Bob Boner

Canon's 11--24 wide angle would be a great addition. I have one and really like it.

SkyKing Loc: Thompson Ridge, NY

...EF 17-40mm f/4L USM...

Lucius Loc: Denver, Colorado

The 70 - 200 will be good some of the low light churches and possibly some street shots. Also on the river boat ride. The 24 70 a must. You will use it most of the time. A wider lens is a little over kill and if you take one you may get very little use out of it. When I got tired of lugging the big lens, some days I would use my 50 1.8.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

I think that depends upon each user's personal style. When I was there with a 35mm film camera (T90) my 20mm got a lot of use.

Selene03

As you can tell from the different responses you are getting, different people view things in different ways. I have rarely wanted a telephoto lens in a church, but I can see if you are interested in specific details, it could be useful. But, that is me. The 24-70 is a good general all around lens, but I was hiking with it a few days ago and was frustrated because I needed a wider angle to get a specific shot I wanted. There was no moving back or forth--I kind of slid between two rocks close together to get what I could (18 would have been perfect; 24 wasn't really wide enough, but I made it work). You kind of need to visualize these things in advance if you can (in new places you really can't). The 11-24 is a wonderful lens, but it is heavy and has a big bulbous front on it, which has deterred me from traveling with it, though it could be great for exteriors of large buildings. I am thinking of taking it on my next trip. It is also about three times as expensive as the 16-35 F4 and can be tricky to set up right. Again, maybe take a look at pictures you have seen and see if you can get details on them to see what you like.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

blackhorse 1-7

Hello. I have been throughout Italy many times, and frankly see no need for the long lens. You will never need a long lens in any of the cities, towns or villages. If anything, the wider the better, not the longer. Just my personal opinion from experience.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

If I'm lucky enough to get back to Italy again soon (especially Rome), I will take 2 lenses - my 24-105L and a fast wide zoom for museums/churches where flash is not allowed - maybe something like an EF 35 f2, 28 f1.8 or rent a 24 f1.4L

wesm Loc: Los Altos CA

24-105 for an entire trip to Scotland. Brought the 16-35, but didn't use it.
I'm also going to Italy next month, planning on taking the 24-105, and a sigma 50mm f/1.4 for interiors, no flash.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

When I am in a situation where I know that I want a wider view, I just take a bunch of pictures making sure that I overlap them so they can be stitched later. It only takes a little bit longer to take the extra images, and it stitches pretty quickly in Lightroom or Photoshop. You don't need a tripod or have to perfectly align each shot. The only thing you need to ensure is that there is enough overlap. It gets a little tricky with multiple row panos, but after you've done a few it becomes second nature.

Personally, I usually don't like the volume distortion and front to back spatial distortion that comes from using very wide lenses, and the amount of sky and foreground cropping I need to do to get a decent image. I do enjoy the extra pixels and image quality I get from stitched images.

This is an example that is pretty much what I do when I want a wider view than the lenses in the backpack can provide:

https://petapixel.com/2016/10/27/stitching-panorama-forget-wide-angle-lens-home/

I took the image below while hiking, using a 70mm lens, (24-70) on a D800 and used a tripod. It is 13,135 x 7394 px, or 96 megapixels. on my 6 yr old Windows 7 PC (32gb ram, i7, SSD system drive), It took about 5 secs to generate the preview, and another 20 secs to create the dng pano using Lightroom. You cannot get results like this with any wide angle lens.

(Download)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Great shot - and there is no way a longer lens could have captured the moment as you have. And with a little tweaking made possible in DXO's Viewpoint 3 software you can correct for the volume deformation on the heads of both the bride and groom.

(Download)

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Stitching can produce some beautiful results. One of our camera club members, a pro who has been in the business for over 40 yrs, brought in a stitched photo he had made. A woodland scene very similar to yours. He had turned the camera 90 degrees and taken 8 shots. 4 across the top and 4 across the bottom. The end result was beautiful.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Good choice. If you want wider and have the budget the Canon 11-24 F4L is great at around $2,800. If that is a little steep the Sigma 12-24mm F4 DG HSM | A is about $1,200 cheaper.

then there is looking for either of these as a refurb. Sigma's is around $1,200 as a refurb right now. https://www.sigmaphoto.com/12-24mm-f4-dg-hsm-a-refurbished

Sigma also has a slower version the 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 DG HSM II refurbished at around $700. https://www.sigmaphoto.com/12-24mm-f4-5-5-6-dg-hsm-ii-refurbished

Canon does not have any refurbs of the above lens in stock right now, but when they do it runs $2,160.

msbanks720 Loc: western washington

I have been to Italy 3 times and my first piece of advice is to leave at least one of the lenses home. both the 70-200 and the 100-400 weight 3lbs or so and that is a lot of weight to shlep around. you will end up leaving one in the hotel room most of the time and if that is so, you might as well just leave it at home. further, you have a 100mm overlap between the two zooms and that is silly. I would take the 24-70 and rent a 200mm f/2.8L for your vacation along with a 2x extender. a 16-35 is a really nice lens, but again you have overlap and all you are getting is another 8mm. I would side with the comment about acquiring the 14mm f/2.8L if you have a ff camera and for an aps-c like the 7dm2 the 10-18mm stm is super sharp, super light and super affordable. you can carry it all day in a jacket pocket and never know its there. on my last trip I took a rebel xti with an old tokina 16-35 (25-55 equivalent) and used it about 80% of the time. I took my trusty 50mm f/1.8 (80mm equivalent) for medium range shots and a 70-300 for long range and macro work. if you just gotta take a zoom, I would bring the 100-400.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

I don't disagree with anything you express here, but there clearly are circumstances where only a wide angle lens will suffice. Sometimes the distortion from ultra wide or fish eye lenses is a desired effect. Every technique and lens has its uses and place.