My wife and I did our honeymoon in Italy, we did 3 days in Rome, 5 days on the Amalfi coast (Positano & amalfi) and 5 days in Florence. We want to go back and also mix it up. Would be in late August or early September for a week.

Italy in late August and early September is still magnificent, but you're right to want to mix things up rather than simply repeat the same circuit. The good news is you've left some of Italy's best material untouched. Venice in that window is genuinely special, the worst of the summer crush starts to ease in late August, the light turns golden, and the city takes on a slightly more livable quality. Four days there would give you time to wander properly, get genuinely lost in sestieri most tourists never find, and actually feel like you're inhabiting the place rather than processing it.

For where to stay in Venice, I'd steer you toward something with atmospheric charm over flashy hotel theater. The Aman Venice is the obvious splurge choice, a 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal that genuinely earns its rates, hushed and residential in feel rather than lobby-performative. If you want something smaller and more neighborhood-embedded, look hard at the Dorsoduro or Cannaregio areas, where the boutique options put you into daily Venetian life in a way the San Marco cluster can't. On the new front, the Orient Express Venezia at Palazzo Donà Giovannelli is opening this year in a restored 15th-century palace that was once home to the Duke of Urbino, if it's even close to what Orient Express did with La Minerva in Rome, it'll be one of the most exciting openings in Italy in years.

For the second half of the week, consider pairing Venice with the Dolomites. The mountains in early September are stunning, hiking season is still fully on, the light is extraordinary, and the whole area has a quiet drama that's nothing like the coast. Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano is the gold standard up there, a family-run Relais & Châteaux property that manages to feel genuinely warm and personal at a very high level. That combination, a few days of wandering Venice's calli and drinking spritz by a campo, then heading north into those peaks, would give you a completely different Italy than what you've already seen, and honestly one of the great one-two punches the country offers.