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Italy trip - pls give advise, suggestions, ideas, recommendations-

Italy trip - pls give advise, suggestions, ideas, recommendations-

Old May 14th, 2016, 04:35 PM
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Italy trip - pls give advise, suggestions, ideas, recommendations-

Hi Friends,
I am planning a 14 days Italy trip with mum and brother flying from
India and I fly from London and meet them at 14th June at 2000 hours. My plan was to rent a car from the airport and drive to Naples (or nearby quiet place enroute, because I don't want to be driving too long and too late, want to reach before hotel or BnB close) straight away and spend the night there and 15th morning drive to Pompeii and herculeanum (sorry about the spellings,pardon me) and stay the night in Sorento, 16th morning day trip to Capri and am also thinking of driving to Amalfi after the day trip and stay overnight at Amalfi, 17th Morning planing to do Amalfi and by evening drive to Naples, drop the car and take the train to Rome. Before Rome plan, I would like to ask some suggestions on accomdations in different places mentioned above, is it a good idea to stay at different BnB because this is what I normally do when on roadtrips.
17th night rest in Rome
18th in Rome
19th in Rome
20th in Rome Untill evening and then take train to Florence.
20th night rest in Florence
I haven't really looked what sights I should be doing and for how many days in Florence but just a rough idea on my plan .
21st In Florence
22day trip to Siena(?)- sleep Florence
23rd -rent a car( it's more convenient to put our luggages in car when we do sights) in Florence, day trip to Pisa and Luca - and sleep in Luca(?)
24th morning drive to CT - sleep in CT
25th morning drive to vineyards in Tuscan hilltops and cianti region(?)- take eve or late train to Venice - sleep in Venice
26 and 27 in Venice
28 morning fly from Venice.
The question marks in brackets(?) suffixed to places is the plan I am unsure of if it's practically achievable. I need your suggestions on those please
I would appreciate if you can give me some suggestions in what to do and where to stay in Luca and Florence . Is it really worth it to do Siena, because I want to atleast see Tuscany country side an vineyards and the cianti region. Which would be an experience Siena or Cianti? Is it possible to fit them in here somewhere. Because I would prefer to drive, it should be flexible. But I am more confused with my plan from Florence onwards. I hope 2 nights should be sufficient in Venice. I know this sounds like fast paced and jam packed, but I am guessing it should be mostly OK as me an my brother could swap driving and take trains in major cities. So it's not driving continuously, although it would be his first time driving on the left side! I really welcome any and all of your suggestions to fine tune my plan. (Please pardon if I have done any spelling/grammar mistakes. It could be partly me and partly my phone auto correct option which is not correct most times)
suhaas24 is offline  
Old May 15th, 2016, 02:57 AM
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Hi suhaas

Ok, you have a lot of ideas an questions in this article, let's see if we can help a bit to give you some structure.

1) Pisa and Lucca are very easy to visit from Florence on the train, and you can do both in one day (so basically that drops out that day of car hire)
2) Which airport are your family flying into? Naples airport is different from say Milan....
3) Yes Siena is worth a visit and you get an idea of the countryside once you get off the autostrada. The town is ringed with a few multi carparks and you take escalators towards the top, but be prepared for a lot of steep walking.
4) CT is really about hiking between the villages and the pretty villages themselves. For me, I'd catch a train to the area, and either stay two nights with luggage being taken to the next hotel by taxi while you walk. But up to you
5) If you want to see other bits of Tuscany (and it is lovely) then visit vinyards etc then keep the hire car for this bit and Siena and make it one sequence of days where you drive around. Note that the best towns will be heaving with coach buses from 10am to 4 pm, so get there early. (you may prefer to stay in Tuscany countryside but that is a while different experience)
6) two nights is the min for Venice
7) driving on the right takes a bit of getting used to

Hope that helps you shake up the plan a bit.
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Old May 15th, 2016, 03:23 AM
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You fly into Rome (not sure but looks like that's what you mean, but same advice holds if it's Naples) at 8pm at night - by the time you get through passport control, luggage pick-up, etc, and get to the car rental desk, get car, etc. you won't be on the road till after 9 - and that's if every thing goes smoothly. It will be almost dark. Driving then, in unfamiliar place is a BAD idea. Even if you don't kill yourselves you could get in a bad accident, hurt someone else, mess up the rest of your trip, etc. And the B&Bs might well not have someone to check you in at that time.

SO - just stay in Rome that night. (or Naples if that's where you land.

You don't even need a car for this next part, and in fact it will be more trouble than it's worth what with traffic, parking, not being able to drive in limited traffic zones (which are in every village and town and city in Italy), etc. If you think it's worth it because you have a lot of luggage consider packing lighter so you each only have one carry on bag plus a small backpack or handbag. Pompeii has luggage storage.

Spending a night in Sorrento and doing a day trip to Capri is fine but you won't have time to then drive to Amalfi, and driving on the Amalfi coast at that time of year is crazy.

You are trying to fit at least 4 days of stuff into 2 days. I would suggest either take a couple days from elsewhere in the trip or skip the Amalfi Coast region all together. If you do decide to include it I would book 3-4 nights in Sorrento and do day trips to Capri and Amalfi (and even Pompeii- although doing this en route to Rome is fine).


The amount of time you have for the CT is essentially nothing. Seriously consider doing EITHER Amalfi Coast OR CT and even at that you don't have anywhere close to 'enough' time. By 'enough' I mean time to see anything, I'm not talking about relaxing, lots of people don't need to relax or have long meals, etc on vacation. But you want to have enough time to 'see' something I assume. Right now you have only enough time to get there, turn around and leave.

My suggestion - what I would actually do or advise a friend to do is - skip the small town in Tuscany part, skip either Amalfi Coast or CT, do the entire thing by train.
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Old May 15th, 2016, 03:43 AM
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>>>20th in Rome Untill evening and then take train to Florence.
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Old May 16th, 2016, 01:26 PM
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All, thanks for your reply.

Yes agree.

night time driving in an unknown place is not that good idea. But i willbe landing in the Rome FCO airport(Leonardo Da Vinci)airport at 9pm. So i thought by the time i finish my immigration and collect baggage i should be at the Car rental place by max 9.45pm. So myself, my brother and my Mom(55years), the 3 of us were thinking of doing South Italy first because, when i looked in to the google maps, Rome FCO airport to Naples was 2 hours drive. I was assuming, 2 hours of drive at 10 pm in the night will not be too crowded in terms of traffic(hope the locals would be home by then) and we will have our luggage which we dint have to carry from terminal to terminal the first time we land. So my idea was to have an hours drive mid way fromRome FCO to naples region around cassino or pontinia region which is an hour drive from the airport for that night (not the naples city centre). Next day early morning drive to Pompeii bypass Naples due to traffic which is close to 2.5 hours of drive from Pontinia region. and head off to Sorento in the evening and return the car in sorento and stay 2 nights in Sorento and do Capri and Amalfi and head to Naples enroute and to Rome. This is was my idea, because, i can do Rome the day i land and stay central but then i had to come down south to Naples and then travel to Rome and towrads Forence, So i thought, if i am coming to Rome from Naples, I could Rome then instead the first few days of landing.
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Old May 16th, 2016, 01:44 PM
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kybourbon - you are right. I really ahve to re-look this plan, evening i meant, untill late afternoon. I have to see the check out times in Rome hotels as well now. or stay the night and make a very early morning travel to Florence. I was thinking of making use of the daylight in the evenings more for sights and relaxing than travelling in trains ..LOL .. too greedy me looks like
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Old May 16th, 2016, 02:00 PM
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It is not realistic to think you will be off the plane , collect baggage etc by 9:45.
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Old May 16th, 2016, 02:21 PM
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You really are trying to see too much in too little time. I am very supportive of people who like to fill the time with as much as possible, but I think you're moving past the possible into the fantastic.

First of all, how much experience do you have driving on the right? I've been driving on the right all my life, except on a few trips to the UK, and I've been driving in Italy for the past 20 years, and yet I wouldn't dream of driving on the Amalfi Coast, with its narrow roads on seaside cliffs, its heavy traffic, and large tour buses trying to share the road with cars.

On the 24th you'll have a long trip getting to the Cinque Terre (and here again, I would take the train rather than drive, because you can't drive in the towns there) and on the 25th you have another long drive getting from the Cinque Terre to Chianti, then back to Florence to drop the car and then taking the train to Venice the same day. What a lot of traveling to spend a few hours in the Cinque Terre!

You really have to trim this itinerary a bit. I would eliminate the Cinque Terre, and I would stay longer in Florence and take a day trip by train to both Pisa and Lucca. You can go to Pisa by train, take a train from there to Lucca, and from Lucca another train back to Florence. If you want to see Chianti vineyards, you could rent a car for the day and drive around. If you go to Siena, you may see some vineyards on the way, but Siena is a city, a nice one, but not a rural area.

Then you could head straight to Venice from Florence.

You might save one day with this plan, and I would use it in your southern Italy section.

I would suggest: spend your first night in Rome.

15th:Take an early train to Naples. Leave your bags at the hotel and visit Pompeii or Herculaneum by train. Sleep in Naples.

16th: Take a ferry to Capri and spend one night there.
17th: Take a ferry to Positano or Sorrento
18th: explore Amalfi Coast
19th: early travel to Rome (a long trip, though)
21st: Rome
22nd: Rome
23rd: early train to Florence.
24th: day trip to Siena or vineyard tour of Chianti
25th: day trip to Pisa and Lucca
26th: early train to Venice
27th: Venice
28th: Fly out of Venice

You wouldn't need a car at all on this trip, unless you want to rent one for the day to visit the vineyards of Chianti. Even that, though, might be better done as a guided tour.

If it were my trip, I'd also skip Capri and spend more time in one of the other places, relaxing.

When traveling on the route between Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, the high-speed trains take a lot less time than driving. Not only that, in every place you want to visit parking the car will be a nuisance, and an expensive one.


So it's not driving continuously, although it would be his first time driving on the left side!

I think you mean his first time driving on the right!
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Old May 16th, 2016, 03:24 PM
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bvlenci , your idea sounds nice and practical, althoug i would waste a night in Rome isnt it ? because i will have to come from fumiccino airport to central and stay a night near by Roma termini and then take a early train to Naples, actually i was thinking of avoiding coming into Central Rome to travel to Naples.
I dont have much experience driving on the right side, but i have travelled the entire UK by road, i mean i have always done roadtrips here on a left handed/steered vehicles. I have briefly driven in Finland 2 months ago, but i can say i am a confident driver, although i am not thinking of driving the amalfi coast myself now. I was only thinking of driving the night to latina or Pontinia for overnight stay and then to Sorrento for next couple of days. Once in sorrento, i will be doing doing day trips to Capri and Amalfu by a tour if the hotel provides. I was thinking of doing Pompeii on my own on 15th morning enroute to sorrento from latina.
I think i will give up visiting CT with a heavy heart as it looks too crammed now with my current plan but i will stick with plan in Florence and Rome and Venice. Thanks
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Old May 17th, 2016, 01:30 AM
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If your flight lands at 9pm I would expect to be through immigration and have luggage in hand by 10pm at the earliest (it has taken 1 hour for our luggage to be delivered at the Rome airport). You then need to make your way to the car rentals and rent the car - if there is a queue that can take time as well. So let's say you are on the (unfamiliar) road driving on the opposite side at 10:30pm starting a 2-3 hour drive to Naples (a place with the craziest drivers I have ever seen). After a long flight. This does not sound like a reasonable plan to me.

Take the train into Rome and stay by the train station. You can take an early train to Naples and be there mid-morning (which is when you would likely be ready to go anyways).
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Old May 17th, 2016, 01:54 AM
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Thanks All, after considering everyone's thoughts and concerns. I will not plan to drive although i was confident because i have driven in India for 10 years , LOL and mostly live out my car on Roadtrips everywhere. I will change my plan to be in Rome from 14-17th night. Take early train to Naples from 18th - 21st. 21st late train to Florence. 22nd -25 in Florence, 25 late train to Venice, 26-27 in Venice and Fly on 28th from Venice.
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Old May 17th, 2016, 03:59 AM
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That sounds like a good plan. I hope you and your family enjoy the trip! Tell them all to pack light, so that train travel will be more comfortable.
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Old May 17th, 2016, 04:56 AM
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That sounds like a much more reasonable plan - enjoy!
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Old May 17th, 2016, 05:06 AM
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good plan, check seat61.com about to make the best of Italian railways
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Old May 17th, 2016, 05:42 AM
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Thanks all for your suggestions and advise. I already booked my Hotel in Rome near Termini and now just checking the evening train to Naples and stay the 17th night in Naples and then take the train to Pompeii and store the luggage and move onward to Sorrento for next 2~3 days approx.I know this would be a bit of check-in check-out carry luggage to Pompeii, but then i thought its OK to do Pompeii enroute Sorrento on 18th morning, then check-in at Sorrento on 17th evening and then do a day trip back to Pompeii. 19th Day trip to Capri and 20th City Sights seeing bus from Sorrento to Amalfi. Any suggestions on whereabouts to stay in Sorrento area.
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Old May 17th, 2016, 07:00 AM
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Thanks bilboburgler , seat61.com is really informative and is helping me make my plan much quicker now
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