wanderingirl

This is what I have so far...

Day 1-3: Rome
Day 4: Siena on the way to Florence
Day 5-6: Florence
Day 7: Pisa(maybe) on the way to CT
Day 8-9: CT
Day 10: Bologna on the way to Venice
Day 11-13: Venice
Day 14: Head back home

So I arrive in beautiful Rome on my 27th birthday, May 17 which I am now looking forward to! I have been to Italy once before, Rome for 5 days and it was backpacker style. This time I am going for backpacker style accommodations but actual restaurants this time! After reading Tiff's trip report, I can't wait. I have the hostels pick out, so I am looking for a gut check on timing of moving city to city.

MollyBrown

wanderingirl - will you have a car? If you are backpacking then I recommend you consider what you are going to do with your bags when you stop to see a town/city on your way to another hostel.

Also for myself, I feel more settled once we've found our next hotel and have that piece all taken care of....I have found that when I try to cram in "between" sites etc -I end up feeling rushed and have the weight of needing to leave for our final destination always in mind.

Food for throught. Have Fun!

bobthenavigator

I agree. Do Siena as a day trip from Florence--by bus. Siena is not on the main train line to Florence. And, I would skip Bologna and spend more time in Venice.

Dayle

wanderingirl,

Sounds like a nice trip! I would just stop over in Pisa. You have to change trains there anyway and they have luggage check.

We had the option of heading straight to CT or taking the next train 3 hours later. 3 hours was enough for us to walk to the tower, see it (not open to climb then), and tour the duomo. Walked back stopped for a gelatto and caught the train.

that will save you a night for elsewhere if you choose. think about Orvieto!

Buon viaggio!

wanderingirl

Molly - No, I won't have a car. Right now the plan is to take the bus to Siena. After storing my bag at the bus station, spend a couple of hours in Siena. Then catch the bus to Florence. It seems like I would be backtracking if I took the train to Florence and then day tripped to Siena the next day. Of course, this is easy to say, but who knows if it would work out as easily and not be stress. But I am up for giving this a try at least once.

The main reason I am planning on spending any time in Pisa and Bologna is that I have to pass thru them anyway. After doing some research last night, Pisa is up in the air. The only luggage storage I can find is at the airport and there is no way I would do that.

Zerlina

According to the Trenitalia Web site, there is luggage storage at Pisa Centrale.

bilboburgler

There is a bus from outside the airport straight to Centrale. Though it is walkable

wanderingirl

Dayle - I must have just missed your post. Yup, I am just looking at a stop over. Just a look at the tower(no burning desire to climb it) and now the duomo. And then move along to CT.

Thanks for the info on the luggage storage, Zerlina and Dayle! I didn't realize you could look that up on Trenitalia website...

suze

Are you flying into Rome and out of Venice?

I think the trip sounds nice, a bit too peppy-paced for me personally, but fun!

Andrew

wanderingirl, I did all of those places solo last October, by train. I did Venice (3 nights), Bologna (1 night), Florence (3 nights), Cinque Terre (3 nights), Sorrento (2 nights), and Rome (3 nights). No hostels for me, however - just cheap accommodations.

I stayed in Florence and did the day trip bus to Siena - sure wish I'd done it the other way around! I loved Siena and not Florence so much. We all have different tastes. But I would encourage you to stay the night in Siena you planned - I wish I'd been there at night, it's supposed to be even better at night.

I did a day trip to Pisa also - I wanted to be there at dusk to take pictures. Otherwise, I'd suggest you do Pisa as a stop-over on the way to Cinque Terre; Pisa didn't impress me much although I wouldn't have missed seeing the Leaning Tower. Stow your luggage at the train station (isn't this still an option?), take a bus up to the Field of Miracles and the Tower, spend some time, come back, and take an extra night somewhere else, even in the Cinque Terre - consider that if you have crappy weather one day that might limit your hiking options, and some of those trails are treacherous. The Cinque Terre was probably the favorite part of my whole trip to Italy.

I didn't love the city of Bologna but the food was fantastic and I wish I'd had more time to explore Emilia-Romagna from there - I had only one night in Bologna, too. The city is a bit overpriced because of all the business travelers the city gets.

Once you get to Siena, though, I see nothing wrong with your timing. Not a lot of time on trains or buses, really (I did Cinque Terre down to Sorrento in one day and that was long!)

AyQuehago

wanderinggirl it sounds like a wonderful trip! I'm traveling solo to paris/brussels/rotterdam for my 28th birthday. Will love to see your report, as I've only been in Rome. I have to say if it wasn't for fodors and seeing so many women traveling by themselves I probably would not have gotten the courage to do it. This will be my second solo trip!

Andrew

AyQuehago, enjoy Brussels - I had only a few hours there between trains a few years ago, enough to wander around and surprisingly enjoy the city. Hope to go back someday and spend more time!

wanderingirl

Suze - Yes, I have a open-jaw ticket arriving in Rome and leaving out of Venice. Thanks to reading a lot of the posts for the past 6 months or so, else I wouldn't have even consider it!

Andrew - I think my first post is a little confusing. Siena, Pisa, and Bologna are really just stops on the way to my final destination for the night. I have to go thru them anyway, so I am just storing my lugguage for a couple hours to explore each city. Sorry about that!

It is nice to hear how you enjoyed CT, I am really looking forward visiting there. I am hoping to get a little scuba diving in while I am there. It is so hard to decide! Did you hike on your own? That's it the only thing that has me a little concerned.

AyQuehago - I will try my best with a trip report then! Unfortunately, my writing skills aren't the best. I blame it on the engineer in me!

Doesn't it make a birthday so much better, when you have a trip planned around it. I wish there were more girls like you that I knew. But I figure you can't wait to find someone to travel with, until then I will go it alone and have a blast. I think people's reactions to finding out that are you traveling alone are interesting. Very few are really encouraging, a lot more tend almost cringe at the thought. Probably thinking 'Thank god, this isn't my daughter!' They don't seem to understand how it is almost empowering it is.

Andrew

wanderingirl: <i>It is nice to hear how you enjoyed CT, I am really looking forward visiting there. I am hoping to get a little scuba diving in while I am there. It is so hard to decide! Did you hike on your own? That's it the only thing that has me a little concerned.</i>

Yes, I hiked on my own, with way too much camera gear (tripod and a camera bag - I did take hundreds of pictures). Then again, I'm a guy and 6'3&quot; and sometimes women are more fearful for obvious reasons. If you go during the day, there are many English-speaking people on the trails - not so many that you are running over each other but enough that I think you'll feel relatively safe walking it, if you are at least a little &quot;street savvy.&quot;

If you want to meet people to hang out with, I hear you can do that fairly easily at the hostels. Or, use a website to find traveling buddies, even if just for a day or two. The Rick Steves website has &quot;graffiti wall&quot; called &quot;European Travel Partners Wanted.&quot; I've used it before to meet people to hang out with in Europe. If you want to find someone to hike with in Cinque Terre I'll bet you could find someone there especially, since Steves is such a big booster of the CT.

Also, I found it fairly easy to meet people on the trains in Italy. In the Cinque Terre I chatted up a group of tourists who turned out to live only about 100 miles from me in Oregon, and we were all starting the day's hike in Riomaggiore.. I could easily have tagged along with them I think to hike (I kept running into them anyway along the trail) but I was doing a lot of photography so I didn't really want to hang with anyone. Depends how friendly and social you are I guess. When I travel alone in a foreign country, I usually start a conversation whenever I hear other English speakers on the train.

travelgirl2

wanderingirl - More power to you for going it alone. Although I have a husband and kids, I still love my occasional solo getaways - they are very empowering. Have fun!

AyQuehago

hey wandering girl I'm an engineer too!!! there's not too many of us I'm always happy to find more women engineers

AyQuehago

p.s. I know what you mean about people's reactions. Some even have an inkling to pity you!! It's is unnerving but being able to travel alone like that is very empowering, just know that many people would not ever dare. My birthday is actually March 29th so a few months later is my trip (May) but still it's my birthday gift to myself (to visit a place I have never been to) and I can't just not go because I can't find someone to travel with.

Andrew: I will look into that website, hopefully i can meet some people while there. I'm not the most social person(that's the engineer in me lol) but I try

Mimar

I think you have a very good itinerary. Only a couple quibbles.

3 (probably jet-lagged) days in Rome seems too few, even if you've been there before.

Siena is not on the main train line between Rome and Florence. So you'll have to get off the train at Chiusi, wait for another one, then, when you get to Siena, find transportation into the historic center of Siena. Have you checked if there's luggage storage at the Siena station? It's pretty small.

(Note: we actually took a bus from the Chiusi station to Siena. It was the equivalent of our train tickets and wildly scenic. But we still ended up at the train station outside the walls.)

Anyway, that's why people are suggesting the bus from Florence to Siena. The bus leaves from across the street from the main train station in Florence and drops you in the middle of historic Siena.

Staying in Siena and daytripping to Florence is a possibility. I found Siena very dark and medieval-ish at night, a real experience.

Buon viaggio!

wanderingirl

Thanks, Andrew! It was nice to see that confirmed again and again. Traveling alone is mostly common sense and a little bit of luck. Meeting people is one of the reasons why I am choosing to stay in hostels, plus it is cheap. I spent 3 months in Europe almost 4 years ago, using family friends in Germany as a homebase. So I learned how to deal with the downsides of staying in hostels. Earplugs and a eye mask go a long way! I enjoy spending the day exploring on my own, but it is always nice to have people to talk to in the evenings.

Two things I am determined to do, this time around, see Rome at night and eat in restaurants. Rome was the first european city I ever went to on my own. I was a bit overly cautious and decide not to go out after dark. Also, I was very self-conscious when trying to communicate with others while I was in Europe, so I mostly ate with I could point at. So, I listening to italian for english-speakers in my car and am determined to eat out a couple times, no matter how dumb I feel when ordering!

AyQuehago - Too funny that we are both engineers! Yea, the pity reaction, I know that one well too! Those people have no idea what they are missing. It is almost like there are 2 kinds of travelers. Ones who like to sit on the beach with umbrella drinks and ones who like a little adventure, getting to know what life is like in different parts of world.

I've only traveled alone in Europe. But with the way the euro is headed, I might to give S. America or South Asia a visit next. I would love to go to Thailand, but I am hesitant to do that on my own.

Check out couchsurfing.com, too. It is a social traveling website where people offer their couches to others free of charge. Not that I would be comfortable doing that. But there are people who offer to meet for a coffee or drink, which I think I may do.


Mimar - Thanks for the suggestions! The couple of other times I have been to Europe, I found that as long as I sleep well (of course with the help of meds!) on the plane and arrived in the morning. The jet-lag isn't bad at all. It is coming home that always gives me trouble. Actually it kind of works out, since I need groceries anyway and there is a 24hr store around the corner. Easy shopping at 3am and no one to be grumpy at!

I think I am going to hold off on exactly how I am going to see Siena until I am there. Right now, I am planning on taking the bus from Rome to Siena. Storing my bag, since there is one. After couple of hours later, taking the bus from Siena to Florence. Unfortunately, I think Siena is too expensive for me to stay in. Right now, I am trying to budget 100 euros a day for everything which is not hard when hostels range 25 to 40 euros a night.

Andrew

Actually I'm an engineer too - or was for 11 years. I wouldn't call myself the most outgoing person in the world, really - certainly an introvert - yet I still find it fairly easy to meet people especially when I'm traveling alone overseas. I once met an American couple in Vienna at one of the sites, we got to chatting, and we wound up having dinner together. I've had extended conversations with many more people. It just seems easier for me maybe because I automatically have <i>something</i> in common with other Americans (or other tourists) when I'm away from home.