Honeymoon in Italy . Help!

Polochlainn

Hey popping my boards cherry with a plea for help!
Am getting married in August and am looking to go to Italy for honeymoon self catering/villa etc. Thinking of amalfi coast /sicily/ Naples . Would prefer southern Italy cause have done Rome craziness before and we want something simple. If anyone has any advice or experience or even has a contact or knows someone who specialises in that region would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

Spear

Moved from N&F.

rebel10

Polochlainn wrote: »

Hey popping my boards cherry with a plea for help!
Am getting married in August and am looking to go to Italy for honeymoon self catering/villa etc. Thinking of amalfi coast /sicily/ Naples . Would prefer southern Italy cause have done Rome craziness before and we want something simple. If anyone has any advice or experience or even has a contact or knows someone who specialises in that region would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

Just be warned that in August most Italians take their fiera agosto, which literally means that everyone heads towards Sicily, Sardinia, Capri and generally anywhere that has a beach. I know Rome completely empties in August and businesses take more or less the whole month off, so if you were booking something, I would do it pronto, before all the nice hotels, etc. get booked up.

Polochlainn

thankyou v much!
Looking at prices last night.Some of the places look lovely but their websites quality are very poor. maybe thinking of somewhere else...
any suggestions would be welcome something simple quiet and not manic. somewhere like the maldives but within europe preferably!!!!!

Dee42

Have you thought about Lake Como? Very, very romantic and perfect for a honeymoon. There are some charming little villages dotted along the lake, my favourite is Varenna and Bellagio is a must see. The Hotel Du Lac in Varenna has a room with a balcony that hangs right over the Lake.

kilburn

There are some beautiful towns on the amalfi coast well worth a visit and some amazing special hotels for a honeymoon there, would defo recommend it but it would be busy in august

vivairlanda

Hi I'm from Italy, i may suggest you to go in Salento, the southeast part of Italy, the heel of the boot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salento
It's a peninsula of rural towns and wonderful beaches, rich in traditions and arts, specially "barocco art".
In summer there is a big festival of "pizzica salentina" the traditional folk music of the Salento. http://www.lanottedellataranta.it/eng/
There are 2 important cities: Lecce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecce
and the beautiful Otranto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otranto which is famous for his castle and for the seige of the city made by the saracens.
This is not an important and known goal for foreign tourists, but it's a beautiful place to visit.

vivairlanda

ahh I forgot to say that Salento have an airport linked to europe by ryanair it's called "Brindisi" or "Aeroporto del Salento".

Glowing

How about Tuscany? I know it's not the coast, but its one of the most beautiful places I've ever been!

www.artimino.com is a great, romantic place to hide away for a few days - hire a car and see the local towns and villages then drink the wine from the local vinyards in the evening. I got married here and then had our honeymoon in Sorrento - it was beautiful but the droves of tourists really turned me off the place after the peace and quiet of Artimino!!!

quad_red

Went to Tuscany two years ago and it was one of the most romantic, amazing places I've ever been.

Stayed in an apartment within the walls of San Gimignano. Holy cow. Highly recommended.

http://www.google.ie/search?q=san+gimignano&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=935

Frank Black

Myself and the wife spent our honeymoon in Italy after getting married in Siena.
Tuscany is really nice – stayed in a villa/guesthouse on the outskirts of Siena with amazing views across rolling hillsides. Spent a couple of nights in Florence and a few nights in Venice as well.
Siena is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.

merrywanderer

The Cinque Terre is another lovely area in Italy - great walks, seafood, wonderful scenery. Ryanair fly to Pisa and then its around an hour on the train to the area - you can book your train ticket on the internet in advance. The flight arrives late so you may need to stay in Pisa - there is a hotel directly opposite the train station that is fine and you can take in the Leaning Tower and a walk around town before you head off.

Monterosso is the largest town and has a nice beach and great restaurants. The local train and boat link to the other towns and Portovenere which is a great day trip. There are day trips by boat to Portofino also in the summer. You would need to think about booking accomodation soon, as the other posters have said August is very popular in Italy. Id try contacting the hotels direct rather than the likes of hotels.com which dont list all the hotels in the Cinque Terre - Villa Adrianna, Hotel Colonnia, Hotel Stern, all in Monterosso are all highly recommended - - see Tridadvisor.

http://www.cinqueterreonline.com/

dilallio

The Amalfi coast is nice, but Naples is not a nice place and should be avoided. Sorrento / Capri / Pompeii are all nice.

merrywanderer

The Cinque Terre is another lovely area in Italy - great walks, seafood, wonderful scenery. Ryanair fly to Pisa and then its around an hour on the train to the area - you can book your train ticket on the internet in advance. The flight arrives late so you may need to stay in Pisa - there is a hotel directly opposite the train station that is fine and you can take in the Leaning Tower and a walk around town before you head off.

Monterosso is the largest town and has a nice beach and great restaurants. The local train and boat link to the other towns and Portovenere which is a great day trip. There are day trips by boat to Portofino also in the summer. You would need to think about booking accomodation soon, as the other posters have said August is very popular in Italy. Id try contacting the hotels direct rather than the likes of hotels.com which dont list all the hotels in the Cinque Terre - Villa Adrianna, Hotel Colonnia, Hotel Stern, all in Monterosso are all highly recommended - - see Tridadvisor.

http://www.cinqueterreonline.com/

Irishrossoblu

If you want a site that has lots of Italian places to rent then www.interhome.co.uk is what you want. Most Italian rental houses are not online, and if they are the sites are shocking.

I would avoid Salento part of Puglia, as was reccomended. I spent 3 weeks in Castro, outside Lecce, and didnt enjoy it at all. Locals not friendly, food not great and no beaches, just rocks.

I would say Sardegna is the best place to go. Great food, great wine, lovely people and long sandy beaches.

redz11

Praiano is a beautiful little village between Positano and Amalfi, ideal for a day trip to Capri too. Would definitely recommend it. We stayed in Hotel le Fioriere - the loveliest friendly little place I've ever stayed! No restaurant there, but plenty closeby, and a great atmosphere in the hotel bar every evening with a nice mix of locals and tourists. There's a bigger fancier hotel right across the road too, with a swimming pool, we went for dinner there a couple of evenings and it seemed lovely as well. Can't think of the name of it now unfortunately!

We also stayed in Naples for a couple of nights - hated it - definitely wouldn't go back there.

vivairlanda

Irishrossoblu wrote: »

If you want a site that has lots of Italian places to rent then www.interhome.co.uk is what you want. Most Italian rental houses are not online, and if they are the sites are shocking.

I would avoid Salento part of Puglia, as was reccomended. I spent 3 weeks in Castro, outside Lecce, and didnt enjoy it at all. Locals not friendly, food not great and no beaches, just rocks.

I would say Sardegna is the best place to go. Great food, great wine, lovely people and long sandy beaches.

These are some of the beaches you can find in Salento
Pescoluse (Ionio sea) http://www.pescoluse.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/spiaggia-vicina-di-pescoluse-600-mt.jpg
Baia Verde (Ionio near Gallipoli), Alimini Beach (North of Ortanto, Adriatic), Rivabella (ionio), Marina di Salve (near S.M. di Leuca).
Salento is a small sub-region, coast to coast is 80 km circa, so you can easily visit it by car, roads are also easy because there are no mountains or hills.
Salento is IMHO a beautiful place, not less, not more than many others in Italy (sardegna, tuscany, trentino, cinque terre...) and Europe.
If you don't like it it's ok, but consider that castro is small as clifden, i loved clifden, but for a day, not for 3 weeks.
Finally let me to admit Italy is full of problems, I know we have bad governments, mafia, inefficiency. Salento (as all south of Italy) is part of the less developed part of my country. It's all true, BUT you can't say the food isn't good. I can't ear this because food is the only one thing very very good in Italy, and I don't mean only the "taste" (that for me is excellent but obviously questionable) the quality too is second to none in Europe and America!
I hope not to be misunderstood, I am not at all a nationalist.
PS like in all tourist sites don't eat there, ask to local people where to find good restaurants.

Irishrossoblu

vivairlanda wrote: »

It's all true, BUT you can't say the food isn't good. I can't ear this because food is the only one thing very very good in Italy

I think you misunderstood me. I didnt say the food isnt good, it just isnt very special. The food in Italy is wonderful and some of the best in the world. Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Tuscany etc have excellent food. IMO Puglia is not a region with fantastic foood, but its not bad either. The wine is good.

vivairlanda

ok I'm happy you appreciate italian food.
However i suggest to avoid big cities of the south, too traffic, pollution, inefficiency...
A little off topic, if I can: do you understand my posts? are there too much mistakes? it's difficult to read them? Thanks (if you like you can gime me a PM about that)

Dun

I can't recommend highly enough avoiding Naples. Was not one bit impressed with it.