A few days between landing in Rome and reservations in Venice
 

Hi,

We land in Rome in the morning and have a few days before we are booked in Venice. After a few days in Venice, we spend a week in Sardinia and then back to Rome for 3 days before flying out.

My hope is that we could land in Rome in the morning and get a train to someplace between Rome and Venice and use that as a home base for a couple of days, since we will be back in Rome at the end of the trip.

I've been to Rome, Venice and Florence- but it's been 30 years!

- how hard will it be to arrive at 9 am in Rome and realistically get someplace else that same day (travel exhaustion and all). Florence, Orvieto, etc.?

- We land on Friday morning, 25 of May and head to Venice on Sunday- so really only 2 days.

- Also open to just heading to Rome, but just haven't found that special place that speaks to us.

Ideas?

It should be quite easy. From the airport you'll take the Leonardo Express train to Termini in Rome and connect there to anywhere else you want to go. So there won't be any need to find your way around Rome or anything. The train from Rome to Orvieto is about an hour and there are fast trains to Florence that are less than two hours. You can even book your train ticket to whichever town you choose when you buy your airport-Rome ticket. Just know that the airport train gets into a track that is about a fifteen minute walk from the main part of the Rome station (really - I didn't believe it either but it is on a track way out). So don't book a ten minute connection.

I find Lucca a very relaxing place for a couple of days. Last visit I spent a week there. It's a short train ride from Florence, the station is just outside the walls of the old town, it's center is traffic free, flat and walkable for virtually everyone, small enough and big enough, friendly. And it will be easy to be on your way again to Venice, connecting in Florence or less expensively in Prato.

To me the easiest and most logical from logistics point of view would be Florence (specially if you were there last 30 years ago!).

Forgot to add, also Bologna would be on the same train line to Venice.

Hi, Michigal, and welcome!

Of course, everything depends upon your stamina and the vagaries of the airlines. Hub and I have done it both ways. Going straight to a hotel in Rome being the easiest. On a special trip to Rome, we splurged and stayed at the Raphael (http://www.raphaelhotel.com/index.html). It is literally minutes to Piazza Navona and has a rooftop terrace.

Another time, we did as isabel above described but went on to Perugia where we were staying. And yes, it was a bit of a walk to our platform. We absolutely fell asleep on the train but it was fine.

If you google Italy train map, you can see several places that are convenient from Rome. Agree with all the places suggested above. Pisa or Siena are also possibilities for a couple of nights. I loved Orvieto and its spectacular Duomo (you can get a great photo from the museum across the street, btw). We lucked into an underground tour while there--very interesting.

Please report back about what you did and how it all worked out!