Italy: Florence, Rome, Capri

birdie119 · October 2009

I originally posted about wanting to split our honeymoon between Florence and Santorini, but no we are considering just doing Italy: Florence, Rome and Capri. Anyone have any tips/advice?

BreeZ1299 · October 2009

Any tips you're seeking specifically? Um...be prepared to pay for every little thing while in Italy (bread they automatically bring to the table, eating inside vs. outside, eating at the bar vs. a table). Purchase a book about each destination. The transit in Rome was VERY easy to use...we hoped on the the metro to go everywhere (Vatican, colloseum etc). You'll have a great time!

LaFemmeRousse · October 2009

I think you made the right decision to stick to just Italy! How long will you be going/ spending in each location? If you have even an extra day somewhere, I would absolutely visit Cinque Terre, along the Western Coast sort of by Pisa. It's easily accessible by train from either city, and it was the high point of my last trip to Italy.Definitely buy the Rick Steves guidebooks for Florence and Rome. He has complete self-guided tours for all the major tourist destinations, which will save you major $$$. I also like Lonely Planet guides. Make reservations/purchase tickets for the big musuems ahead of time to avoid waiting in lines. In Florence, we did a private Michaelangelo tour with a local art history professor. I believe it was arranged through the Michaelangelo museum although we made several other stops. I HIGHLY recommend doing this! It was way way better than those giant group tours they do.

LaFemmeRousse · October 2009

Ooh, and also for Rome- visit Villa d'Este/ Tivoli Gardens outside of the city! It was SO beautiful and a nice half-day trip.

birdie119 · October 2009

Looking for ANY kind of advice... where to stay, what to do, whether or not to rent a car, etc. The stuff you guys have already posted is great so far!! Keep 'em coming - thanks a million!

KappaUCF20 · October 2009

I second Tivoli! You could also visit Ostia Antica which is only a 30 minute train ride outside of Rome and very similar to Pompeii. We enjoyed it a lot. It sounds like you have a lot of questions that need to be answered so, honestly, I think you're better off reading some guidebooks to kickstart your research. Rick Steves' books are considered the holy grail by many people lol. He's a very famous travel writer, and he's been to Europe hundreds of times so he tons of great recommendations and advice to offer. He also has a series of travel videos (you can watch clips on his Youtube channel). The forums on TripAdvisor.com are also really helpful.

birdie119 · October 2009

Thanks - we'll look into buying the Rick Steve book and the Lonely Planet!

Budnotes · October 2009

My fiance' and I recently booked our honeymoon trip to Italy as well. We're there for 2 weeks - flying into Venice, a train to Rome, and then finally ending up in Florence. A friend of mine had been there before and he recommended some great hotels: Hotel Colombina in Venice; Hotel Sistina (right near the Spanish Steps) in Rome; and Villa Borghese Palace Art Hotel in Florence (next to the train station). I checked out their websites - beautiful places. Can't wait to go!! We booked 1 tour in each city through Expedia.com and are doing the rest of the "touristy" things on our own to avoid the large tour crowds and the rushing through everything. I bought "Italy for Dummies" and it's been a great help!! Have fun!

killian09 · October 2009

DEFINITELY get the Rick Steves Italy guidebook. We got discounts on almost all of our hotels for mentioning the book when we made the reservation. It was also incredibly useful in planning our itinerary day by day. We went all those places on our honeymoon. Capri was a day trip though--we stayed in Sorrento. Train travel is easy. You can take the train to Sorrento and then transfer to a ferry to get to Capri. All of our hotels were great and reasonably priced. You can find them listed by city in my trip bio.[url]http://sites.google.com/site/killian0517/home/honeymoon[/url]Download the free Rick Steve audio tours to your iPods or mp3 players before leaving. He has them for many major sites in Rome and Florence. We learned a lot and saved money on the audio tours they try to sell you when you are there.

BostonBride919 · October 2009

Capri just might be my favorite place on the planet - It's incredible. Great food, fabulous shopping, amazing views, and such brightly colored water. Very romantic spot perfect for your HM. We were just in Rome, Capri, and Naples as part of our European Honeymoon (we did italy, greece, turkey) and Capri was my favorite stop. Check out Gianni if you go to Capri - We booked him for a 4 hour boat tour around the island and it was the best afternoon of the trip. He brough homemade limoncello & local wine and we cruised around the most gorgeous sights - Green & Blue Grottoes, Coral Caves, etchttp://www.capri.com/en/c/gianni-s-boat-2Also go over to Anacapri (larger, more residential town on the island) and take the cable car to the very top - Incredible views of sorrento, the amalfi coast, mt vesuvius. I had been to Rome a few times before, but that was my husband's favorite as it was his first time. It's just an amazing city with so much to see. I have been to Florence also and really enjoyed it - Much more low key than rome, but a very nice city. We took the train from Rome to Naples and the ferry over to Capri which worked out well. Don't waste time staying in Naples - It's a dirty city and pretty scary at times. Pompeii is definitely worth seeing though and I would plan a day for that while you're in the area.

BreeZ1299 · November 2009

We used Frommers books...I love them

Get them for every destination. A map from streetwisemaps is helpful too. I definitely would NOT suggest renting a car...driving in Rome is too crazy (people drive right through red lights etc).

birdie119 · November 2009

thanks for all of the wonderful advice! it will certainly come in handy when it comes time to planning - can't wait!

bridetobe920 · November 2009

DH and I were just in Italy last month to celebrate our 1st anniversary. We had a great time!! We did Rome (including the Vatican and Pompeii), Florence (including a day trip through the Tuscan Hills) and Venice. We stayed at the Hotel Monte Carlo in Rome. It was a little off the beaten path, but very close to the train station (which was super convenient). We were also able to walk to the Metro, which helped a ton. The hotel was reasonably priced, and the staff was very nice. The room wasn't huge, but we didn't care since all we needed it for was rest. Breakfast was included, which saved us money each morning. We got the Roma pass, and were so glad we did. It allowed us unlimited public transportation access while we were there, and we also used it to get into the Forum and Colisseum (and bypass the lines at both). It was definitely a good investment for us. We bought our tickets to the Vatican online about a month before we left. This was a great time saver for us, because we were able to bypass the line at the Vatican Museum. We went on Wednesday morning when a lot of people were at the Pope's general audience at St. Peter's. Just remember to dress modestly if you plan to visit St. Peter's, because the dress code is enforced (covered shoulders, no shorts) In Florence, we stayed at the Hotel Caravaggio, which was very nice. The staff, location and breakfast (included) were all great. We did the Duomo early in the morning (around 9:30am) to avoid the crowds. We also bought tickets to see the Statue of David in advance online through Btickets or something (I need to look it up, as I don't have the website in front of me here). The day tour of Tuscany was fantastic, and we were so glad we did it. Our guide was an American living in Florence, so she was very easy to understand and communicate with. The bud left from the train station, which was a 10-15 walk from the hotel. We went to Siena, San Gmignano, and Pisa. Also included, was lunch on an organic wine farm (which was fantastic!) Hope this helps. You will LOVE Italy!!

cleliabekir · November 2009

I went to Rome last year. We were quite intimidated to use the metro at first so we were taking taxis everywhere (biggest waste of money ever!) We then decided to take the metro and after that we were so pissed that we were taking taxis. using the metro makes it so easy to get around and it is not hard at all.There are so many amazing sites in Rome and everyone is very friendly. also, most of them speak English.we were considering Santorini & the Greek islands for our honeymoon. I've never been to Santorini but have heard great things about it. After some research we decided it wasnt really for usWe just booked our honeymoon for next June to Sardinia, which is an island off the coast of Italy. We are staying 5 nights at the northern part of the island and 4 nights in the southern part of the island. It has the best of both worlds----beautiful beaches and also amazing ruins. i would check it out if you have time. good luck and hope this helped

Italy: Florence, Rome, Capri

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