naanee

Hi

Help! any suggestions for an itinerary to Italy for 2 weeks?? First timers!

Thanks

suze

Rome, Florence, Venice are often people's itinerary for a first trip or tour.

degas

One option among many: Open jaw ticket with arrival in Rome (5 nights), then train to Florence (5 nights, then train to venice (4 nights). Depart from Venice. Take a daytrip from Florence to Siena.

JSLee

Suse's suggestion is good for first timers. Use them as base towns, and see things around them.

Research these areas and decide what you wish to see and plan accordingly.

You can take a 1/2 day trip from Rome to Hadrians Villa and Tivoli Fountains, and a long day trip to Pompeii.

Day trips from Florence. Pisa and Lucca. Sienna and San G.

dmelo1

If you have 2 full weeks, i would highly suggest spending a few days in Cinque Terra. A set of 5 small fishing villages. It's a quick easy train trip from Florence.
-dmelo

suze

Another option if the cities are not what you have in mind is to go the route of renting a villa in the countryside. Totally different experience than the 3-city tour.

Do you have any preference or ideas about what you want to see? Is train travel good (easiest IMO) or would you want to rent a car?

sherhatfield

Here’s a quick rundown of the trip my husband and I did for our first visit to Italy this past September. For the way we like to travel, it worked out perfectly and we wouldn’t have changed the itinerary one bit.

Day 1 - Arrived in Venice 8:30 am. Stayed at Casa Rezzonico.
Day 2 - Venice
Day 3 - Picked up car in Piazzale Roma at noon, drove to Manarola (CT). The day happened to be very overcast and a bit rainy, so it was fine for us that we spent most of the time driving. Arrived at Arpaiu Bed & Breakfast around 5pm.
Day 4 - Took ferry to Monterosso, hiked to Vernazza, ferry back to Manarola.
Day 5 - Left Manarola around 10am, headed to Pisa to see tower. Glad we didn’t plan to spend much time here, because other than taking a few photos, we had no interest in staying in that town. We took our time driving to Castellina in Chianti to our hotel (Hotel Belvedere di San Leonino).
Day 6 - 11am wine tour and lunch at Castello di Verrazzano outside of Greve. That afternoon we drove to Siena where we spent the rest of the day. One of our favorite memories of our entire trip was simply sitting at a café in the campo, drinking prosecco and people watching. Headed back to Castellina around 11pm.
Day 7 - San Gimignano in AM, then headed south to visit Montepulciano and Pienza. I was very interested in photographing San Biagio, thus the reason for our visit to these towns. Unfortunately, our timing in Montepulciano was during the early afternoon so everything was closed, and we just didn’t feel the charm that everyone raves about. We really enjoyed our visit to Pienza, however, and would definitely go back there. On the way back to our hotel in Castellina, we stopped in Siena for dinner.
Day 8 - Left Tuscany and headed to Rome. After dropping off our car, we arrived at our B&B (Nicolas Inn) around 4pm. Spent the evening wandering Rome and taking in the sights.
Day 9 - Vatican museum/ St. Peter’s tour with Through Eternity tours.
Day 10 - Colosseum/Forum tour with Through Eternity.
Day 11 - Departed Rome for USA.

We did a lot of sightseeing, but never felt overwhelmed. We fit in all the “big” sights, but spent lots of time just wandering around absorbing the towns we were in. Other than the Vatican museums, we did not go to any other museums - it just wasn’t something we wanted to do. We love to take lots of pictures, so having a car was such a plus; giving us the opportunity to drive through Tuscany at our leisure and stop wherever and whenever we wanted. We ate lots of good food and drank a lot of good wine, but didn’t break the bank to do it. I don’t have to eat a huge, expensive meal to be happy. : )

Did we do too much? For some people, yes. For us, not at all. We had a fabulous trip and would go back in a heartbeat. I did a lot of research before our trip, so I knew exactly what I wanted to see, but some of the best memories are of the times we just found a café to sit and drink wine! Make sure that whatever you do, you leave time to do nothing. You don’t want the biggest memory of your trip to be that of rushing from place to place, or of standing in museum lines all day.

Only you can decide what kind of trip is right for you, so do your research, read this forum to learn from other’s experiences, and enjoy your trip!

naanee

WOW! Thanks such great help!!

Catbert

There are no right answers to this question. It depends on your tastes, your interests and your style of moving around. I find that for first timers Rick Steves' "Italy Through the Back Door" is a great resource. He has some itineraries that you can look at and see what resonates with you. He also has some good basic introductions to some of the highlights of Italy.

Enjoy the planning. Enjoy the journey!

jenn00

sherhatfield...your middle five night portion of the trip to Cinque Terre and Tuscany is EXACTLY what I have been planning for a trip in end of May with my husband!!

Arrive by dinner in Manarola,
next day hiking and ferrying the five towns,
next day leisurely drive to Hotel Belvedere,
next day mainly in Siena (maybe touring a winery as well),
next day exploring tuscan countryside.

I would love to get your advice about several things...

Hotel Belvedere - opinion, advice about any particular room, should I get deluxe or standard? Did you eat any dinners there and, if so, were they good?

Manarola - we are debating between staying at Arpaiu or La Torreta...how was your experience at Arpaiu?

Drive from Cinque Terre to Belvedere - Is Pisa worth it or should be instead go see San Gimignano and/or Volterra that day on the way to the Hotel?

Meals - Any advice on meals in Manarola, Vernazza, Siena, Castellina, Greve, or Radda?

Tuscany Driving Day - should we go south as you did, or instead just focus on the Chianti towns listed above (Casetellina, Greve, and Radda)

We love good food and wine, driving/hiking around beautiful scenery, people watching, immersing ourselves in culture, etc. Any advice from you (or anyone else that has suggestions) is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

sherhatfield

Jenn00:

<Hotel Belvedere - opinion, advice about any particular room, should I get deluxe or standard? Did you eat any dinners there and, if so, were they good?>

We had a standard room, and it was nice. Not much of a view, but then again, we were only in the room to sleep. We found the walls to be pretty thin, so bring earplugs if you are a light sleeper. The breakfasts were great – meats, cheeses, eggs, pastries, yogurt, etc. They also prepared coffee or tea however you like it each morning, not just a serve-yourself coffee pot. Having the bar was nice since there isn’t much around that area. We would go there after a day of sightseeing and relax with a drink, not having to worry about driving. We never ate any of the dinners, but the menu looked good. You have to make reservations for the restaurant if you plan to have dinner there.

<Manarola - we are debating between staying at Arpaiu or La Torreta...how was your experience at Arpaiu?>

We really liked Arpaiu – it was a small place, but the room overlooked the Mediterranean and it was a beautiful view. There was a big window in the room that you could open up and sit on the ledge. It was great to sit there in the afternoon while writing in my journal. Note, however, that the owner does not speak a word of English! We communicated well with basic Italian and hand gestures though. I am not familiar with La Torreta, but from the pictures I see online, I would definitely go for Arpaiu. It looks like a pretty good distance down to the water from La Torreta, and that is a tough town to walk through! It definitely is a workout.


<Drive from Cinque Terre to Belvedere - Is Pisa worth it or should be instead go see San Gimignano and/or Volterra that day on the way to the Hotel?>

I’m glad we saw Pisa, but unless you are planning to do more than just take a few pictures, I wouldn’t recommend it. I guess it all depends on how much you have your heart set on seeing it. The drive to Castellina was nice; we drove to San Gimignano, but decided that we would wait to actually park and spend time there because we wanted to get to our hotel before dark. The road gets pretty curvy as you get closer to Castellina and I am glad we found the hotel while it was still light. One word of advice though – try to avoid driving through Poggibonsi if you can! When we went back to San Gimmy, we got different directions from the hotel so we could bypass that town.

<Tuscany Driving Day - should we go south as you did, or instead just focus on the Chianti towns listed above (Casetellina, Greve, and Radda)>

This depends on what you like to do and what each town can offer you. I liked driving south and would do that again.

I have some pictures of Hotel Belvedere & Arpaiu if you would like to see them, just email me:
[email protected]

Enjoy your trip & planning!

MFNYC

The open jaw ticket is great advice, and generally they cost about the same as a regular round-trip.

What time of the year? In the warm weather you may want to spend a few days on the Almalfi coast.