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HELP with Itinerary, first time in Europe

HELP with Itinerary, first time in Europe

Old Mar 15th, 2010, 03:06 PM
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HELP with Itinerary, first time in Europe

My s.o. and I are travelling to Italy the first two weeks of October. We will land in Venice at 9 am on a Tuesday and depart from Rome on a Wednesday. We will be travelling by train and want to include somewhere to break up the museums of Florence and the history of Rome (we both love history and like museums but would like to have a breather between the two cities). This is what I have so far. We will not have a car. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Day 1 Venice
D2 Venice
D3 Venice
D4 Train to Florence
D5 Florence
D6 Florence
D7 Florence
D8 Train to Cinque Terre (stop in Pisa)
D9 CT
D10 CT
D11 Train to Rome
D12 Rome
D13 Rome
D 14 Rome
D15 Rome
D16 Home
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 03:32 PM
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that's about what we did for our trip to italy in 2008...

it was just about perfect timing, though i'd likely cut a day or two from rome and re-allocate it...

keep in mind that sunday's in italy are very different from other days, so if you have travel on sunday's that would be smart...
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 03:43 PM
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We will be in Florence and Rome on a Sunday. I have heard some churches and museums have limited hours on Sunday's any other suggestions? In Rome we are fine with just walking around and soaking up the city.
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 03:57 PM
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Both Florence and Rome will be good walking days for Sundays. Both cities have such beautiful public art & architecture. Gardens & parks may be a good choice. Rome's city park will have some attractions closed, but will still be a nice escape from concrete. It's an excellent excuse for a picnic.

I wish I had skipped Pisa and spent the time in CT.

Otherwise your itinerary looks good. We didn't have a car either, and it was perfect.
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 05:08 PM
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We also did almost the exact same trip. It's an excellent itinerary.

We wish we would have skipped Pisa. We also went to Siena and wish we spent more time there. We spent 4 nights in the CT which was perfect.

We spent a week in Rome for our last trip and could have spent a year/forever there. It may seem like too much Rome time for some. For me, there is never enough time there. You could always decide how you like Rome and make decisions at that point.

There are plenty of day trips from Rome to keep you busy if you don't want to spend the entire time there.

Have a great trip!!
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 05:53 PM
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I think it is near-perfect, but I would take one day from Florence and add it to Rome.

Mike, do spend some time browsing Trip Reports here. You will find so much useful information. October is a perfect time, in my humble opinion, to be in Italy. A little cooler, and thinning crowds.

If you haven't done so, you might want to head over to your local book store and browse through the Italy guide books. Personally, I love DK Eyewitness Travel Guides and own one for each of those cities. They're awesome if you are a "visual" person.

Are you requesting a Scavi tour in Rome? Also, Rick Steves has free downloads for your Ipod for walking tours of several cities. You might want to check those out, too. Finally, if you have Netflix, there are dozens and dozens of travel films from Travel Channel and PBS, etc. I recently watched one with Rick Steves in Verona and one with Samantha Brown in Bologna. We are now choosing between those two cities for a day trip from Venice.

I suspect you'll be back to the boards now and then. There is so much great info here.

Buon viaggio!
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 07:19 PM
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Looks like an excellent first time itinerary to me.

We did something similar on my DH's first trip to Italy, but went to Assisi instead of the CT.
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Old Mar 15th, 2010, 09:45 PM
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I too did much the same trip in 2007 (but I added Sorrento/Pompeii from the CT before coming back up to Rome). Your itinerary will be very nice, but you could snip a day from Florence and overnight in Siena at least a night - I loved Siena and wish I'd done more than a day trip.

Consider also (or alternately) adding a night in Bologna, because you are passing through anyway on the train, and you'll get a great meal, perhaps your best in Italy; the food in Emilia–Romagna is outstanding. Bologna is an interesting city and also less touristy than everywhere else on your itinerary. Stay near the center if you can, but if there's a trade show in town the night you'd be staying Bologna hotels may be busy and expensive - a bit overpriced perhaps. My Bologna hotel in 2007 was the most expensive of my trip and perhaps the least nice.

I also stopped over in Pisa for a few hours. I have mixed feelings about Pisa. Americans almost feel compelled to see the Leaning Tower. The area around the Tower (the Field of Miracles) was perhaps the cheesiest, least appealing of my entire 2007 trip; it was just full of "come here you silly tourist!" carts and people selling crap souvenirs. And, the area around the main Pisa train station (where you might change trains to get up to the CT as I did) is a bit sketchy though perfectly safe in daytime. But somehow I feel like I didn't give Pisa enough time, not enough to find the "real" city away from those two areas. I did go beyond the surface in Naples (also disdained by some who see only the area around the train station only) and found a really interesting city, one I hope to visit again.
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