1st time traveler-Planning a trip to Italy..Help!!!
 

Hey everyone! I'm in the process of planning a trip to Rome-Venice-Florence. The trip would be for a week, and the travel date would be sometime mid-May because this is the only time I can travel before beginning grad school. I've never traveled internationally before and I am beyond excited! Initially, I was going to use the website europeandestinations.com to book the trip, but after reading how so many people on this forum have had success in planning their own trips, I've been motivated. I'm just nervous that I'll leave some important aspect of the trip out. I guess I just want some advice on how to plan the trip, choosing the most decent hotels, and knowing about how much money will be needed. We are definitely traveling on a budget!

Travelers: me and my boyfriend mid-20s

What we enjoy: Wine and food - We plan on drinking a lot and eating a lot. We aren't picky eaters and we don't have a lot of money.

The details: We plan on flying into Rome, staying there for 2 days, taking a train to Florence, staying for 2 days, taking a train to Venice (2 days), and flying out of Venice. We would want hotels that are close to many of the popular tourist attractions because we do not plan on renting cars.

I'm not really sure all the sites we'll visit but we'll figure it out later. Is a good idea to visit 3 places in only a week, or should we only visit 2??!
Any information would be helpful.. Thanks everyone!!!

I suggest that you get a guidebook. It will help you with information about hotels, restaurants, and transportation.

I'd chose only two places. Remember that you'll use up days traveling from one place to another. I'd choose Rome and Venice.

I did that exact same trip 2 years ago through Gate 1 travel (it was my first time to Europe as well) I was very pleased with Gate 1 and everything went smoothly on the trip. They supply you with several hotels to pick from, and they were wonderful. Also supply you with train tickets and of course airline tix. We could have spent more time there as there is so much to see and do, but for a first timer it gives you a taste. We were very tired when we got home as we must have walked 8 miles a day up and down hills and stairs but it was so worth it. You will love Italy !

First question: Your budget? Few people will recommend a hotel, etc., w/o knowing what you're willing to spend. And I can tell you in advance that "low" is not an answer.

Peg has a point about limiting it to 2 places. When you factor in all the travel time -- getting to the station, the ride itself, getting from the station to the hotel, and so on -- it's more time than you think. You could flip a coin to choose the two. For me, it would be Rome and Venice. Florence is nice, but you can see it another time. Plus, Rome and Venice are so different that the two will be a nice contrast.

My approach to planning is to first nail down the air-travel part. Once you have that lined up, you can build around that. So, in other words, DON'T book hotels and then try to find an airfare and time that fits. Do the reverse: air, then accommodations. You can always find a hotel, but you can't always get the time and price you want for flying.

Food: You can find cheap places to eat in Rome and Venice (a bit more of a challenge in Venice), as long as you realize that gourmet food is not going to be part of the experience. You will find passable food.

Are you flying from North America? If so, flights out of Venice leave very early, cutting short your last vacation day. Also if you arrive in Rome after a long, overnight flight, you will be jet-lagged and sleepy. Which will cut into your Rome time.

If you don't have your plane tickets yet, consider flying into Venice and out of Rome. Wandering around in a jet-lagged haze is appropriate sight-seeing in Venice. There the city itself is the most important sight.

And I agree 2 cities rather than 3. You could do a stopover day in Florence, en route between Venice and Rome, leaving your bags in storage at the train station.

However your enthusiasm might override any tiredness, at least for the length of one week. Meanwhile have fun planning.

I would really try to squeeze in a few more nights for the trip. One of the biggest expenses is airfare so I try to stay as long as possible once there. Can you add a couple of nights? It's not quite clear how many hotel nights you have in Italy.

3 Rome
2 Florence
3 Venice

Don't want to be a wet blanket, but I don't think one week is enough to do those three cities any justice. I just returned from Italy two months ago, and two weeks was barely enough to do those with the Amalfi Coast thrown in. If you are leaving from Venice, you likely do have to leave very early in the morning, so you can't count that day for anything. Also, the train from Florence to Venice takes some time (and is almost always crowded), so when you say you have "2 days in Venice", I'm wondering if that won't be reduced quiet a bit. My advice would be to go to two of the three locations, but of course it is your decision. I planned every aspect of the trip myself down to buying the train tickets on-line at the Trentalia website, so it is certainly something you can do yourself if you have significant time to put into the project. There is a blogger Ron in Rome who has alot of good information about getting the train tickets and how to ride the trains. Also, I don't know what your budget constraints are so I can't make many recommendations about lodging or so forth, but if you track the Fodor's site, use Trip Advisor to see current pictures and reviews of things, and get ready to spend a whole bunch of money, you should have a wonderful time.

I'm going to go on the assumption you have a Saturday-Sunday trip and are coming from the US:

Saturday: Leave US
Sunday: Arrive Venice, jet-lagged, find hotel, etc
Monday: Venice
Tuesday: Leave Venice for Florence, find hotel, late afternoon/evening in Florence
Wednesday: Florence
Thursday: Leave Florence for Rome, find hotel, afternoon/evening in Rome
Friday: Rome
Saturday: Rome
Sunday: Leave Rome, fly home

That trip will be very, very busy. It's up to you how badly you want to fit in all three cities - if you are okay with taking one out, you'll have more time to explore the places you choose (plus you'll save the cost of two train tickets). Many people here will tell you to absolutely cut out at least one place; Fodorites tend to like to explore places more in-depth. But many people have done the above or similar and loved it, so it's your call. If you keep all three, you'll be tired when you get back, but that very well might be worth it to you!

I've seen people say so many times that flights out of Venice are ridiculously early, but when I was looking last year I distinctly remember some Delta flights at perfectly reasonable hours (11am or so). Maybe the airlines have added more flights in the last few years. Just do some searching and find whatever works for you. It does make sense geographically to put Florence in the middle. Venice will be a very relaxing place to start; Rome is much more chaotic and took me a couple of days to get used to, but I think a lot of that depends on where you live.

As others have said, "on a budget" means different things to different people, so you'll get a lot more specifics if you can give a specific number you want to spend per night on lodging, what you hope to spend on a good dinner, etc. I can tell you that I was able to find accommodation around €100/night without too much trouble. (In Venice we stayed at Ai Tagliapietria, which I really enjoyed - it's a small b&b with a wonderful owner.) Venice will be more expensive, especially if you really want good food. We ate at Al Nono Risorto one night and it was very reasonably priced - it seemed like a traditional, local place, which is hard to find in Venice! My two-course fixed menu was under €20.

http://www.aitagliapietra.com/

I just returned from a trip where we had three nights in Rome, two nights in Florence, and three nights in Venice, with train travel in-between cities. I went via a package (NOT a tour) arranged by Costco Travel. Hotels were first rate and centrally located. You might want to look at their website.

I agree with others that two nights in each place is not nearly enough. This was my second or third visit to these places, and I still could have used more time.

I would agree on 2 places - not 3 in one week - or yuo will have a lot of travel time versus sightseeing.

We always fly into rome - but then, being from NYC the only place I have ever fuond chaoticis Cairo. Rome is simple. But - look at your flight options before deciding.

As to the cost of things - you can travel at many differnt price points - and in May can probably do without AC so budget is not so difficult (in europe any modest hotels, restaurants and shops do NOT have air conditioning - even in very hot climates).

Can't help with specific budget recos since that is not out price point.

Thanks for all the advice! I completely forgot to factor in travel time in which we'll be jet-lagged! Therefore, I believe the best thing to do, since I only have 1 week, is to just go to Rome. This definitely won't be my only trip to Italy and I want to enjoy just being immersed in a different culture. All together, including airfare and hotel, we are looking to spend about $3000, and then spend around $600 while we're there.

*Maybe my boyfriend can get 10 days off of work, and we could extend our stay* fingers crossed :)

Where are you coming from in North America?

Daisyduke and azzere make good points about getting a package (not a tour) for a short trip like this. We did Rome in Nov 2010, hotel, airfare, and airport transfer for two for about what the airfare alone would have cost if we booked it directly. That was from Boston, but even in the age of the internet, a local travel agent is your friend for something like this. We ate breakfast at the hotel and saw the group there, but we all toured individually, ate our meals individually, and some of them were coming home in the morning from wild nights about the time we were going out!

In my many years on Fodor's, this is the very first thread I see where the OP, being told s/he's trying to do too much, not only cuts the itinerary down instead of insisting like most prospective travelers, but even cuts it further down than suggested by anybody - my heartfelt congratulations, gypsyjane! I'm sure with that attitude, you'll have a great trip to Rome (plus many future great trips to Italy)!

(Actually, I'm convinced that most Fodorites who posted here would agree that even two of those places is way too much for one week, but didn't dare to suggest because they've been castigated all too often for pointing out that it's impossible to see "all" of Italy plus Paris and London in ten days or the like. For the same reason, I refrained from posting that I'd pick just one place for one week... to sum it up, your decision made my day, gypsyjane!)

I agree that spending the whole week in Rome will give you a very different trip than trying to cram in three places. You could take a day trip or even two if you want to see someplace else and not spend hours on the train or have the hassle of switching hotels. If you search here for 'Rome day trips' you'll get lots of ideas (I love Orvietto).

However, I think an even better idea is trying to get ten days. Since the airfare is such a big percentage of the total cost it really is to your advantage to have more days there. If you do get ten days then I would certainly add a few for Venice (probably Venice first for 3 nights, then Rome for the next 6 or 7). If you are flying from an east coast city that you live in, you can usually get late evening flights and manage to go to work for at least part of the departure day. I do that all the time when trying to squeeze 10 days into my 'week' off.

tripadvisor.com is great for finding hotels but there are so many sites you can look at - eurocheapo, booking.com, venere.com, are just a few