ljd144

Hi. I’ll be traveling to Italy this spring with my family, and wanted to get some feedback on my itinerary. We’re flying in and out of Venice and will be there for 14 days (including travel days). Here’s what I was thinking…

Day 1 – May 21 – Fly to Venice
Day 2 – May 22 – Stay overnight in Verona (or somewhere else in the area)
Day 3 – May 23 – Cinque Terre and Lucca, stay overnight in Lucca
Day 4 – May 24 – Pisa and Siena, stay overnight in Siena
Day 5 – May 25 – to Florence
Day 6 – May 26 – Florence
Day 7 – May 27 – Florence
Day 8 – May 28 – to Rome
Day 9 – May 29 – Rome
Day 10 – May 30 – Rome
Day 11 – May 31 – to Venice
Day 12 – June 1 – Venice
Day 13 – June 2 – Venice
Day 14 – June 3 – Fly back home

Should we skip Rome to spend more time up North, or be more rushed in Northern Italy so we’ll have time in Rome? I’ve been to Rome before, but no one else in my group has.

Should we do Venice in the beginning or get out of the city right away, and spend more time there before our return flight? We thought we would get out of town immeadiately, and just spend the night in Verona to regroup. Is this worth it?

Are we too rushed in cinque terre, pisa, siena, et al? Should we be spending more time in Tuscany?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Laurie

luvtotravel

Is this doable? Yes, but a bit rushed at the beginning. I'm not sure from where you are flying, but when you arrive in Italy you might be in need of a day or two to unwind.

I agree that starting outside Venice and ending with several days in Venice is a good idea. I'm not so sure about the Verona/Cinque Terre/Lucca/Pisa/Siena portion. If you sleep in Verona on the 22nd and sleep in Lucca on the 23rd, I don't see how you will have time to visit the Cinque Terre. As lovely as it is, I suggest you save the Cinque Terre for another time and give yourself the opportunity to enjoy it and the surrounding towns. I was there for four days and barely scratched the surface.

On the itinerary you have here, you are staying in four hotels in four different cities for the first four nights. You'll be spending a lot of your time traveling between cities/hotels, unpacking and repacking with very little time to enjoy your destinations.

What mode of transportation are you using in Italy?

Janeyre

I like the idea of Venice at the end, too. We began with Venice on our 14 day trip and ended up lugging a lot of souvenirs on to Florence and Como. Venice would be a good "wind down" venue as well as half the fun of Venice is just meandering,bobbing in to churches, and cruising the canal.

BellaVitaItalia

You either need to give yourself 2-3 days in the CT area or save it for another trip. It is also a much more direct route for you to go from Verona to Florence (day trip to Pisa and/or Lucca) and then on to Siena. Also, is there any reason you are not staying in Venice for a few days?

ira

Hi L,

Lot's of packing and unpacking the first few days.

I don't see how you can do Day 3. It's about 4:30 hr from Verona to La Spezia, and about 1:30 hr to Lucca.

Why not fly into Venice and out of Rome?

You could spend some time in Venice, train to Florence, see Siena and Pisa and then train to Rome.

Visiting the CT is strongly dependent upon when you are going.

kfusto

I prefer to fly into Venice and out of Rome and have done so several times. My upcoming October trips flies us into Venice where we will stay for nights, train into Florence for six nights and then onto Rome for 4 nights.

I think adding in the CT is too much personally and I was disappointed in the throngs of tourists when I was there three years ago. I would make no special effort to get there.

IMO, you are doing a lot of moving point to point, something I try to minimize as it takes up a lot of time and effort. I like to settle in for a few days at least and soak up the area.

Venice is the shortest stay on my trip as it is my least favorite place in Italy to stay but I am travelling with friends who has never been there so I feel obligated to make a quick visit.

ljd144

Thanks to everyone for the all the great advice!


We wanted to try to fly into Rome and out of Venice, but found it to be alot cheaper to fly in and out of Rome. We're flying from Philadelphia, and thought it best to continue traveling to Verona and spend a day to unwind and regroup there, and then concentrate on Venice at the end of our trip.

Right now we're planning on renting a car in Verona, and and using that to do Cinque Terre and Tuscany, then doing train from Florence till the end of the our trip, but we're going to redo the first part of the itinerary a bit. Is Lucca a good home base city to explore Tuscany? Is it too far to do a day trip to Cinque Terre or should we eliminate CT from our trip? Is it a must see? Also is is possible to spend more time in Florence and then do day trips to Pisa and other parts of Tuscany?

ljd144

I also wanted to thank everyoe for their great feedback again. Everyone on this board is so awesome. I'll definately be back with more questions, as I continue to plan this trip.

Thanks again!

Laurie

motor_city_girl

Are you flying in/out of Venice or Rome? One of your posts says one and another says the other.

Even though I love CT, I would suggest you skip it for this trip. You will be exhausted! I would add that time to Rome.

Or if you really want CT then skip Pisa/Siena. I know what you are going through. We went to Italy for out first time in April 2005. It was our 10th anniversary and we did not want to miss anything. We flew into Rome and had 3 days. It was not long enough and that does not take into account that Pope John Paul died while we were there. You never know what will happen to keep you from doing the things you want.

Next, we day tripped in Orvieto on our way to Florence. It was a great day! Two days in Florence, not quiet enough but we were not disappointed. Three days in CT; LOVED it! Then three days in Venice.

All of this felt a little rushed, so take the suggestions here seriously and have a wonderful trip!

ira

Hi LJ,

A. Did you check www.kayak.com for flights into Venice and out of Rome?

B. www.mappy.com and www.viamichelin.com say it's about 4 hr to drive from Verona to La Spezia to Lucca. This doesn't give you much time to visit the CT.

Why not stay overnight on the CT and go on to Pisa-Lucca and Siena.

Alternatively, you could stay in Florence and visit Pisa, Lucca and Siena by train or bus as daytrips.

C. You are spending about one day of your visit going from Venice to Rome and back to Venice.

Calculate the cost of doing this and see if it really is cheaper to fly PHL/VCE RT.

See A.

ljd144

Sorry for the confusinon, we're planning on flying in and out of Venice. We had wanted to fly into Rome and out of Venice, but found much better airfare if we fly in and out of Venice, and we did try Kayak.

Thanks again for the great help!

Laurie

mjs

I too would open jaw this trip as you will otherwise loose 1/2 day of your trip backtracking (+costs) so the difference in air fare must be fairly significant IMHO to RT to Venice. If you are flying in/out of Venice, I would do this trip in a very different manner. DAY 1 Fly to Venice. Continue on with the Eurostar to Rome. You will be getting into Venice in the morning or near noon and as you will be tired the first day why not just do the major block of traveling this day. Could also fly if the timing and costs work out better that way. Spend day 2, 3, 4 and 5 in Rome. Train to Florence on day 6 and spend days 7, 8, 9, and 10 in Florence with day trips to Pisa, Siena, Lucca etc. (skip the ct on this trip.) Day 11 to Venice etc.

ljd144

We're saving $450 a person plus feez and taxes to fly in and out of Venice, and since there were four of us, we decided this was the better option.

I like the train to Rome bit, I'll have to play around with that itinerary.

Thanks!