ceezee

Comments please. Having relied on everyone here to help me plan my trips over the last many years, I'm looking for more guidance with this one. We're planning a two week (maybe a few days over, no set time limit) to Italy next June. We have 2+ weeks to travel. My first trip to Italy and my husbands second. The first of which was many decades ago.

This is the itinerary as it stands now. Trying to decide what to do at the end.

June 9 (Tues) leave Philadelphia on overnight flight
June 10 (Wed) arrive in Rome early morning
June 10 - 13 Rome
June 13 (Sat) rent car and leave Rome for Panzano in Chianti
June 13 - 19 stay at villa (already booked)
June 19 (Fri) drive to Florence and return car
June 19 - 22 Florence
June 22 (Mon) take morning train to Rome, eat great farewell dinner
June 23 (Tue) take noon flight back to Philadelphia

The only thing set in stone right now is the villa in Panzano. I'm hoping to get that extended one more day to have the full week but that's not likely possible.

If I extend my trip a couple of more days what would be the best way to use that time? Does it make sense to add more days to the existing city stays? Or could I add another city? Venice? Milan?

We have to fly in and out of Rome to get a decent roundtrip price and we absolutely love taking the train. Taking a train to get to somewhere else is a real plus.

Dayle

Hi ceezee,
Since you have already booked your flights and the villa is set in stone in the middle of the trip, you options are more limited.

I would definitely change the order of Rome and Florence! Arrive and train straight to Florence. It does depend on you personal interests ,butfor me, Florence requires less time than Rome. Right now you only have 2.5 days in Rome and it really takes a bare minimum of 3 full days tosee just the highlights. If you do Rome last you can possibly add days there. But, if you have already booked your flight are you willing to pay the change fees to add days?

If not and you can add days you could change departure city and perhaps add a destination . Personally, I would add the time to Rome. Then you would have the option of several great daytrips from there if youwanted.

ceezee

My flights are not yet booked, only the villa.

ceezee

I was thinking of switching them. But it's an eight to nine hour flight and put a train ride right after that seems like a really long day. Not impossible though.

If I don't go with roundtrip in and out of Rome my plane tickets costs go through the roof, by thousands of dollars.

I was originally thinking that after Florence we could go to Venice via train for a couple of days, take a train back down to Rome for an overnight and catch a flight back the next day. Not sure about Venice, tho.

joannyc

Are you using the multi-city option when checking open jaw flights? Shouldn't be thousands of dollars difference.

ceezee

Thanks!!

Nope, let me try that! You can see I don't ever end up planning multi-city flights. Seems like I'm always doing loops and am in and out of the same airport. I'll give it another go.

Aramis

I agree that you should consider heading straight to Florence after arriving. It can be done in about 90 minutes from Termini station. If you were going to navigate to central Rome after landing anyway, then the additional time is only the train to Florence (90 minutes) and from there to your hotel (max 30 minutes). You might also consider a one-way flight to Florence schedule to leave 2-3 hours after your Rome flight lands.

If you haven't booked your tickets yet are you certain that you have to go in and out of Rome to get a decent fare? What you need to beat is the additional cost of transport into central Rome and the train from there to Florence to make the cost of an open jaw into Florence and out of Rome work. Of course you did say you prize taking the train........

Anyway, for comparison, I can see into Florence and out of Rome; PHL-FLR and FCO-PHL flights on your dates for about $1641

PHL-FCO, return, I see higher, at about $1650 and up.

Have you seen fares less than that?

If you do find a couple of extra days, consider Orvieto on your way back to Rome

ceezee

Just checked and the prices are almost the same. So totally ignore my having to in and out of Rome. What I would like is non-stop and I can't get that out of Florence or Milan but I sure can from Venice.

KTtravel

I would not feel like hopping on a train right after arriving in Rome. The last time I arrived in Rome my luggage did not arrive with me. I was very glad I could wait for my luggage, which was on the next plane, rather than be worried about catching further transportation. I would add at least another day to your time in Rome.

Have you been to Venice? That would be a lovely place to start and recover from jet lag. If you can, I would start there and spend a couple of days before winding your way south.

ceezee

Those are the fares that I'm seeing. It is a tad cheaper to fly from PHL-FLR or FLR-PHL because they are not non-stop. Given an opportunity I will always chose non-stop. The issue with flying in or out of Florence is that there aren't any non-stop flights.

So, one option:

Fly into Venice and spend a couple of days (2 or 3 nights???). We love walking around cities and from all I've read and heard, Venice is a very walkable city. So this sounds like fun.

Train to Florence for 3 days (again a walkable city). When leaving Florence, pick up car and drive to villa in Panzano.

When leaving Panzano, drive back to Florence to drop off car and take train to Rome. Spend rest of trip in Rome (are 3-4 full days enough???).

Fly out of Rome.

-------

The only downside I see to this is that the relaxing villa stay is towards the end of the trip and not nearer the front. I need to think about this.

ceezee

Gotta love it. Just early August and only 2 seats left on the June 6 Saturday plane we would need to go from PHL-VCE. (The Saturday plane gets in on Sunday.)

janisj

Keep playing w/ your flights -- open jaw (multi city) is almost always better and seldom (much) more expensive. Check the flight times out of Venice -- not always but often, US bound flights out of Venice leave VERY early in the morning so inconvenient for getting to the airport.

But re your original plan -- you have less time in places than you think. It is really:

June 9 leave Philadelphia
June 10 - 12 Rome (2.5 days)
Drive to Panzano June 13 - 18 at villa (5.5 days)
Drive to Florence June 19 - 21 in Florence (2.5 days)
June 22 morning train to Rome
June 23 Fly back to Philadelphia

joannyc

Panzano in Chianti or Modena?

If Chianti, you may want to keep the car and drive to Orvieto for a few hours or overnight and drop the car there. You can take the train to Rome from there.

joannyc

Fly into Venice and out of Rome for the best flight times. As janisj mentions, flights out of Venice are very early!

annhig

ceezeeze - relaxing villa before you get to Rome and after Venice and Florence is an excellent idea. It can be very difficult to remember what you've seen where if you're not used to looking at a lot of art and galleries [i speak from experience!] and a relaxing break in the middle could you give your brain just the break it needs to absorb what you've already seen before you tackle Rome.

it's also difficult to think of a better introduction to Italy than Venice. in order to give yourselves time to recover from the flight, i suggest 3 nights there, which after all only gives you 2 whole days, then and early train to Florence for your 4 nights. BTW, neither 3 nights in venice or 4 nights in Florence are enough, and 3-4 days are definitely not enough in Rome, but if those are the times you've got, they are long enough for you to get a taste of each and to make you want to go back.

Go book those flights!

Aramis

>>>>>Gotta love it. Just early August and only 2 seats left on the June 6 Saturday plane we >>>>>would need to go from PHL-VCE. (The Saturday plane gets in on Sunday.)

The message you are getting doesn't mean there are only 2 seats left on a plane departing in 10 months - it means there are only 2 left at that quoted price right now. That price could go down in the future as well as up. This is how they get people worried and booking early.

bvlenci

Don't believe that "two seats left at this price" bull. It's very early for buying tickets fot June 2015, and there will probably be more than one fare sale between now and then. I' m sure the plane is more than half empty at the moment.

One general problem I see is that you're double counting some of your days. You say you'll be in Rome the 10th to the 13th, but the 10th is the day you arrive, which won't be good for much, and the 13th is the day you pick up your rental car and head for Tuscany. You won't see any of Rome that day. You really have two full fdays in Rome and a bit of a third day.

Leely2

I would add time to Rome, fly into Venice as suggested above, and perhaps cut back on Florence if necessary.

Did a day trip to Orvieto from Rome for the first time last month. It was lovely and the cathedral is magnificent. The Chapel of San Brizio is breathtaking.

Sassafrass

It would be far easier to see your actual plans if you lay them out without duplicating days in different places. List only where you will be for that day and night. You will not, for example, be in Rome on the 13th if you are leaving and driving to the villa, and on the 19th, you will be returning the car and staying in Florence, not the villa.

Agree with using multi-city option when searching for tickets. It saves both travel time and often some money not having to backtrack.

I would certainly add Venice over Milan. Venice is a great place to begin a trip and get over jet lag. If at all possible, I would do that.

Even with the, for me, minor concern of delayed luggage, if I had to do RT to/from Rome, I would still put all time in Rome at the end.

Adding days at the end, how does this look?
June 9 - depart US, arrive morning of June 10
June 10, 11, 12 - Venice
June 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 - Chianti
June 19, 20, 21 - Florence
June 22, 23, 24 - Rome
June 25 - home

If you can't add that much time, take a day from Florence and add it to Rome.

ceezee

Yeah, that double counting sneaks up on you. Next step is to lay it all out on a calendar so it makes sense.

Option one: 3 nights Venice, 4 nights Florence, 6 nights villa, 4 nights Rome. These seem to be minimums.

Option two: 5 nights Florence (after flying into Rome and taking train immediately to Florence),
6 nights villa, 6 nights Rome (with day trip Orvieto).

?????