# Planning a trip to Italy, then cruising the Greek Islands



## DaveNV (Mar 18, 2011)

Thinking about making a trip to Italy in two years, spending a week or more seeing the major sites, and then taking a cruise through the Greek Islands.  

I have absolutely no idea where to start planning such a trip.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  Would like to stay in timeshares where practical, using deposited RCI weeks, and will have over 100 TPU accumulated.  I have no idea what Italian timeshares exchange for in RCI.  The cruise we'll pay cash for.

Anyone have helpful suggestions on this kind of trip?

Thanks,
Dave


----------



## beejaybeeohio (Mar 18, 2011)

*Put in an ongoing Pronto*

Here are resorts I've researched thru RCI that appear to be in good locations and have decent reviews:2811 - Hotel Piccola Fenice,3946 - Palazzo del Giglio-Residenza Alberghiera,4182 - Il Poggio,4267 - Carpediem Roma Golf Club,4270 - Dimore la Vecchia Firenze,5884 - Borgo di Vagli,B299 - IL BORGHETTO 1-these are the only ones visible on my ongoing.  I believe here are others I've requested 7865, 1755, 4267,4250,2811,4640, 2837. There will be others that are good choices that I've not included because I am looking for 2+ bedrooms.  Best bet is to go to the RCI online directory as new resorts may be added.  In the past (2007) I got a hit on a 3 bedroom in Venice that I unfortunately had to decline. I will be sending you a PM with a tip that has worked for me.

Once you snag a resort, then plan your cruise around it.  I am in that position for 2012- have a week at Chateau du Maulmont in FR and want to do a Med cruise on either end.


----------



## Laurie (Mar 18, 2011)

First, plan for more than a week in Italy to see major sites!

I assume you want to see Venice, Florence & Rome. There are a few timeshares in Venice and 1 in Florence, so you could put ongoing searches in now for those specific resorts, for as wide a date range as possible, and build the rest of your trip around your first confirmation. 

There's one outside of Rome, some like it, others think it's too far from center-city.

You might then be able to get the one in Assisi as piggyback since it has frequent availability. There are also a few throughout Tuscany & Umbria that come up from time to time. A week in either would be easily filled up with major sites.

Then add on fewer nights per destination using b&b's and hotels.

Oh, I was posting at the same time as BJB, got interrupted and came back to finish - great advice on specific resorts. By the way, I have a confirmation into that 3-BR in Venice upcoming! Even tho we've been to Venice 2x, once on a TS exchange for a week, it was too hard to resist.


----------



## Carolinian (Mar 18, 2011)

If this is a first visit to Italy, I would not do it as a timeshare trip.  I would do point to point, with multiple day stays each in Rome, Florence, and Venice.  There are lots of other interesting places all over Italy, but those are the big three.  I would use Florence as a base for day trips by train to Pisa, Sienna, and Lucca.


----------



## DaveNV (Mar 18, 2011)

Wow.  Thanks, everyone.  I can see I need to sit down with a map and figure out what I want to see, and how long I want to spend seeing it.  I may need at least two weeks just for the Italy part of this trip.

I was in Italy a gazillion years ago when I was in the Navy, and even though we got to a couple of major cities (Naples, Venice, Trieste), I wasn't able to see much of the countryside.  Obviously Rome and Florence are must-sees on the list, but there was something enthralling about walking the streets of Pompeii I found incredible.  Places like Pisa and the Amalfi (sp?) Coast sound appealing too.

No wonder Rick Steves keeps going back...  LOL!

I'm beginning to agree that maybe timeshares aren't the way to do this trip.  Now, to figure out hotels and train routes...  Yikes!  

Dave


----------



## sailingman22 (Mar 19, 2011)

I would also recommend not using timeshares unless you find a good match for the location you want to visit. We flew to Rome in October arriving early morning and had prebooked a limo for our trip into Rome from the airport and return. We also had 2 1/2 hour tours scheduled for each of 3 days covering the Vatican, old Rome, and the city center. Our best unplanned tour was getting on a city bus a riding all around Rome for several hours.

We took a flight out of Italy for several weeks and returned to Rome airport and rented a car and drove to Tuscany and used this as our base for 6 days visiting Florence, Siena, Voltari and several of the anchient walled in cities. Stayed in a wonderful B&B listed in tripadvisor.

You cannot see Italy in one or two weeks so choose the one area where your personal interests lie and fall in love with the area. This may lead to a return visit.


----------



## pedro47 (Mar 19, 2011)

Wow! The best information for planning a mediterranean cruise can be found on the web site cause Cruise Critic.com. or Cruise Addict.com

Enjoy you trip and your cruise.


----------



## Passepartout (Mar 19, 2011)

Dave, first, you can't see/appreciate Italy in one trip. Or Greece. You are looking at 3 trips minimum. I liked going to Florence 1st, and doing day-trips to Siena, Assisi, the Hill Towns.. You can fly into Pisa instead of Firenze cheaper and the train to SMN (Santa Maria Novella- Florence's main station) is cheaper than a taxi from Florence's airport- and you get to see Pisa free.

Second, I'd do Venice for 3-4 days then a cruise down the Adriatic and Santorini/Myoknos/Olympia/Dubrovnik and back. Good overview, minimal cost. Can easily be extended to as much Greece as you want. After the obligatory museums/St. Mark's Square in Venice, my favorite thing there is to wander and get lost. What treasures you can find!

Third trip- Rome at least 4-5 days, then train to Naples/Pompeii, Amalfi area. Allow 10-12 days.

The reason I'd break it up this way is there is a helluva lot of art and museums and cathedrals, statues, monuments, etc. You just can't keep 'em straight. After a while all that (mostly) religious art tends to run together. You need a scorecard to keep the centuries in alignment, let alone individual painters and sculptors.

There's always a good reason to go to Italy. We've found 7 and counting. Sigh.

I know others differ, but I'd get Rick Steves' Italy and watch the DVDs of his Italy shows. I know he's opinionated, but it's a good starting point and you are free to make your own discoveries. He'll keep you fed and a roof over your head without costing an arm and leg. You can see what you want to see.

Jim Ricks


----------



## sailingman22 (Mar 19, 2011)

I would also highly suggest contacting a tour company that specializes in both the land and sea tours. This should reduce your costs and stress level by 1/2.


----------



## NWL (Mar 19, 2011)

Passepartout said:


> I know others differ, but I'd get Rick Steves' Italy and watch the DVDs of his Italy shows. I know he's opinionated, but it's a good starting point and you are free to make your own discoveries. He'll keep you fed and a roof over your head without costing an arm and leg. You can see what you want to see.
> 
> Jim Ricks



I agree.  I supported my (somewhat) local PBS station the year we were planning our 25th anniversary trip to Italy and purchased the full collection.  The entire package was very helpful.  It's a great way to get oriented and helps you understand what your tour company is telling you.  See the my next comment.  



sailingman22 said:


> I would also highly suggest contacting a tour company that specializes in both the land and sea tours. This should reduce your costs and stress level by 1/2.



Very good advice when you want to go somewhere special but don't have the knowledge to plan the trip yourself.

I would also suggest you spend time in Cinque Terre (sp) and Lake Como (Menaggio was great!).

Cheers!


----------



## DaveNV (Mar 20, 2011)

Let me say this again:  Tuggers rock!  You folks are such a wealth of helpful information.  Thank you so much!  

I can see I need to pare down my options to what I know what I want to do, and not try to do it all.  I know better, but it's hard to say No to some of those places.  I'm off to find Rick Steves' DVDs.  I think they can be ordered on Netflix...

Dave


----------



## beejaybeeohio (Mar 20, 2011)

*Back to the cruise idea...*

We are about to book a Celebrity cruise that departs from Rome and ends in Venice. With this itinerary we are able to spend time in those cities pre/post cruise.  It's a fairly port-intensive route with full days (11 or 12 hours typically, with 8 hours the least) in the ports of Naples, Catania, Athens, Mykonos, Ephesus, Rhodes, Santorini & Crete.  We are flying to Lyon post-cruise for a t/s week.

What I like about this combo-type trip is that cruising gives me a break from the intensity of planning everything, although I still plan our shore days as we don't do the ship excursions.  It's nice to only unpack once for 12-14 days, not have to find restaurants every nite, not to worry if the hotel I've reserved will be as good as the website and TripAdvisor reviews suggest it will be, and to have the respite of sea days, etc. etc. 

There is so much of the world to see and cruising can help you get a sampling of its' wonders.


----------



## Carolinian (Mar 20, 2011)

I would disagree on the guided tour idea, which is something i find too comfining.  I like to see the things that are important to me.  With a guided tour, you might find a guide dwelling at length on something in which you have only nominal interest while skipping lightly over things of major interest to you.  The only places I have used a guided tour is where I did not have as much of a comfort level, which were two, a day trip to Morrocco from Spain, and my first week long trip to Russia not long after the fall of Communism.  Otherwise, I like to get a good complete guidebook - Rough Guide or Lonely Planet - and research and plan my own trip.  While I enjoy listening to Rick Steves and used his travel philosophy before I had ever even heard of him, I find his guidebooks woefully incomplete, essentially a guided tour in a book. A good example was on a trip to Germany, I wanted to stay in the wonderful medieval town of Limburg on the Lahn near Frankfurt the night before my flight back.  I went to Barnes and Noble and pulled down Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, and Rick Steves on Germany.  The first three had lots of information on things to see, places to eat, and what I was really looking for, places to stay in Limburg on the Lahn.  Rick Steves did not even mention the town at all.  That sums up why I find Rick Steves a poor source for trip planning.  There is just too much he leaves out.  It is much better to get a more complete guidebook and choose what you want to do.

As to Italy, I would suggest doing the big three, with several days in each on a first trip.  There are lots of other interesting places to go, so on the next trip, you can choose from lots of other interesting places.

The idea of a cruise down the Adriastic to Greece is also a great idea.  Split and especially Dubrovnik in Croatia are wonderful.  The old town of Split is built within the still standing walls of Roman Emporer Diocletian's palace.  Dubrovnik was the free city of Ragusa until the Napoleanic Wars, after which it passed to Austria and is a great medieval walled city.  My travel in that area was by land, but it would be great on a cruise.  I imagine that a cruise would also stop on Corfu, a great island too.  Corfu is a great place to do a timeshare exchange, which is how I traveled there.  So is Split, as it is a great base to see a lot of interesting places in Croatia and Bosnia.  I did timesharing there too.


----------



## pianodinosaur (Mar 21, 2011)

I would think that a cruise-tour would be the best way to go.  This way you have the best of both worlds.  This can be easily accomplished with Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, or Celebrity.


----------



## Passepartout (Mar 21, 2011)

pianodinosaur said:


> I would think that a cruise-tour would be the best way to go.  This way you have the best of both worlds.  This can be easily accomplished with Princess, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, or Celebrity.



Don't forget to look at the European lines. We had an excellent round trip cruise from Venice- Greek Isles- Rhodes on Costa. They are an Italian line, so have many Italian itineraries. Much lower price, and a much more 'European' experience. Who cares that the on-board announcements are in 6 languages. One thing I noticed compared to the big U.S. cruiselines, the European ones don't seem to be making the drinks a major profit center. 

*Added*: Yes, I know the biggies aren't REALLY U.S. cruselines. Their ships are flagged in Panama, Bahama, Liberia or somewhere, even though the office is in Miami. U.S. Dollars are the currency aboard, but I don't think anyone is fooled.

Jim


----------



## elaine (Mar 21, 2011)

I also second one week land tour then 1 week+ cruise. You need to decide whether you are doing W. Med or E. Med. We did W. Med 1st and are now doing E. Med. Look for cruises in/out of different cities to get more bang for your buck. Italian trains are pretty easy and most major cities (Venice-milan, Rome-florence, etc.) have trains every hour. In all major cities, staff speaks excellent English--and a few Italian words you learn go a long way. Milan is a very easy US connection that can get you to Venice. Rome is easy to get to Florence or Naples.
A very easy "copycat" way to plan a trip is to look on viator.com and see what they offer in each city (they are a booking agent, not the tour guides--those are local)--then either book their tours, or a similar one, or DIY. I have done both. We do some days (usually in bigger cities) on our own and then a day tour thru viator where the connections are difficult. I used viator last summer for the Tuscany in 1 day--it was divine--my 70 yr old Mom and my 9-12 yr old kids loved it. It would have been a pain to train/bus, etc. to 3 hill towns all in 1 day--the tour was perfect. this is also a good way to get around if you are not super confident on your own.
We saved the cruise for the 2nd week---for downtime and less traveling around--still daytrips in port, but lower keyed if we wanted. happy planning! Elaine


----------



## Talent312 (Mar 22, 2011)

*On Our Last Visit, FWIW...*

We flew into Rome, met up with an art prof leading a study-abroad class and did the customary 3* sights in about 3 days.

_Note: Arrive at the Vatacan b4 it opens and you'll have a long line; wait until 10AM... almost no line._

Then we took a train to Florence and rented a car to drive thru Tuscany to Siena. Tuscany is my idea of heaven on Earth. Its where I want to go when I die. We stayed at a hotel near San Gimigano for 2N (did our laundry in the bathroom). We returned to Florence for another 2N.

_Note: Pre-reserving visits to the galleries is imperative._

Then we took a train to Venice, and stayed at hotel close to but not on the Grand Canal. _Caution: The streets are full of water!_  If I were to do a Greek Island cruise, I'd leave from Venice. The port is right there and so convenient that we were tempted, but instead, took a water-shuttle to the airport and flew back to Rome.


----------



## beaner (Mar 29, 2011)

*Italy*

Spent a month in Italy last August and had a wonderful time. If you plan on staying in the Rome area, we found a great timeshare in the town of Soriano nel Cimino. The timeshare is a Diamond Resort but this little town which is only one hour to Rome on the train was absolutely spectacular. Everyone that we met who was staying there (only 18 rooms) was more than pleased with the accomodations and specifically the Italian life in this little mideaval village. One of the best days of our entire trip consisted of an arranged trip from the ts. It included a wine tasting, olive oil tasting, and cooking. The cooking was hands on and included making pizza in a brick oven (many types of pizzas) and making homemade pasta. It has to be experienced to fully understand. This all took place outside in an olive grove. 
I would also recommend going to Cinque Terre. It is just north of Pisa and west of Florence. Also, don't be afraid to rent a car. The driving is easy. Do stay more than a week. A month was too short and we did hit the big three.


----------



## DaveNV (Mar 30, 2011)

beaner said:


> Spent a month in Italy last August and had a wonderful time. If you plan on staying in the Rome area, we found a great timeshare in the town of Soriano nel Cimino. The timeshare is a Diamond Resort but this little town which is only one hour to Rome on the train was absolutely spectacular. Everyone that we met who was staying there (only 18 rooms) was more than pleased with the accomodations and specifically the Italian life in this little mideaval village. One of the best days of our entire trip consisted of an arranged trip from the ts. It included a wine tasting, olive oil tasting, and cooking. The cooking was hands on and included making pizza in a brick oven (many types of pizzas) and making homemade pasta. It has to be experienced to fully understand. This all took place outside in an olive grove.
> I would also recommend going to Cinque Terre. It is just north of Pisa and west of Florence. Also, don't be afraid to rent a car. The driving is easy. Do stay more than a week. A month was too short and we did hit the big three.




Sounds like you had a fantastic time.  Thanks!  I'm starting to think we may need to plan several weeks, plus the cruise, or skip the cruise this time, and make multiple trips.  There's just too much history to not see it all.

Dave


----------



## Zac495 (May 15, 2011)

Sounds great! We're doing Greece this summer and used Fantasy Travel  - very helpful travel agent. Have fun planning!


----------



## pgnewarkboy (May 15, 2011)

We are taking a two week Italy tour shortly.  We felt we there was much we wanted to see and a tour was the best way for us in a relatively short period of time.  Although I am used to planning my own trips, Italy is just too rich in sights and adventures to miss the biggies because of poor planning, transportation issues, hotel issues.  The tour takes care of everything and will get you where you need to go with a place to stay, food to eat, and guides who avoid lines at the biggest attractions.  Greece is on the list.  It is an interesting idea to combine the two if you have the time.  Italy and Greece are two treasure troves of history, art, and culture.


----------

