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Talk to me about Italy
in Travel
DH and I have never been to Europe together, and Italy is one of our top choices for a vacation this year. We are foodies and love to eat - especially at local places without many tourists.
Do you recommend any particular cities for us to visit? I'm thinking we'd be in the country for about a week - we haven't decided on time of year yet. I don't want to spend a lot of money on hotels (maybe $150 or less per night), but we'd be willing to splurge on food.
Since neither of us has been to Italy, we'd like to see some of the famous attractions and landmarks.
TIA for any recommendations on places to visit, stay, and eat!
Re: Talk to me about Italy
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i would suggest florence (but i studied abroad there so i'm biased). i'd actually recommend renting an apartment so you could go to markets and cook a few meals too. also, cheaper than a hotel. san lorenzo market in florence has tons of great meat, produce, fish but also fantastic options for lunches (sandwiches, pastas, soups). to me, florence is a city of hidden gifts. while it may not have the immediate impact of rome or venice, it's one of the best cities for wandering.
we found the flat we rented through venere.com but italy-accom.com and vrbo.com are good too. i have a bunch of restaurant suggestions for florence - some from when DH & i went in 2008, some from when i was in college. if you opt for florence, feel free to page me and i'll find the list.
lol of course a week is too short to see ALL of italy, but if you only hae a week then that's all you have and you can certainly work iwth it. 3 nights rome, 3 nights florence. your post contradicts itself-you say you want super less-touristy areas but then say you want to see all of the famous sites. you can't really have it both ways but you CAN go in the off season when it won't be teeming with tourists (june-aug). i've been 2 times in sept/oct and it's great-not many people there at all. i'm going back in 3 weeks and doing the 3 nights in both rome and florence (my 2nd time in rome and 3rd in florence). if all i can get in is a week then i'll take it
the other benefit of going on the off season is the hotel prices are really cheap. october is a nice time to go and you can certainly find places for less than 150 a night.
I've been in May and November and both are great times to go. November was way less crowded, it was Thanksgiving week and also the rainy season up north where we were, but DH was there for work so we didnt really choose where to stay. We went to Verona, Venice and Florence and Bologna only to go to the Ducati Museum. We also drove around Vicenza, which is where he was for work. Verona is my favorite by far. I really don't have words to describe it...I just loved it! I would have loved to spend the night there, but we did it as a day trip.
The time I was there in May I was with my family and we were there for 2 weeks and went to Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento and Bari (to visit family). We were in Rome for only 2 nights I think and it definately wasn't enough time at all since we didnt get to see everything. I like walking around Florence, but it is very touristy, but there is so much to see there too. Sorrento was beautiful that time of year. We took a tour of Capri in a convertable taxi and the drive had Dean Martin playing on his radio. It was great!!
If you only have a week, I would do 3 nights in one place and 3 nights in another. Keep us posted!!
I have some photos and travel info on Italy from our last trip there in my supermom blog. Loved staying at Casa Cornacchi and doing a cooking class there. Info in blog. For food/wine pairings try Avignonesi winery. We did a cellar tour followed by lunch with wine. It was so good. They have a website..info and photos on blog too.
The good news, it's hard to find bad food (well, maybe in Venice it's not but by in large IT is fab).
If I liked food and wine, which I do, and had 7 days, I'd fly into Florence or Rome (whichever was a better value $/connections-wise). I'd spend 3 days in Florence, 2 days in Tuscany (Radda.... maybe Montepulciano) and 2 days in Rome.
Is that "enough" to see "everything"? No. But a lifetime's probably not enough time to see "everything". I think that's a really nice way to see two areas, enjoy some history and different foods, without wasting time on excessive travel drama/inconvenience.
There are many other fantastic places in IT, but for overall ease, value, and time, that's what I'd do on my initial trip here. GL!
Ditto to this. You're not going to be able to see everything, so you need to hit your local library and grab an Italy travel book or two and start listing out your priorities. With 7 days (and I'm assuming you mean 7 days in-country, not 7 days total including travel) you'll see two cities, 3 max. If you want to get a tasting of both north and south then combining Rome (Rome is pretty centrally located, but is considered to be in the South by Italians) with Florence or Venice could give you that. And really, you won't have trouble finding good food, even in Venice. For Venice, the key is to choose places off the beaten path - ditch the map, take a wrong turn or two and find yourself on some random back canal and duck into a bacarondo or trattoria that still caters as much as possible to locals and then order the chef's daily special