2 Weeks in Italy
 

We are planning to spend 2 weeks in Italy next May for our honeymoon. I'd love some advice on where we should book our hotels or Airbnb.

Here is a tentative itinerary:
Days 1-2: Flying and arriving into Florence at 5pm the second day.
Days 3-5: Stay in Tuscany
Day 6: Travel to Rome
Day 7-10: Stay in Rome
Day 11: Travel to Amalfi
Day 12-14: Stay in Amalfi (Would like to visit Capri, Positano, and Pompeii)
Day 15: Fly home departing from Naples at 12:45pm.

Thanks!

I am a little confused. Do you mean that you arrive in Florence at 5 pm of day 2? You would than stay for days 3-5 in Florence or skip Florence for other parts of Tuscany?
Lots to see and do in Tuscany which is rather a large area of which Florence is just one part. I would if it were me fly into Venice for a few days than on to Florence for two days and drop one day in Rome. Leave your Amalfi part as is. Alternatively drop one day in Rome for an extra day in Tuscany. Spend 2 days in Florence and your choice of places like Siena, Pisa, Luca or perhaps a tour of Chianti for your remaining days.

Yes! We would arrive in Florence at 5pm on day 2. We haven't decided if we want to stay in Florence for days 3-5 or stay in other parts of Tuscany to get a feel of the countryside. Would it make more sense to have our home base in Florence and then spend time site seeing different towns (Siena, Pisa, Luca, Chianti)? We considered staying in Florence 2 days and then staying in Chianti for the remaining days until Rome.

Hi, congratulations on your marriage. I think you have allotted a nice number of days per place. It's not too rushed. Will you spend your first night in Florence and then rent a car or do you plan on using public transportation for Tuscany? That might determine where you will stay. In terms of accommodations, what is your budget and what kind of hotels do you like (traditional, modern)?

I have stayed twice at Hotel Donna Camilla Savelli in Rome. It's a little out of the way, quieter but still walking distance to most sights. https://vretreats.com/donna-camilla-savelli/

I also like Hotel Nerva, which is in ancient Rome and also close to Monti. https://www.hotelnerva.com/en/

Many people like to stay by the Pantheon or Piazza Navona, but in recent years I have found that area far too congested for my taste. Many years ago i stayed at Albergo Del Senato. It's a very nice hotel, but again, the area is just too busy for me. Lots of people like it, though. https://www.albergodelsenato.it/

Last time I was on the Amalfi Coast we stayed in Ravello. Absolutely beautiful, but a little inconvenient location-wise--we were there for hiking primarily, so that wasn't a problem for us. I'd probably choose Amalfi or Atrani for ease of getting around.

ETA: Oh, I interpreted that you would overnight in Florence and then go to a more rural/bucolic part of Tuscany for a few days of relaxation after your wedding. then Rome: big city and big city sightseeing. Then the AC for more relaxation and lighter sightseeing /walking, taking ferries, etc. but you certainly could stay in Florence for the Tuscany portion of your trip.

Pisa is definitely on our list of places to sight see during our Florence time.

Hi Leely2,

Your interpretation is correct! We would stay overnight in Florence and then try to go more rural/bucolic part of Tuscany before heading to Rome.
We just don't know where in Tuscany we'd like to go :) Our budget is flexible and we'd like to stay somewhere more traditional.

What are everyone's thoughts about staying in an AirBnB? We are also considering using private car services to get around when a train is not feasible.

I think you have a nice balanced itinerary. I wouldn't change anything as far as your dates. You've allotted 3 full days to Florence, and want to visit Pisa, so I wouldn't add a stay elsewhere in Tuscany.

You might want to visit Lucca, an attractive walled town, which is connected by train to both Pisa and Florence. I recommend arriving as early as possible in Pisa, to be able to see the famous tower before the tour buses and cruise passengers arrive. When you get to Pisa Centrale (main station), you can get a bus or taxi to the tower, or you could even walk (25-30 minutes).

Pisa has lots of other things worth a visit, but if your main interest is the Tower, just concentrate on the other things in the Piazza del Duomo. If you want to climb the tower, you should reserve your entrance. If not, there are various types of ticket for the other monuments, or you could just admire the tower from the ground. I especially recommend the Camposanto, the monumental cemetery. I really don't see the point of climbing the Tower, but obviously lots of people do.

In Lucca, there is a park on top of the massive wall, and you can rent bikes to cycle on the wall. The Piazza del Anfiteatro, built around the site of the ancient Roman amphitheatre is very interesting.

You could easily visit both Pisa and Lucca from Florence.

There are also some very interesting wine and gastronomy day tours from Florence. They usually take a scenic route, stopping in a few attractive villages, and feature lunch at a vineyard. I've never taken one of these tours, because my husband and I have several times made car trips in rural Tuscany, which is not terribly far from where we live. My daughter really enjoyed one of these day tours, though, when she was staying in Florence. Try to get on a small minibus tour.

Four days is a nice amount of time to spend in Rome. There are many things to see there. If you tell me some of your interests, I can give you some suggestions. There are also some interesting day trip possibilities from Rome.

Please try to visit Sorrento, Pompei and Positano. You can take a ferry from Sorrento to Positano, EUR15, one hour, departures approximately every hour, very picturesque.

I was just in Siena for two weeks and had great luck with a beautiful AirBnB. The family was really nice and picked me up and dropped me off at the train station and helped me lug something to ship. And a few years ago (pre-Covid) we stayed four days in Orvieto in Umbria as a base and had a great AirBnB experience. And when we traveled with our kids we had a beautiful AirBnB in Rome. It's just after a BIG lunch-- there are many times I wanted to make a salad, have some fruit and cheese and wine for dinner. Or, I would have forgotten to have made a reservation somewhere for dinner. But do your due diligence with AirBnB. Make sure it's not a rental agency Read the reviews. Look up the property if possible on other sites, etc.

Happy honeymoon wishes!

I'd just base in Florence on the first days.We trained and/or bused from Florence (and from Pisa on another trip) to Fiesole, Siena, Lucca, Cinque Terre, San Gim, etc. Also, check for guided wine tasting tours so you don't worry about drinking and driving on unfamiliar roads.

Nice itinerary imho!

AirBnB is potentially a nice place to stay. I've never been let down in Italy with them.

You do need to buy stuff (like food) in rather than trust a hotel to provide, but if you choose a good position that can just be a short walk. You might also like to look at https://www.agriturismo.it/ a bit in the country but an alternative

For two week trip we did this.
florence 5 nights Train to Milan one day. Train to Venice one day. Bus tour to Sienna Pisa and San Gim all in one day. Still gives you about 2 1/2 days for Florence. And no changing hotels.
train to Rome for 4 nights
train to Naples then had a driver take us to Amalfi Positano and Ravelli.
We didn’t stay on the Amalfi Coast but I’m sure that would be great also.

check Hotel Casci in Florence. Great family place. Good breakfast and great location. They help get you tickets etc in advance also.

in Rome we stayed at a great Airbnb. About two or so blocks from metro and got everywhere easily. The owner also helped with airport transportation and nice not touristy restaurants.
Nicolo’s place. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2180792...G04z3ueC%2BpLP

enjoy.

I don't stay in apartments for visits shorter than a week, just not worth the hassle to me. And for a honeymoon, I'd definitely choose a hotel. But of course YMMV.

I agree with both of these thoughts. I choose an apartment for longer stays, or when traveling with a family group. Otherwise, I much prefer a hotel.

For Florence - would readers suggest that we find our base in the city, or stay somewhere for a few nights in San Gimignano or Chianti? Because it's the start of our honeymoon I'd really like to take advantage of the beautiful scenery that Tuscany offers.

For the Amalfi Coast - which town would you recommend we form our base? Many are suggesting Amalfi, but Positano seems to be the most convenient for traveling to other towns. Are there any hotels that readers would recommend??

Thank you to all who have responded!!

You have three full days in Tuscany. I would suggest either spending those three days in Florence or finding a pretty location in rural Tuscany and staying put in that location, because transportation in rural Tuscany is problematic if you don't have a car.

My own choice would be to stay in Florence. You can find some very romantic scenic spots right in Florence. You could go to the Basilica of San Miniato, high above the city center. Or you could take a bus to Fiesole, on a hill overlooking the city. (You might even want to look for lodging in Fiesole, which is very conveniently reached by city bus from Florence.)

If you stay in Florence, you could spend one day on a wine tasting/gastronomy tour, which would give you a nice glimpse at rural Tuscany. Choose a small group tour.

If you choose rural Tuscany, I wouldn't recommend San Gimignano, which suffers from being too popular with tour buses, and is not very convenient to other parts of Tuscany. One of the Chianti towns might make sense. Some of them are reachable by bus from Florence. Make sure to check how far your lodgings are from a bus stop.

Well, logistically, given that you only have 2 full days in Tuscany, staying in Florence would make most sense: it's very beautiful, full of great things to see (and eat), easy to explore (on foot and with public transport), and connected to Rome by nonstop high-speed trains (which means that traveling from Florence to anywhere else and from there to Rome takes significantly longer than going directly from Florence to Rome). However, it's your honeymoon, and if you want to stay in a tranquil agriturismo in the hills of Chianti or around Siena or in Val d'Orcia, on in a small town like San Gimignano, Cortona or Colle Val d'Elsa, do so, it's not wrong.

What other towns do you want to visit? There's ferry and bus services along the Amalfi coast, from Sorrento to Positano (through Amalfi and other small towns), plus ferries onwards to Capri and between Capri and Sorrento and buses from the Amalfi coast to Sorrento. So, visiting the Amalfi coast and Capri is easily done by staying on the coast itself, just as easily if not more so than staying in Sorrento. Getting to Pompeii, Herculaneum or Oplontis is a bit easier from Sorrento, because all these places are on the same Circumvesuviana railway line, but from the Amalfi coast it's not hard to reach Sorrento or Salerno by bus or ferry and travel onwards by train to the archeological sites.

Chianti is a lovely area to stay. It is between Siena and Glorence so very convenient. Do you prefer a hotel or a rental apt/home? Look at Chianti and More.

Congratulations!
You will have a wonderful time! We were at the Amalfi Coast in the end of May a few years ago and the weather was perfect!

I would suggest taking a day from Rome and adding it to Tuscany. I would stay 3 nights in Florence and 2 nights in a Tuscan town. Stay somewhere with that postcard worthy, hilly view, what a romantic experience! Would you consider renting a car? I would pick it up leaving Florence and drop off in Rome. Then you would have the ability to meander through some of the Tuscan towns on your own schedule and on your way to Rome.

We stayed in Positano and loved it but it was very crowded and compact. It does have the views you are dreaming of. If we went again, we would probably stay in Amalfi. We hired a driver from Rome to get us there.