# Honeymoon Idea - Italy - looking for feedback



## hjrdee (19 Dec 2007)

Just looking for feedback on our honeymoon idea.

We are planning to go to Italy for about 10-12 days in March and hope to take in Rome, Florence and Venice.  The idea was to Fly to Rome via Ryanair, and stay in 4-5 star hotel for 3 days. Then train to Florence and stay there for about 3 days, again fancy hotel.  Then hire car and drive from Florence to Venice for another 3 days.

Anybody any ideas, tips, etc.

Was looking into getting the train from Venice to Paris then and flying home from Paris...anybody any experience of this?

This is the only part of the wedding I've been left in charge of so wanna make sure it goes okay!!

Many thanks for all help.


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## soy (20 Dec 2007)

Spent 10 days Rome-Venice earlier this year. Flew EI into Rome, there 4 nights and saw most of the big sights (so much to see!!!). Then train to Florence, arrived in afternoon dropped off bags and got train to Pisa (30mins). Saw the tower - is worth it but not much else there. 

Stayed 4 nights in Florence - Book the Ufeizi and the Accedemia tickets over the phone in advance as the queues are horrific. Spent 1 day on a trip to Sienna and the Tuscan countryside, tour operator is based near train station. Finally got the train to Venice and had 2 days in Venice, which was enough to catch the main sights. Came home with Ryanair from Treviso.

Italian train service is excellent and all tickets can be purchased online. I would not get a car as it will be expensive and hassle, especially arriving in Venice. Do a search on these 3 cities in this forum and you will find a load of relevent posts.


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## crazyhorse (20 Dec 2007)

Hello

While European trains are definitely higher standard than those in Ireland, I think the train journey from Venice to Paris is likely to take a significant amount of time (e.g. Nice to Pisa, short on the map, was lining up to be a 9 hour train journey when I looked into it) unless you connect to one of the high speed TGVs somewhere along the journey. 
Tickets for these are more costly, and you might wind up finding that it would be cheaper to fly rather than taking the train for this leg of the trip and have a bit more time in either Venice or Paris. 
Hope you have a wonderful time, all of your destinations are beautiful cities.


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## Staples (20 Dec 2007)

Four destinations in two countries?  Sounds like a lot to get into 10-12 days.  In my experience, you need a bit of a wind-down after the pressures and highs of a wedding and this intinery certaintly doesn't sound relaxing.

Unless you particularly want to drive (or intend visiting less accessible destinations e.g. Tuscan countryside) I wouldn't bother with the car.  Driving in a foreign country can be stressful and the drive from Florence to Venice in particular is a tough one.  It's technically a motorway but it's a winding, mountainous route that, personally, I'd rather avoid in future.  The trains, however, are excellent. 

Also, Venice with a car would be difficult.  You'd need to park on the outskirts at a considerable extra cost.  There's so much to see in Venice, you just won't need it.  The train station, however, is very convenient.  March, though, is a great time to see Venice (and indeed all the places yu mention.  

The country and seasides are at their best in summertime and, for a honeymoon at least, are probably less desirable in March than city locations.


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## FredBloggs (20 Dec 2007)

When I went on my honeymoon we flew to Pisa and then took the train to nearby Florence spent a few days there then took the train to Rome and spent 3-4 days there before getting a bus to Sorrento via Pompeii.

We booked all travel from here - even then in those pre internet days!

One thing we found and something you might like to bear in mind was that we found the cities extremely tiring and after the build up to the wedding etc we badly needed a rest.  So you going to Rome first you might find the same thing - especially as when you're sightseeing there'll be a lot of walking involved


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## z103 (20 Dec 2007)

- don't go straight into this from your wedding. As mentioned above it'll take a few days to get over the utter stress of the wedding day.

- Treat the train journey to Paris as part of the holiday. We got an overnight train from Paris to Florence, and it was great. I love travelling around Europe by train.

- Food in Italy. For me this was a nightmare. Most places seem to have this odd thing where if your not there between the hours of 8:00pm and 8:15pm you're not going to get anything to eat. Most places are overly anal about meal times. The ice cream is lovely, but you probably can't live on it.

- There is a huge amount of stuff to see in Rome (and Vatican City). Most interesting thing for me was St Peter's. Was far from a spiritual experience, I was overwhelmed by the ostentatious displays of extreme wealth.


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## BillK (20 Dec 2007)

My wife, niece, and I are recently back from Rome.

We all, including our niece, who was not raised as a Catholic, found St Peter's a very moving experience, especialy the sepulchre of St Peter.


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## queenlex (21 Dec 2007)

Staples said:


> Four destinations in two countries? Sounds like a lot to get into 10-12 days. In my experience, you need a bit of a wind-down after the pressures and highs of a wedding and this intinery certaintly doesn't sound relaxing.
> 
> Unless you particularly want to drive (or intend visiting less accessible destinations e.g. Tuscan countryside) I wouldn't bother with the car. Driving in a foreign country can be stressful and the drive from Florence to Venice in particular is a tough one. It's technically a motorway but it's a winding, mountainous route that, personally, I'd rather avoid in future. The trains, however, are excellent.
> 
> ...


 
Yeah would have to say this sounds tough and roads in Italy are mostly like Ireland (i.e. not very good standard) and as for the 'motorways' God they're so narrow around Florence anyway (it was like the Monte Carlo grand prix!).

Personally I didnt enjoy Italy people were horrible to us even though I tried to speak Italian!  It was definitely my worst experience from a social point of view in any country and I have been around lots of Europe and the USA.  Plus very very expensive in the cities (they say Dublin's bad!)


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## RainyDay (21 Dec 2007)

queenlex said:


> Personally I didnt enjoy Italy people were horrible to us even though I tried to speak Italian!  It was definitely my worst experience from a social point of view in any country and I have been around lots of Europe and the USA.  Plus very very expensive in the cities (they say Dublin's bad!)



Absolutely not my experience in Italy - Amalfi coast & Tuscany. I found the Italians to be generally very warm, relaxed and friendly.


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## casiopea (21 Dec 2007)

hjrdee said:


> Just looking for feedback on our honeymoon idea.
> 
> We are planning to go to Italy for about 10-12 days in March and hope to take in Rome, Florence and Venice.  The idea was to Fly to Rome via Ryanair, and stay in 4-5 star hotel for 3 days. Then train to Florence and stay there for about 3 days, again fancy hotel.  Then hire car and drive from Florence to Venice for another 3 days.
> 
> ...



Hi there,
I would second what a couple of posters have posted and recommend you focus on doing less.  I would rule out the venice - paris trip.  Certainly driving it will be very stressful, the motorways in Lombardia (Nth Italy) are excellent and clearly signposted, Im not sure about the french part.  What will be expensive are the motor way tolls especially when you move into France.  It will also at least take 2 days of your holiday driving flat out.  Please fly.  You could fly from the airport near Verona (Ive forgotten what its called it may be bergamo).  But honestly I would just stay in italy for the 10 days there is so much to see, rather than going to paris explore venice, verona and mantova or go from Venice further south (the town of Luca is exquisite) and head to rome that way?

You'll love italy - give yourselves the 10 days to relax, recover after the wedding and absorb gli italiani



> Personally I didnt enjoy Italy people were horrible to us even though I tried to speak Italian! It was definitely my worst experience from a social point of view in any country and I have been around lots of Europe and the USA. Plus very very expensive in the cities (they say Dublin's bad!)



Im sorry you'd a bad experience - its definitely true the italians dance to the beat of their own drum, I lived there for many years and did find it frustrating sometimes when I was trying to speak italian and they just didnt understand.  They arent being rude - they really dont understand (as english has such different sounds to italian)!  The italians are a lovely race.  Its much cheaper than dublin unless you are in a very touristy area.


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## soy (21 Dec 2007)

soy said:


> Spent 10 days Rome-Venice earlier this year. Flew EI into Rome, there 4 nights and saw most of the big sights (so much to see!!!). Then train to Florence, arrived in afternoon dropped off bags and got train to Pisa (30mins). Saw the tower - is worth it but not much else there.
> 
> Stayed 4 nights in Florence - Book the Ufeizi and the Accedemia tickets over the phone in advance as the queues are horrific. Spent 1 day on a trip to Sienna and the Tuscan countryside, tour operator is based near train station. Finally got the train to Venice and had 2 days in Venice, which was enough to catch the main sights. Came home with Ryanair from Treviso.
> 
> Italian train service is excellent and all tickets can be purchased online. I would not get a car as it will be expensive and hassle, especially arriving in Venice. Do a search on these 3 cities in this forum and you will find a load of relevent posts.



forgot to add - drop the Paris idea unless you extend the trip. 10-12 days is the minimum you would need to for the Italy piece in my opinion.


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## Flymask (21 Dec 2007)

leghorn said:


> - Food in Italy. For me this was a nightmare. Most places seem to have this odd thing where if your not there between the hours of 8:00pm and 8:15pm you're not going to get anything to eat.



??

Italians are notorious for eating late at night - kids and all. 8.00p.m. would practically be considered early!! Are you referring to hotel dining rooms where you're on a full-board basis? It certainly wouldn't be the case in restaurants.
I think many people would consider the food in Italy to be one of the highlights of their trip - and come home a few pounds heavier to prove it!!


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## z103 (21 Dec 2007)

> Was looking into getting the *train* from Venice to Paris


The OP wants to get the train, not drive!



> Italians are notorious for eating late at night - kids and all. 8.00p.m. would practically be considered early!! Are you referring to hotel dining rooms where you're on a full-board basis? It certainly wouldn't be the case in restaurants.
> I think many people would consider the food in Italy to be one of the highlights of their trip - and come home a few pounds heavier to prove it!!



One of my favourite parts of visiting a country is to try out the local cuisine. I was very disapointed with Italy, especially because (as you mention) the food is meant to be very good.
We travelled around many places in Italy, and our itenery meant we would be eating at all different times of the day, late and early. Maybe we were just incredibly unlucky.

Experience One: 
Arrive in an empty resturant at about 7:40pm.
Waiter comes over to us and says they won't be open till 8:00pm and would we like a drink
We say, yes, that's fine.
Waiter shows us the door - he means a drink in another establishment!

Experience Two:
We arrive in a hotel hungry.
The resturant is closed (surprise, surprise)
We ask for room service, and are told that we can only order food when the resturant is open.
We look out of our window, and notice that the people filming the porn movie by the side of the hotel pool are eating plate loads of food.
When finally get to the hotel resturant, they still don't want to give us a table. They say that the resturant is fully booked up and give us a table for ten in the middle of the room ( there are only two of us)
The resturant is almost empty for the duration of the meal.

May advice - bring sandwiches as you'll eventually get sick of the ice cream.


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## casiopea (21 Dec 2007)

leghorn said:


> The OP wants to get the train, not drive!



Thanks Leghorn,
I still wouldnt advise it.
OP, if you use www.trenitalia.it you can plan journey times.  The fastest connections from Venice to Paris is 11 hours, it averages about 13hours and some are 16hours.  Its a lot from a 10 day holiday.

I also disagree with the poster who said you have to eat around 8pm/8:15pm.  Many italians go for dinner at 10pm and 11pm.


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## Flymask (21 Dec 2007)

leghorn said:


> We look out of our window, and notice that the people filming the porn movie by the side of the hotel pool are eating plate loads of food.



At least they kept you entertained while you were waiting for a table!! What restaurant was that again...........??


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## hjrdee (21 Dec 2007)

Thanks for all the feedback, I have to say the train journey will probably end up on the cutting floor.  Would love to do it but hard to justify the cost for a train journey!  Was really into the whole driving through tuscany to venice idea, but based on replies I may take the train instead.

Do people think we should start in Venice and work south or start in Rome and work north? I would also love to visit Milan as I am a big renaissance fan, but it would be a bit much I think in a short time period.

Thanks again for all the feedback its priceless information when planning a honeymoon!


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## z103 (21 Dec 2007)

> At least they kept you entertained while you were waiting for a table!! What restaurant was that again.


It was in Tivoli. The film didn't look that great, just extra large melons. The waterfalls were better 

I'll bear in mind that food happens late for any other visits I might to. Don't they eat anything during the day?


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## Lee May (21 Dec 2007)

Hotel Posa Posa in Positano got rave reviews from my honeymooner friends. Not a child friendly resort but spectacular. Has its own website incl 360 degree room shots.


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