Hello,
My wife and I are traveling from Seattle to Rome in early March and we have only 2 weeks. We are traveling mainly for food, wine and culture. We want to see Rome, Naples, Campania, Calabria, puglia, and Sicily. We have heard that trains are harder to follow there! Any information to help us accomplish this and get to most of the locations would be ever so helpful. Thanks

If I were you, I'd spend maybe 5 nights in Rome, and the rest in Sicily. See if you can find a cooking course that gives you like 3 nights in one base, and the rest in another.

"Only 2 weeks"is the operative phrase here. It's tempting of course to go gallivanting all around a country (or two), but 6 completely different (and enormous) venues in 14 days is simply biting off too much. Not sure what you mean about trains being "harder to follow" there, but it's true that once you start contemplating the more remote locations, despite Italy having a fabulous train system, it will be harder to move around except to cities and larger towns.

I would narrow your field down to three locations at the most and start planning from there. And letting us know what appeals to you about the locations you've listed would help us help you.

You are trying to see way too much territory. Sicily alone needs about a week - and for a first trip i would want at last 6 nights in Rome. Not sure what you would want to see in all of these other places, or where specifically you would go - but IMHO to see them all you wold spend a huge amount of timr trekking from one place toanother.

Sorry - posting from the iPad sometimes logs me off too quickly. We just spent 2 weeks in Umbria and while it was only part of a longer trip, it was such a good experience re: really enjoying the food, wine and culture, that I don't see us making any more trips where we don't spend at least 3 nights in a given destination. Two weeks in one place, with cooking facilities and great views, room to really LIVE in...a local lifestyle that gets you out of tourist mode...it is priceless. If you base yourself in one or two places and "daytrip" from there, you will feel you've learned more about the region you are visiting.

When we go back to Italy, it will be to the South. We may not even spend any time in Rome except maybe to change planes, but if you've never been to Rome, you can hardly NOT go. That's why I suggested 5 nights in Rome. Pick 2 of the other locations you've named (eg, Sicily and Puglia) and divide the rest of your time between them. You should also try to stay in a small town rather than in city location for at least one of your choices.

Well, let me pile on. Sicily takes 2 weeks---we did 15 days and still did not see it all. Here is what we did see:
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=3828

2 weeks is quite short to go to all those cities. Within 2 weeks, you could only visit 2-3 cities. I suggest you choose which cities you would like to visit and what you want to see there before you go for further plans.