Kaka_uet

Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and would
appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am flying
into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will have
nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of Italy
(of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick with
Rome and Venice).

Would like your help/advice with a few things:
1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4 days?
And how much does it cost?
2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice -> Rome -> Milan
route?
3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned itinerary
cost?
4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to the
date of the travel e.g. now?
5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome, Milan?
6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3 places?

Thanks and Regards

Capitan Angi

I am sorry to be short, but i have almost no time.
Btw, in Milan use the public transportation (very efficient, there should be
a cumulative ticket).
To go to Venice and to Rome use the train (absolutely recommended). You can
choose among 3 different categories: IR (interregionale, slow and cheapest),
IC (intercity, faster and more expensive) ES (eurostar, faster and most
expensive, recommended from venice to rome).
For prices, check www.trenitalia.com. There are some special offers usually
on saturday, and on Rome-Milan ES route. In case you plan to travel on Fri,
Sat or Sun, is highly recommended to reserve the seat at the station couple
of day before.

Must-see:
Milan, Cenacolo di Leonardo, Duomo, Castello Sforzesco. And have a
"panzerotto" at Luini's, just beside the Duomo.

Venice, Piazza San Marco, Rialto Bridge, Ponte dei sospiri. And stop at
Harry's Bar.

Rome... well, everything. Don't miss a coffee at Sant'Eustachio, Il caffè,
in Piazza Sant'Eustachio, near the Pantheon, in front of Palazzo Madama (the
Senato Italiano).

Have a nice time!
Ciao!

Gerald

Are you really asking how to travel from Milan to see Venice & Rome
and travel back to Milan all in 48 hours?

On 10 Mar 2004 01:46:24 -0800, (kaka_uet)
wrote:

    >Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and would
    >appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am flying
    >into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will have
    >nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of Italy
    >(of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick with
    >Rome and Venice).
    >Would like your help/advice with a few things:
    >1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4 days?
    >And how much does it cost?
    >2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice -> Rome -> Milan
    >route?
    >3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned itinerary
    >cost?
    >4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to the
    >date of the travel e.g. now?
    >5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome, Milan?
    >6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3 places?
    >Thanks and Regards

Bob Fusillo

Rome travel alone will take your two days. It is three hours to Venice.

"kaka_uet" <> wrote in message
news:...
    > Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and would
    > appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am flying
    > into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will have
    > nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of Italy
    > (of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick with
    > Rome and Venice).
    > Would like your help/advice with a few things:
    > 1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4 days?
    > And how much does it cost?
    > 2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice -> Rome -> Milan
    > route?
    > 3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned itinerary
    > cost?
    > 4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to the
    > date of the travel e.g. now?
    > 5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome, Milan?
    > 6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3 places?
    > Thanks and Regards

Ken Blake

In news:,
kaka_uet <> typed:

    > Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and
would
    > appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am
flying
    > into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will
have
    > nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of
Italy
    > (of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick
with
    > Rome and Venice).


Do I understand you correctly? You're going to Italy for the
first time, for six days, you are spending four days in Milan,
and want to split the other two between Rome and Venice?

None of this makes any sense to me. Although there are certainly
things of interest to see and do in Milan, it's hardly what most
people would consider the city to spend the most time in Italy.
And to split two days between Rome and Venice will have you spend
most of the two days traveling. There are many wonderful things
to see and do in both Rome and Venice, and a single day in either
of them, even if no time was wasted in traveling, is not enough
to see even the highlights of either.

My advice, if you have only six days, is to pick one city, and
spend it all there. Which city that should be depends on your
personal interests, but for most people, it should probably be
either Rome, Florence, or Venice. For a first trip to Italy, I
would leave out Milan entirely, unless you have some special
reason for having to go there.

My vote would be to spend the entire six days in Rome, but that's
a personal preference. If you think six days in a single city is
too much, then split it between two of the three (Rome, Florence,
Venice), but no more than that.

B Vaughan

On 10 Mar 2004 01:46:24 -0800, (kaka_uet)
wrote:

    >Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and would
    >appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am flying
    >into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will have
    >nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of Italy
    >(of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick with
    >Rome and Venice).
    >Would like your help/advice with a few things:
    >1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4 days?
    >And how much does it cost?
    >2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice -> Rome -> Milan
    >route?
    >3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned itinerary
    >cost?
    >4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to the
    >date of the travel e.g. now?
    >5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome, Milan?
    >6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3 places?

I don't understand. Is the total time of your stay in Italy 4 days, of
which you want to spend two days visiting Rome and Venice? Or will you
be in Italy for 6 days, of which you want to spend 4 days in Milan and
two days in Rome and Venice.

If you will only be in Italy for 4 days including the day of arrivaal
and day of departure, and you want to visit Milan, Rome and Venice,
you might as well just get on a train and stay on it for the whole
time.

If you will be in Italy for 6 days altogether, flying in and out of
Milan, I would choose either Rome or Venice and go there the day after
your arrival and return to Milan the day before your departure. For
example:

Day 1 - arrive in Milan, get checked into hotel, rest a bit, go out to
get a meal and maybe an hour or two of sightseeing and go back to the
hotel to sleep.

Day 2 - go to Rome, go to hotel, check in go out to get a meal and
walk around a bit, then back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 3 and 4 - sightseeing in Rome

Day 5 - back to Milan, check into hotel, maybe have time to see
something else.

Day 6 - departure

If you try to add Venice to this, every single day of your six days
will be a travel day, including the packing, unpacking, checking out
and into hotels. There would be virtually no time for sightseeing.

If you will be in Italy a total of four days, I would just stay in
Milan and maybe take a few day trips from there, perhaps to Lake Como.
Or maybe head to Venice the same day you arrive in Milan and spend day
2 in Venice. On day three you would have to head back to Milan.

-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Ptravel

"kaka_uet" <> wrote in message
news:...
    > Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and would
    > appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am flying
    > into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will have
    > nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of Italy
    > (of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick with
    > Rome and Venice).
    > Would like your help/advice with a few things:
    > 1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4 days?
    > And how much does it cost?

Do you mean to spend 4 days, i.e. 3 nights, in Milan and you'd like to take
side trips? Check out the Lake District. Lake Como is a 1-hour train ride
from Milan, and is just beautiful. Take the train to Como, enjoy the town.
Then take a hydrofoil to Bellagio and see what is, arguably, one of the most
picturesque lake towns in the world.


    > 2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice -> Rome -> Milan
    > route?

Definitely train. Italian trains are reasonably priced, comfortable and
reliable.

    > 3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned itinerary
    > cost?

I can't help you, there. We always buy 1st class tickets with reservations,
which is the most expensive way to go. My recollection is that we went from
Milan to Venice for about $80 each last fall, but I may be wrong.

    > 4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to the
    > date of the travel e.g. now?

There is a Eurorail website, but I'm told that it's more expensive than
buying the tickets once you get to Europe.

    > 5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome, Milan?

Well, of course. The problem is, I don't know what you consider affordable.

    > 6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3 places?

Sorry -- you need to pick up a guide book and do some initial research on
your own. The standard sights in Venice and Milan are easy and obvious --
in Venice, the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge and Piazza S. Marco; in Milan, the
Duomo, the Galleria (the name of which escapes me at the moment, but it's
right next door) and, if it's open and you can get tickets, the Last Supper.
These sights alone will _not_ give you a sense of these cities, nor are they
necessarily the most interesting or fun things to do while you're there.

You could spend 2 weeks in Rome and only begin to scratch the surface.
You'll need to identify what it is you like to do -- do you like art
museums? ancient buildings and ruins? shopping? nature? restaurants?

Half the fun of foreign travel is doing the research and planning before you
go. Don't deprive yourself of this enjoyment.

    > Thanks and Regards

Ptravel

"Ken Blake" <> wrote in message
news:...
    > In news:,
    > kaka_uet <> typed:
    > > Hi, I am thinking of visiting Italy with my wife in May and
    > would
    > > appreciate all the help I can get into planning my trip. I am
    > flying
    > > into and back from Milan (Linate), with 4 days there and will
    > have
    > > nearly 2 days to spare in which would love to see a bit more of
    > Italy
    > > (of the advice I've received as yet, have been asked to stick
    > with
    > > Rome and Venice).
    > Do I understand you correctly? You're going to Italy for the
    > first time, for six days, you are spending four days in Milan,
    > and want to split the other two between Rome and Venice?
    > None of this makes any sense to me. Although there are certainly
    > things of interest to see and do in Milan, it's hardly what most
    > people would consider the city to spend the most time in Italy.
    > And to split two days between Rome and Venice will have you spend
    > most of the two days traveling. There are many wonderful things
    > to see and do in both Rome and Venice, and a single day in either
    > of them, even if no time was wasted in traveling, is not enough
    > to see even the highlights of either.
    > My advice, if you have only six days, is to pick one city, and
    > spend it all there. Which city that should be depends on your
    > personal interests, but for most people, it should probably be
    > either Rome, Florence, or Venice. For a first trip to Italy, I
    > would leave out Milan entirely, unless you have some special
    > reason for having to go there.

I agree completely, though it probably makes sense to explain why to the OP.
Milan was almost completely destroyed during WWII, so it lacks the many
classical buildings which are so much a part of the Italian "aesthetic."
Milan has developed as a major commercial center -- lots of business
transacted there but, like all business centers, not necessarily appealing
to tourists. My wife and I happen to like Milan a lot -- she likes the
shopping and I like the restaurants. We usually use Milan as a gateway city
when we travel to Italy. However, I agree that, for someone's first visit
to Italy, there are other cities that offer the first-time tourist more.


    > My vote would be to spend the entire six days in Rome, but that's
    > a personal preference.

I'll add my vote to yours. Rome is an ideal introduction to Italy, and six
days would be enough (though just barely enough) to get some sense of the
city and the culture.

    > If you think six days in a single city is
    > too much, then split it between two of the three (Rome, Florence,
    > Venice), but no more than that.
    > --
    > Ken Blake
    > Please reply to the newsgroup
    > >
    > > Would like your help/advice with a few things:
    > > 1-What is best recommended for travelling within Milan for 4
    > days?
    > > And how much does it cost?
    > > 2-What is the best mode of travel for Milan -> Venice ->
    > Rome -> Milan
    > > route?
    > > 3-Roughly how much would the ticket for the aforementioned
    > itinerary
    > > cost?
    > > 4-Can the tickets be booked online (website ???) much prior to
    > the
    > > date of the travel e.g. now?
    > > 5-Any affordable, well-located hotels to stay in Venice, Rome,
    > Milan?
    > > 6-A must-see list of tourist attractions in each of the 3
    > places?
    > >
    > > Thanks and Regards

Randee

Actually that is my preferred mode of travel, although the wife doesn't
particularly care to do it. Best way I know to view the physiography of
a country reasonably quickly (and comfortably).

Luca Logi

PTRAVEL <ptravel88-> wrote:

    > I agree completely, though it probably makes sense to explain why to the OP.
    > Milan was almost completely destroyed during WWII, so it lacks the many
    > classical buildings which are so much a part of the Italian "aesthetic."

I would not second this view. Milan had severe bombings, but not as
extensive as those levelling a lot of German cities. I believe the real
explanation is somewhat different: when an ancient urban setting is
preserved till now, is usually because a sudden economic crisis
prevented further renovations. Milan didn't know lasting crises in his
history, and it was continuously renewed. Most of the central quarter
have a 19th century appareance. Sometimes while strolling around la
Scala in the mild autumn fog, you could get the impression that Giuseppe
Verdi could suddenly walk out of the next corner :-)

The last important renovation was in early 20th century, when urban
water channels ("navigli") that were used for freight transportation
were covered and transformed into streets. Milan had corners not so
different from some Venice ones, that now are lost but in some south
areas.

Also, Milan has enough monuments and art collections that would be
enough for a first rate destination all over the world. The problem is,
in Italy every place has so much monuments and collections that Milan
ones are usually overlooked.