christy1974

My husband and I are trying to plan our first trip out of the US. We will be staying with very close friends in Wurzburg, Germany. We plan to stay with the and let them be our tour guides in Germany for about 5 days. We would love to travel via train through Italy for 4-5 days. Would love to see Venice, Florence, and Rome is there time? Also we have know idea how much money we should plan to have. I know it would depend on what we plan to do. Any advice?

Kascha912

Just a thought: It would be a good idea to get an open jaw flight so that you can fly into Germany but back out of Rome.

If you HAVE to fly back out of Frankfurt, you may want to think of using ryanair.com to fly from Rome to Frankfurt-Hahn (that's out of Frankfurt, transfer will take something like an hour by bus). This may cost you as little as 22 Euro plus taxes.
Another low-cost airline is germanwings.de (flying into Cologne and Stuttgart so that you'd have to take a train for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours to FRA).
This would at least take off a lot of traveling time to get back to Frankfurt by train. The Train from Rome to Frankfurt for example takes about 16 hours...

Other Fodorites will probably tell you to drop one of your three Italian destinations. And I'm afraid, they're probably right.
By the way, hlx.com flys from Florence/Pisa to Cologne and Stuttgart - in case you skip Rome.

Whatever you do: Have a great time!

christy1974

Thank you so much for your advice. We really appreciate it as we would like to make the most of our time.

treplow

The suggestion of trying to get an open jaw USA - Frankfurt/Main Venice or Florence - US is an excell one.

I would definitely drop Rome and limiot myself to either Florence or Venice. They are a bit more "compact", and there is lots to see and do during the few days you will be there.

As for low cost flights, check who is flying out of Wuerzburg or Nuernberg to either of these Italian cities. Your friends in Wzbg. (where I was born)probably can help your there. If your want to fly Ryanair out of Ffm.-Hahn, it will be somewhat awkward for you to get there from Wzbg. unless your friends will take you there. It's about 1 1/2 hrs from Wzbg.by car Ryanair is really spartan, also as far as luggage allowance goes.

Other than that, if you have to go by train, take a look at www.bahn.de (the railroad schedule of the German Bundesbahn) to see what your options are.

I would probably opt for a daytime trip from Wzbg, via Munich to either Florence (via Milano) or Venice, and an overnight sleeper back to Frankfurt and reserve a window seat for the daytime trip. Between Wzbg and Munich there are a few scenic stretches, and from Munich, past Rosenehim the scenery is great all the way to about Bolzano. The train tarvels along the Inn river to Innsbruck, then up and down the Brenner pass.

treplow

PS: If you were to decide on either Florence or Venice and an open jaw is feasable, then the Italian part of the "jaw" would be Milano, not Rome.

Winnepeg

Wurzburg is a great town. I was in Germany from May 19th to July 20th. I had an apartment in a small town called Sommerach which was 50 minutes by bus from Wurzburg.

Really nice time. Really nice part of Germany. If you like wine, then certainly head over to Sommerach or Volkach. The landscape is beautiful. Still reasonable. If you go to Sommerach stop at the Wein Eck and say hello to the owner. I promised Ziggy that I would drum up some business for him. The Wein Eck is a corner wine bar that seats about 15 people. We drank there alot, the price of a glass of wine was 1 Euro. Ziggy is also the wine maker.

Tell him that Mark from Tampa Florida sent you.