Honeymoon Discussions

Italty in September

So the plan is to spend 2 weeks in Italy, half the time in and around Rome, the other half on the Amalfi Coast. Anyone ever been to Italy in late September? Any special travel tips for a Canadian traveling to Italy?

Re: Italty in September

  • I was in Italy this year, but in early September. The weather was perfect. We spent the day in Florence and then went to a winery. It was fantastic. 
  • i've been 3 times but only twice in late sept/early october. the weather's great. it will be warm/hot in rome/amalfi. my preference is tuscany and florence at that time as it's cooler (70s). I hope you make room to stop there. on one of our trips there we spent 4 nights in florence and then a week in radda in chianti  (about an hour outside in the heart of chianti region). it was spectacular.

    you can easily reach florence by rome via a 90 minute train ride if you want to go for the day but try to do at least one night. it's such a gorgeous city at night.

     

     

  • TeddiD34TeddiD34 member
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    edited November 2013

    I third Italy being lovely in the fall. When I was there at the beginning of October, it was HOT in Rome (32C- I'm Canadian too).

    As for tips, frequent sites like Trip Advisor to find out any helpful things to note (booking sites etc.). If you can learn a bit of Italian, you'll have a such a fun time chatting to locals. They love it when tourists speak their language. Maybe not so much in Rome (it's just too big for most to pay attenion).

    You'll have a wonderful trip!! I wsih I was going back for my honeymoon!

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  • I used to live in England and have been to Italy 3 times all at various times in the year. It is lovely in the Fall! Definitely take a chance to hang around the tuscany region. It was one of my favorite spots! As for tips... Watch out for creeps on the metro in Rome. It is quite common for some creepo's to try feeling up women during busy times on the train. If this happens, grab their hand and scream at them. It shames them and someone will come help. I received this advice from a mate before I went the first time and was thankful I did because it ended up happening to me! (Only ever happened once though)

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  • Thanks for the tips! Lucky for me my hubby-to-be is built like a tank and covered in tattoos ;)

  • I lived in Rome for a summer while in college - it was fabulous.

    I haven't been in the fall, but May was absolutely perfect (to me - I grew up in the South though).  I imagine September would be similar.

    Definitely take a day trip to Florence.  We went on the first train there and the last train back - It was a long day, but I felt like we got a good grasp of the city in that time.  I have an art degree, and so I made visits to all the necessary sites - the Duomo, the Uffizi, etc.  The only thing I wasn't expecting were the markets... we went on a Saturday and the markets were miles long, filled with leather, cashmere, etc.  It was crazy.  And completely awesome.  If I had known about it beforehand, I would have saved some of my money for it.  I thought that in general it had much better shopping in Rome.  I also thought it has better food, on average.  But then, Tuscany is the bread basket of Italy.

    That said, the churches in Rome and the museums absolutely blew Florence out of the water (for me).  Florence is primarily Renaissance, which isn't my thing.  It's such a formula.  Rome is more Baroque which I loved.  And of course it has some amazing ancient stuff.

    The other thing I loved was a visit to Pompeii - you get there by taking a train from the Naples train station.  And you can get to Naples via train from Rome.  You will be headed that direction when visiting the Amalfi coast anyway, so I would take a full day for it.  Seriously, it rivaled St. Peter's as the coolest thing I've ever seen.  When I was there it cost the same to get in as the Colosseum (11 euros at the time), and it was way waaaaaay more amazing.  I went in expecting mostly ruins, but so many houses are still intact.  A lot even have the mosaic floors still intact.  And they are 2000 years old.  It's amazing.  I also expected wall paintings on just a handful of houses - but no.  They were all over the place.  And while we were there we basically had the place to ourselves.  Hardly any guards, etc. - so you could walk right up to the paintings if you wanted.  I can't tell you how amazing it was.

    Anyway, that's just my $0.02.  Take a week for Rome (and maybe a day trip to Florence while you're there), and then a week down the Amalfi coast, with maybe a day in Naples and most of a day for Pompeii.  That, to me, would be an amazing and really well-paced honeymoon.
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  • Don't stay for a week in Rome.  It's beautiful and fun, but it gets old fast.  We stayed for a week in Rome for our honeymoon and it was like being trapped in a tourist hell for that entire week.  Good food in Rome is hard to come by because it's very focused on tourists and well, it's just plain tired.

    Spend 2-3 days there and then head to the coast or up to Florence.  See more of Italy.  

    It's a HUGE regret from my Honeymoon.
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  • I'm going to have to disagree with the poster above, based on my semester abroad there! Rome is crazy and chaotic, but I think it can be a lovely honeymoon spot if you know where to go. I'd recommend staying on the Aventino -- it's a beautiful, quiet hill but in walking distance to a number of sights and a metro stop. For food, check out restaurants in Trastevere and Testaccio and avoid places near major tourist spots. Spend a lot of time in Trastevere in general -- it's overlooked sometimes, but it's my favorite spot in the city. It feels more like a small village and it's incredibly romantic.Spending a week there will allow you to balance sightseeing with simply "being," and personally, I much preferred doing the latter in Rome. The ruins, etc. do get old after a while.
  • I think it's important to think about what kind of vacationer you are: do you prefer a laid back and relaxing trip, or do you like the hustle and bustle of moving from site to site, or maybe you like to spend hours gazing upon works of art at museums and cathedrals, or do you like more of a history and architecture aspect?

    Me and @DragonsBlood13 seem to enjoy more of the relaxed and lazy feel, which I thought Florence was perfect for. Rome was just a bit too busy for me and had much more of a big city feel (I'm from LA and spend a lot of vacations in NYC, and Rome was just too similar to the two for me to fully enjoy it).

    I really wish I would have spent some time in Sicily. If I went back I know I'd do more of a foodie-centric trip and include the Sicilian island and some of the more rustic cities.
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