What is your favorite destination in Italy?

I plan on doing a long weekend in Italy with some friends sometime in April or May. We are having a lot of trouble deciding where to visit. I will visit Venice with my boyfriend probably right afterwards, so we want to go to a different destination with our friends. I'm pretty sure we've narrowed it down to one of the following: amalfi coast/Napoli, cinque terre, or Sicily. Has anyone been to any of these destinations? What do you think? Any other recommendations? If you have travelled Italy, do you have a favorite place?

Also does anyone happen know if LL offers any properties in cinque terre? :)

~copa

You have probably been to Italy by now but save this recommendation for one of you future visits. I recently took a day trip to the northeast rim of Lago di Garda. The views are spectacular! Monte Baldo rises high above all else in the area creating a breathtaking view.

Set your gps for Malecesine, park at the funicular/funivia station and two funiculars later you feel like you are on top of the world! The second funicular is a panoramic one, having two full rotations (if I remember correctly) during your trip up!

Safe travels!

Folks visiting this website have commonly differing seems and strategies to travel. Yesterday there seemed to be a vibrant discussion on whether also Venice seemed to be worth visiting, a spot you'd consider there had always be common understanding on. Because you will get a lot of conflicting details, or it's possible none in any way, I consider you'll find yourself even a lot more confused you already look like.
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Great recommendation. We have done this trip and it is a truly spectacular one.
Among the resorts located around Lake Garda Malcesine has one distinctive feature – a panoramic cable car to the top of Monte Baldo.
The unique construction allows the car to slowly rotate around its spin while ascending to the upper station at the altitude of 1 700 m.

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Monte Baldo is a popular winter ski resort, and during the summer it changes into the place filled with hikers, mountain bikers, or just ‘funicular’ tourists, who admire the splendid views of the lake, and looking in the other direction Dolomites and pre-Alpine peaks.

The town itself features the old castle built by Della Scala family, the local rulers in 13th century. Castello Scaligero today is open for visitors and besides castle museum it became a popular wedding spot. There you can hear a story about Wolfgang Goethe, who was caught while sketching the castle views and questioned under suspect of being a foreign spy.
So you must not be surprised when you see the Goethe’s head near the walls of the castle. Well, the sculpture, the burst of Goethe, as the poet himself had been safely released after short interrogation.

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Originally Posted by johnalan007

Folks visiting this website have commonly differing seems and strategies to travel. Yesterday there seemed to be a vibrant discussion on whether also Venice seemed to be worth visiting, a spot you'd consider there had always be common understanding on. Because you will get a lot of conflicting details, or it's possible none in any way, I consider you'll find yourself even a lot more confused you already look like.

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Johnalan007,
Something seems to be lost in translation in your post. What's your point? I am confused.

Thanks for the suggestion. The lake region of Italy has always be very high on my list.

I started this thread last year before my Italy trip. We ended up going to both Venice and the Amalfi coast. Excellent choices! This was one of the best trips ever. We really enjoyed Venice. We had 5 days there so we really had time to explore. We were there over Easter so getting a hotel was tough. I tried to do the buy it now package on luxury link at Ca Segrado but they were all full. We ended up finding a package at a very nice 3 star hotel which was one block from The Grand Canal in the area of the train station. It was called hotel Carlton Capri which is the sister hotel to the nearby 4* hotel Carlton on the grand canal. We liked the location because all of the Vapperetti stopped there so it was easy to get anywhere. Our package included Easter lunch in the Hotel Carlton restaurant. It was fabulous. We still think it was the best lamb we ever had. Our favorite part of Venice was wandering the streets and getting lost. Although Venice is very crowded, we found it easy to escape the crowds by just getting off the beaten track. The area around Saint Marks is of course the most crowded, so if you spend the entire time in that area, yes it can get a little unbearable.

Our favorite restaurant was a small place on the isle of Murano called Busa Alla Torre Da Lele. It is only open for lunch. They served simple but perfect food specializing in seafood (of course). We also loved the colorful isle or Burano. If you are into photography don't miss this. It's a long vaperetto ride to get there but we found it well worth it. Overall I think Venice is a fantastic place to visit and would recommend not missing it on an Italian tour.

I'll write about part 2 in Amalfi when I get some more time :)

cophac, I'd love to hear about your Amalfi trip. I've not been there and am thinking about it for next year. Also, if anyone else has Amalfi experiences, I'm all ears! ;)

Last year we went with another couple to tour the Amalfi coast. We opted to stay 4 nights at Naples (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Tq...eature=related) at the Albergo Grand Hotel Vesuvio a Leading Hotel of the world, http://www.vesuvio.it/en. From the moment we pulled up outside the Hotel, we were received like long lost guests. Room was gorgeous and dinner on the rooftop was amazing, beautiful fish, Maitre d was extremely friendly. The hotel was kind enough to upgrade us, sent a bottle of champagne and chocolates, as well as a welcome gift of the famed red corals as a trinket to our room. The hotel is located just across the small harbor for pleasure boats and the Castel dell'Ovio. In the harbor there are many small authentic restaurants with excellent food.
We hired a car with driver for two days for the four of us. He took us to Pompeii (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1i1...feature=relmfu) and the Amalfi coast on one day. When he noticed the road to Pompeii and the Amalfi coast too crowded, he took us into the hills around the cost, so we saved time and had a more leisurely time to see the Amalfi coast from the other direction against the traffic. He also made sure, that we had enough time left to see the Archeological Museum in Naples Naples National Archeology Museum - Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, where all the original master pieces of Pompeii are re-locate, something we would not have know. In my opinion, the Naples archaeological museum is one of Italy's top archeology museums and a Naples must-see site.The second day he took us northeast to Caserta to the Bourbon Palace. What an immense and wonderful Palace filled with pictures and original furniture of the time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otBpqq_SkeY).

I love Italy. It is a paradise for visitors and tourist.
It is hard to choose a favorite place in Italy. If I'm choosing a place for my destination than Florence and Venice are my favorite places.

Have you heard of the Argentario Peninsula in southern Tuscany ? Nature there is just fantastic, green Mediterranean vegetation, hills, a lagoon that surrounds a charming town called Orbetello, the sea ideal for diving plus fishing towns perched on cliffs like Porto Santo Stefano and Porto Ercole. Very relaxing place, especially in May, June and October. Might be a bit hectic in July and August.

Activities include sailing, horseback riding, trekking in the Maremma Nature Park, golf (best golf course in Tuscany), diving, of course eating and drinking (!!), wine tasting in local wineries... can't go wrong! Just that you need a car to move in the area