As I've said before, we are family of 5 (2 preteens, 1 teen, mom and dad) and this is our first trip to Italy (our fourth to Europe). We like a little bit of everything (art/architecture/nature/ruins,history/strolling) but we are budget travelers and don't care about spending lots of money on food (we prefer street food and grocery stores).

Here's my thoughts of an itinerary (haven't done the plane tickets yet):

July 2011

Fly into Rome (probably will have to do Rome since tickets seem cheaper this way):
Rome: 4 days (leave by train?) (day trip to Vatican city)
Florence: 2 days (I'm thinking Tuscany will be too hot??)
Venice: 2 days (will a train get us here?) High-speed train to Sorrento
Sorrento: 4 days (with day trips to Naples, Amalfi Coast, Pompee)
Capri - 1 day?
High-speed train back to Rome and overnight in Rome until we leave the next day

What do you all think? Also, how are the local airlines in Italy? I was thinking maybe we could save time by taking a domestic flight from Venice to Sorrento (if that's possible and we can find something cheap). I've read that Capri is a tourist nightmare in the summer, is that true? It just looks so pretty in pictures- do you think we could do this as a day trip too from Sorrento? Is Sorrento a good place to base ourselves in (by good, I mean good food/cheap accomodations but nice place to walk around at night).

Thanks!

No reason to stay in Rome twice---save it for the end.
The best idea is to fly open jaw and start in Venice. If that is not possible, then start in Sorrento.

Lay, do check out flying into Venice as bob suggested. Stay in Venice, take the train to Florence and than take the train to Naples and transfere to the train to Sorrento. Train back to Rome, enjoy your visit in Rome and fly home from Rome.

If you find it is cheaper to fly into Rome and out of Rome check out the price to fly from Rome when you land there and flying onto to Venice and work your way back per my first paragraph. Try to avoid backtracking whereever possible. Best regards and enjoy planning your family trip!

I agree, don't stay in Rome twice. If you have to fly in and out of there, do your visit just once, either at the start or the end of your trip.

Yes you can take a train between Florence and Venice.

With a two week trip, personally I'd devote more than only two days to Venice (but I do admit a strong love for that city).

<< I'm thinking Tuscany will be too hot >>

If you mean the Tuscan countryside (Florence is in Tuscany) then the city will be hotter. I thought your kids wanted to see Pisa? It's not on the itinerary. If you stay in Florence you could do a half day/whole day in Pisa (there's more to see than the leaning tower).

Tuscany (other than the large towns like Siena, Pisa, etc.) needs a car. You can get to the large towns by bus or train from Florence.


<< Venice: 2 days (will a train get us here >>

You can take the train from Florence to Venice - very easy to do. And it's great to exit the train station in Venice (Santa Lucia by the way, not Mestre) and see Venice spread before you - it's a magical entree into Venice. I prefer to arrive by train rather than by plane and boat.

I like Sorrento, especially in the warmer weather. It's a good base for Naples, Pompeii, and the AC.

I think you should start either in Sorrento or Venice and work your way back to Rome so you're there at the end of your trip for the return home. I usually start at the furthest point in my trip and work toward my final destination.

From your other thread I know you haven't done a lot of reading about Italy so here's some advice:

Trains - bring water and snacks, especially for the kids. If there is food available on the train it will be expensive and not very good.

Pompeii - bring lots and lots of water. It will be hot and there is very little shade. There is only 1 cafe on the grounds and not much of a food selection and it is expensive. There is no re-entry to the Pompeii site. Hats and/or umbrellas would be a good idea as are very sensible, lace-up shoes (the walking is tough). No flip flops. Bring lots of sun screen.

Isn't 3 "day trips" an awful lot of running around, when you only have allowed 4 days in Sorrento? When will you actually spend time in Sorrento? What happened to Pisa? Personally I'd skip Tuscany and Naples, not because of being too hot, but because I think you've got too much still on your itinerary for the length of the trip.

For your trip, an "open jaw" flight (e.g. into Venice, out of Rome) makes a lot of sense. When you are calculating the cost remember that you will have to back track and include the cost of the train to do so if you fly into and out of Rome.

Thanks everyone! I will look into all your suggestions. Yes, my kids do want to see Pisa so we'll see how to fit that in too. Just read about the 5 fishing towns (Cinque sp?)...and how beautiful that area is... sounds nice but do you think I could fit that in too? I know, I know, so many nice places in Italy I need to read more and then get back to you all but THANKS!

Regardless of whether you fly open-jaw (into city X, out of city Y) or not, remember that transportation will eat up a large percentage of your trip. Much like flying, there is the actual time spent going from point A to point B, but there is also the time spent checking out of the hotel, getting to the train station, buying the tickets, checking into the new hotel, etc. Add a minimum of 2 hours to any travel time: if the train from Rome to Florence takes 2 hours, you'll spend at least 4 ultimately getting from hotel to hotel.

That's why it's important to plan a couple of days of downtime. No trips, no planned itinerary, just a day to pause and catch your breath. Day trips are fine, but you'll need to think about the logistics of what you're doing. Factor in the travel time to get there (and back!).

IMHO, my recommended itinerary would be this (or the reverse):

Fly into Venice
2 days Venice
3 days Florence
4 days Sorrento [day trips to Capri, Amalfi, Pompeii]
4 days Rome
Fly out of Rome

One variation could be to fly into Naples and out of Venice (or vice-versa), switching the order of Sorrento and Rome. The downside of flying into Venice and out of Naples would be that you would have to take a 6:30 or 7:00 AM connecting flight from NAP to a major European airport (Rome, Paris, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, etc.) to get the flight across the Atlantic.

For this trip, I would not make Naples a destination. It's a 75-minute train ride from Sorrento and you'll have already done enough day-trip schlepping from there. Also, Naples is a wonderful city for history, churches, and food, but it's not for the faint of heart. Save Naples for another trip, when you can give it more time and focus on it.

Summarizing, here's what you've mentioned possibly doing so far. And that's *12* places total in only 14 days. That's too much, so need to prioritize. Sure Cinque Terra is beautiful, so are many places in Italy. But you can't see them all in two weeks, and traveling with kids.


Rome: incl Vatican city
Florence: maybe incl Tuscany
Venice
Sorrento: incl Naples, Amalfi Coast, Pompee
Capri
Pisa
Cinque Terra
overnight in Rome

Hi,

Not to nitpick, but you will find your research about transportation and lodgings in Italy greatly aided if you use correct Italian spellings and get some geography fundamentals:

Cinque Terre
Pompei

and Florence is a city in Tuscany. When you go to Florence, you are including Tuscany.

I actually think Pompei is too hot in July, and the Amalfi coast -- even Sorrento -- veers toward expensive and touristy. For reasons of budget:

Consider Rome (day trip to Ostia Antica), Venice, Florence, then le Cinque Terre, and fly out of Pisa.

tdyls-

I really like your itinerary suggestion. For Florence- I assume that we can do a day trip to Pisa, right?

Agree with Zeppole that Pompeii is going to be very hot in July, but given what you've expressed interest in doing, I think tdyls's proposed itinerary is definitely moving in the direction of something workable!

tdyls, one small quibble with this sentence: " . . . you would have to take a 6:30 or 7:00 AM connecting flight from NAP to a major European airport (Rome, Paris, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, etc.) to get the flight across the Atlantic." I've seen this assertion made often in this and other online fora, and it may be accurate for certain US destinations (or certain times of year?), but definitely not all. There is, at the very least, one Air France flight departing Naples at the more reasonable hour of 11:50 a.m. that goes to CDG, with connecting flights available to both New York and Washington, D.C. Just passing this along in case it is of interest.

Iberia offers a great connection from NAP to JFK via MAD, departing Naples around 12 noon.