Greece and Italy Planning

[shakalaka]

Okay, so me and the wife have started to plan our Europe trip for next year before it's too late for us to have a holiday like that by ourselves ever again. Haha. Two of my absolute must places are Greece and Italy and I was thinking a week at each location as of right now. I have to plan far enough in advance as my schedule fills up relatively quickly. The maximum I think I will be able to do is 2 weeks, give or take a couple of days depending on what is available. The first stretch of two weeks that I can do is in April and that too will require me to move some stuff around to empty up the time. But that is approximately when we are planning to do this.

So what I need is help in planning our itinerary in as much detail as possible. I am all up for spontaneity when it comes to activities etc, however, I'd like to make sure that we have the stay portion at least sorted out for all of the days. In Greece, I would like to visit Santorini and Athens (if safe) at least - but open to more location suggestions within Greece. I've always been fascinated by Greece pictures of a beautiful island with white buildings everywhere in contrast to the blue water and understand that is what Santorini is like. Recommendations on hotels, resorts etc are welcome. I am looking for nice, higher-end resorts etc.

Italy is where I am more confused because from what I understand it's such a beautiful country with so many places to visit. I am not sure on where to go here but of course would like to do all the touristy things like Vatican City, Coliseum, Leaning Tower and whatever else is worth seeing out there. I guess Rome and Venice would be must-do's? Split the week between the two? Elsewhere? Suggestions for specific hotels etc are always also welcome.

If there are any other must see places other than these two that are somewhere around the area and can be worked out, please feel free to throw out suggestions. Like I said, this is possibly the our last trip alone together for a while at the very least, so I want to do it big and I want to do it right. Another idea that crosses my mind is doing a week of Greece and doing a week long Mediterranean Cruise (goes around Italy) and cover Italy that way...so I may look into that as well. Of course suggestions are welcome.

[tha_bandit]

Recently did greece, landed in athens, spent like 3 days there (only needed 2 full days i think), got a train north to meteora for about 4 days. Back to athens on train, flew to mykonos for 3 days, got the ferry to santorini for about 6 days, stayed in Oia for 2 days, and then south of Fira(Thera) for 4 days. Lilium Hotel was really good for the views and they have a shuttle for Fira. Let me know if any questions.

[shakalaka]

Thanks for your input. I’ll likely have more questions for you during the more involved stages of my planning. In the interim if other have additional suggestions please feel free to chime in. I am thinking if the second portion is going to be a cruise to take it from Barcelona as once back there we can spend a few days there and meet up with some friends.

Edit: Also looking for suggestions and best recommendations on how to go about booking this trip (online, travel agent etc.) as it’ll be multi city and flying one from one place and out from another. I am thinking of doing Greece for a week or less if just Santorini and then a Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona and a couple days in Barcelona upon return.

[Waldi]

Just came back from Italy, landed i n Bologna, spend couple of days there, took train from bologna to Venice. Bologna is transportation hub and you can get pretty much anywhere on fast train from there. Wanted to spend some time in Tuscany, so went to Florence as a base and rented car there. Stayed in NH Anglo-American hotel, room was superb, close to city center (~12 min walk along the river). They had very good breakfast, in fact we almost skipped lunch because of big breakfast at the hotel. Their lobby staff was super friendly and helpful. Florence is nice and lots to see. There is a car rental place Budget/Hertz near hotel and we rented car to drive to wineries and small towns. We traveled on fast train (270km/hr) from Bologna to Florence in 35 min. We also went to Sienna and this is pretty spectacular place it is about 1-1.5 hrs by car and worth spending whole day there . Next leg we went to Pisa, again by train. There is NH hotel nearby train station that is very nice. We stayed in nice old hotel/BB right in the middle of old town. If you want to go to Rome, it was I believe 1.5-2 hrs from Florence. Used app called GOEurope to search for trains and purchase train tickets. Worked very smooth, highly recommend. In general, look at hotels that have a good breakfast as this will save you $15-20 Euro per person, if you plan to rent a car, I used Ryan Air Car hire as they have pretty good comparison between different companies. We used Ryanair as the fares as cheap but make sure you buy more expensive ticket such as "priority" if you have bigger luggage. It is still pretty cheap. Have fun.

[grampafunk]

If you can. Ad Malta to the list. Really cool spot.

[jsn]

i backpacked in Italy a few years ago. While I loved places like Rome, Venice, and Florence, my favourite was Cinque terre. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 coastal villages that are within minutes of each other on a train. The train is cheap and runs often. You could even hike between the villages if you want. After a week of constant, non-stop sight seeing, it was amazing to slow down and enjoy the small-town, coastal villages. The last village has an amazing beach as well.