I have sent previous messages about my 1 month stay in Italy. I would like to visit: Milan, Venice, Turin, Portofino & Cinque Terre, Pisa, Siena, Florence/Tuscany (San G), Rome, Sardinia (maybe?), Pompeii (amalfi coast), and Sicily. The only problem is I don't really know where to start! I'm not sure how to link the cities up, How many days to spend in each, etc...etc...etc...!!! Any help would be gratefully recieved.

Elise <BR>You say you would like to visit.... Sit down and jot down why each place appeals to you and what your expectations are. Rank the cities and areas by the degree of importance they mean to you. Doing so will give you a good clue as to how much time you should devote to each city and region and will help you establish priorities. Pick up a good map of Italy and locate the places of interest. Determine where you intend to fly into and from (into Milan, out of Rome, vice versa, etc)and start to map an itinerary. Be ruthless if need be if you find you've run out of month before running out of places to see. Drop those of lowest priority; drop those involving the most complicated, costly or time consuming travel. You'll probably find that Sardinia and Sicily must wait for another time. I think you'll find yourself with 10 days committed to Rome, Amalfi and Pompeii; another 10 split between Venice and Florence and the remainder between Genova (Portofino) and Pisa. Into Rome, then Naples, then Venice, Florence and Cique Terre and home from Milan.

Elise: On another post to me you said you were planning on 6 months in Europe. I suggest you evaluate the entire trip and perhaps expand the Italy portion to 5 weeks so you can include a week in Sicily. I found it to be a really great experience, a little different from all the usual places. On the other hand, I too think you'll have to skip Sardinia this trip. <BR>I'd be interested to know what you plan to do with the other 5 months. As usual, however, Wes Fowler is right about setting your goals and your plan.

IMO, you really should start by getting a good guide book--I find Lonely Planet great for information on travel connections from one city to another within specific regions. The guide books also offer info on how much time to spend in each city, depending on the number of major/minor tourist sights they contain, etc.

(forgot to add this to previous post). Once you have a general idea of how much time you want to spend in each place based on your reading, then come back to this site and get some feedback on your proposed itinerary. I think it will be more useful to you this way.