Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

DH and I are going to Italy next month. His father is from Italy so we are going to the family house they own there... so that will be our home base (Piacenza... northern Italy in the mountains).

I want to take a few days trips as I've never been before. DH has been a million times so Italy is nothing new to him, so I want to decide some of things we might do..

I want to go to Florence and Venice, so any suggestions there would be appreciated. I was also thinking Assisi (the Catholic in me will find that interesting).

They are fairly close to Milano and Turin so suggestions there would be good too!

Also, We don't want to drive more than 3-4 hours... so Rome and southern Italy is out for this trip...we just wnat to relax..and not spend too much money or time traveling too far out the way on this trip as we're very fortunate to have a famiyl home there so we will back several more times in the future...

Suggestions? thoughts?

TIA!

Message edited 7/25/2007 11:54:48 PM.

Re: Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

I studied in Venice for a month so I am pretty familiar with the major places to see. We also went on day and weekend trips to other places near by. The farthest south I went was Rome.

Venice- Rialto Bridge, Piazza San Marco(Harry's Bar is located there), Doges Palace, Bridge of Sighs. You can take a boat to Murano (glass) or Torcello

Milan- Good for shopping. Things to see would be El Duomo(huge gothic church) Da Vinci's last Supper, La Fenice Opera house

Florence- Santa Maria Del Fiore Church and Tower (good view of city), Sunset at Piazza Michelangelo, see the David at the Academia gallery,Medici home, Ufitzi gallery. Good for leather shopping.

Can't really recommend placs to eat because I was a poor college student. We did eat every night at Al Columbo in Venice and it was GREAT!!

Other cities in the area are Verona (there is a Romeo and Juliet balcony), Padua, Vicenza, Bologna (home of tortellini and bolognese sauce) Pisa (near Florence)

Hope this helps. If you have any questions FM me and I can pull out all my stuff from the trip.

Re: Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

Besides what you've mentioned I HIGHLY recommend Lake Como. That is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Phenomenal!

Re: Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

Thanks so much!!!! DH keeps mentioning the Lake region too!

Others.... Any other thoughts?

Re: Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

I agree w. descrip of anglebear descrip of Florence...I think it is worth a trip...climb the el duomo to the top - nice view

Pisa & Verona are nice but not really worth the trip if you dont want to travel that much...Pisa just has the tower which has scaffolding all over it anyway

Siena is nice, coblestone streets, cafes, etc - but not much to do there except hang out in the piaza

never been to Lake Region -- but I've heard it is beautiful.

Re: Anyone familiar with northern Italy?

Just came back from a tour of Italy. The above posters had a lot of great suggestions. We did not get to Lake Como but we did hit Lake Maggiore and crossed the border to Lake Lugano in Switzerland. That was great. To us Florence and Venice were hard to see in just one day, but certainly worth the trip. Milan, Pisa, Verona, Assisi are all easy to do in one day. Milan is a city very much like NY, except the Duomo is amazing. Pisa wasn't appealing to us outside the Piazza with the tower (which did not have scaffolding around it a week ago but who knows about when you go). Verona is a pretty town. The church in Assissi is incredible for the frescos and the surrounding area is beautiful. I wish we were going back already - I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter where you go.