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Old Jul 31, 2017, 11:36 am
  #2  
Perche
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: SFO, VCE
Programs: AA EXP >4 MM, Lifetime Plat
Posts: 2,881
I'm not sure you are going to see much on such a compressed tour. I think you can see the town of Amalfi in a day, but certainly not the Amalfi Coast. You cannot see Umbria in a day. Rome, you cannot see in a month. Cinque Terre you can see in a day, and then you'll want to get out. Florence takes at least 3-4 days, and Venice requires at least five days at an absolute minimum to see.

Otherwise, it is just like doing layovers at an airport. You really don't get to experience anything, you just take some pictures of monuments, but you won't be able to say that you visited any of these places.

The "low key week" at the end of your tour is where the experience is going to be, provided you stay at one place long enough to say that you were actually there long enough to get to know it. To find a decent restaurant, not a place that accommodates 15 tourists with a guide off of a fixed menu, but instead discovering a nice cafe, pastry shop, or restaurant where locals go, is the whole point.

There is no reason to have a car for the places on your list. For the most part, cars are not allowed into the cities in Italy unless you live there, so you'll just collect a bunch of tickets. There is no point in renting a car in Venice, since there are no roads, just waterways and sidewalks.

Stopping in Verona for a few hours doesn't really make much sense, because all you will be able to do is tick it off of a checklist and say, "I've been to Verona," but you really would have never been there, anymore than a layover on an airplane because it takes a few days to see even the basics, or to get to know its food.

For the last week when you will have time to experience Italy, I'd recommend that you figure out where you want to go, and spend that week there. It will be the best week of your trip, rather than packing and going here and there without seeing anything, just taking photos and eating tourist food. In Italy, quantity of places visited is the opposite of quality of the trip.

It's impossible to say whether flying out of Venice or Milan is better, unless we know where you will be. There is no reason to fly out of Milan unless you are going to stay at the Lakes for the last week. Then, it is a convenient airport to fly out of. If you are going to stay in Verona or Venice, then fly out of Venice. Constantly changing location is the best way to ruin a trip to Italy, because you don't get to explore anything more deeply than the tourist veneer and take photos. You come back not even having tasted authentic Italian food, unless you stay some place and do some discovery of the neighborhood you stay at.

Enjoy the tour, but then finding a place to stay and actually visit is in my opinion what you should do.
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