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Italy/France 22 day Itinerary - Help Please :)

Italy/France 22 day Itinerary - Help Please :)

Old Apr 18th, 2014, 07:12 AM
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Italy/France 22 day Itinerary - Help Please :)

Hello! My mom and I are traveling to Italy and France for the first time this June. We posted our original itinerary on here and got wonderful advice so now I am back with our revised itinerary and more questions

All advice is more than welcome!!

Day 2: Arrive in Rome at 10:35 am

Day 5: Afternoon/Evening Train to Florence (opinions on NTV vs. Trenitalia?)

Day 8: Day Trip to Siena (maybe renting a car to explore hill towns in this area)

Day 9: Other Hill Towns (San Gimignano, Pienza, etc - still figuring out best ones)

Day 10: Train to Cinque Terre

Day 12 : Train to Venice

Day 14 : Fly to Avignon

Day 18: TVG to Paris

Day 22: Depart Paris

We are a little unsure about the Rome - Florence - Cinque Terre - Venice - Avignon order... suggestions on the best order to visit these cities using trains and wasting as little time as possible changing trains? We have only booked hotels in Rome so we can still change the order! What makes the most sense?

We've been debating a lot between visiting Nice v. Cinque Terre - we feel like based on time we can visit one or the other. Which would you suggest between those two. Or potentially just dropping CT/Nice and adding days elsewhere. We're interested in experiencing the culture of the countries, eating good food, and unique experiences.

Thanks in advance for all of the help!
julieuffelman is offline  
Old Apr 18th, 2014, 07:29 AM
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Skip 5Terre and stay longer in Provence. There is so much to see and to do there.
Nice is just a French coastal town with a mild (for France!) climate and some palace hotels which were famous about 100 years ago (like the Negresco).
I wouldn't stay at Nice unless I would like to visit one of the many museums in the area.
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Old Apr 18th, 2014, 08:43 AM
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This appears to be exactly the same as your other post where I and several others have already responded. What did you change?
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Old Apr 18th, 2014, 10:35 AM
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Agree that this seems to be back to your first itinerary - not the 20 day itinerary that you posted in between.

So I think everyone is now totally confused about how much time you have and what you are doing.

In any case, if you are counting your arrival day as not even day 1 but day 2 your count is totally out - you actually have 19 days - or 17 days in what you are calling 20 - actually on the ground.

You have a bunch of comments from VERY experienced travelers on your 2 other threads. I would review them and then rethink - or at least make the point of this duplicate post clear.

To find your other posts just click on your name.
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Old Apr 18th, 2014, 10:44 AM
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The original thread from March 16 is different. The one from yesterday looks the same but the heading shows 20 days, even though the itinerary is for 22 days.

Perhaps the OP didn't like our advice - LOL
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Old Apr 18th, 2014, 02:10 PM
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Your suggestion to fly from Venice to Avignon is complicated by a lack of direct flights. The Avignon airport website shows no traffic from the east. http://www.avignon.aeroport.fr/en/ro...k-destinations
Flying through Paris would cost lots of extra time, especially since you might have to change airports.
The option is to fly to Marseille-Provence airport from Venice. From there, take a regional train from the airport to Avignon Centre or a shuttle bus to the TGV station on the edge of Aix-en-Provence and train to the TGV station on the edge of Avignon.
http://www.marseille-airport.com/acc.../access/trains
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Old Apr 18th, 2014, 03:08 PM
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To Clarify -

We cut Nice and Cortona and rearranged some things based on opinions from first post.

The 20 day post was accidental and I couldn't figure out how to delete it.. sorry for the confusion. We are traveling 2 days so technically on 20 days that we can be doing things but I felt like that was confusing since it was different than my first post so I changed it back to 22.

Southam - thanks for the advice about flights! Tickets from Venice to Marseille are also more affordable
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Old Apr 19th, 2014, 01:41 AM
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I'd rather visit Avignon/Arles/Nimes rather than Nice any day, all linked by train and not such a big city.

Tuscan towns, If going St Gim the best times are before 10 and after 6. I suggest you plan to visit late in the afternoon and have supper there before a drive back to Florence. I'm not a great fan of Pienza especially when Montepulciano is so close. Siena is worth doing but the crowds especially in the late afternoon can be no fun. I'd do this as early as possible, the city soon warms up. Not so keen on Volterra but if you are into US Vampire films it may be interesting.
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Old Apr 19th, 2014, 09:08 AM
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I suppose Julie will fly from VCE to LYS and go on by train.
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Old Apr 19th, 2014, 01:08 PM
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Are you not reading the responses on your 20 day post?

That one was not confusing - it was quite clear. This post after the second one was confusing as I spent several minutes trying to figure out what you had changed. You could have clarified the days on your second post without reposting.
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