AboutLisa Expertise Can recommend day trips from Lucca, can give car directions from most places in Italy, and can help you plan an itinerary. But cannot recommend hotels and restaurants! For a train time table and info on Eurail passes, check out:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm
For general information, hotels and restaurants, visit frommers.com and tripadvisor.com
Experience I've been to Italy many times, and have traveled to Egypt, India, Nepal, Israel, Turkey, Fiji, Malaysia, and other places in Europe and the Caribbean.
Question Hi , I read some of ur answers about Italy and was very impressed and so was forced to write dowm my query. I am going for a holiday for 10 days to Italy with cities milan , venice and rome as the three destinations for 3,3 and 4 days in the order. I have no clue of transport, places to visit and any special tips u want to give.i shall be thankful for any suggestions
Answer Hi Reena. Thanks for your vote of confidence. The thing about travel is that you have to do some reading. What I think is interesting may not be interesting to you. What I do is point people in the right direction, so they can decide for themselves what they want to do and see.
First, go to frommers.com and read about the different areas of Italy you want to visit:
Frommers will tell you how to get from place to place, what there is to see, side trips near each city and even suggest hotels and restaurants.
You might consider picking up a copy of their Frommers Guide to Italy to take along. Just make sure you get their latest edition because things change.
Next, research your air fare on orbitz, expedia, etc. and book your flights. If you arrive and leave from the same city, it's usually cheaper.
Create an itinerary for yourself. Day 1 is arriving with maybe a half day of site seeing. And day 10 is leaving. You may need to spend part or all of day 9 traveling back to the starting point, so keep that in mind. On the days you travel from place to place, you may only do a half day of sight seeing. So traveling should kept to a minimum. Personally, I'd only stay in 2 cities for a 10-day visit. But that's a personal choice. There are plenty of day trips from Rome and Venice to keep you busy for 10 days. You also might want to consider making
Florence one of your stopovers. Not sure why you chose Milan as one of your bases, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Are you choosing Milan for a reason?
Lastly, check out hotels or pensions you're interested in by reading reviews on tripadvisor.com. I've left a nice review myself of the Pensione Accademia in Venice under the name MsYentah@aol.com.
I love to do walking tours. Frommers lists walking tours you can self-guide yourself through. Sometimes it's nice to hook up with a small guided tour if you can afford the euros. You can usually find these once you're there. Ask at your hotel or pensione. You can also find lots of "day tours" on Google.
I would probably suggest landing in Rome, taking the train to Venice, then to Florence and then back to Rome. I loved Venice. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. It's not everyone's taste, but I loved it. I especially just love walking around all the little streets and alleyways and learning about the history. One great preparation for Venice is to read a Donne Leon mystery novel. Death at La Fenice is one of her best.
One last thing, I have photos of Venice and other places in Italy. If you go to Webshots.com and search MsZelda, you can find my albums.
