Anyone been to either and know of any good companies to book with who are not too expensive. After Assains Creed 2 (the game and the book) i need to visit these places and the missus wants too to so anyone with any advice on here about either of them atall???
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If you stay outside of Venice itself you can get a bit more for your cash (Mestre's only miutes away), but some of the magic of the town is walking around at night when the hoardes have gone away. For both towns go off-peak. When they're packed in the height of summer they're both pretty unpleasant.
I am old.
I enjoyed it but it was expensive and done everything I wanted in 3 days really.
Do consider McLovin's suggestion and get your accomodation in Mestre - your money will go a lot further.
But even though it can be a hideously expensive tourist trap, Venice is very different from most places you'll visit;
it's got it's own character and charm, loads of history and culture, and of course water buses and taxis - or even hire a gondola if you want to do the romantic bit!
But you can walk around quite a bit too. Do avoid high summer though. too busy and sometimes a bit smelly, lol
Definitely recommended though.
Done venice twice, day trip with school in 1996 in october and 6 yrs ago in jan for long weekend - cold but misty and rather magical. Don't go during mardi gras even more expensive. Booked theough expedia for 3 nights for price of 2. Don't get water taxi or gondela.
Lots to do and nice to just walk around without a map as all routes come back to the same point. Go over to moreno to see glass blowing too! Once you find something its hard to find again. Going again on the end of a cruise for the day in july but expecting it to smell rank as its meant to be crowded and smelly between april and september.
Florence. went last march and got engaged so loved it! Not as much to do but nice walks, nice bars and restaurants. Caught a game at the stadium (fiorentina v siena -local derby) which was great.no idea how they are related to a computer game though.
both have a lot to see but prepared for a lot of walking around venice unless you want to spend lots of money on a gondalor.
I prefered Florence, even though i had a nose bleed at the top of the Duomo after climbing the 200-odd steps !
So expect to get hit very hard in the pocket, as you get a lot less spending value to your pound than you'd expect.
This applies not just to Venice, Florence, etc ....... but to every country using the Euro.
For that reason, holidaymakers are choosing to go to places like Turkey, Tunisia, Croatia - where your spending money stretches much further.
https://www.meridiana.it/booking/search.aspx?language=en
I'm off there in June for a midweek break. http://www.rosarygarden.it/gallery-en.phtml
Also worth a look is the towns of Poitano and Amalfi, which are kind of built into the hillside. Again the corporation bus will get you there. Some fine pizzas to be had while you're there too!
will do thanks
Wow thanks for the info everyone especially Suzi you clearly know your stuff. Just to let you know its because of Assasins Creed 2 that i am now very interested in Italian history and really want to visit these places and see the sites that i have scaled as an assasin lol i can be such a child.
There's too much to see to list here and each city is crawling with tourist traps and must sees, but if the weather is good I recommend the restaurant La Loggia on the Plaza Michelangelo which is on a hillside overlooking Florence. A great place to have a beer and watch the italians posing. Just behind there is a great church - San Miniato which some people think is Florence's best church.
In Venice it is very expensive to have a coffee in Florians in Venice BUT worth every penny - magical, and you can sit for hour watching the world go buy. Whilst we were there we did a really good walking tour with an audio guide which we got from the bottom of the Campanille.
Very jealous
The whole pricing thing is all under your control. In both towns you can find wonderful hotels in historic buildings that will cost a fraction of the bigger hotels. You won't find them on Expedia though because they're often small operations without computerised booking. They're probably nice and clean and as long as you can live without satellite TV, you'll be fine. Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor are your friends here. In Florence I had a place that was literally overlooked the duomo and had the best view in the city. £40 for two with breakfast. Pokey little room with a small bathroom, but it was great.
I'd tend to stay in Venice, though it's more expensive, purely because the city after the crowds have melted away is great. Every little alley is the best museum you'll ever visit.
Eat at lunchtime and drink house wine, usually you'll pick up a decent litre for a few quid. Lunchtime set meals are cheap and if you stay out of touristy places, they'll always be good. Do the Murano, Burano and Torcello trip but don't accept a "free" visit to Murano, because it will be the most miserable two hours you'll ever have (again read Lonely Planet on this before you go). Drink standing up at the bar and it costs a fraction of what it would if you sat down. If you absolutely have to drink shitty foamy, milky coffee try to order it before midday, because people will think you're a mental otherwise (or worse, American). And don't order a latte (unless you want a glass of milk and you have always had the ambition to be sneered at by a waiter).
Transport wise the vaporetto (water bus) is a grand way to see the city.
Catching the Bus
The traghetti (gondola-like punts that cross the canals) are pretty reasonable. I don't know a single family member that's ever been on a floating extortion gondola, so I'd tend to avoid.
Churches and so on are free and many of the statues are in public areas, so you don't have to go into all the galeries. It's worth flying out of Pisa (which is the nearest airport to Florence) as the leaning tower and church there are impressive (though you can do it in a day). Also well worth visiting nearby is Siena, particularly if you can take in the insane horse race, which I'd imagine would be wonderful.
Palio di Siena
Avoid June, July and particularly August unless you like dead fish, flies, oppressive heat and smelly gormless tourists. You'll pay less too.
Mortimerician - Your advice may well be invaluble and i may well be whispering you in the next few months as i plan my trip if thats ok just for general advice. So i am guessing if your old man is from there you are at least part Italian yea??
BFR - I will defo look into getting there by rail not only for the cheapness of it but what a rail journey it would be o my god it would be blinding as youo say as im Charlton might be the highlight of the trip lol. Thanks again people.
Don't worry about the money as what ever you spend will be worth it.
I love them.
Mortimerician - Your advice may well be invaluble and i may well be whispering you in the next few months as i plan my trip if thats ok just for general advice. So i am guessing if your old man is from there you are at least part Italian yea??
BFR - I will defo look into getting there by rail not only for the cheapness of it but what a rail journey it would be o my god it would be blinding as youo say as im Charlton might be the highlight of the trip lol. Thanks again people.[/quote]
No it was not part of the course, i went with my ex-husband and we went to Rome first, sadly by the time we got to Florence we were both a little overwhelmed by the Art and did not see any of the Arty places i talked about (apart from Medici Palace)and did not even go to Uffizi which if i told them in my course would probably get thrown out.
All of these places are things we have talked about in class so very keen to go soon. When we did go, we got a local bus to Fiesole which overlooks Florence and is away (to a certain extent) from the tourists it is a lovely village with a great restaurant. we also went to a restaurant called Paoli's which was great in Florence, however i am going back to 1994 so god knows what it is like now. WHen we were there was a comotion in the city square and then someone said that the tickets for the Fiorentina game went on sale which if you can go on a football weekend would be great i think, love Italy , my dream would be to sepnd a year there as a gap year sometime (probably on retirement)