We are taking our first trip to Italy last week of Sept. and after reading several posts we came up with the following itinerary.
Arrive in Rome on Sat. rest the night and fly to Venice on Sunday morning. Visit St. Mark's basilica, Doges museum, glassblowers, Academia. Stay overnight and get nice sunset views of the bridge and grand canal. Fly back to Rome on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday take the first train to Florence and spend the whole day. Visit Uffizi Gallery and see David , shop at Pnte Vechio and visit the Piazza Santa croce check out the leather goods, returning back to Rome around 7:00 PM. Spend Wed thru Fri in Rome. Wed getting the Papal audience and doing the Scavi tour possible the Spanish steps and Trevi Fountain. Thursday visiting the vatican museums and St. Peter's, Friday doing the Forum, Colloseum and Pantheon

Can anyone that has done these three cities, share if we are on the right track with our plan? Apreciate it greatly.

codito96

Welcome to the forum. I'm not sure which posts you were reading, but I don't think there are many folks here that are in favor of backtracking twice.

Your plan is not on the right track. Try again, eliminate the back and forth to Rome and you got yourself a whirlwind first timers trip to Italy.

Assuming you've already bought your tickets in and out of Rome...

Don't "rest the night" you arrive. Catch an immediate flight to Venice.

Train to Florence.

Train to Rome.

Flying sounds very quick until you actually do it. Because airports are not located within cities, it takes a lot of time to get to the airport, spend time on security checks and waiting, fly, then get out of the airport and get into the new city. It will take up at least half your day each time, which is a lot out of an 8-day itinerary. Train stations are located right in the cities and require only minutes for check-in time.

Here's the way hamlet's and Jean's ideas could fit in your desired locations without wasting precious vacation time:

Saturday: Arrive in Rome; fly immediately to Venice (or take train--4.5 hours); sleep in Venice

Sunday: Venice.

Monday: Venice

Tuesday: take the first train to Florence (3-hour trip) and spend the whole day. (check bags at station)Take train to Rome around 7:00 PM. (1.5 hours)

Wed thru Fri in Rome.

Less backtracking, less wasted travel time.

You might also stay overnight in Florence, but in your original plan you seemed satisfied to just spend the day, so I left the plan that way.

As mentioned, this is really not a good plan. It appears you only have seven nights in Italy. Three cities is really too much for that short time. If you insist on staying with all three, do as Jean suggests, but I hope you will consider choosing two of the three. With three, you will spend way too much time in airports and on trains.

Jean your assumption is correct. Thanks for the info.. We will do that instead.

codito96

thank you all for your replies. You can tell we don't get out much and all your input is greatly appreciated. It's four of us and one of the travelers insists in doing all 3 cities.. soooo we are trying to accomodate her. We are all over 55 yerars of age and hope to be ready for the amount of walking needed to do all 3 cities.

In what two cities are the majority interested? It would be easy tp drop Florence, or make it an optional daytrip from Rome for those who care to make it.

Yes, start walking now--get those shoes broken in before you go.

Rome and Venice.

I agree with ellenem. Focus on Rome and Venice and the one person in your group can take a daytrip to Florence from Rome, or stop there for a night while traveling from Rome to Venice.

Well you seem to be doing an awful lot of circling in a very small time. If you havee only a week I would od 2 cities. Start in one (Rome), seeit, take the train to Florence or Venice (your choice) and fly home from there.

You trip involves a huge amount of time (an money) flitting all over the landscape. Have you looked at a map of Italy and checked out the train times between cities?

At Kayak.com there are several flights (under $100) from Rome FCO to Venice VCE on the last Saturday in September. 1 hour, 5 minutes.

Since you will already be at FCO, flying would be by far your best option. Don't go all the way into Rome to spend just one night. Fly on to Venice. It sounds like you've already booked your flights to FCO, so you'll have to collect your luggage and check in again for the flight to VCE.

Given only 7 days, I would not stop in Florence. I'd spend 2 full days/3 nights in Venice, then train directly to Rome on Tuesday.

codito, it's not just all the walking involved in visiting all three. You can't go to Italy without doing a lot of walking! With your short time, it's the travel time and logistics involved. If you go directly to Venice from Rome as suggested, you'll barely have time to scratch the surface with three nights in Venice and four in Rome. I agree, let your one who wants to do all three do a daytrip by herself to Florence from Rome. Don't let her wishes make all of you do a trip you really don't want to do. If you do, this is the kind of thing that can ruin a friendship (three of you stewing over having to do something just one person wants). Just something to think about.