jstein925

AHHHHH FINALLY BOOKED OUR TICKETS!!! 3 years in the making!

May 7th-May 21st
Into Venice at 9am

The ideal travel plan for my wife and I includes about 2 nights in Venice, head down to Florence for a 3-4 nights with day trips, go down to the Amalfi Coast for 2 nights (or also considering Cinque Terre since it's closer), then finish in Rome for 2-3 nights. I tried to account for traveling as well.

We know it's not typically recommended to go this many places in a short time and we won't even scratch the surface with the number of nights in these places, but we really want to get a taste of multiple regions and think these are the places we want to see on our first trip! (If we're crazy, feel free to let us know)

We're excited to start planning the specifics and would love anyone's input on things such as day trips in tuscany, modes of transportation, places to stay on a budget, places to skip, itinerary suggestions etc. Or if there is a post similar to this, a reference to that would be great as well.

Thanks!

vincenzo32951

I'll omit the lecture on too many places. You know what's best for you. One note: If you're asking for "places to stay on a budget," you're going to have to say what your budget is.

Arriving in Venice: You can use the Alilaguna ferry into the city. But I'd recommend looking into a shared water taxi through one of the tour companies like Viator. It's a much more pleasant way to enter the city than the ferry.

Day trip to Tuscany: Many people here, including me, have used Luca at hillsandroads.com. He's very good. You can do that out of Florence and/or visit Siena on your own via express bus (not the train) out of Florence.

In Florence, if you want to see David and tour the Uffizi, book your timed tix through the international phone service. There's no surcharge, and you don't pay until you show up.

To get the Cinque Terre, you'd take the train out of Florence and change trains in Pisa. Everyone has a favorite town there, so it's hard to recommend one over the other.

Amalfi Coast: You would have to figure out where you're staying before deciding on transportation, etc. A lot of people stay in Sorrento, which technically isn't part of the AC, because you can take the train directly there from Naples and have access to other towns on the AC. It has its pluses and minuses.

sandralist

Unless you rent a car in Tuscany it is very hard to see the most scenic parts in a time efficient or inexpensive way.

In May, le Cinque Terre can experience a fair amount of rain, and it is rather difficult to reach, so I would put that into the "maybe" or "only if" category.

Your trip only works if you want to see a very few things in all the places you've named, or just go have a look-see without trying to see anything specific. Also, unless you make a plan to visit something other than the most tourist-clogged areas, you might find that while your trip is visually stunning, getting to see all the photogenic icon sights of Italy, your actual experience of Italy is one of being in theme-park like queues surrounded by babbling tourists, all jostling each other for the same photo op.

If you are really trying to see the "wow-take-a-picture" sights of Italy and don't care abou tourist hordes, your trip would be a lot easier if you took an organized bus tour, because they will deliver you exactly where you want to go without you getting lost, fussing with all the details of train tickets, car rentals and drops off, and dragging your luggage around.

If that doesn't appeal, then see if it makes sense for you to rent a car for the Tuscan-le Cinque Terre portion of your trip, and whether you want to spend more than a day in Florence. Or see if you can fly to Naples, head straight for the Amalfi coast, and then work your way north without a car rental.

I wouldn't enjoy the trip you've described, not because it has too many targets, but because I wouldn't enjoy the wall-to-wall sightseeing of BIG TICKET things to gawk at. The Italian life style, away from masses of sightseeing tourists, is actually very enchanting and something of a rare thing to have been preserved in today's globalized world. In fact, it might not last much longer. It's worth experiencing as an education value, and something to think about in its own right. But you can't experience it if you never wander away from the crowds of foreigners

That said, I travel in Italy all the time to see the great mosaic, the stunning castle, the most beautiful church, and I don't mind the effort it takes to do that, and I don't mind switching hotels to see more. If you really want to see the Colosseum, the amaements of Venice and Florence, the cliffs of the coast, don't let me (or anybody stop you) but realize you are taking on a lot and you will need to be in good shape to even complete the exertion.

jstein925

Thank you for the tips. We are thinking $150-$200 per night give or take, but realize it could be more in certain areas and are fine with that.

Dayle

Hi JS,

Congratulations! I am so excited for you to be planning your first trip.

On a trip of this length , it's important to know exactly how many nights you have in Italy in order to give good suggestions. If you have the option to add a couple of nights do it because you can never have enough time in this wonderful country.

Having been to all your destinations, I would do either

3nts Venice
2 nts Cinque Terre
2 nts Florence
4 nts Rome

Or

2 nts Venice
2 nts. Florence
Pick up rental car
3 nts Tuscan countryside
4 nts Rome

With any plan you have to be very selective of what you want to try and see/do. As you say, you will only be scratching the surface and you WILL return for more.

Venice 3 nts because your first day will only be about a half day and jet lagged at that.

Tuscan countryside because May is so gorgeous! Green wheat fields and red poppies. Also easier to do between the major cities.

No Amalfi Coast this time. Takes too long in travel and there is so much to see and enjoy that really a week is best for this area.

4 nts in Rome because that will just scratch the surface. Rome can be overwhelming to some and my theory is that's because they try to cram everything in too short a visit. That makes it stressful and frustrating. Pick 1 primary objective each day, a secondary, and then research and be prepared with other sites or churches nearby that you can include if you choose.

Take time to wander everywhere. You never know what you will find!

You may want to redistribute the days in cities depending on your specific interests.
More time in Florence if you love Renaissance art, more in Rome if you love history....more in the countryside if you enjoy scenery, photography. A dilemma if, like me, you enjoy it all.

I see more visits to Italy in your future.

PS, no reason to fear driving in the countryside. It's a joy!

Buon viaggio

jstein925

Thanks Sandralist! We are planning on renting a car in Tuscany. A bus tour is something we didn't consider but not a bad idea. I understand your points and appreciate the insight. I can understand that would not enjoy this type of trip, but do you think that has some to do with your travel experience or do you feel we will not enjoy this trip either based on the itinerary? This will be our first time in Italy. While we're not the type of the people that want to stand in long lines and feel like tourists the whole time, we also have a hard time going on our first trip and not seeing at least some of the things that most tourists do see. Is it not possible to see some of the main attractions while also experiencing the Italian lifestyle and culture and taking in that enchanting aspect? For instance, could we commit one long day in Rome to doing as much tourist stuff as possible and taking in the sites and then one day wandering the streets and not following any sort of tour book itinerary and letting the day take us wherever it may? Is that just unrealistic considering all of the factors you mentioned? We really appreciate the insight from experienced travelers.

jstein925

Thanks Dayle! I like the second option. Maybe it's worth cutting out of the AC this trip.

socaltraveler

On one of our first trips I had planned something similar, and fussed over it until I took out the Amalfi Coast. We saved that for another trip. If I read your dates correctly, you have either 12 or 14 days, not sure if those include travel days. Since you seem open to tweaking the trip, if you have 12 days, I would toss out both the AC and CT, especially AC, so much travel time down there. 12 days for Rome, Florence, Tuscany and Venice is a decent amount of time to explore and savor different areas.

jstein925

We arrive the morning of the 8th in Venice. And leave on the 21st at 1pm from Rome. Thanks for sharing Sandralist. That makes sense.

jstein925

Socaltraveler*

sandralist

>>>For instance, could we commit one long day in Rome to doing as much tourist stuff as possible and taking in the sites and then one day wandering the streets and not following any sort of tour book itinerary and letting the day take us wherever it may? Is that just unrealistic considering all of the factors you mentioned?<<<

If you consider the major tourist sights of Rome to be the Colosseo/Forum, the Vatican/St Peter's Basilica -- optimistically -- you could do both in one long tiring day, eating on the go. If you want to do something like that, it would make sense to book some guided tours, and you might take a look a books or websites that advise cruise travelers "If you only have 1 day in Rome" or "Florence in 1 day" to get some sense if you would be happy with that pace.

I wouldn't enjoy doing that because I don't find anything about art and history obvious. When I visit art and history sights in Europe, I want to understand what I am seeing. Also, if I spend two hours in a museum, I don't feel like going to another museum the same day. Also, if I go to someplace like the Amalfi Coast or le Cinque Terre, I want to find someplace quiet, away from everybody, to relax and not have an agenda except finding a good lunch.

Also, the first time I went to Italy, I booked 3 weeks but had a list of 5 things I wanted to see. Not five places. Five things. A Bernini statue. A mosaic in Ravenna. Florian's in Venice. A pasta shop in Bologna. The last Supper in Milan. I figured the rest of the time, I would find things that interested me, and I was right, and some of those things included places like Colosseo or the Accademia museum in Venice. In other words, I left most of my trip unplanned, but I left myself with a lot of time in each place.

Even though I don't know many people who tour Italy like I do -- making interesting quests -- I still think it isn't a bad idea to pick just one reason to go to a destination, a reason that you would be heartbroken to leave Italy without having done it, and if you can't come up with one specific, compelling reason for going to Venice or Florence or some specific place in the Amalfi coast, then take it off the list of destinations. I say that because I think too many people visiting Italy are driven by the idea of doing what "everybody else does". It's just a march of the lemmings, and many people arrive at these destinations wondering what they are supposed to be looking at -- or are a little surprised it takes all of 15 minutes to see it.

Off the top of my head I can think of 20 famous places in Italy that aren't even on your list, so I don't know why you are picking this handful to gallop through. Why not see Lago di Como? No Last Supper? No Assisi? No Etna? Those are also the things most tourists see, so the reality is that you are going to see very, very, very little of Italy, especially what makes Italy special, if you spend most of your time traveling long distances to try and see what other people see.

Better I think to just think about what interests you most personally, and then leave yourself with time to notice new things you didn't expect at all.

jstein925

I think you should just meet us and take us on an Unplanned Day Trip with Sandralist

You make a ton of great points. Thanks.

nytraveler

Sorry - you can;t really see the major sights in Rome in one day - it;s two solid days for the very basics: one for the Vatican Museum, St Peter's, Scavi, Treasury, Dome and possibly Castel Sant'Angelo. Another day for ancient Rome: Colosseum, Forum (this is huge, the entire political/religious center of ancient Rome, not a single building), Pantheon at least, the museum if possible.

After that you will ned a third full day to explore Rome: piazzas, fountains, cute areas, a couple of other churches (out of the many dozens), possibly the Borghese and just some sitting and people watching with a drink.

(Yes, you can see tour groups combining the first into one day - but they are missing many of the major sights and do you really want to exhaust yourself doing all this with a 7 am start?)

As for CT versus AC - they are very different and you need to decide which has more of what you want. We love AC and have no interest in the CT - but we don;t hike at all. (Yes, we will walk forever in a city or in a mountain area - but not hike along cliff paths above the sea.)

jstein925

Thanks for the pointers! We certainly don't expect to see all of the sights and don't want to exhaust ourselves by even trying. I guess we are just trying to figure out which sights we want to see the most and then go from there.

jstein925

Just curious, as a couple that hasn't been to Italy before and doesn't know Italian (though will will try to learn!), should we have any hesitations going to small towns around Tuscany or anywhere else for that matter that's "off the beaten path" and aren't seen often by tourists or mentioned in as many guidebooks? Or is that where all the fun is?!

Dayle

J

The towns you hear about are well known because they are beautiful. It seems each hill town has something it's famous for. Montalcino the Brunello Wine, Pienza the architecture and cheese, Orvieto it's duomo, Sam Gimignano the towers, etc.

I would recommend you visit the ones that interest you. There are so many! Some tiny villages, some larger, with Siena being the largest that I have visited. Orvieto is actually in a corner of Umbria which is also full of interesting towns.

As a suggestion, I would say allow enough free time to drive and explore. It's all lovely and you never know what you will find. One day we took a white road somewhere between Volterra and San Sano. We drove by a gorgeous restored home that must have belonged to a artist. In their field was a wonderful life sized parade of cows all in very bright multicolors. Still one of my favorite pictures of Italy.

I have some friends who visit Italy every year. Their method is to get a detailed map and find an unheard of little town that is still in the area they want to visit. They have had many wonderful trips this way.

In Tuscany you will find lots of English spoken. Even if not, most people are very hospitable and welcoming. With some good will all around, you won't have any problems.

Buon viaggio!

nytraveler

In Italy it's very rare to find places any tourist is likely to go to without a significant number of people who can manage basic english. Yes, there are tiny villages - more in the south than in the central/northern areas - where this is possible but don;t worry about not speaking Italian, as long as you have the basic polite phrases and a decent menu reader (really important) you will do fine. (Easier than many countries since in the US we use Italian names for many of the dishes.)

Even if you enter a store where there is none spoken, someone nearby will be able to help.

Keren

Here are two good places to stay in Venice:

http://www.mignonvenice.com/en/home.html

http://www.allavitedorata.com/

sandralist

jstein,

Italians will go more than the extra mile in communicating even if you don't share the same words/language. In most intances, just about the only difficulty you might encounter is if you need help with directions -- not with asking but with understanding a complicated response -- so it is always good to have a map with you if you ask someone, so you can hand it to them and they can show you, or if nothing else, have paper and pen at the ready so they can draw it for you. But otherwise, most encounters you have will get conducted in a mix of Italian and English words and sign language and it will be fine. So don't let it stop you from plunging into the unknown.

Also make sure before you drive anwyhere in Italy that you have a basic grip on what a ZTL is and parking rules.

sandralist

By the way, for what it's worth, after six trips to Rome, several of them for a week or more, I have yet to go to the "scavi" of St Peter's (and never will), think going inside the Castel Sant'Angelo is a crashing bore, and if there are "cute" areas of Rome, I've yet to notice. I've also never made a project of visiting fountains. If you have more than 2 days worth of sights you want to see in Rome, or if you have more than 2 weeks worth of sights you want to see in Rome, then it will take you more than 2 days or 2 weeks to see those. Make sense? Many serious people have never toured the inside of the Colosseum and many people who presume to advise you on the basics of Rome have never been to the baths of Caracalla or a Bramante building in Rome.

There are lots of different ways to approach travel to Italy or anywhere, but I think if you are going to all the time and expense of getting to Italy, it helps to have identified in advance what you want out of the trip, not how to get an "A" in how to be a tourist in Italy that meets other people's approval of checking off lists.