Since wine-drinking often leads to winery-touring, I figure some of you have favorite websites for travel planning. In particular I'm looking for help in planning a trip to Italy, some of the smaller cities either in Northern Italy or within a couple hours of Rome. I find it helpful to read user reviews of hotels,etc. Any good links would be very welcome.

Stephanie,

FWIW...I would recommend you contact futronic, WineTex and tjaehnigen via PM on VinoCellar.com. All three have returned from Italian trips within the past few months to a year and might have some pretty current stuff for you.

Joe

Best Italy related travel site that I have found:

www.slowtrav.com

I used it extensively to plan my trip there.

The wife and I travel quite a bit and we have always had wonderful luck with Frommer's Guides. They have them for just about every destination and they are easy to find at most any major bookstore.

We've used them for hotels, restaurants, sites, etc., and never had a bad experience (knock on wood of course). I would highly recommend them.

Have a great trip - Italy is our favorite place on the planet - you'll love it!

Cheers, and Hook'em Horns !!

One of the best travel sites around for planning trips is TripAdvisor.com. Very unbiased and easy to use. I used it to plan my upcoming trip to Italy.

CellarTasting

As a general fun to look at sight, try luxurylink.com. The auction section often has wonderful high end trips that you can bid on for a reasonable price.

When in doubt, open another bottle.

Stephanie,
get '04 Michelin Guide Italy, a pretty reliable book with tons of usefull info.

OK... start with Italian Consulate. Once you get all info regarding passports, visas, etc. hit the Italian Tourism Board's homepage for places to visit, accomodations, tours, etc. For hotel ratings, you can't beat Frommers, Fodors and Trip Advisor. (I liked Trip Advisor the best).

I planned our entire honeymoon using these sites. We leave in a few weeks... so I'll let you know how it turns out once we get back.

Good luck!!!

Congrats MWagner--have a great time on your honeymoon ! Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Trip Advisor is definitely the kind of thing I'm looking for although it's shocking to see the prices of some of the hotels. I lived in Florence for 6 months in 1988 and have since visited, seeing a lot of the larger cities. This time around I'm thinking of Mantua or Bergamo--someplace mid-sized and easily accessible by rail. I'm really more interested in practicing my Italian than in visiting major museums. (Not that one can't do both I suppose...) Anyone been to either of these cities or have other "unsung" favorites.

Stefanie,

Rick Steves has the best travel books and web site I've read and used. He turned me onto Chinque Terre along the coast near La Speeza. Chinque Terre is 5 small QUAINT low key villages on a beautifull mountainous coastline. You can hike by foot between the villages along lush moutains covered with vines or take either the train or ferry between villages. We stayed in Monterosso at Hotel Villa Steno and loved it.

Rick Steves, who writes and runs a tour service, speaks often on Public Television and Radio. He is a great comunicator. www.ricksteves.com

Montrachet--I noticed Rick Steves books got a lot favorable reviews on Amazon.

I visited Cinque Terre in 1988 and loved it. It was rather difficult to get to by train (several train changes) but absolutely worth it. Since that time I've seen lots of full color spreads about the region in food and travel magazines, and my fear is that hotels and restaurants have gotten really pricey. Did you find that to be the case ?

If you need a site to purchase VERY cheap air tickets I can recommend www.travelhub.com -however they don't have anything about wine though.

Wine Discussion Forum

Stefanie,

We were there in 2001. Rick Steves's books and bullintin board can give you the latest on Chique Terre.

Didn't notice any high prices for anything when we stayed in Chinque Terre. Pretty low key for us. We had a great diner one night at a restaurant with tables in a 10ft alley in Monterosso. Halfway through our diner our table was moved for a local Catholic church procession. Never forgot that.

We just loved the place. I've never been to Portofino but I'm quite sure its too sheik for me, whereas Chinque Terre was perfect. Our room on the side of the mountain was immaculate and cost about $100 nite.

We're going back..some day for sure.