SJCam

Please help me decide the best order for our itinerary.
Travelling to Italy in May 2015 for 4-5 weeks. Flight dates have not been locked in so we are flexible.
We want to travel by train or bus.

*Rome - 5 days
*Venice,
*Florence,
*Cinque Terre,
*Start a tour in Siena on 10th May for 8 nights ending in Cortona
*Lucca or surrounds
*Pompeii and Almalfi Coast.

Really looking for advice on the best/most logical order to do this trip. Willing to take any advice especially in regards to open jaw flight.
The people I'm travelling with wish to see Rome first as big cities are their least favourite places.

Thank you in advance for your help

greg

The people you are travelling with might want to do Rome first, but the airlines might not go along with that desire. Look at various multi-city options. It might leave you with only a limited number of sequence that makes sense. If you realize that you have to return from Rome because of flight logistics, you end up in Rome anyway at the end. Such night is likely to be an unproductive one nighter.

Also, is it possible that the your companions have a different view of "big cities" than what you actually find in Italy? In case you have not realized, Venice and Florence are also big cities. Lucca is smaller, but by no means a quaint village. The Rome, from the population point is big, but the old city core is pretty small.

With this many destinations and time, there is no single way to put this together. You have to integrate different multi-city flight options, accommodation availability depending on the days of visit, how you connect between destinations, how to avoid unproductive back-tracking, and match against open/closed days of your target destinations. You would have to put together many different scenarios to evaluate pros and cons.

kybourbon

It would make the most sense to

A: Fly into Venice, train to Florence/CT/Lucca, head to Siena for tour, Cortona to Amalfi Coast and end in Rome.

sandralist

My own view is to deal with the reality of the people with whom you are traveling and go to Rome first. These are the people you are traveling with, not the people here.



*Rome - 5 days
*Venice
*Base in Lucca, seeing Florence en route and with a day trip to le Cinque Terre
*Start a tour in Siena on 10th May for 8 nights ending in Cortona
*Pompeii and Amalfi Coast
Fly out of Naples or Rome

Southam

If you are returning to North America, you may be able to find a non-stop flight from Rome. The other cities are very unlikely (although it's not impossible) to have non-stops across the Altantic from their international airports. If so, I would go in reverse. Fly into Venice or Florence, for example, so the time-consuming connection is used up while you are still worn out from the trans-Atlantic flight. Then catch the direct return flight from Rome, which should leave at a much more reasonable time of day with no European connection to make.

nytraveler

I would do

Rome (if that's what they really want
Train to Sorrento/Amalfi Coast
Train to Florence
Rent car to get to CT Siena and Lucca (to do this without a car will be very inconvenient and time-consuming)

SJCam

Thank you all. Your responses have been very helpful. Looks like I will plan several options and see which one is best.

One more question if anyone can help. In your opinion, to see Pompeii and Amalfi Coast, is it best to base ourselves in Naples, Sorrento or Positano. Positano looks wonderful but doesn't seen as convient. Any thoughts?

neckervd

There are direct buses from Rome to Siena. If you take the train, you will have to change once or twice.
Lucca is extremely easy to reach by both, trains and buses.

Sorrento has direct trains to Pompei - Naples and direct buses to Positano (as well as direct boats to Capri).
If you stay at Positano, you will have to change at Sorrento in order to go to the other places.

Joy2

Fly into Naples spend some time in Sorrento visit Pompeii, etc.
Take the train from Naples to Rome spend five nights.
From Rome take a train to Florence and travel though Tuscany.
From Florence/Tuscany take the train to Venice and fly home from Venice.

I too use the train getting from town to town. It's a great way to travel through Italy.

Have fun!

isabel

To see Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast it is best to base in Sorrento. You are correct that Positano is less convenient to stay in. There are people on this board who wouldn't consider staying anywhere else, but I really like Sorrento and it is much more convenient. From there you can take boat or bus to Amalfi and Positano, boat to Capri or Ischia, train to Pompeii and Naples. I would not base in Naples but I was glad to have done a day trip there. Not only is it a large, gritty city, but while it's close to Pompeii, it's further from Positano/Amalfi.

Besides Pompeii, consider Herculaneum (either in addition to Pompeii or even instead of).

Tell your traveling companions that it might make more sense to put Rome at the end logistically. If they still prefer going there first it's not really that big a deal to do another one nighter at the end of the trip if that's where you are flying out of. Stay at the same hotel, you'll fell like a local when you return for that last night since you'll know where it is, and where other things are. And that way you can do whatever you didn't get to at the beginning of trip and spent the intervening weeks saying "I wish we had.....".

kybourbon

>>>Tell your traveling companions that it might make more sense to put Rome at the end logistically.<<<

You have to decide if your companions wants trump logistics. It can be more difficult to fly home from Italian cities that don't have non-stop flights to the US. Rome and Milan have non-stop along with a few from Venice and Pisa (mostly seasonal and depends on airline). Returns from cities without non-stops usually mean very early departures.

If you flew into Naples, there is a shuttle bus from the airport to Sorrento. Positano is an hour from Sorrento by bus and maybe a bit shorter by ferry, but ferries don't run that often or late.