Hello!

My fiancé and I have 2 weeks in Italy (Aug 2019) and we would like to visit Venice, Rome, Amalfi, Naples, Florence, Tuscany and*Cinque Terre. Can you please tell me in what order should we see these places in order to save as much time as possible?

We land in Venice and fly out of rome.

Thank you so much!
~Su

Trains or driving? Trains I hope to cover all that ground and cars and Italian cities just don't mix.

2 weeks in Italy (Aug 2019) and we would like to visit Venice, Rome, Amalfi, Naples, Florence, Tuscany and*Cinque Terre

August sees absolute mob scenes in Amalfi and especially so in Cinque Terre. I'd forget Naples and Amalfi and do Venice, Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence and Tuscany and that's a lot for 2 weeks. Book trains really early for discounted fares - easy to book you own tickets online at www.trenitalia.com or www.italotreno.it/en - two competing rail systems using same stations and tracks and similar trains - www.seat61.com has loads on booking your own tickets; general info BETS-European Rail Experts, and www.ricksteves.com.

Maybe land in Venice - 3 nights
train to CTerre takes most of day - 3 nights
Florence - 4 nights - do a day trip by bus to Siena, a classic Tuscan hill town
Train to Rome 4 nights

We plan on using trains/buses. We sort of have our hearts set on Amalfi! Maybe 2 days in Amalfi? After which part of the trip do you suggest we head there?

Thanks

Maybe land in Venice - 3 nights
train to CTerre takes most of day - 3 nights
Florence - 4 nights - do a day trip by bus to Siena, a classic Tuscan hill town
Train to Rome 4 nights>

Well take a day away from C Terre and Venice and Rome perhaps (will take a day to get there from Rome - best if you could fly home from Naples or into Naples and out of Venice. Take train to Naples and then many here take a private driver to an Amalfi town - Positano and Amalfi two popular choices. Could stop at Pompeii on drive or train ride from Naples to Sorrento.

Depends how well you are with traveling fairfly fast- I am and always like to see less of more than more of less!

It looks like, from your prior posts, that you are a seasoned traveler and know your travel style. Many here will suggest visiting fewer locations in two weeks. Our style of travel, only carry-ons, long days, lots of walking would allow us to go to all the places you mention. If it were me, I would combine Florence (which is in Tuscany and "Tuscany" into one base. That could be Florence but this will be summer, and we found Florence to be awful last fall (crowds). Depends on what you like whether that base would be Florence or somewhere else in Tuscany. I also would combine Naples and Amalfi, maybe Sorrento with day trips to Amalfi coast, Naples and Capri.

The order that would be most logical to me, based on your flights, would be (with possible number of nights in parenthesis) Venice (2), Florence/Tuscany (3), CT (3), Amalfi/Naples (3), Rome (3).

If you have an interest, here is our trip report on Florence from last fall: Florence or Bologna? 7 nights early October
and our trip report for CT (based in Rapallo): Rapallo/Cinque Terre/20 Places/8 Nights Sept/Oct We were able to hike between the three towns where the trail is open and visit all five in one day, but it will be a lot more crowded in the summer.

Whether you can see all or only a fraction of these places in the time you have really depends on what you want to see and experience, and only you can determine that. You'll need to identify the reasons you want to see all these places and do some research on timing. You can certainly make a plan that has you stop in all these wonderful places, but none of us can say whether that would or would not meet your interests. I can assure you that I would not have been able to visit them all in that amount of time, and I would have hated spending so much time in transit just to have so little time to actually see or do anything. YMMV. Good luck!

A quick look at the website Rome2Rio suggests you could travel to all these places, and depending on your actual bases, in as little as 16 hours total train travel over 2 weeks. There might be some additions, for example, if you do some quick day trips within Tuscany, and bus or ferry trips in the Amalfi area. Nearly half of that time is going from the north to the south to accommodate your flights. For us, rail travel is part of the travel experience. We enjoy that and don't view it as a negative or wasted time. Chance to meet other travelers, see the countryside, relax, catch up with a book, etc.

I, too, often enjoy my time in transit! But of course, moving from one location to another doesn't just mean transportation time -- it also includes getting to/from the bus or train, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting lost/oriented, etc. Like whitehall, I keep those times to a minimum, but many people find that it takes a few hours on either side of the actual trip and many people find the transitions stressful. Everyone travels differently!

In any case, I want time to see and experience the things that made me choose the destinations I choose, and to me, that is far more important that catching a glimpse of myriad different places. Again, YMMV.