wharfrat1

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in March, so we wanted to get a trip to Europe before the little one arrives. We'll be flying out of Cincinnati on 9/9 and landing in Rome on the morning of 9/10. Our return flight leaves the morning of 9/17. My wife works for delta, so we have a free ride across the pond. We also have significantly discounted airfare when we get there. We are flying into Rome and are planning to spend some time there. I'm Italian and my grandparents are from Ischia in the Bay of Naples, so would like to get there. Also are thinking about either Florence or Venice. We're not the tour guide or tour group type. We like to pick a few things we'd like to see and than fly by the seat of our pants. Have never been so any advice is appreciated. What are the airports like? Easy to fly or a big pain? If you could, would you fly or just take a train? I can get tickets for around $25-$30 and fly to any city. Thanks for the advice.

Frank

Steve_James

Frank - Naples-Venice is a long train ride (6-7 hrs) - so you might prefer to fly and save time. Alpi Eagles and Alitalia fly that route.

http://www.alpieagles.com/en/

There are no DIRECT flights between Naples and Florence (- all go via Rome) - so Naples-Florence would probably be faster by train.

You can find all train timetables and fares on:

www.trenitalia.it

Hope this helps ...

Steve

tdyls

One week to do Naples, Florence, Venice, and two trips across the Atlantic is not going to be a vacation, it's going to be a train ride exclusively. Even if you can fly open-jawwed into Naples (NAP) and out of Venice (VCE) [Do Delta employees still have to fly standby? I ask because I don't know if your tickets are cast in stone or not], you won't have much time to do anything in any one city. If you're locked into flying in and out of Rome/FCO, then trying to cram all three of the Big Three PLUS Naples/Ischia into one week will be impossible.

Rome airport isn't particularly user-friendly, at least compared to CVG, IMHO, although with the expansion of Terminal C it's gotten better. Florence and Venice airports are tiny. I don't know about Naples.

Since you only have a week, I'd say to do just Rome and Naples/Ischia, saving Florence and Venice for another time. This way, your transportation requirements will be minimal and concentrated, giving you more time to do stuff in each city.

nytraveler

Agree with tdyls - trying to do more than this will end up just being a marathon of train stations. And a lot of the point of going to Italy is to relax and soak up the atmosphere - not recreate the Bataan death march.

scout4

I agree - in 7 nights, split your time between the Rome/Naples area. Naples itself isn't very romantic, but Capri & Sorrento are - and Ischia (although I haven't been). I would recommend staying in Rome for 3 nights and then taking the train to Naples. From there, go to Ischia or Sorrento or Capri for 3 nights, take the train back to Rome for last night. I reccomend Hotel Santa Maria in Rome.

tccgirl

i am in a similar situation this september. (trying to travel before the baby!) We chose 3 days in Rome and then 4 days in Positano. I think it is good for my first stay there. I'll go back and visit northern italy again someday. Good luck!