Italy April 2014

We're visiting Italy for a few weeks, together with three other couples.  We've been planning the trip for a year (!) and finally, we're actually here.  Some of us have visited Italy before, and some have never been here.  Our Italian language skills are minimal, to say the least!

Here's our itinerary:
Fly into Rome (on three different flights), arriving April 2
Three nights in the Termini neighborhood of Rome
Train out to Chiusi where we pick up 2 rental cars
Stay in a villa near Arezzo (central Tuscany) for a week
Drive to La Spezia and drop the cars off
Train to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre
Stay in Monterosso for two nights
Train to Milan, where we leave one of the couples.  They stay one night and fly home the next day
Train to Varenna (Lake Como)
Two nights in Varenna
One couple heads for Venice from there, stays two nights, and flies home
Two couples pick up a rental car
One night in Bergamo
Two nights in Verona
Three nights in Venice
Fly home from Venice

The trip evolved around our week in Tuscany.  That was the priority.  Early April may be a little too early for good weather there, but we're restricted by school vacation schedules for one of the couples. The weather is always a gamble, really, but summer is sure to be plenty hot, so we're happy to avoid that.  
As with other trips, we used Rick Steves' books, videos, and radio shows to get ideas.  Budget-wise,  we tried to use Frequent Flier Miles for our airline tickets, if possible.  That's why the trip planning started so long ago.  
We had our plane tickets, six hotels, the rental house, cars and a private tour guide in Rome booked ahead of time.  We have some great resources for day trips in Tuscany, so we'll play it by ear when we're there.

 At home, we watched movies filmed in Rome and Tuscany, just to whet our appetites.
"Tea with Mussolini" had some great shots of San Gimignano,  "Three Coins in the Fountain" showed the Trevi Fountain, "Roman Holiday" had lots of great shots of Rome,  "Under the Tuscan Sun" had some scenery from Tuscany, and some from Positano, on the Amalfi coast.  "Letters to Juliet" had some very nice scenes from the countryside in Tuscany.   
We're ready.

Stay tuned!

  The travel group - first day in Rome.