10 nights: Paris, Florence and Rome
 

My wife and I are planning a Paris-Italy trip in May. 10 nights is not as much time as i wanted to have but we have to work around her schedule and do our best. The tentative plan is 3 nights in Paris, 2 or 3 in Florence and 2 in Rome. I have been to Florence and Rome so that portion of the journey I have figured out.

The question is: From Paris, if we have 2 or 3 nights to play before Florence, where should we go?

Initially we had planned on the French Riviera for a night or two then to Florence, but that was when i was working with 15 days. A co-worker suggested taking the train to Switzerland on the way to Florence. I kind of like that idea as I have never been to Switzerland and I kind of feel like the Cout'de Azur might be a bit too posh or snobby (i've never been to France either...)
So there it is. If we do decide to go through Switzerland, any suggestions for 2 nights? Geneva? Pictures of Bern looked pretty cool. I have read some forums about the train from Geneva to Montreux... I need some help making a decision!

Thanks!

Hi Giggs,

honestly, I think that you are trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot.

you've been to Florence and Rome - so why not concentrate on France this time? after all, you have only 10 nights, and by taking 5 out of that time to see places you've already been, you are now down to 5 nights - which makes only 4 days. take 2 days in Paris and what are you left with? just 2 days to get from Paris to florence via switzerland.

Ideally you should do 5 nights in Paris [gives you 4 days, one of which you might lose to tiredness/jetlag] and 5 in either Switzerland or the Cote D'azur. I've not toured Switzerland by train, but there are plenty of threads here about how to do that. if you decide on the riveriera, you can easily get the TGV from Paris to Nice and stay there for the rest of your stay.

But a trip that includes Paris, Switzerland, Florence and Rome in only 11 days? - sounds like hell.

Bad plan. Way too much in too short a time. You don't seem to have done the math properly - after Paris you have about 4 days, which is clearly not enough to squeeze in two more countries. I would stay in France and divide the time up between Paris and some other French destination - the Côte d'Azur being one possibility.

Just set up a trip like this for my wife and me in April.
We chose for 39 euro per person CDG VCE easyjet.com

More time for Venice Florence add Garda Sirmione.com Hotel Eden booking.com our fav for an over nite from Venice
beautiful.

Have trained in the past there are some nice stops
seat61.com for us beaune.com Geneva Interlaken Stresa for
Isoala Bellanorth of Milan then Venice. Day trainsare pretty through the alps but more expensvie and more time which sadly
you do not have.So I would fly... I always avoid sleepers expensive poor sleep theft risk.

Good luck!

I know its a lot to do but the reason I want to go to Florence and Rome again is to show my wife the things that I have told her about. Seeing St. Peter's church for me was life changing and it is something I want to do with her.

This is how I was planning the trip:

landing thursday at noon, stay in paris until sunday (3 nights, 2.5 full days.) From paris we would travel to Florence staying somewhere to break up the trip (maybe Cote d'Azur so we'd get an evening and morning there to check it out.) That puts us in say Nice Sunday night, and then Florence Monday night through Thursday (3 nights 2.5 daysish) then to Rome Thursday night flying home Sunday.

It does sound a bit rushed but i'm kind of set in the plan since my company already re-directed my flight home from Nigeria to do this trip... i already have the tickets, so we are starting in paris and ending in rome with 10 nights inbetween.

Maybe we should just fly to Florence from Paris to save travel time huh?

Much too much in too little time. With 10 days, Paris, Florence and Rome is too much let alone adding a couple of nights somewhere else. If you have to see these three cities, spend the days in Paris as you have indicated, fly directly to Florence, spend 3 nights and train to Rome. Ideally, I agree you should spend the entire time in France or in Italy but whatever you do, don't add a destination to the three you have chosen.

yea i just looked at how long it would take on trains alone and it cuts out 2 days of our trip. Looks like we are flying from Paris to Florence!

Thanks for the help, i was setting us up for a frustrating trip!

Hi Giggs,

sorry you are missing out on the cote d'azur and switzerland, but i think you are making the right decision.

have a great trip!