fernan8925

Hello everybody, I just need some advice on my wife's and I trip to Italy.

We are flying in and out of Milan May 30th - June 7th. Got a great deal so I had to get the tickets. We land on Milan on May 30th at 8:40 am. The plan from there is to take a train from the airport to Venice. Get to Venice sometime in the afternoon. Spend all day May 31st in Venice. Catch a train to Rome early morning on June 1st. Spend all June 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Rome. Catch a train to Florence early morning on June 4th, spend all the 4th, and 5th in Florence. Travel back to Milan on June 6th. Spend the day there and flight out next morning on the 7th at 10am.

Is this itinerary feasible? We are definitely open for suggestions. We dont have any reserve yet besides the plane tickets.

Thanks for your help!

Blueeyedcod

Where are you flying from? What is your budget? And I don't understand the logic of going Venice-Rome-Florence-Milan when Florence is on your way to Rome but maybe you have reasons for this plan.

This is an extremely short trip and you 'got a great deal, had to get the tickets' suggests flight first planning later.

So this is how your trip looks on paper

30/5 - land Milan train to Venice
31/5 - Venice
1/6 - travel Venice to Rome - check in/out plus 4.5 hours travel time
2/6-3/6 - two full days Rome
4/6 - travel to Florence - two hours train plus check in and out so realistically half a day
5/6 - full day Florence
6/6 - travel to Milan

As you can see you have just four full days out of your travel time in your destinations.
I would suggest cutting out Florence and just spending time in Venice and Rome or changing your plans and having Florence in the middle (as logistically it makes more sense).

In any case, three destinations in such a short time means lots of time checking in and out of hotels and on trains.

fernan8925

Im flying from New York.

I just figured Venice to Rome and then Florence because it is closer from Florence to Milan.

But if you think it would be a better idea to do Venice-Florence-Milan then we are open to that. Whatever works better for this trip.

Budge-wise we were thinking around $1,500 for the trip for the both of us, is this a doable budget?

fernan8925

I meant Venice-Florence-Rome-Milan

Blueeyedcod

Can you get an open jaw ticket and fly out of Rome? It will save backtracking.
Your budget is exceptionally low - is it just hotels or train travel and spending as well ?

annhig

Budget-wise we were thinking around $1,500 for the trip for the both of us, is this a doable budget?>>

for modest accommodation [which is by no means luxurious] I reckon on spending about €100 a night, which for 7 nights translates to about $1000 so if you mean $1500 between you, no.

to that you need to add food, drinks, snacks, travel, entry fees to the things you are going all that way to see, which is going to be at least another €100 a day so IMO you need at least $2000 for a modest trip, more if you want to live a little.

I just put your dates into booking.com and though there are places available for under €100 a night, they are mostly hostels and dorms.

bilboburgler

Given how short a time you are in Italy you are spending a lot of it traveling to and from Rome. Have you considered not going to Rome but visiting, Verona, Bologna or somewhere else.

If I was doing this trip I'd extend by Venice trip to three nights and put the extra nights to Bologna. Bologna has some great train links and you can get out to some smaller cities.

isabel

You tickets in and out of Milan, have only a week and want to see the three biggies. Not ideal, but doable. Since budget is an issue and you got a deal on the tickets you aren't going to be spending money to change them now. So the only thing you have to play with is the destinations.

If you really want to see all three then your initial itinerary is fine. Doesn't matter if you do Florence before or after Rome as you will be going by it twice anyway to get back to Milan.

But time is definitely an issue, and it sounds like budget is too so the really smart (though painful) choice would be to skip Rome. I absolutely love Rome, but it's the furthest from Milan. Or drop Venice. I absolutely love Venice but it's the most expensive. Dropping one of them will free up more time for the other two, and reduce the budget a bit (one less train ride).

But if you really want all three it is doable. I would suggest not spending the last day in Milan. I actually like Milan a lot as well but on such a short trip I'd skip it. If you have an early departure flight just book an airport hotel room and plan to get to the room just before bed, giving you that whole day in Florence (or Rome).

Your dates are high season. I would strongly suggest you see if you can free up some more money, but if you can't, you can find some budget hotels for around 100€, I'm a relatively budget traveler and the hotels I usually stay in in Rome and Venice on those dates are closer to €200. But go to booking.com and you'll find there are plenty in the €100 price range. Just be careful of the locations and read the reviews. If you book your trains now on trenitalia.com you can get discount rates. For food you'll be eating pizza sitting in a piazza - but fortunately that can be really good in Italy.

PVR340PLA

It sounds too ambitious to me, but I too love Venice Florence,and Rome so much it would be hard to cut one. Yet I think it is best idea. I bet you will return to Italy and you will have other opportunities to see more. Rome would be most logical to do another time as it is greatest distance from Milan, but I would cut Florence this time. It will give you time to really enjoy and get to know Venice and Rome. I encourage people to get apartment. With your budget, shopping for local food, cooking in apt and educating yourself to local bread, cheese, wine, salami, fruits..will stretch your Euros..

I like the Campo de Fiori area in Rome and Campo Santa Margherita in Venice.

kybourbon

>>> May 30th - June 7th<<<
>>>10 Days in Italy - Itinerary<<<

Your math is faulty. You don't have 10 days in Italy. You only have 8 days although I'm counting arrival day and really shouldn't. Only 8 days (really 7) and you are spending 4 of those days traveling.

1.May 30th - Arrive -spend most of the day traveling
2.May 31st - Venice
3.June 1st - Travel - Rome (will take a good part of the day)
4.June 2nd - Rome
5.June 3rd - Rome
6.June 4th - Travel - Florence
7.June 5th - Florence
8.June 6th - Travel - Milan
June 7th - Depart

PVR340PLA

We love the Roscioli deli in Rome. It is right in Campo de Fiori...http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/deli/

PVR340PLA

We love the Roscioli deli in Rome. http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/deli/

nytraveler

Your budget in Italy in very low. Granted you can eat at almost any price point - focusing on a slice for lunch and sandwiches/picnic for dinner with food from a market. But lodging will be your problem. That budget is very LOW - barely covers a hostel - and very likely your lodging will not be in the center of town, and may well lack AC (I would NEVER do this isn italy in summer) and be a shared bath and stairs versus elevator.

Encourage you to at least double your hotel budget in order to find a basic but decent place in a central location.

You also need to allow for train fares between cities (buy high speed trains as far out as possible - 90 or 120 days for best rates), in city transit (but do feet if at all possible) and entries to sights (look know to see what the charges are and what days various sights are closed (Florence mostly on Monday). Also look at buying advance timed tickets to sights to avoid wasting hours of your very limited time standing on line to get in.

Just took a quick run through booking.com for Rome and there are some B&Bs within your price range - but necessarily they have very few rooms and many are already booked solid or have 1 room left. I think if you want to find the best super budget properties (and do look at photos - many have "eclectic" decor) I think you need to move very quickly or find yourself shut out.

annhig

If you are on a very low budget [and even $3000 for this trip would not be lavish] another aspect to consider is the amount that it costs you every time you move from destination to destination.

It's not just the cost of the transport, but finding cheap places to eat and drink in the new place, working out the local transport, etc. etc. - either you will have to spend a lot of time finding new cheap spots or you'll be going over budget.

I'm going to suggest that you cut Rome from this trip. That will reduce your transport costs and travel time, and give you time to see more of both Venice and Florence which are smaller and easier to get around. Both are very good places for walking, though I would advise getting a vaporetto pass for Venice, so as to make the most of your stay there. Rome is just so big and diverse that your two days there will just a be a whirl; I would devote a whole week to it sometime in the future.

fernan8925

Thank you for all the replies.

Yes ankther option was just to skip he last day in Milan and just get there the 6th at night, just sleep and go to thr airport the next morning. That would free up an extra day in Florence od Venice.

I was looking at places to stay and i found places in all the cities for an average of $70 a night. From these comments it looks like I should be expecting higher prices. Maybe these hotels are really far from the attractions.

Where should we stay in Venice, Florence and Rome?

So when i did this initial budget of $1500 i figure

Hotel $70/night x 8 = $560
Food $35/day/person = $560
Attractions $400 (total)

And. I totally forgot to add transportation cost which average around lets say $50/person/trip that would be another $400.

So yes Im thinking we are going to have to up our budget to around $2500.

Thanks

jamikins

Where are the hotels located that are $70 a night in these cities? If they are in the outskirts of town don't forget to count the lost transit time, extra costs to get to centre and the lack of potential atmosphere.

We selected cheaper accommodations when we first came to Europe to save money but quickly realised it is s false economy and have always selected accomodation in city centres ever since.

annhig

$70? on average? what would $70 get you at home in the middle of NYC or San Fransisco?

I went back to the booking.com Venice page for your dates and there are indeed some places available for less than $70 but have you seen the ratings they get? read the reviews? In a place where people regularly pay $200 or more for not very high end lodgings, there must be a reason why these other establishments are charging so little.

your food budget of $35 pp isn't much better. if we call that €30, breakfast will cost you at least €5, a mid-morning coffee €2-3, lunch another €5-8 even if you only eat a couple of tramezzini [triangular sandwiches] or panini and a drink, €2 for a gelato or mid afternoon drink, and €15 for supper [which will buy you a pizza and a glass of wine or two].

in fact I've just reminded myself of the cost of food in Venice when I was there last Feb [2015] and I find that I'm not far out. This is what I recorded:

breakfast in a bar near Ca' Rezzonico -€5.80 [cornetto, cappuccino and spremuta]

€10 for lunch [I usually splashed out on a glass of wine plus crostini and a tramezzino]

a two course set dinner [eaten by the students we were with] in a restaurant near the language school - €13

etc. etc. Supper for us adults was normally closer to €20 - 25 which was not lavish but more than adequate.

$2500 should just about do it if you are VERY careful.

isabel

I just did a quick look on booking.com and didn't find anything I'd stay in for $70 but on those dates in Venice I did find Hotel Guerrini for $100 (dollars, not euros) which is in a decent location (not great, it's near the train station) but not bad either. It includes breakfast and gets decent reviews. There are a few others like it. That is a pre-paid rate (another $10 if you want free cancellation).

In Rome I found Hotel Marcantonio, near the train station but gets good reviews (8.8 on b.com), includes AC, breakfast, ensuite - it's $81 on June 1. (I think these are 'genius deals' and not sure if you qualify for that if it's your first time on the b.com site, so you might find rates of 10% higher, but that's still under $100).

But point being, while they will be a bit run down, and not in a wonderful location, there are decent hotels, with AC and breakfast, that are clean and in locations that are certainly fine for a quick visit. In fact, I like to be fairly close to the train stations for ease of dropping the luggage and getting going with the sight-seeing. (the neighborhoods directly next to train stations can be a little unpleasant, but a block or two away is usually fine). And in fact, in both Rome and Venice the train station areas are not at all sketchy.

If your hotel includes breakfast then the $35 per person meal allowance should be fine (not for a 'foodie', but even us 'non-foodies' do actually eat pretty well in Italy).

If you can up your budget to $2500 you should be fine.

or2nh4me2

I agree with the other advice-it is solid. Strongly recommend trimming itinerary to Florence-Venice or Florence-Rome. My vote is the first for proximity. And you do need to bump up your budget! We stayed here in Florence http://www.sleepinginflorence.com in Manfredi. Ridiculously central location a block or so from the Duomo and close to your budget. Venice is really expensive. Do you have any mileage points? We used BA points for accommodations in Venice and Bologna. You have purchased your flight tix and you are in this-don't over schedule and have a miserable trip. Good luck and enjoy!!!

bvlenci

I usually find spartan, but clean and comfortable double rooms in these cities in the €70-€80 range, but that would be more in $$. Also, I'm more likely to travel in the off season, whereas May is the height of high season. I use www.booking.com, which allows you to specify that you want a central hotel, for instance by giving "Rome city centre" as your destination. Then you can sort the list by price, and run down it until you find something with a fairly good guest rating (and more than a few reviews). Usually anything with a rating over 7.0 is perfectly acceptable, but read the reviews to see if there are any issues that would be deal breakers for you. Keep in mind that some people expect luxury at rock-bottom prices.

Train fare may kill your budget. The cheapest discounted tickets may already have been snapped up for your dates. They go on sale 120 days in advance. I suggest that you buy train tickets as soon as possible, except for the tickets for your trip from Milan to Venice, because if your flight arrives late, you may have to buy a new ticket. You can buy tickets on http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en , or http://www.italotreno.it/?sc_lang=en , but I suggest also checking www.italiarail.com , because you can sometimes save money on that site. They will combine different categories of discounted fares if it will save you money, while the two official sites will only show you discounts if there are enough of them left for your entire group. Remember though, that Trenitalia and Italo are showing you fares in euros, while Italiarail is showing you fares in dollars.

Venice is the most expensive of the three cities you want to visit. You may have to stick to sandwiches, salads, and slices of pizza there. You can also pick up some cheese and fruit in a grocery shop and eat it in your room.

In Florence, there is an inexpensive self-service restaurant called Leonardo, near the Duomo, at Via de Pecori, 11.

In Rome, there are two self-service restaurants in Termini station (near where most of the cheap hotels are located). One is on the upper level, on the Via Giolitti side of the station. The other is at the head of Track 24, on your right as you face the tracks. There is also a small supermarket on the lower level that has a fair selection of prepared foods to take away.

Remember that in bars in touristy areas, it almost always costs more to have your coffee or snack seated at a table instead of standing at the bar.