Last August, we traveled to Italy for three weeks. It was absolutely stunning and I truly can’t believe we got to experience Italy in such a manner! If you are planning a trip to Italy, just know that there are a thousand and one ways to plan a trip. In this Italy travel guide, I’m breaking down what we did on our trip city by city! This is how we spent a month in Italy!
In this Italy travel guide, I talk about which cities we visited, my thoughts on each city, what I recommend and more! Italy is such an incredible country, there is so much to do that it can feel overwhelming. Hopefully this guide can help alleviate some of that stress.
Let’s get into how we traveled Italy for three weeks!
Italy Travel Guide
Where we visited
We visited four major cities in Italy. We started in Milan and then traveled to Lake Como, Florence and Rome. Honestly, each city had its own unique aspects to it and we loved each one for different reasons!
Milan was a beautiful city. Although, I will admit, this was our least favorite city to visit. While Milan was incredible, it felt like a very typical city. The main attractions here are The Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and The Last Supper painting. Obviously, there is so much more, but these are the top three attractions.
The next city we visited was Lake Como. This was by far the most relaxing city we visited. We stayed at Bellagio which is the most popular town on Lake Como to visit. While there were so many people here, the mornings and evenings are relaxing because everyone goes back to the town that they are staying in.
Florence is where we spent the most amount of time and it was definitely up there for one of our favorite spots. There is so much to see and do in Florence. I don’t know if you can even truly experience Florence just once. Some of the main attractions here are The Duomo, the David and Ponte Vecchio.
Our final city was Rome. We visited Rome in 2019 so we didn’t spend too much time here. We truly love Rome and it will always hold a special place in our hearts! It is almost impossible to explain what the main attractions in Rome are because there are so many!
When we visited Italy
We visited Italy in the month of August. This trip was a huge celebration for us. My husband graduated law school in May and took the Bar exam at the end of July. We had a small window between when he took the bar and when he started his new job. While August is a hard month to visit Italy, it was still pretty incredible!
If you don’t know, Italians are known for their incredible family life. One of the ways they celebrate life is during the month of August for Ferragosto. Many companies and businesses shut down for the month of August to celebrate and spend time with family. Traveling to Italy during this time isn’t impossible, it’s just important to know what to expect before you arrive.
This made things difficult to say the least. Many local attractions that I wanted to visit were closed for the entirety of our trip. All of the main attractions and tourist locations were open. We mainly ran into issues with restaurants and local businesses. If there is one thing to take away from this Italy travel guide, if you can, avoid the month of August.
The other down side to August is the weather. It was HOT. You walk everywhere and many places in Italy do not have air conditioning. Our American bodies were not prepared! Add being pregnant and you can already know that there were a few melt downs.
How Long We Stayed
We started in Milan. We stayed here for 3 nights. Milan is an incredible city, however, unless you are there to shop, you can easily run out of sites to visit. If we could go back, we would have shortened our trip to maybe 2 nights to have one full day here. The food in Milan wasn’t great, the people were kind only 50% of the time and there were a lot of tourists there.
From Milan we traveled to Lake Como. I would have loved to spend weeks here if I could. We stayed here for three nights and four days. Lake Como is beautiful and there are many things that you can do to explore. You can visit the various lake towns, eat and shop, spend time on the water and so much more. They have a ferry system that will take you around the lake so you can travel around the lake as you please. If you are planning on visiting this area, stay as long as you can!
After Como, we took the train to Florence which is where we spent the most time. We spent 5 days adventuring around Florence and it was incredible! There is so much that you can do within and around this city. From visiting the Duomo and The David to crossing Ponte Vecchio and exploring the vineyards. You can spend an entire trip here and still not experience everything that Florence has to offer.
We ended our time in Italy in Rome. We chose to spend the least amount of time here since we have visited in the past. However, if I could change that, I would take a day or two from Milan and add it to Rome. Rome has so many attractions to visit and culture to experience. I have determined that any time in Rome is not enough. You can always go back and fall in love with it all over again.
Italy Travel Guide – Food
During our time in Italy, we had our fair share of decent food! We also experienced awful food haha! If we are going city by city in this Italy travel guide, I would rank Florence for having the best food all around. Rome came in a close second. Third will be Lake Como and in last place, Milan.
Florence had a beautiful selection of incredible food. I was disappointed that many of the restaurants I wanted to try were closed for Ferragosto. While I understood, I was sad to have missed out on some of my most anticipated meals. However, the places that we did have the pleasure of trying were absolutely delightful!
Rome had the best Carbonara! This is a given since it is where the dish was created. My husband ate it for basically every dinner while we were in Rome! They also have incredible tiramisu!
When visiting Lake Como, we only ate at Bellagio since that is where we stayed. When we visited other towns, we focused more on exploration. The food here was decent. There were some meals that were a let down but overall, the food was authentically Italian and delicious!
Milan surprised me with their food. I was surprised with the low quality experiences that we had. There was only one meal that I thought was good and it wasn’t even very great compared to all of the other meals we ate. There was one restaurant that we went to on our first night. I ordered a pizza with sausage and my husband ordered a calzone with sausage. I took one bite and immediately thought “they cut up a hotdog and put this on a pizza”. Not the best Italian meal… at all.
Italy Travel Guide – Shopping
If you are looking for things to shop for, each city has incredible shopping opportunities! You could create an Italy travel guide for shopping alone! My advice is to plan ahead what you plan to shop for in each city that you are visiting. This will not only save your wallet, but also your time when it comes to shopping and visiting each store.
In Milan, you have all of the top brands in the world! My husband and I each got our big items here. He got a Montblanc pen and I got a designer purse. They also have designer clothing if that is what you are interested in. When it comes to shopping, Milan is the perfect city!
Lake Como, specifically Bellagio, is known for their silk! They have several authentic silk shops. They have many options for both men and women! I chose a silk scarf and my husband got a silk tie!
Florence is known for their authentic Italian leather! They have several leather shops that you can visit. They have something for every price point. My husband bought a carrier bag, perfect for work! I will warn you, it can be easy to think that you are buying authentic leather when in reality, most of the pieces are built somewhere else and stamped “made in italy”.
Rome has shopping for everything! They have all of the designer brands and shopping available for all price points. They also have an incredible selection of Italian art and local boutique shopping. We bought my husband an Italian suit while we were here!
While we didn’t visit Venice on this trip, we traveled here in 2019. If you are planning a trip to Venice, they are known for their glass! They create some of the most stunning blown glass that people travel from all over the globe for!
My final thoughts on Italy
Italy is a stunning country. It has everything you could want from mountains to beaches, city to countryside, and all of the food and wine you could ask for! If we could move to Italy, we would take the opportunity in a heartbeat!
Traveling to Italy can seem stressful or overwhelming. However, Italians live slowly and enjoy everyday life. Wherever you go, read blogs, travel books and know that when you are there, you are on Italian time. If you are open to it, you will fall in love with the beautiful country and culture that Italy has to offer! I hope that you found something in this Italy travel guide helpful!