Italy in November

[tumdedum]

I have never been to Italy and have always wanted to go.
We have a chance to visit the first week in November and I have no idea which part to visit. We've got 7 nights, would like to stay somewhere that has good rail links to other interesting places.
Has anyone got any ideas, advice, suggestions?

With 7 nights I’d be flying in to Venice and out of Verona

3 nights in Venice
Train to Peschiera Del Garda and 2 nights there and 2 nights in Verona

Or have the full 7 nights in Venice with day trips to Verona and Padova

I went at the beginning of December around 5 years ago now.

We flew into Treviso - we stayed here but was only around 40 minutes on the train to Venice so visited there. From there we took the train to Florence for a few days and then onto Rome via train after, we flew back home from Rome. I personally loved Florence and Rome but wasn’t a fan of Venice, I’m glad I did it though

I’d go to Tuscany. It’s easy to get the train between Florence, Siena, Lucca and Pisa.

I'd stay in Bologna. From there you can get trains to Milan, Modena, Parma, Florence, Verona and Venice. All can be visited as a day trip.

In November - Sicily. Ortigia, Taormina, Ragusa etc with hope weather won't be too chilly. Otherwise as per PP Bologna is a really good central train location for Venice, Verona, Padua etc. Nice food too. Or Rome - 7 days is perfect for Rome. We last went October half term and it was sunny in the daytime - there is so much to see.

I’ve been to Rome in November twice and it was gorgeous. Cold ish but sunny - perfect.

So I’d recommend that.

Alternatively, it’s a great time to go further south if you want to explore as it’s not so hot.

@tumdedum Bologna. Ferrari museum at Modena. Ravenna for the mosaics and churches. Parma and Ferrara. All fantastic places accessible by train. You can go further afield but you don’t need to. Bologna has food markets and the oldest university in Europe and lovely arcades streets. Good home cooking nearly everywhere!

Rome has big hitting sights of course.

Thank you so much for your replies everyone! Will spend some time looking into all your suggestions....

My favourite small city is Lucca. It’s very easy to fly into Pisa and either get a bus/train or taxi to Lucca. Plenty to do in Lucca, but you can also visit Florence for the day and lots of other smaller places around. The shopping and restaurants are very good.

if you want to a big city then I’d go for Venice or Rome.

It’s a wonderful time to go and wherever you choose you’ll have a wonderful time. If it were me I would stick to cities and larger towns as is these which are so crowded and unbearable in the summer months.

My birthday is in November and we have been to Italy for it a couple of times

One year we went to Rome, weather was gorgeous, loads to do and see.

Another year we went to Sorrento, did the Amalfi coast and it was warm enough to swim although locals thought we were mad! Also did Pompeii one day and Herculaneum another.

I have been to Sicily in November and it's magical. You can easily combine it with southern Italy coastal places, I recommend you checked on ferryhopper for autumn-winter Italy destinations (they have nice suggestions for the south). Also Rome can be nice and you can easily go around with transportation, but the weather can be a bit rough.