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Italy/France in September

marijalas

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DH is scheduled for surgery in October, so we wanted to take a trip to Italy/France in September. Originally I wanted to go to France again, but he doesn't like France and loves Italy. So I thought of the lakes, Nrothern Italy, but want off the beaten track and stay for a week in one place and take day trips from there
There don't seem to be Travel Agents to plan this, I am tired of doing the planning and the tours are too frantic.
All ideas welcome and appreciated. Thanks
 

"Roger"

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You might want to look at the Road Scholar tour. (Link) Their tour to that region probably lasts longer than you want (two weeks) and currently the tours for this September are wait list only. Even if you don't want to consider their tour, you might look at what they do and where they stay for some ideas.

Further comment: There are pros and cons to doing a tour vs staying in one place on your own. With the latter, you end up meeting more of the locals and getting a better feel for a single location. This is also the cheaper way to go. On the other hand, tours like Road Scholar are more educational and they end up doing some things that you cannot do on your own.
 

marijalas

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You might want to look at the Road Scholar tour. (Link) Their tour to that region probably lasts longer than you want (two weeks) and currently the tours for this September are wait list only. Even if you don't want to consider their tour, you might look at what they do and where they stay for some ideas.

Further comment: There are pros and cons to doing a tour vs staying in one place on your own. With the latter, you end up meeting more of the locals and getting a better feel for a single location. This is also the cheaper way to go. On the other hand, tours like Road Scholar are more educational and they end up doing some things that you cannot do on your own.

Thank you for such a quick reply. I will look into Road Scholar. I understand the pros & cons. We have been fortunate to have visited Europe many times and Art History was my major, so I would definitely be up on whatever location we go to.
 

Passepartout

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If you want to be more independent than a guided tour, consider Gate 1 Travel. https://www.destinationeuropeonline.com/travel-request-italy-new.php?se=bing-desktop-italy&msclkid=677105b9068d1749f22358b76047ef4a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Italy ENH.Feb.27&utm_term=gate one travel to italy&utm_content=Trip To Italy/ They will get you there, and arrange lodging and a car and you're pretty much on your own. Arm yourselves with past experience and a guidebook and go for it.

Don't forget travel insurance. Pay for it within a couple of weeks of paying a deposit and pre-existing conditions are covered.
 

Ken555

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DH is scheduled for surgery in October, so we wanted to take a trip to Italy/France in September. Originally I wanted to go to France again, but he doesn't like France and loves Italy. So I thought of the lakes, Nrothern Italy, but want off the beaten track and stay for a week in one place and take day trips from there
There don't seem to be Travel Agents to plan this, I am tired of doing the planning and the tours are too frantic.
All ideas welcome and appreciated. Thanks

I’ve been visiting Italy often in recent years, since I have family that bought an apartment in Florence. I’ll be in Italy twice later this year (including September!).

If you want to be off the beaten path and are okay renting a car, your options are wide open from very small towns to villas in the middle of nowhere. If you plan on taking public transit, then you’d want to be in a small town at minimum so you can take buses or trains.

I’d recommend the hotel I stayed at in 2011 (see the link in the post above to that thread) as it’s in a great location to explore Lake Como, and you could easily spend 4-7 days in that area. Add on a couple days in Milan or another northern city and you’ve got a nice trip.

It’s hard to go wrong in Italy.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

elaine

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If you are not renting a car, off the beaten path can mean poor train connections. We are basing out of Florence next sept and day tripping. One place that I have heard is not as touristy is bologna which still has excellent train connections. Milan and Verona also have great options for public transit day trips. Verona is a lovely small city.
 

Glynda

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Brewster Green (two weeks).
We stayed in Bellagio while on Lake Como. However, we decided were we to go back that we would stay in Varenna.
Not only is it more of a hub for the ferry connections, it has a a train station. It was more laid back than Bellagio also. It's beautiful up there. Other friends have recommended Lake Maggiore as being just as beautiful but less expensive and fewer tourists.
 

klpca

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I can't personally vouch for this but I have friends who raved about Rick Steves independent tours. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/my-way-tours . Our friends are not people who normally like to do tours, and they are a bit fussy, so a glowing recommendation from them made me file the information away for future use. The company books all of your lodging and transportation for you but your sightseeing time is your own. It seems like a great compromise. (By the way, I clicked through the tours and the trip length won't work for you. Bummer.)

One other tip that I have used a few times is to find a guided tour that I like and just use their itinerary as a guideline of things to see and places to go. Then I change things to make it the trip that we want to do.
 
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