Fabbroni

Hello everybody.
I will be going to Italy in mid-july with my 19 and 22 year old daughters. For the it will be a first time. We will be arriving and departing from Rome.
I intend to book flats through Airbnb for every stay and travel by train and rental cars.
My intended destinations are Rome, Venice, Florence, Lucca, Assisi, Siena and the Amalfi Coast.
I will very much appreciate your kind suggestions for an itinerary.

ekc

You don't really need a rental car for any of your trip, unless you plan on staying somewhere in the country in Tuscany and visiting Lucca, Assisi and Siena. But they can easily be seen in day trips from Florence.

Unless you are traveling in the off season (October - March), you do not need or want a rental car on the Amalfi Coast. And you cannot drive in Venice and should not drive in Rome or Florence.

How much time you spend in each place depends on what you want to do and see. Unfortunate that you are flying into AND out of Rome.

Not knowing your interests, and keeping in mind that I really dislike staying only one night in a hotel, the following would be a draft itinerary:

Day 1 - arrive Rome, immediately train to Venice
Day 2 - Venice
Day 3 - Venice
Day 4 - Venice
Day 5 - train to Lucca, store luggage, explore town, late train to Florence (alternatively, spend the night in Lucca and early train to Florence
Day 6 - Florence
Day 7 - Florence
Day 8 - day trip to Siena via bus
Day 9 - Florence
Day 10 - train to Salerno, ferry to your destination on the Amalfi Coast (Positano?)
Day 11 - explore Positano
Day 12 - day trip to Amalfi/Ravello
Day 13 - Day trip to Capri
Day 14 - train to Rome
Day 15 - Rome
Day 16 - Rome
Day 17 - Rome

If relaxing on the beach is more of a priority than museums, then you could take a day from Florence and add it to your time on the AC.

IMO it is best to start your trip in Venice, as it is one of the best places to recover from jetlag, since you have to walk everywhere and there are no buses/cars/scooters to deal with.

RonZ

If those are your destinations, then it would be wise to get multi-city tickets--say into Venice and out of Naples. Flying Rome/Rome work it so you do Rome last, which saves a hotel change. So arriving at FCO, you proceed directly to one of the train stations in town [Termini or Tibertina] and catch one to Florence, which is closest, a 1.5 hour ride.

Train schedules here, and tickets up to 120 days in advance using italian city names, early as possible for the best fares, except for certain regional trains:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...005817f90aRCRD

Fabbroni

Dear ekc,
Your idea for an itinerary adjusts quite well to what my intuition had been telling me!

greg

The combination you mentioned within the time frame stated (17 days - full days in Italy or including the day you leave home to the day you return?) poses several issues.

If you are not familiar with restrictions that come with rental, be familiarize yourself before thinking it is just a cheaper way to get larger rooms compared to hotels. Pay special attention to check-in/out times and cancellation terms. Many don't come with elevators, so even if you don't have mobility issue, do understand your rental might require climbing many flights of stairs with luggage. Even if you thought you booked rentals without this kind of issue, the last minutes foul ups such as "plumbing problems", forces you to change your stay at somewhere else with a lot more stairs.

The destinations you mentioned range from not car friendly to car hostile. You have to deal with how you approach each destination safely with a car without being hit with breathtaking traffic fines as well as what to do with your luggage if you arrive ahead of your allowed check-in time. It is not recommended to park your car with luggage showing in unsecured area. Find a secure lot with trunk large enough to make all your belongings invisible from outside.

bvlenci

I would suggest something slightly different, and in any case, the suggest above doesn't include Assisi, unless I missed it.

I won't tell you exactly how many days to spend in each place, without knowing what you want to see and do in each place. I will give some indications of minimum times.

Arrive in Rome, go immediately to the Amalfi Coast (or Sorrento). It's really not worth the long trip there and back unless you can spend at least three nights, more if you have daytrips in mind.

Leave for Venice. At least two nights there, better three.

Travel from Venice to Florence. While there, take a day trip to Lucca, and a day trip to Siena. In order to take two day trips and also see a bit of Florence, you'd need at least four nights there.

Take a direct train to Assisi. (There are several a day.) Spend at least one night in Assisi.

Take a direct train from Assisi to Rome. I think a minimum of four nights is needed, unless you're willing to skip some of the big must-sees.

The bare minimums above add up to 14 or 15 nights; you can add a night or two to the places where you have more things to see.

You're trying to cover a lot of ground in 17 days. I don't know if your 17 days includes getting to Italy and back home, but you'll spend the better part of five days traveling from one place to another. That really cuts into your 17 days, especially since you want to see six different destinations. You might want to cut the itinerary back a bit.

I would also suggest that using AirB&B for such a busy trip may not be the best idea. You really have to do your research carefully, you have to make arrangements to meet the owner, you have less flexibility about arrival and departure time, and sometimes you have to do shopping for basic supplies. There's often no place to leave your luggage if you want to spend a few more hours in a city after checking out, or if you arrive in a city before you can check in. All of this organizational work also eats into the vacation time.

bvlenci

I would like to add that the itinerary you're proposing would be much better with trains rather than a rental car. Cars are useful for rural areas, but the cities you've mentioned are very well connected by frequent trains, mostly high-speed trains. Driving from Naples to Venice, for example, takes 6 1/2 hours in ideal traffic conditions. The fastest direct train takes just a little over 5 hours.

In addition, you can't drive in any of the cities you want to visit, so you'd have to park (or stay) well outside the center of the cities, adding commuting time to your stays.

It's important to pack light when moving around a lot by train.

ekc

Oops, you are right bv, I inadvertently omitted Assisi. So they will have to choose if they want to see Assisi as a day trip from Florence or Rome. It would be a full day trip either way, so they would lose a day in Florence or Rome.

RonZ

Amalfi Coast info here:

http://goitaly.about.com/od/rometran...e-sorrento.htm

See other helpful links besides Siena [from Florence you take a bus]:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscan...y_in_siena.htm

Fabbroni

Hello bvienci.
Thank you for your advice, especially regarding airbnb. I see that my intentions of places to visit may be a bit too ambitious. I will work out a tentative itinerary here, once I have processed everyone's very valuable and appreciated input.

bvlenci

Ekc, if someone's going to both Rome and Florence, and wants to visit Assisi, it's better to stop over there en route from one to the other instead of doing a day trip from either. It adds up to a lot less travel time. In that case, one should spend the night in Assisi, partly in order to have a place to leave the luggage, but also because you wouldn't have time to do anything else but in either city by the time you got back.

As I said, there are direct trains from both Florence and Rome to Assisi. If you don't get a direct train between Florence and Rome, you have to change trains somewhere, usually in Foligno going to Rome or Terontola going to Florence. Changing trains isn't a big problem unless you're heavily burdened with luggage, but I'm not crazy about hanging around small stations waiting for a train. Often the waiting rooms aren't even open.