11 days in Italy and Sicily
 

Hello!

My husband and I are planning an 11 day trip to Italy at the end of June.

We are flying in and out of Rome, and we are planning on spending two days in Rome, one at the beginning of our trip and one at the end of our trip.

We want to train from Rome to Florence, spend a day or two in Florence, then rent a car outside of Florence and drive through Tuscany and eventually make our way down to Naples. We are planning three or four days just to road trip south.

We will spend a day or so in Naples, then we are thinking we are going to ferry to Sicily, and spend three days in Sicily. Then we will fly back to Rome for our last day and night.

This is a very rough itinerary and I am open to advice and suggestions! I want to make sure the logistics make sense and that our plans sound good so far.

Thanks!

You could easily spend 11 days on Sicily and not see everything.

I would concentrate either on Sicily or on Tuscany as you have too much moving around which takes time away from sightseeing.

If you go forward with your plans then a better way is to arrive in Rome and immediately go to Florence and then stay in Rome two nights at the end of your trip.

Way too rushed, specially given that it is the summer. One day, even two, in Rome in June is not even worth the trouble...

Make it either Rome and Tuscany or Naples and Sicily.

This is a lot of traveling in a relatively short amount of time. I would save Silicy for a separate trip and add a day to both Rome and Naples. From Naples, you can day trip to Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Sorrento and Capri. Consider spending time at the world class Archeological museum in Naples.

Have you considered spending your 2 days in Rome either at the beginning or end of your trip instead of splitting the days up? Since you're flying out of Rome, maybe have the 2 days at the end of your trip.

Enjoy Italy!

concur with Adrienne--we spent two weeks on Sicily without seeing much except the standard touristy stuff. So I would drop either Florence or Sicily.

Which one depends on your interests: Florence is a Renaissance art and architecture city. Sicily, especially southern Sicily, is a lot like Greece. If it's a toss-up, that time of year I would go to Florence. We were in Sicily in October and it was really, really hot.

You need more time in Rome. Even two days is not enough to scratch the surface. That's one good reason to drop one of your destinations. Also concur with adrienne to put all your nights in one city together. We usually end up in Rome (because it's my spouse's favorite city in the world) and because there's always something more to see that we didn't get to see the last time.

This would not be a fun trip for me, or likely many others that respond to you here.

For openers, if only spending your arrival and departure days in Rome, be prepared to see next to nothing there, save the airport, train station, and possibly the inside of a cab.

>>We are planning three or four days just to road trip south.<<

Between a day or two in Florence, driving through Tuscany, and a day or so in Naples, this will be a total blur. I hear there are many scenic gas stations on this route.

>>Ferry to ... spend three days in Sicily<< - then back to Rome. Sicily is a huge island, the only way this could possibly be even feasible would be to base in one spot and catch your breath for three days.

I strongly suggest you go back to the drawing board on this entire trip. Maybe 2 or 3 locations on the mainland at most - say Rome, Florence, and a few days in the Tuscan countryside. After flying into Rome, leave there immediately for Florence, then go to the Tuscan countryside, then your final 3 days or so in Rome. This gives you more quality time than splitting the beginning and end of your vacation in the same place.

>>>I want to make sure the logistics make sense and that our plans sound good so far.<<<

The logistics don't make sense and it's far too rushed. Especially if your 11 days includes arrival and departure days.

I agree that all Rome time should be grouped together at the end since it's your departure city. Two days (is that really two days or two nights which means only one full day?)is not enough unless you've been there before.

You need to plot it out in a day-by-day format with how long it will take to travel between places. It could take five hours to drive from Tuscany to Naples which eats up most of a day especially when you factor in checking in and out of hotels, finding your hotel in a new city, etc.

Day 1 - depart US (?)
Day 2 - arrive Rome, train to Rome and on to Florence, sleep Florence
Day 3 - Florence
Day 4 - Florence
Day 5 - Pick up car, Tuscany
Day 6 - Tuscany
Day 7 - Tuscany
Day 8 - Tuscany
Day 9 - Rome
Day 10 - Rome
Day 11 - depart

I don't see how you could even have time for Naples let alone Sicily which is a very long distance.

Thank you all for your quick responses! Hmmm, I will have to think on this and decide what area to cut out.
Fortunately, it is 11 full days in country, I was not including our arrival and departure days.
It is tempting to try to do it all but I can see how difficult it will be to fit all of those areas into 11 days. I will probably be back with more questions soon!

We flew into Venice...spent 2 nights there (would not have wanted more...very touristy/disney like) Great museums/churches though.

Then we took train to Rome. Spent 4 nights in Rome and had a blast...had a great tour guide for 2 days (one day for Colusseum/forum and one day for Vatican)...highly recommend that! Our guide was Daniela Sarghini..she was independent and awesome! 4 nights was the perfect amount of time

Then trained it to Florence. I loved this place!!! Could have spent more than 3 nights there. It is a lovely place. Best food.

Then we flew EasyJet to Sicily and spnt 5 nights there. We visited family in Palermo and he took us to Mount Pelligrino (beautiful), Mondello...our favorite seaside town, Monreale, Mondello...we saw a ton. Even saw a great little church built into a mountain (I think it was St. Rosaria???)

We rented a car and visited family in Polizzi Generosa. Most fabulous little mountain village! We stopped at Cefalu to take a dip in the Marre. This was in March of 2011. It was cold but we are northern Michiganders.

We are now planning a trip to Sicily in June...we loved Sicily so much we are making it our main trip with a quick excursion to Malta (where my mom is from)...

Have a blast! No matter what you do..it's Italy! It will be awesome!

The OP's trip was 3 months ago.

What are your interests? Knowing something about that would help us give you feedback that would help you trim these overly ambitious plan.