ucsun

i have to admit my travel itinerary was not very good...read very practical. i used whichbudget.com and train options extensively to research travel through eastern europe and then to florence. and it just resulted in too much travel time and too many countries to be efficient or practical. so i decided not to be stubborn and do eastern europe separately next trip. stick to close geographical regions...you guys make that suggestion often, there's a reason.

i'll have 3-4 days unaccounted for in italy after going to venice, florence (day trip to sienna), and another stop through rome. any recommendations of a place or places for those extra days? i was thinking naples (as ira suggested originally) so i could see pompeii/vesuvius, but 3-4 days seems much for naples. ???

sandi_travelnut

What time of year will you be traveling? You may want to look into seeing some of the beautiful walled-cities of Tuscany. Sorrento, Naple, Pompeii & vesuvius might be good too.

bookchick

You might want to consider day trips from Rome, adding a couple of days there. A friend of mine (OReilly, she posts here) recently went to Naples for a weekend and liked the weekend a lot. She posted a trip report here that you may be able to pull up on the Search box.

If you add a day on to Rome and do a day trip, you might want to consider Orvieto, easily accessible by train, or Tivoli, for a look at Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa.

Good going on the decisions you made!

Buon Viaggio,
BC

ira

Hi uc,

We very much enjoyed three days in Naples.

You could also see Herculaneum, Caserta and Paestum.

Did you see my trip report?
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

ucsun

oh forgot...last 2 weeks of may.

ira, i did read through your trip report, but glossed over naples/AC as i didn't have time or intention at first to go there. it was your first recommendation to me and i think i'll go with it. the show on pompeii has made me want to see it so why not spend the time there and see Herculaneum and Paestum as well.

yes, BC i think i'll definitely do tivoli as a day trip.

i think this is what i'm kind of looking at. we'll definitely train in between cities at night to avoid wasted travel time:
Venice: 3 - 4 days
Florence: 4 days (w/ day trip to sienna)
Rome: 3 days (w/ day trip to tivoli)
Naples: 3 days

JerryS

You might want to consider 3 days in Umbria rather than Naples. Rent a car after leaving Florence and enjoy the open spaces and less crowded and less touristy towns of Umbria. They are just delightful. You can drop the car off in Spoleto (another wonderful small city) and take the train from there into Rome (about 1 1/2 hour ride).