Greetings,

We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll be driving. Since
this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we concentrate on? We
want to get the feel of the country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the
museums or churches, since we are coming from Paris) taste some good food and wine.
Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.

Peter

If you've only got 2 weeks you could concentrate on Tuscany and Venice. Leave Rome and the rest of Italy for another trip. You could comfortably take in Florence, Fiesole, Lucca, Sienna, Tuscan villages and the Tuscan countryside including great food and drink, more on the way to Venice and home through the Alps. Fantastic. Better than being more adventurous in the driving IMO and wasting too much time in the car.

[email protected] (Pete) wrote in news:[email protected] om:

    > Greetings,
    > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll be driving. Since
    > this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we concentrate on?
    > We want to get the feel of the country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the
    > museums or churches, since we are coming from Paris)

Italian churches and museums are so different from those in France that you would be
missing a lot to assume, seen one seen them all. It really depends on how much
driving you want to do. does the two weeks include driving from paris and back? that
trip will take either one or two days depending upon your driving habits. Then there
are the necessary stops.

Beachy Ocean stuff

Santa Margherita Ligure (pretty town on the coast) Cinque Terre (picturesque
collection of villages with mountains diving into the waters)

Mountain Lake stuff

Maggiore Como Garda

do drive in or out through one of the mountainous routes either through Aosta or Como

city Stuff

Milan Pisa Lucca Florence Siena (and surrounding hill country Chianti wine district)
Rome (I would advise with two weeks not goiong further south than Siena above)
Amalfi Coast Naples (ok Naples area include Pompei and Capri) Verona Venice

As you can see you could be three weeks at two nights per place and
completely worn out.

Suggest going to Florence area with a stop in Como or Maggiore and Milan. If you are
hyped up to travel more add Venice and Verona. If you try more . . . one word, NO!

Good points Coulter. I wish I had mentioned Verona and the lakes too. Pete, you'll probably get tens more comments but the basics/best for a fortnight you already have IMO. 2 weeks really isn't too long unless you want to say to friends you've 'been' here and there. Not personally v keen on Milan apart from half an hour in the cathedral maybe but horses for courses.

In article <[email protected] >, [email protected]
(Pete) wrote:

    > Greetings,
    > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll be driving. Since
    > this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we concentrate on?
    > We want to get the feel of the country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the
    > museums or churches, since we are coming from Paris) taste some good food and wine.
    > Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.
    > Peter

you have to do your homework first -- what have YOU always wanted to do? what do you
mean by 'feel' -- what is your fantasy of italy? then people can help

two weeks is a short time -- if it were me I would rent a place in a small town in
Tuscany for a week and then use it as a base to drive around the countryside from
small interesting town to town -- or you could just do a driving ramble picking up
hotel rooms along the way. pick one major city Venice, Florence or Rome for the
other week and get rid of the car on your way in -- an apartment there would also
help you get a better feel for the country

In article <[email protected] >, [email protected]
(Pete) wrote:

    > Greetings,
    > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll be driving. Since
    > this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we concentrate on?
    > We want to get the feel of the country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the
    > museums or churches, since we are coming from Paris) taste some good food and wine.
    > Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.
    > Peter

you have to do your homework first -- what have YOU always wanted to do? what do you
mean by 'feel' -- what is your fantasy of italy? then people can help

two weeks is a short time -- if it were me I would rent a place in a small town in
Tuscany for a week and then use it as a base to drive around the countryside from
small interesting town to town -- or you could just do a driving ramble picking up
hotel rooms along the way. pick one major city Venice, Florence or Rome for the
other week and get rid of the car on your way in -- an apartment there would also
help you get a better feel for the country

we spent 14 days in Italy this spring -- we rented an apartment for 10 days in Rome
and spent 3 in Sorrento and one in Naples [to catch an opera] -- while in Rome, we
rented a car for one day to drive north to the Etruscan tomb cities in Tarquinia
and Cerveteri

In news:bb75a915.0208110-
[email protected], Pete wrote

    > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll
be
    > driving. Since this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we
    > concentrate on? We want to get the feel of
the
    > country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the museums or churches, since we
    > are coming from Paris) taste some good food
and
    > wine. Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.


I think that first of all, you shouldn't decide that you'll be driving before you
decide where you'll be going. Driving is a good way to get to and from many smaller
places in Italy, but it's a terible way to get to and from the larger cities. Traffic
is terrible, parking can often be next to impossible, and having a car in a city like
Rome of Florence is a giant hindrance, not a help.

For a first time visit, and for only two weeks, I suggest that you visit the big
three: Rome, Venice, and Florence--spending approximately an equal amount of time in
each. Get from each one to the next by the excellent train system, not by car.

There are, of course many other beautiful and interesting places in Italy to visit.
But you can't do everything in a single two-week trip, and the more you try to see,
the higher the ratio of time spent in travel-checkin-unpack-pack-travel to time
actually being there, and the more hectic the trip becomes. The three major cities is
more than enough for a two trip. You could even profitably spend the whole two weeks
in any one of the three.

--
Ken Blake Please reply to the newsgroup

Ken, your comments don't take into account that if you already own or have access to a car it will be a lot lot cheaper for someone to travel down from Paris then around Italy by car, compared to any other form of readily available transport. And a lot more convenient too. Despite too much traffic in Florence and Venice.

In news:382778.1029088013@britishexp-
ats.com, newstartnz wrote


    > Originally posted by Ken Blake

    >> I think that first of all, you shouldn't decide that you'll be driving before you
    >> decide where you'll be going. Driving is a
good
    >> way to get to and from many smaller places in Italy, but it's
a
    >> terible way to get to and from the larger cities. Traffic is terrible, parking can
    >> often be next to impossible, and having
a car
    >> in a city like Rome of Florence is a giant hindrance, not a
help.
    >> For a first time visit, and for only two weeks, I suggest that
you
    >> visit the big three: Rome, Venice, and Florence--spending approximately an equal
    >> amount of time in each. Get from each
one to
    >> the next by the excellent train system, not by car.
    > Ken, your comments don't take into account that if you already
own or
    > have access to a car it will be a lot lot cheaper for someone
to
    > travel down from Paris then around Italy by car, compared to
any
    > other form of readily available transport.


Maybe, but I certainly didn't get from his message that we was talking about a car he
owned. He seemed to be talking about a rented car. And he may well be better off not
renting it or dropping it off before going to Italy. Or dropping it off when he
arrives at his first stop in Italy.

As I said, it depends on where he's going.


    > And a lot more convenient too. Despite too much traffic in Florence and Venice.


There I completely disagree. I think it's likely to be much less convenient.

And note, by the way, that there's very little automobile traffic in Venice.

--
Ken Blake Please reply to the newsgroup

Rental car from Paris: possibly but unlikely, this guy probably works out of Paris. Otherwise better for him to fly down to Milan (say) and rent in Italy.

Convenient: well we did it (toured N Italy by car) 2 years ago and it's a lot more convenient to jump in your car and go when and where the mood takes you than juggle public transport possibilities, stick to other people's idea of start point/ end point, timing etc.

Venice, little traffic? - wrong, it's horrible getting around by car in the bits where traffic is allowed (outside historic centre). The inner city with waterways and canals is mostly a car/ vehicle exclusion zone to all but locals with little delivery Piaggios etc.

I suggest you to take a visit to San Gimignano. For info about b&b visit
http://www.casagiovanna.com for info about
San Gimignano visit
http://www.sangimignano.com Ciao

"Pete" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio news:[email protected] o-
m...
    > Greetings,
    > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll be driving. Since
    > this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we concentrate on?
    > We want to get the feel of the country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the
    > museums or churches, since we are coming from Paris) taste some good food and wine.
    > Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.
    > Peter

Agreed / should be on the list but an hour or so is enough

"Ken Blake" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > In news:bb75a915.02081-
    > [email protected]    , Pete wrote
    > > We are planing a 2 week long trip to Italy in September. We'll
    > be
    > > driving. Since this is our first visit there, what cities and regions should we
    > > concentrate on? We want to get the feel of
    > the
    > > country, see beautiful sights (not necessarily the museums or churches, since we
    > > are coming from Paris) taste some good food
    > and
    > > wine. Any suggestions of places, B&B's etc. will be greatly appreciated.
    > I think that first of all, you shouldn't decide that you'll be driving before you
    > decide where you'll be going. Driving is a good way to get to and from many smaller
    > places in Italy, but it's a terible way to get to and from the larger cities.
    > Traffic is terrible, parking can often be next to impossible, and having a car in a
    > city like Rome of Florence is a giant hindrance, not a help.

We flew to Rome, spent a week using a driver (for three days) which is a great way to
see things in a short time, flew to Venice (you really should arrive the first time
by air to see it), spent a week, then rented a car and stopped in Florence ( a couple
of days), Pisa, Lucca and other small places on the way back to Rome. Dropped off
the car at the airport the last day and had a great time. The main thing is to plan
ahead what you want to see.

Mike Kennedy

On 12 Aug 2002 18:45:02 GMT, newstartnz <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Originally posted by Alessandro Andreuccetti:
    >> I suggest you to take a visit to San Gimignano.
    >Agreed / should be on the list but an hour or so is enough

What did you see in an hour? I spent the whole late morning and a good part of the
afternoon there on my first visit. I thought that was enough, but it was probably at
least 4 hours, not counting lunch. To me, the "must-sees" in San Gimignano are the
museum in the Palazzo Publico, the Collegiata, the church of Sant'Agostino in the
northeast (?) corner of the town, and the view from La Rocca. It's also worthwhile to
walk through the Piazza della Cisterna and look at the closed-off well. Many people
will want to take some time to look at the great art in the museum and churches and
not just walk in and walk out. If you just walk in and walk out, you could "do"
everything in an hour, but what would be the point? All IMO, of course.

Michael

To reply by email, please take out the TRASH (so to speak). Personal messages
only, please!

    > For a first time visit, and for only two weeks, I suggest that you visit the big
    > three: Rome, Venice, and Florence--spending approximately an equal amount of time
    > in each. Get from each one to the next by the excellent train system, not by car.

What a bunch of garbage. It depends on the traveler whether they want to waste all
their time visiting the "big three" or not, personally I don't see the
hype....there's far more interest in the countryside in many of the lesser known
towns and villages. Go by car, its the best way. For the "big three" yes, take
the train.