I'm planning to make my first trip to Italy during coming Spring.
I'll be visiting from California. I can take 2 weeks off from work,
so I want to plan it well so that I can see as much as possible in
the two weeks without having to scurry through the places.

My tentative plan is to fly to Milan/Rome from the US, and then
travel to Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and if possible
the island of Sicily. Is 12-14 days enough time to do this?

I am planning to do most of my travelling within Italy by train
and bus. Do I need to make reservations well in advance? Is there
any web-site that gives a good overview of the various optons
available for train travel? Is there a website by these train
companies that give schedule, fare, distance/time between cities
etc.?

How about accomodation? How safe are the budget motels/hotels
in Italy?

When is the peak tourist season to Italy? Is May-lastweek/June-first
week falling in the peak season when the air-fares, hotel-rates etc
also peak?

Thanks in advance for your helpful responses.

In news:d17b26b5.02101113-
[email protected], DRIZAII
wrote:

    > I'm planning to make my first trip to Italy during coming
Spring.
    > I'll be visiting from California. I can take 2 weeks off from
work,
    > so I want to plan it well so that I can see as much as possible
in
    > the two weeks without having to scurry through the places.
    > My tentative plan is to fly to Milan/Rome from the US, and then
    > travel to Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and if possible
    > the island of Sicily. Is 12-14 days enough time to do this?


You can certainly get to all of those places, but in my view,
with such a long list you'd be spending far too much time
travelling and not enough time seeing the places.

My advice for a two week trip would be to confine yourself to
Rome, Venice, and Florence, spending roughly equal amounts of
time in each. Bear in mind that, depending on your interests, you
could profitably spend all two weeks in any one of the three. So
four or five days in each will only be enough to let you see the
highlights--and that's without going to all the other places you
mentioned.

Plan on coming back another time (or many times) to see the
things you don't have time for on your first trip. You'll enjoy
yourself more that way. As much as I love Sicily, I wouldn't try
to squeeze it into a two-week trip with all the other places.
Sicily deserves a week or more on its own. I've been in Italy
some 14 or 15 times and still haven't been to all the places I
want to go.

Less is more.

If you take my advice and go just to Rome/Venice/Florence, either
fly to Venice or to Milan and take the train to Venice
immediately. Coming back, fly home from Rome. Or do the same
thing in the opposite order. Not flying in and out of the same
city will save you some extra train time.


    > I'm planning to do most of my travelling within Italy by train
    > and bus.


That's fine. You'll need buses seldom, if at all. You can get
almost everywhere on the excellent train system. Renting a car
isn't a good option unless you're interested in getting to and
from a bunch of small towns, since traffic is terrible in the big
cities, and parking is next to impossible.


    > Do I need to make reservations well in advance?


No. Do it when you get there. Or even just before you take each
train or bus.


    > Is there
    > any web-site that gives a good overview of the various optons
    > available for train travel? Is there a website by these train
    > companies that give schedule, fare, distance/time between
cities
    > etc.?


http://www.fs-on-line.com/


    > How about accomodation? How safe are the budget motels/hotels
    > in Italy?


Everyone's definition of budget is different. When you firm up
your itinerary, post another message here with it and how much
you want to spend. You should get lots of good recommendations.
And motels (in the USA sense of the word), really don't exist in
Italy. You'll be looking for hotels.


    > When is the peak tourist season to Italy? Is
May-lastweek/June-first
    > week falling in the peak season when the air-fares, hotel-rates
etc
    > also peak?


Italy is a fairly large country. Peaks are different in different
parts of Italy. Winter is peak for the snow resorts, summer for
places like Capri. Venice is busy almost all year round. My
personal preference for most places is to travel in April or
October.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

    > My advice for a two week trip would be to confine yourself to
    > Rome, Venice, and Florence, spending roughly equal amounts of
    > time in each.

Or, skip Florence and go ahead and do Siena. That way you have an
irrefusable reason to go back again--to see Florence (though it is ideal in
the springtime)! Personally, if I had the two weeks for first-time visit,
I'd not omit more out of the way places: it would be Venice, Ferrara, Siena
(o.k., maybe Florence too), maybe Lucca for a day or more touring in Tuscany
(gorgeous in Spring) and Rome. If you really wanted to stretch it, then a
swing down to Pompeii and Capri. In fact, I have half a mind to go do
exactly that right now (oh wait, I have a job).

In article ,
DRIZAII wrote:
    >I am planning to do most of my travelling within Italy by train
    >and bus. Do I need to make reservations well in advance? Is there
    >any web-site that gives a good overview of the various optons
    >available for train travel? Is there a website by these train
    >companies that give schedule, fare, distance/time between cities
    >etc.?

http://www.trenitalia.it

For most trains, you can just buy tickets any time before using them
(but you need to validate (time/date stamp) them in the yellow machines
before boarding the train). Occasionally, the trains are overcrowded
with standing room only (more likely to happen in the 2nd class cars).
On some trains, it is an option to get reserved seats on specific trains.

For Eurostar (ES*) trains, the tickets are for specific seats on trains
at specific times, so there is a possibility of not being able to buy a
ticket if it is full (or your preference of 1st or 2nd class, smoking
or no-smoking car is full).

If you fly in or out of Rome, note that there is a special non-stop
train between Fiumicino (FCO) airport and the Roma Termini train station.

    >When is the peak tourist season to Italy? Is May-lastweek/June-first
    >week falling in the peak season when the air-fares, hotel-rates etc
    >also peak?

You can get a good idea by looking at Italian hotels' web sites. They
often give rates that are applicable for given date ranges. The more
expensive times will be the peak seasons, of course.

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Lee
Unsolicited bulk or commercial email is not welcome.
No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.

In news:[email protected]
com, Douglas W. Hoyt wrote:

    >> My advice for a two week trip would be to confine yourself to
    >> Rome, Venice, and Florence, spending roughly equal amounts of
    >> time in each.
    > Or, skip Florence and go ahead and do Siena. That way you have
an
    > irrefusable reason to go back again--to see Florence (though it
is
    > ideal in the springtime)! Personally, if I had the two weeks
for
    > first-time visit, I'd not omit more out of the way places: it
would
    > be Venice, Ferrara, Siena (o.k., maybe Florence too), maybe
Lucca for
    > a day or more touring in Tuscany (gorgeous in Spring) and Rome.
If
    > you really wanted to stretch it, then a swing down to Pompeii
and
    > Capri. In fact, I have half a mind to go do exactly that right
now
    > (oh wait, I have a job).


Personally I like Siena much better than Florence. And I like
Capri better than most anyplace. I also love Lucca. And Ferrara
is pretty nice too. Not to mention a couple of dozen other
smaller towns.

So it seems like my sentiments are fairly closely attuned to
yours. Nevertheless I wouldn't recommend that anyone go just to
the places that I personally like the best. I think people should
learn for themselves what they like, and they should begin by
seeing the most well-known places and sites. To me that means
Rome, Venice, and Florence.

As much as I personally dislike Florence, it still has wonderful
museums, churches, and other things to see. I think that a
newcomer to Italy should use it as a point of departure--see
what's in it, appreciate it for its strengths, then learn by
comparison afterward to like other places better--*if* that's the
way it turns out for you. That's the way it turns out for me, but
I wouldn't want to impose that point of view on anyone else.

Similarly, if I were advising someone who was coming to visit the
USA, I wouldn't tell him to avoid New York, just because I
personally hate it.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

I agree. I have been to Italy many times, perhaps twenty or more, and it is easy to spend too much time travelling. By the time you have "done" Rome, Florence (+ nearby towns) and Venice, you will wish you had two weeks to spend in each of Rome and Florence, and at least a week to spend in Venice.

If you are going no further south than Rome then do go to Ostia Antica, just outside Rome to the west. It is very similar to Pompeii, though less famous, and has some spectacular mosaics.

I discovered this site when I and my friend went to rome last month that hotels in Italy are cheaper other sites.....

In article ,
[email protected] (DRIZAII) wrote:

    > I'm planning to make my first trip to Italy during coming Spring.
    > I'll be visiting from California. I can take 2 weeks off from work,
    > so I want to plan it well so that I can see as much as possible in
    > the two weeks without having to scurry through the places.
    > My tentative plan is to fly to Milan/Rome from the US, and then
    > travel to Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome, Naples and if possible
    > the island of Sicily. Is 12-14 days enough time to do this?
    > I am planning to do most of my travelling within Italy by train
    > and bus. Do I need to make reservations well in advance? Is there
    > any web-site that gives a good overview of the various optons
    > available for train travel? Is there a website by these train
    > companies that give schedule, fare, distance/time between cities
    > etc.?

Yes, there is a web site. I don't recall the URL, but a google
seach should easily find it for you in a minute or two. We made
train reservations one or two days prior to each day we planned to ride
by train. Passes were not necessary. We had no problems that way.

    > How about accomodation? How safe are the budget motels/hotels
    > in Italy?

My sister and I had no problems when we stayed anywhere in Italy.

    > When is the peak tourist season to Italy? Is May-lastweek/June-first
    > week falling in the peak season when the air-fares, hotel-rates etc
    > also peak?

June - August is the peak season just about everywhere in Europe.

Pulaski wrote:

    > Originally posted by Ken Blake:
    > > .... My advice for a two week trip would be to confine yourself to
    > > Rome, Venice, and Florence, spending roughly equal amounts of time in
    > > each. .....
    > I agree. I have been to Italy many times, perhaps twenty or more, and
    > it is easy to spend too much time travelling. By the time you have
    > "done" Rome, Florence (+ nearby towns) and Venice, you will wish you had
    > two weeks to spend in each of Rome and Florence, and at least a week to
    > spend in Venice.
    > If you are going no further south than Rome then do go to Ostia Antica,
    > just outside Rome to the west. It is very similar to Pompeii, though
    > less famous, and has some spectacular mosaics.

I'll second the recommendation for Ostia. See the islands of Venice, too.

Fred

The National Tourist office of Italy at

http://www.enit.it/default.asp?Lan-
g=UK

has a ton of information about hotels and things to do. It makes no
recommendations on hotels, but there are other sources for that. Italian
hotel prices are strictly controlled by the state, but seem negotiable
downwards out of season. It also links to regional tourist sites.

Another (private) site I use is
http://www.italiaplease.com/eng/

--
Andrew Nightingale of Cambridge (UK)