1

Consider Cinque Terre + Pisa en route back to Rome.

For hotels, take reviews on line with an enormous pinch of salt, especially tripadvisor. It's plagued both with fake reviews (they're working hard to sort that out) but also with reviews from people with champagne tastes but beer money.

You only need to look at the Burj Al Arab (7* in Dubai) on tripadvisor to see what I mean.

100 to 150 CAD = 80 EUR to 120 EUR. Personally in Italy I'd go for small independent b&b's or guesthouses (which are pretty much the same thing). There are some gorgeous little goldmines out there to discover instead of bland hotel chains that are the same the world over. I wouldn't do apartments; you're not in any place long enough (possibly Rome).

Consider http://www.airbnb.com.

Seeing as this is your first time travelling overseas

1) Tell your bank you're going to Italy so they don't stop your cards when you use it. Ensure you have at least one card that's maestro/cirrus logo'd; having a visa card is also helpful. We use 4 digit PIN's for our cards.

2) Don't bring travellers cheques; they're increasingly hard to cash and rather out of date.

3) Note that using a mobile/cell phone overseas is very expensive; contact your provider for more information or better yet, leave it at home.

4) Take the train from the airport to Rome Termini, but don't hang about there as it's not exactly the nicest station in the world late at night, get a taxi or walk direct to your hotel.

5) Don't forget to buy travel insurance.

6) Book the train tickets in advance to save on € - it's first come cheapest served. See http://www.seat61.com for all the information you could possibly want about trains, also http://www.trenitalita.com

2

Rome for only 1 whole day?

3

we are staying in Rome for 2nights 3days at the beginning of our trip then ending our trip back in Rome to catch anything we'd miss the first time.

4

Thank you for all this helpful information, it should help sort out some of the confusion> thanks for the tip about the trains

5

Just checking for clarity that the wedding is in Riva del Garda??

If going to Venice then you'll be spending 2 nights there (at least) to give yourself a full day there so that leaves you with another 3 nights. That perhaps depends on what you do on the way north in Florence and Tuscany, but there's probably more to do and see heading back in the same general direction than going down the east coast to places like Ancona and Pescara - depends a bit on your interests (hill walking, historic towns, food and drink etc etc - ifyou give us some clues we might be able to be more specific!)

Finally to add to Fwoggie's comments, chain hotels are less common in Italy than many European countries, and you shouldn't have too much difficulty finding a family run hotel or b&b. If it is in the right price range, I usually then look at its location - near the rail station / cathedral etc, so I can walk to what I want to see and do and not have to rely on buses and taxis.

6

@ Mike the wedding is in Garda on Lake Garda,
after Rome we would like to three days in Florence/tuscany to do some day trips one to see country side up to Pisa and maybe a wine tour.
After the wedding i thought maybe to stay in Verona a night??then head to Venice for two days, is Bologna worth a visit on the way back to Rome?
upon reading Lonely planets discover Italy..there is so much to look and see i wish we had a month to visit but only two weeks with a wedding to be at for 4days
I have had success at finding a B&B in Rome! now looking in Florence thanks for the tip to look at the location of the hotel, don't want to spend time in taxis or buses would rather be near city centres. we enjoy walking.
Do you recommend Viatour as we booked a tour with them in Rome..
Thank you so much for your help you seem quite knowlegable do you live in Italy??

7

Correction on the train website link - http://www.trenitalia.com

8

the wedding is in Garda on Lake Garda
There are several small towns and villages around the lake. In order to decide how to travel there it is really important to know in which of those the wedding is.
Sirmione, Colombare, Malcesine, Desenzano, Riva del Garda, Limone, Garda ?

9

#6 and #8 - Garda is one of the small towns on the south eastern corner of the lake and not too far from Verona.

If you've sampled Tuscany on your way north,then for the return journey there is a string of smaller cities worth visiting - Padova, Ravenna, Parma, Modena and Bologna included. Note that the scenery is much less interesting than in Tuscany - its mostly rather flat, so the interest is all in the buildings in the cities.

As an alternative look at going the other side of Florence to south east Tuscany and Umbria for more scenery - Arezzo, Lake Trasimeno (Castiglione and Passignano are both small but relaxing) Perugia, Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto and, of course, many more!

10

As Mike9 has posted Garda is the most notherly of a group of 3 resorts towns in the south the eastern shore of Lake Garda it has very good transport links by bus and ferry. However in October the lake ferries will on. the winter time table. In the south of Lake Garda the towns of Peschiera and Desenzano are on the railway linking Verona and Milan.

One thing to remember is that most museums and places of interest in Italy are closed on Mondays.

Linked by bus to Garda town Verona is a very pretty historic city but once you have spent a morning seeing and crawled over and under the Roman amphitheatre you will want to move on.

There is plenty so see in and around the shores of Lake Garda:
The historic medieval fortified town of Sirmione which has the ruins of a massive Roman villa at the tip of the peninsula is a must see.
Another must see is the Vittoriale which sits on the hill above Gardone Riviera, I won't describe it except to say it is magnificent, beautiful and barking mad all at the same time a visit to ill Vittoriale will fill a whole day.

Also worth visiting on Lake Garda are the towns of Riva and Melcesine.
Riva is at the the extreme north end of the lake it has a very slight Austrian flavour as it was Austrain territory until 1918. If you go further north into the Dolomites the Austrain influence is more obvious and many locals regard German as their first language.
Melcesine is a lovely town, it has a cable car which will take you to the top of Mount Baldi.

As for hotels I can only recommend hotels I know in Lake Garda resorts:

The Cattulo in the historic part of Sirmione is a fantastic family run small hotel.

The Kris in Bardolino is very good family run hotel (just make sure you book the main hotel)

The Parc Gritti in Bardolino, is a good hotel part of a big German owned chain.

11

Thank you so much for all the great information given by everyone, this makes our trip to Italy a little easier to plan.

12

Don't over plan. Serendipity (happy accidents) have worked out better than any plan I started with.

If not August or holidays like Easter, don't book ahead. Leave yourself slack to change your route.

We learn more in situ.