Monterosso is probably the most stereotypically generic (and also largest). I'd love Cinque Terre if there were like 20% as many people there. The hiking trail between Riomaggiore and Vernazza is nice. Keep in mind that the rest of the main hiking trail, from Vernazza on south, has been out of service for several years since a landslide, as the Italians suck at maintaining anything including famous hiking trails in a major tourist site. 3. Yes. Since you're on a relatively limited time probably 2-3 days would be plenty. After Siena, Volterra is probably the biggest town of note, and San Gimignano is the most famous and tourist swarmed. If you hate tourists, Colle di Val d'Elsa is interesting and authentically Italian. If you don't mind tourist hotspots, San Gimignano, Volterra, Montepulciano, and Montalcino would be the more generally famous sites. Internationally famous sites are in better repair, but less authentic, so it's a tossup of what your tastes are. You will want a rental car, ideally one with a one-way dropoff so you don't need to double back to Florence, not sure what the fees are on that though. Be careful to avoid ZTLs (no-drive zones for non-locals) as they are often poorly signed and you will get a huge fine if you enter one accidentally. In big cities like Florence and probably Siena they are automated with cameras, while in smaller towns like Volterra the ZTLs are managed by cops who are probably not looking or paying attention. Still, try not to drive through them even in small towns, and DEFINITELY don't park in one, but if you do then don't panic, just try and get out ASAP. 4. Florence. Seriously it's such a shithole unless you've really gotta see David and 50000000000 tourists every goddamn where. Venice is like that too, but IMO Venice is also super unique, whereas Florence is a lot more generic architecturally unless you care specifically about Florentine history. 5. Yes if you want to discover the countryside. See #3. If you want to do wine tours, e.g. through Chianti, probably you don't want a car and probably want to do an organized bus day trip from Florence. I don't drink wine so don't have any tips there really. 6. Stay in Sorrento or Positano. IMO it is worth it in Amalfi to stay in one of the touristy cities rather than in one of the more off-the-beaten-path towns. IMO Amalfi is like Cinque Terre but somewhat less overrun by people selling you olive bottles shaped like Italy. Yes, every other shop is selling olive bottles shaped like Italy in Positano, but every shop is selling olive bottles shaped like Italy in Cinque Terre. I'm not sure I would recommend doing both in the same trip, as they have almost the same ambiance, view, and setting. If I went to Cinque Terre I'd use the Amalfi time in Naples instead. Naples is great, and is easily Italy's most underrated city.
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Jan 3, 2018 14:28
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with my wife for May-June of 2018.
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 03:31 |
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I've been to Cinque Terre in August and in May, and both times specifically Vernazza was jam-packed with tourists from about 9am->3/4pm. After that it tends to quiet down a lot. Corniglia is also particularly MUCH quieter, because it's a long (vertical 150m+?) walk from the train station to the town so tour groups of retirees don't go there. There must be some guidebook that says "get to cinque terre as early in the morning as possible to avoid the crowds", which results in all the crowds arriving early in the morning, and then by mid-afternoon it's largely cleared out because there's really not that much to do in Cinque Terre and there are only two distinctly different types of town there (the seaside ones like Vernazza and the mountainside ones like Corniglia). There are also a bunch of other little towns that don't officially make it into the "five" of cinque terre for unclear reasons, even though they're in the park. They're also far less touristy. We spent a couple hours in Volastra, and even in mid-August it was super quiet and there were only Italian speakers there. We drove, but it'd be easy to get to from Manarola if you're reasonably in shape. I would not under any circumstance recommend driving to Cinque Terre though. The train is a million times faster. I don't mind crowded touristy places, but there's something about large guided tour groups of fifty 16 year olds or fifty 90 year olds that really grinds my gears. Probably because they all bunch up in exactly the same spot to listen to someone give a history lesson that they will go in one ear and out the other and you have to shove your way through, whereas 50 individual 90 year olds would spread out more naturally? I dunno. Also Vernazza is by far the worst town for that since it's the most picturesque and it's the town on every photo when you look up "Cinque Terre". Seriously, nearly 100% of all photos of "Cinque Terre" on Google image search are of Vernazza, which is only one of the five towns: https://www.google.ch/search?q=cinque+terre&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjq_8Xd99TYAhVEP5oKHdj7CQ4Q_AUICigB&biw=1070&bih=605 Saladman fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Jan 13, 2018 |
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Jan 13, 2018 13:27
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STOPpre posted:We're starting to look for a nice place to set up camp in Tuscany for 4 nights that is centrally located and easy to make day trips to different villages from? Stay in or near Siena, it's about as central to Tuscany as you can get. For four days, some major towns to check out are Volterra, San Gimignano (touristy AF), Montalcino, Montepulciano, and if you played Assassin's Creed then Monteriggioni (which is absolutely tiny but it's just off the highway). I liked Colle di Val d'Elsa too since it's quaint but not remotely as touristy as the other towns I mentioned, which has ups and downs. Siena is also definitely worth visiting. Between San Gimignano and Volterra, I would drive due west FIRST and then south (i.e. on route SP69) rather than backtracking to the main road (SR68) as it's a simply stunning view of the valley near Volterra. Only if the weather is nice. Tuscany is a lot of driving and the roads are fairly slow, so even though distances aren't that long it is slow to get around. I would definitely pick some town that no one has ever heard of and go there too, as it's interesting to see what Tuscany actually looks like when it's not something on "Best Way to Spend 5 Days in Tuscany" list. There are also some abandoned villages if urbexing is your thing. I have wanted to make it to Buriano or Poggio Santa Cecilia, but haven't been able to yet. Buriano is more famous but a hell of a lot further.
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Jan 30, 2018 23:26
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There was a huge mud slide in like 2012 that closed most of the main cinque terre coastal hiking route, leaving only the northernmost stretch between Vernazza and Riomaggiore open, so that is definitely way more crowded now than when you went since the trail is STILL largely closed. Vernazza must be on every Instagram photo of Italy so I would guess that town in particular has also exploded in tourist numbers since 2010, although I’ve only been twice (2014 and 2017? Once in May once in August both times for 3 days). But also yeah you can still find super quiet places in Cinque Terre, like anywhere besides Monterosso, Riomaggiore, or Vernazza. Vernazza is gorgeous and everyone probably has different tolerances for crowds but both times I’ve been it was like Disneyworld both in terms of crowds and in terms of every shop selling stereotypical tourist stuff, like limoncello bottles in the shape of Italy. Florence and Venice seem to really be some sort of personality test for whether someone likes it or not. I haven’t been to Venice in a long time, so maybe my rosy memories will be blunted when it faces with me now being a curmudgeon. What’s nice about Venice is that the biggest boatloads of people mostly leave to go back to their cruise ships in the afternoon, which doesn’t happen in Florence.
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Apr 24, 2018 22:03
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GreenNight posted:Hey so the girlfriend and I are also planning 2 weeks in Italy in June. But we're lazy assholes and want to do a tour group. We're looking at Rick Steves That Rick Steves itinerary looks reasonable, but lol at that price. $3600 PER PERSON for 10 days in Italy? Are you loving kidding me, Rick Steves? If you take the same itinerary but do it yourself you'd be hard pressed to even spend $1500pp even staying in 3* hotels in the middle of each city. Italy is not expensive and it sounds like you're price-sensitive since you mention airfare being terrible. Rick Steves trips are also huge groups (24-28, so you'll be wearing an earpiece the entire time) and are marketed towards older people. If you do go with a tour group, at least go with a company that is not geared towards those over 50+ (likely averaging over retirement age). G Travels and Intrepid both offer similar itineraries for around $1200-$1500, e.g. https://www.intrepidtravel.com/en/italy/umbrian-discovery-108167 for 8 days. Europe is super easy to DIY. Italy is easy to get around by public transport, and English is widely spoken anywhere tourists go. Travel agents are still a thing, and I've used one recently (STA Travel) but unless you have some weird flight itinerary they won't be able to find you anything better than you can find on Google Flights. For hotels you can just spend 30 seconds on booking.com and sort by rating-and-price, so it's not something you really need a specialist to help you with. Also just take a look and see how much that Rick Steves itinerary is crazily priced. Essentially, it is charging you $450/day per couple on lodging, which is a huge wtf that any of their tours sell out. The only time I can really understand someone going on a group tour of Europe though is if you're traveling by yourself or if you're insanely extroverted and would go insane with just the two of you for two weeks. In which case, just stay in hostels or shared airbnb's instead of hotels. Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:03 on May 3, 2018 |
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May 3, 2018 18:55
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GreenNight posted:I was bitching about airfair because it was like $1800 round trip per person from Madison -> Chicago -> Rome which seems nuts to me. Maybe that's normal, I've never been to Europe. All the cheaper flights was like 22 hours just to get to Rome. Hot drat that's expensive, and it's not even high season for flights (July–August). But I also don't see anything better for flights with reasonable flight times (±11-15 hours), trying the three main airports in Italy (Milan, Venice, Rome) and even trying Milwaukee and playing around with dates. I have never paid more than $1100, so $1800 is really mind-boggling especially since the prices don't even drop if you go out to October; it's still like $1400 for the decent flights. Flipping from the directionality of the flight (i.e. round trip from Italy to Madison) is consistently like half the price, so I don't know what's going on. Like mid-October it's $900 from Rome to Madison and back, but $1600 for the same dates in the opposite direction? This is consistent for everywhere I check, like Zurich is $1800 for single-layovers from Madison in mid-June, but it's $1000 in the opposite direction. Is Madison in the middle of some apocalypse scenario where everyone wants to leave and no one wants to go back? I've never seen such massive discrepancies in pricing directionality (except when there are flight sales). I have not flown round-trip going in your direction for years, but I got married in September in Italy last year and I spent like 8 months beforehand watching flight prices from all over the US for our American guests, from maybe 6-8 different US cities, and I never even saw a single place where the price was > $1500. I don't think any guest paid more than $1200 for their ticket. Yeah I'd definitely bitch at those prices too. Maybe a travel agent can help you out after all. $1500 to me is the upper limit of sanity and I haven't paid more than $1100 in years, and I don't ever go for those 15 hour layovers to save a few bucks, after having done that once and regretted it.
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May 3, 2018 22:03
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You're overnighting between Day 1 and 2, right? Otherwise you're going to and from Naples twice two days in a row which is a lot of money (and a fair amount of time and hassle) lost. What you could also do is do Day 1-3 in Naples and instead of Sperlonga do Ischia or Amalfi Coast. I've never been to Sperlonga though. Everything else sounds good. Not really off the beaten path, but the Aventine Keyhole is really cool and just next to Trastevere. Eataly is not really a "food market" per se, but it is definitely worth checking out if you like food.
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Jun 21, 2018 12:36
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Beachcomber posted:It wasn't really a sequential list, but I hadn't really considered that plan. We wanted to base out of one city because we didn't want to get into the trap of moving all the time and just enjoy one place. Yeah, moving all the time definitely takes a lot out of you, but Pompeii and Naples in a day is not feasible. If it's in your budget just rent the Rome place for the week and do an overnight in Naples maybe? It'll be an exhausting two days but better than going to and from Rome twice.
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Jun 21, 2018 21:21
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twoday posted:Are there any really cool cities between Milan and the Alps that might be interesting to spend a day or two in? It’s not really about the cities so much as the location up there. Renting a car is a great idea. By public transport, the Varenna-Bellagio-Menaggio triangle part of Lake Como is far and away the best part of that lake (I’ve spent a lot of vacation time on lake Como, maybe 2 weeks altogether). Bellagio and Varenna are the cutest but like anything between Milan and Zürich, they are itty bitty bite sized. Lugano and Bellinzone are also very pretty and have enough to do for half a day. In the Lugano area, Morcote is awesome, and the views from San salvatore are incredible. In lake maggiore the west side of the lake is the best, from Stresa on north, although the east has a few notable sites like the castle of Angera. The isla Del pescatore and nearby palace island (can’t recall the name) are worth a full day trip both for the culture and the scenery. Really there are a ton of options and while a car is not necessary it is nice. I’ve spent a ton of time in that part of the Alps so if you have any specific requests let me know.
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Jul 6, 2018 08:00
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 03:31 |
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Shibawanko posted:How is Bologna? I've been to Italy only once in my life and that was to Rome, which was way too touristy for my tastes, I'm considering a short trip in the fall or winter. We like to simply sit around and eat great affordable food and drink wine most of all, is Bologna good for that? Bologna is nice and super not touristy at all. There are lots of students and some foreign students, but at least from my one visit there in late spring, there are essentially zero foreign tourists. Make sure that you do the walk up to the San Luca church. It's a crazy walkway and the view from the hill is pretty nice, although not mindblowing. That they made like a 2 mile long covered walkway to the place is, however, kind of mindblowing. Whoever built Bologna must have had a cousin who was in the business of selling covered walkways because holy poo poo did they go all out on that. Other than that I don't think there's really any major draw to Bologna, which is kind of a relief actually since it means you can just sit around and relax and enjoy the food instead of worrying that you missed out on X. Actually basically all of Emilia-Romagna is like that. A bunch of nice stuff but nothing so famous that you feel obligated to go and see it, so instead of checklist checking you can actually enjoy your entire time. I would maybe not go to Bologna during student vacation times though; I bet the city looks like the setting for a zombie film between semesters given that something like 20% of the city's population is university students.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:44
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