Originally posted by: Jawo
I went in June 2006 when I graduated from college (my first and only time)....I did a tour from
Contiki, which was a little pricey, but it enabled me to see more (always time or money). I really enjoyed the tour, although you can spend a week in the greater Rome area and still not see everything there is to see. Definitively spend a day on Capri its beautiful...and the blue grotto is VERY overrated and expensive. Naples is an industrial town...nothing much to see. Pompeii is very cool and has many miles of roads you can walk on. Pisa is a tourist trap, but you get to see the leaning tower. If you like to hike spend some time in the Cinque Terre, its very beautiful and you can hike between the 5 towns. Milan and Florence are cool, but I wish I could have gone to Bologna to see the Ferrari and Lamborghini factories. Venice is so-so and VERY easy to get lost in since there are not "main" streets...its also VERY expensive.
Best advice....don't sit down at a restaurant unless you want to pay lots more the Paneo e coppo (bread and water charge) can be >$10! There's lots of grocery stores...go there and get the 1.5L bottled water...its actual mineral water and its so much cheaper (like 50 euro cents). Try the Itallian sodas as well...like orangina, but better
Good advice there, Jawo.
I went to Italy in March of this year. The weather was wonderful compared to the weather at home, but a bit cool. May would have been perfect weather. I would go in May next time I go. I was in the central/west coast region so I can't comment on other areas.
Rome: definately worth going. If you don't spend at least 4 days there, you'll miss a lot.
Florence: nice churches, some nice museums, but I really wasn't thrilled. The Uffizi is so overrated, but if you want to see it you MUST buy tickets the day before or you'll be there in line for 4+ hours.
Pisa: I skipped. There just isn't much to see other than the one well-known tourist trap.
Bologna: I wasn't there, but my fiancee did spend a week there for work. The food is the best in the country and well worth going just for the food alone. Even if you don't like wine, get some house wine. I guess the wine advice is true for most of Italy though.
Naples: I passed through it. Dirty, industrial, people tried ripping me off, and my fiancee got food poisoning there. Now, I really didn't do any sightseeing, but I couldn't think of much to do there either.
Pompeii: Pompeii is a ~30 minute aboveground subway ride from Naples. If you are in the area, pompeii (or nearby herculaneum) is fairly interesting. You'll be a bit disappointed that you don't actually see the bodies (they've been moved to the one interesting museum in Naples). But it was interesting seeing the building remnants and imagining their lives. Pompeii is a town of 20,000 people and thus is quite large. Spend at least 4 hours there and it closes at 5 pm. So that means you have to dedicate most of the daytime for it.
Amalfi coast: This is just south of Naples and is the most beautiful place I've been (I've been on 3 continents and in almost all US states). Do a google image search for Positano to see for yourself. The island of Capri is right there, and while I didn't go, it looks quite wonderful. Take the bus ride down to Amalfi and back. Even if you don't do anything, that cliff ride alone is worth a trip to Italy. It was so beautiful with black sand beaches, mist rolling down the cliffs, houses built right on top of each other into the cliffside, etc. I got engaged there specifically for the beauty. Parts of the Amalfi coast are on the same metro line as Pompeii, the rest are by bus, and maybe a train reaches the southern end, but I'm not certain. Not everyone will like this area, especially if you are going with a bunch of guys. There aren't that many activities for manly men (and the activities there are overrated like the blue or green grotto). You go here if you like scenery.
Cinque Terre: This is a more well known version of the Amalfi coast and is located o nthe north west coast of Italy. It is a set of five small towns nearby on the coast. Most people like it, but it just pales in comparison to the Amalfi coast in my opinion.
I took the train, bus, and metro everywhere. It was fairly easy to get around EXCEPT for naples. Even Italians have trouble understanding the Naples train station. If you are going to Europe, you really need 10+ days to feel like it was worth it. If I were you, I'd really try for 2 weeks. If that is impossible, take the 10 days. Remember, 2 days will be lost to travel, and probably 1 more day due to jet lag for at least one person in the group. So, if you had 7 days, 3 are already gone.
Expect to spend at least $2k each depending on the activities and how expensive your tastes are in your hotels (I wouldn't be surprised to spend $3k for a 7-10 day trip). Food will run $50/day minimum if you eat in restaurants. $100+ a day on food is easilly doable if you get all the courses. Just skip the second main dish, they are small and very pricey ($20+ for a few ounces of meat). Most hotels will be in the $100+ per night range. Flight will be around $1000. Train trips will be $20-$100 each. Activities vary widely from $10-$100 for most tickets that I saw.
Stay in the city centers. Then you can walk everywhere. For example, if you are within a few blocks of the main train station in most Italian cities, then the hotel price isn't too bad and you can walk to 90+% of the sites that you want to see. Taxi rides are very, very expensive. Land in Rome and take the train (attached to the Rome airport) to the Rome city center.