14 day Italy itinerary-how many days where?
 

I am trying to plan a 14 day trip for my family of 4 ( 2 children 5 yrs and 16 months) and my parents. The purpose of our trip is to visit my mom's small hometown which is just north of Isernia in Molise. My parents have visited Rome and Carovilli but my family has never been to Italy before. We have tickets to arrive in Venice on Sunday May 16 at 10AM and tickets to leave Rome on Sunday May 29 at 10 AM.
Here is what we have thought of so far:
May 16-19 Venice
May 19-21 Florence
May 21-25 Carovilli
May 26 Pompeii for the day and night
May 27-28 Rome and out the next morning

After reading comments to other itineraries posted on the board I get the idea we are maybe moving around too much? Since I seem to be this trips planner (Lord help us) I am considering crossing out Rome and adding a day each to Venice and Florence. Everyone wants to do Pompeii and my husband would like to stay there overnight to do Herculaneum and the museum in Naples. I believe Naples is under 2 hours away from Carovilli--sounds like a good day trip to me.
I would love to hear your opinions.
Lee

You have made more-than-satisfactory decisions. You could consider cutting Pompeii. Rome is not everyone's cup of tea - - and shorter visits seem to be liked less enthusiastically than visits of 72 hours or more -- which allow you to adjust to the INTENSITY of Rome... its sounds, rhythms, sights, scooters, noise...

Best wishes,

Rex

Hi Oleedo,

I think I would also cut out Pompeii.

Hi Oleedo,

Considering your interests, I would cut out Rome.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Rome-Eur Parco dei Medici for about 110E/nitedbl w/full buffet bkfst.

They have a shuttle to/from the airport and to/from downtown.

I would cut a day out of Florence, eliminate Pompeii, and add those days to Rome. Rome was incredible. We spent 6 nights there last year and never ran out of things to do in the day or the evenings. We also had a return visit to Florence as part of that trip, and it paled in comparison to Rome, but that was only our opinion since I am sure there are differing ones out there. Lots of pizza places to take the kids as well!
cheers,
CC

Yep, there are differing opinions. On our first trip to Italy about 2 years ago, we hit the big cities. We loved Florence, enjoyed Rome, and thought Venice was OK. We spent 6 nights in Rome, 3 in Florence, 3 in Venice, and 2 in Milan (flew in/out of there and wanted to see the Last Supper, otherwise we would have skipped it.) This was a good distribution of our time, but in retrospect we should have added a day to Florence and taken one away from Venice.

Hi Ohleedo
Just spotted your entry.
In January 1944 I was stationed in Carovilli with the British Army and was actually snowed in there !.
I was befriended by the local priest, a Sig.Fiocca. Does that name ring any bells?
Best wishes
Ron

You itinerary is not bad, but jeez. You'd think the only cities in Italy are Venice, Florence, and Rome. Imho, you haven't seen the real Italy if you haven't spent a few nights in some of its magical rural hilltowns.

It would be like a European visiting only New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and leaving thinking he had seen the real USA.

I suggest spending your first 3 nights in Venice, then driving to a good home-base town in Tuscany to spend the next 4 nights. Siena or Orvieto are good candidates. From there you can explore gobs of great Italian hilltowns. Then drive to Florence and ditch the car. Next 3 nights in Florence. Train to Rome for your final 4 nights. Or mix it up some other way, but somehow work in at least 4 nights for rural hilltown Italy.

Edward, in fairness to Ohleedo, Carovilli looks to be a pretty small small place, and in a very scenic area .

Ohleedo, since you say everyone wants to do Pompeii, I think you should go for it; according to viaichelin.com, it's about a 2 hour drive southwest from Carovilli.

If you go straight to Rome the morning after Pompeii, you will have a good half day left plus the next one for Rome, but I agree with the others that another night for Rome would be good - can you chop a night from either Florence or Venice?

BTW, for what it's worth, I don't consider your itinerary to involve too much moving around.

ooops! Just noticed the date of the original post. Ohleedo, hope your plans went well.