Italy
Italy Luxury Travel
Italy luxury travel is the thing I get asked for most, and the thing most people over-plan. I'm Beverly Schulte, and my job on an Italy trip is usually to take two cities out of your list. Three bases in fourteen nights, trains where they work, a driver on the Amalfi Coast where they don't, and dinner reservations made before you leave home.
Italy
The pacing problem
Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi, and Cinque Terre in twelve days is a moving job, not a vacation. Every hop costs you a morning packing and an afternoon finding your feet. Cut two, stay longer, take day trips out from a base.
The version that works: five nights on the coast, five in Tuscany, three in Rome at the end so you fly out of Fiumicino. Or the lakes and the Dolomites if you've done the classics and want a different Italy.
Italy
The Amalfi Coast, specifically
Positano is vertical. If stairs are a problem, that matters more than the view does, and I'll put you in Praiano or Ravello instead. Le Sirenuse and Il San Pietro are worth what they cost if you use the property. Ravello is quieter, cooler, and further from the water.
Get there by private car from Naples or by boat from Sorrento. Do not rent a car on that road. The drivers I use know where the buses are going to pin them and plan around it.
Italy
Tuscany without the bus tour
A villa or a small estate outside Siena, a car for the two of you, and three or four things booked. A private tasting in Montalcino, not a tour bus stop. A cooking afternoon in someone's actual kitchen. Florence as a day trip so you're not sleeping in the crowds.
August is hot and the Italians are at the beach. May, June, September, and early October are better in every way that matters.
Italy
The reservations you can't get
Borghese Gallery, the Vatican before opening, Last Supper in Milan, the good tables in Florence. These sell out months ahead and the resale sites charge triple. I book them at release. That's a boring part of the job and it's one of the more valuable ones.
Sample itinerary
Fourteen nights in Italy, the way I'd build it
Three bases, two moves, no day where you're packing before breakfast and unpacking after dark.
Day 1
Arrive Naples, drive to the coast
Land mid-morning, driver waiting, and you're on a terrace in Positano by early afternoon. Nap, swim, dinner at the hotel. The first day is a write-off and planning for that is half of getting it right.
Days 2 to 5
Amalfi Coast
A boat day to Capri that leaves before the ferries. Ravello and the Villa Cimbrone gardens on a cooler morning. One day where the only plan is lunch at Da Adolfo, which you reach by boat and nothing else.
Day 6
North to Tuscany
Car to Naples, fast train to Florence, car to the estate. Door to door about five hours and it's the only real travel day in the two weeks.
Days 7 to 10
Val d'Orcia
Montalcino for Brunello with a producer, not a counter. Pienza for cheese and the walk around the walls. Siena on a market morning. One full day at the villa with nothing on it.
Day 11
Train to Rome
Ninety minutes from Florence. Check in, walk, eat late. Rome is better once you've slowed down for a week first.
Days 12 to 14
Rome, then home
Borghese booked at release, the Vatican before it opens, and a long lunch in Testaccio away from the center. Transfer to Fiumicino with real buffer, because Rome traffic doesn't care about your flight.
Questions
Questions I get asked.
Related
Where this fits.
Italy rolls up into a bigger pillar of my planning work. Europe luxury travel has the wider view, and the journal has the notes I write between trips.
Begin
Start the conversation.
Tell me who's going and roughly when. I'll tell you honestly what Italy takes to do properly, and whether I'm the right person for it.