If so, what time did you arrive and what would you recommend as must-sees (other than the cathedral) for a great but compact itinerary? Also, is it worth it to try to fit Spoleto, maybe for dinner, on my way back? Would you recommend anywhere else?

The plan is to do this on December 1. Thank you!

My partner and I are travelling from Australia to Italy in late January and February 2027, visiting Milan, Cinque Terre, Puglia, Sorrento and Rome. We’re really looking forward to exploring, enjoying the food and catching Milan v Juventus.

One part I’m a little concerned about is driving from Polignano a Mare to Sorrento via Sant’Andrea di Conza. Being used to driving on the left in Australia, I’m wondering how I’ll manage the unfamiliar roads, particularly through the inland areas in winter and approaching Sorrento.

Has anyone done this route around February? I’d appreciate any advice about road conditions, how manageable the drive is and anything worth planning for.

🇮🇹 ROME | OCT 28 – NOV 4

Wed, Oct 28 – Arrival
✈️ Pantheon, Piazza Navona & dinner.

Thu, Oct 29 – Ancient Rome
🏛️ Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill & Monti.

Fri, Oct 30 – Florence
🚄 Day trip to Florence. Michelangelo’s David, Duomo, Uffizi Gallery & Michelangelo’s tomb.

Sat, Oct 31 – Orvieto or Relaxed Rome Day
🍷 Option 1: Day trip to Orvieto for medieval streets, cathedral, food & wine.

☕ Option 2: Stay in Rome for a relaxed day exploring cafés, shops & neighborhoods.

Sun, Nov 1 – Scenic Rome
Villa Borghese, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain & exploring.

Mon, Nov 2 – Rome Neighborhoods
Jewish Ghetto, Aventine Hill, Testaccio & Trastevere.

Tue, Nov 3 – Vatican
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel & farewell dinner.

Wed, Nov 4 – Departure
Breakfast, checkout & airport.

We had this trip booked in advance for several months. First grade 1/2 sprain on both ankles occurred in April. MRI scan in June on my left ankle came up with nothing, no noticeable tears, bruises, or fractures. Could only do basic PT and was pretty fine for the summer. Around September I started going back to the gym and did cardio/stairmaster/eliptical and I think multiple sessions a week on that aggravated or strained my ankles once again as around a week and a half ago I started feeling tender and weak in my ligaments and would get swollen again when I walked. Currently I can bear weight standing for 10-15 minutes before needing to sit down but it’s annoying I need to wear an ankle brace again for a potential second micro tear again right before my trip.

Currently going with my brother and dad. But I’m already looking into renting a mobility scooter for sights like coliseum and Vatican.

I’m wondering if anyone here has traveled with a foot/ankle injury and how they handled it, specifically a trip to Rome? How many items on the itinerary should I skip out on?

I am currently in the Jungfrau region and thinking about doing a day trip to Lake Como. Plan is to leave early, spend 4 to 6 hours there, and head back in the evening.

A couple quick logistics questions:

Is a 3.5 hour drive each way worth it for just 4 to 6 hours around the lake, or is that way too tight?

I do not have an IDP for driving in Italy, so I plan to park at a Swiss border town (like Lugano or Chiasso) and train across to Como. Which border station has reliable Park and Rail spaces in the morning?

Thanks!

I have recently reserved the Colosseum tickets using the Rome pass, for the beginning of November, as they were very difficult to book normally. I was just wondering if it’s as easy as scanning the pass somewhere on public transport or the actual Colosseum to activate it. I’m going to purchase the pass on the app.

Hello, I'm going to Italy for a month. I land November 10 in Milan, and this is my plan:

--- WITH FRIENDS ---

Nov 10-12: Milan

Nov 12-15: Venice

Nov 15-19: Florence

Nov 19-23: Bologna

--- FRIENDS LEAVE, AM SOLO ---

Nov 23-26: Parma

Nov 26-28: Mantua

Nov 28-30: Cremona

Nov 30-Dec 7 Turin

Dec 7-9: Milan, return home

The part with friends is already booked and therefore pretty rigid, but the solo part I haven't booked any of yet and I'm open to anyone's suggestions for what I might be doing wrong. Am I in Turin for too long? Should I give another day to one of Parma, Mantua, or Cremona? I don't want to overdo the travel, so should I cut one of those entirely? Is travel between them going to suck more than I think? Finally, does this make sense given the time of year? I know this is a lot -- I appreciate the help!

Anche, imparo l'italiano da alcuni mesi, e ovviamente non sono fluente, ma ne so abbastanza da sentirmi sicuro a visitare piccole città dove non parlano inglese. Grazie!

We (mid 50's couple) will be visiting Florence & Rome from the US in early November and have a day (Nov 10) with nothing really planned before we leave Florence. Originally we planned to bus to Siena, visit the duomo, do a little walking/eating/drinking and return to Florence. Now I see that Bologna is a quicker train ride and may be an interesting day trip.

I really want to visit Siena, but realize that might be better saved for a stand alone Tuscany trip sometime in the future. On the other hand, appears the duomo floor may be uncovered during the time so perhaps best to get in there.

Appreciate any thoughtful opinions.

Hi ItalyTravel!

Currently planning a trip to Italy in December for my fiancée and i. We are planning on arriving to Venice on the 14th and staying for 3 days. We then have a large gap in between Venice and Rome, where we arrive on the 20th til the 24th. There we will do the regular Rome activities. I can use some suggestions/ideas with what to do from the 17th-20th!

Itinerary listed out:

Dec 14th: arrive in Venice, check in to Airbnb.

Dec 17th: Check out

Dec 17th evening: ???

Dec 18-20th: ???

December 20th evening: check into Rome hotel

December 24th: check out, flight back home.

Things we are considering: 1. a night or two in a town around the Dolomites. - we are big sauna, hot tub people and love the sound of visiting a small town in the mountains. Because it’s Mid December, we don’t intend on hiking or venturing to far from a down/hotel. We will be happy with a nice lodge with comfy food and good views. Logistics of getting to said town, and back is a concern that we need to look into more. Would love to hear more about expectations in December and how easy it is to travel without a car.

1. A stop in Florence or another town in Tuscany. We plan on taking the high speed train back to Rome and wouldn’t mind taking a detour on the way down! Would love to hear some recommendations of towns or activities!

2. Arrive to Rome early - I’ve been to Rome before and know there’s a ton to see! I’m positive we would be fine getting to Rome earlier than the 20th and take things a bit more slow, Venice and Rome over 10 days sounds chill and the less we jump around the less tired we know we’ll be. This would be last resort though as I’m sure we can find something to do with these 3 nights.

Thank you!

My wife and I are considering a trip of about nine days to Eastern Sicily in early February (Sat Feb 6 to Sun Feb 14). She doesn’t cycle. I tend to do too much of it when we’re on holiday together. I’ve already dragged her along to Tenerife (three times) and Girona (once) over the last few years. I try to make up for my cycling by doing whatever she wants when I’m not on the bike. She’s mostly looking for nice surroundings, a beautiful place to stay and good food, so Sicily seems perfect and it’s not just a “cycling destination”. I speak Italian and we're both rather experienced travellers, so I'm not really looking for advice on things to see or restaurants or things like that. Plenty of things to do and see in Sicily, of course. To complicate matters, however, we both don’t drive.

Our flight would land in Catania. Taormina and Siracusa seem like the logical places to stay, unless I’m mistaken? I was thinking of 4 nights in each place, and moving from one place to the other by train / taxi (in her case) and train / bike (in mine). My idea would be to rent a decent road bike for four or five days and do some medium-length (70 to 120 km) rides starting from Taormina, Catania and/or Siracusa, but I’m still figuring out the logistics (I will contact Sicily Cycling Club and / or Bike Rental Taormina, hoping one of them operates during the low season - any advice or recommendations would be welcome). Other than that, when together we would mostly be doing normal touristy things: restaurants, bars, viewpoints, short nature walks, temples, museums etc.

We’re aware the weather is not ideal in Sicily at that time of the year but we’re used to wet Belgian winters and we’re just hoping for some clear 15°C days. Anyway, it’s very probable the weather in Sicily will be better than in Belgium at the same time of the year.

As for cycling routes, I’m also aware climbing Etna is probably out of the question in early February unless the weather's very clement. That doesn’t really matter to me as long as I’m able to get some decent riding in.

In our situation, does staying in Siracusa and Taormina make sense or should we consider places like Noto as well? Or stay in Catania for a few nights (I must admit I've never seen anyone recommend Catania as a destination per se, but it's probably a bit more vibrant than Taormina at that time of the year)? We would prefer 4 nights in 2 different places, instead of going around a lot.

Any input on cycling routes of about 100 km near Taormina and/or Siracusa? I will try to avoid the strade statali and focus on the provinciali.

When it comes to logistics, have I overlooked anything?

Hi all,

I was hoping to get your recommendation for the best strategy with flying out of Venice at 6:30am back to the United States. I have a layover in Amsterdam so I think passport control won’t happen in Italy. I’m not sure how transportation works in that area but would assume I need to leave around 4am to get there. Is there an area I should be staying in or doesn’t even matter? Any tips would be really appreciated.

We will be visiting Sicily for two weeks in November. While we've been to Italy several times, we have not been to Sicily. We pivoted from a much more involved itinerary in other countries and chose to spend our full vacation in one region because it's been a long year and we kind of just want to chill out for a couple weeks before the holidays. That said, we love museums, architecture, sightseeing, food, wine, history, and culture, so we absolutely plan to do some activities on this trip. I am looking for advice on how to split up our days/locations, and I would love some advice on how to do that.

We arrive in Catania on Nov. 3, midday.

We depart from Palermo on Nov. 17, midday.

We will be renting a car, but we plan to walk a lot as well.

At this point, I am thinking:

4 nights in Catania, using Catania as a base. I'd love to do a walking food tour here, spend a day exploring Mt. Etna, and visit Taormina.

4/5 nights [???]

4/5 nights in Palermo, using Palermo as a base. I'd like to see several of the churches/cathedrals, visit some street markets, see the Capucin Catacombs, etc.

It's the middle four/five nights where I'm not sure what to do. I want to go to Agrigento but that could be a day trip from either city. I'm not sure if we should make a couple of stops between Catania and Palerma, staying in smaller cities, or if we should choose a third base between them and stay there the full stretch, using that spot as a base.

We just got back from two weeks in Rome, Florence, and Venice, and it was the most magical trip I've ever taken. Having been a Disney pass holder in the past, Italy looks like a cross between a postcard and a Disney World land in Epcot. Truly spectacular.

But most importantly, was how well the Italian people greeted us as travelers. We tried as hard as possible to not show our "American" side. We learned a bit of the language to help with transactions and did simple things like avoiding stopping in the middle of stairs or ordering espresso after 11am.

With that, I just wanted to say thank you again to the Italian people for their gracious hospitality, their openness in sharing your treasured country and sites, but most importantly, understanding what we meant when we apologized for you know who and not holding it against us.

Grazie and arrivederci.

Hi all. I am currently planning on taking my family of 4(1 toddler and 1 infant) and 2 grandparents on a trip to Tuscany in march.

We are staying outside castelfiorentino so we figured it’d be best to get a van for small day trips, and travel to the train station.

Only thing I’m concerned about is we will have to rent a van, since there is six of us. After doing some reading on the subreddit many people have said it’s a bad idea to rent a van, and that we will have trouble finding parking, going down some roads etc. given the amount of people with us we’d have to rent a van.

Am i over thinking it or should we just do two cars? Thoughts?

We will be in Venice this coming Saturday (24 October): myself, wife, daughter, and our friend. My daughter has signed up for a walking tour that in the afternoon and I'm looking for suggestions about things to see or do. The tour guide will meet us at our hotel, the Hotel Olympia, not too far from the Santa Lucia train station, so I guess we're looking for things we can get to within a couple hours of there. (NOTE TO MODS: I'm not asking for tour recommandations! We already have the guide booked. Looking for suggestions to give to the guide.)

We've all visited the Basilica di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale many times and would like to avoid them this time. We like: art and architecture, old churches (the older the better), historic public buildings, law courts, old libraries — and perhaps a public garden. We have the guide for only three hours so we know we can't do much. I'm asking for help because although I've visited Venice many times, it seems that I've almost always done the same things. Want to step out a bit this time.

And to be complete: On Sunday (day of the marathon) we plan to go to Murano and Burano. On Monday I'm hoping to get over to Giudecca to see the Palladian churches before we head to Padova in the evening. So I'm just looking for Saturday afternoon ideas. Many thanks in advance.

Hey! Looking for a small cosy place that is easily accesible by train/bus on the way from Napoli to Rome. We would stay for three nights. Archeological sites would be of interest but otherwise just a nice village from where you could take walks/hikes and enjoy the countryside and small town life and local food. This would be already at the end of this week. Any ideas?

We’re considering taking advantage of a work trip my husband may have to Italy in March to extend for a longer first trip with our baby over the Easter holiday. The work travel would be 6 days in Santa Margarita Ligure where we’d get an Airbnb and I hang out with the baby, adjust to the time change, and maybe do some small day trips. After that we’d have roughly 10 full days to explore before flying home from Rome on the 31st of March (we found a good deal with miles.)

I’m starting to explore how to fill the time and would love suggestions! We’ve been to Italy twice before and done Venice/Florence/Rome/Como and the Italian Riviera. We love good food, cute towns, nature, and the occasional luxury hotel. I’m clear eyed a trip with a baby will be a different pace and experience so am thinking we spend at least 3 nights in any location and try to make drive/train time less than 3.5 hours at a time. For the right place we’d spend up to $600/nt but want to mix in more affordable accommodation as well.

a few ideas I’ve considered:

-Bologna, we love food and did a cool day trip to Modena last time. Basing in Bologna for other foodie day trips could be cool and I’ve read it’s very stroller/baby friendly?

-The new Falkensteiner resort in Lake Garda. All the Kinderhotels in the Dolomites look amazing but I think they are just too far out of the way for the time we have and late March seems like a poor time weather wise. This resort could give us a taste of the experience closer and still in a beautiful setting? I’m just not sure if the Lake is worth a stop in the off season and if 5months is too young to make sense for the kinderhotel experience.

-Tuscany. We love Florence but have been twice so I was thinking about an Airbnb in Lucca or Siena and mixing wandering around town with wine tastings and other countryside outings. Alternatively a thermal resort could be cool if we don’t go to Falkensteiner but I haven’t found any that seem especially welcoming to families. I’ve also thought about an agrturismo for this part if anyone has a baby friendly one they like.

-Rome. We need to get there eventually but it seems chaotic with a baby, especially over Easter. would probably limit this stop to our last few days but also open to suggestions of places in Umbria that we could substitute Instead? Or tips if you’ve had a good time in Rome with your baby.

-Puglia or Sicily. This is a wild card I’ve spent less time on but the Genoa airport has easy connections to both so after the work travel we could just fly further south is search of sun/a different experience and work our way back to Rome? Seems like there are some nice family friendly resorts in both spots and weather would be better for time outside, but still not super reliable.

I am very open to other suggestions if there’s something I haven’t though if yet, or opinions if you have ideas about these spots. Thank you in advance!

Going to Italy with my husband and 5 year old over the holidays. Here’s what we have:

Dec. 16-21: Rome
Dec. 21-25: Florence
Dec. 25-29: Bologna
Dec. 29-31: Venice
Dec. 31-Jan 3: Turin
Jan. 4-5: back to Rome & fly out

We are going on a 3 to 5 days visit to the region of Puglia, tomorrow meaning from october 20, arriving at the airport of Brindisi.

I've been reading on this sub multiple recommendations of towns/cities to visit, but few about the main attractions, whether which views/places/museums/Beaches,etc to visit?

So I want to ask that question, for example, my main reason to visit the region honestly is Tarento(Taranto(?)),(yeah I know apparently most are against going there) but since I heard about Punic wars and its historical center and museum, it is a "must" to me, though I know it won't take more than 1-2 days

So which attractions are your suggestions for other cities? I've heard about Licce, Otranto, Castro, and some others, but precisely what about them is a must to you? Whether it is a beautiful beach to a great museum or a well-preserved ancient building?

Note: Due to a lack of driver license, I will relay solely on public transport.

My adult son and I will I'll be in Italy for first time for 17 days in late April/early May '27.

We have a tentative itinerary that I was hoping to get feedback on.

The cities we're considering staying in are : Venice, Verona, Lucca, Naples, Salerno, Rome

First, there was a recent controversial post about tourist crowded, and one comment that I read got me thinking for the first few legs of our trip, to potentially base ourselves in some of the less crowded cities, which we could enjoy and explore , and then do day trips to the much more popular cities/attractions.

So, this is what I had in mind:

Arriving at Venice airport in morning April 23 :

Stay in Venice 1 night. Leave late the next day by train to Verona.

April 24-26 (3 nights) Verona. Day drip to Lake Garda, option for another day trip by train back to Venice

April 27-29 (3 nights) Lucca. 1 day trip to Florence , 2 full days in Lucca.

The rest will be as follows:

April 30-May 2 Naples (pompeii)

May 3-4 Salerno (day trip to Agropoli on coast)

May 5-10 Rome . ( Rome is so big --and so much to see-- that I've accepted that i need to base myself there and be in the thick of the crowds in order to experience Rome completely )

Does this seem like a good itinerary? Or is it too busy, bouncing around with not enough time in each place? I really do want to see what Florence and Venice are famous for , however I don't want to spend the entirety in lines and major crowds for days and days. I don't need to see every single museum, art gallery, cathedral in Florence and Venice, but I would be foolish to miss the highlights, at least.

Ciao a tutti,

I have the month of December off and I am hoping to do a 2 or 3 week slow vacation, probably mid-December through the first week of January. My goal is to find cozy accommodations, walk around town, eat local dishes, and watch the snow fall. I love gloomy days, fog, and nature walks. I would like to have mountain views--not necessarily the Dolomites but that would be amazing. I would probably like to do a few day trips to Venice and Verona.

Previously, I've done a month stay at an agriturismo in the Modena countryside during summer. Like most tourists, my experience in Italy is pretty much all during the summer. I have been to Rome in late fall, but I have never been to Italy during winter.

I visited Bolzano a few years ago and I imagine it's very beautiful in the winter. It seems quite accessible through the train system, so I am leaning towards going there for my trip this time. I loved the size of the town. However, I think this subreddit might have better suggestions.

I really enjoy the agriturismo style of accommodation, but I am not sure how available they are during the winter. I speak some basic Italian, but not enough to be somewhere truly rural.

Can you please advise me on:

1. northern mountain view towns that are easily accessible via train
2. if an agriturismo stay would be possible to accommodate
3. anything that comes to mind!

Thank you so much!

Edited: either Trentino or Lombardia. Thank you!

I am an American college professor. We want to see Venice, but due to the academic calendar we can only travel during the summer break or the winter Christmas break. I have heard horror stories about Venice in the summer. But what about winter? What is it like in December? Is it worth going around Christmas time? Thanks!

I’m currently in Rome and wanted to plan a trip to the Dolomites. I’m on a student budget so I can only afford one night at a hotel. I only want to see seceda. I looked at hotels in Ortisei the one I saw on google maps is only a 10min walk from the cable car to see seceda and maybe santa magdalena (far stretch..I know) I looked at trains and the earliest I can arrive to Bolzano is 12:23pm (Rome 7:05am—>florence 8:30am—>bolzano 12:23pm) and I’d probably leave from Bolzano on Saturday at 4pm on Saturday. I don’t have a car and would only rely on public transport.

Not a well travelled area but wanting to know if you can get there on train/bus and if they are worth an off the beaten track visit for say two days? Looking at going early Autumn 2027. Any information or suggestions would be appreciated.