Went back and forth about my honeymoon destination, and decided on Italy for 16 days. 14 days of real vacation, as 2 will be traveling from Michigan.

It will be Early June. I've been to Venice, Rome, and Florence, but my fiancé has never been.

I'm thinking the following itinerary
Fly into Venice, 2 days
Train to Florence 1 Day
Cinqe Terre 2 Days
Rome 4 days
Amalfi Coast 5 days

How does this sound, is this relaxing enough? I know my fiancé really wants to relax, that's why I chose Amalfi at the end so we can go to a nice beach in Capri.

Have you bought air tickets? Because if your fiance really wants to relax, then maybe starting out with the Amalfi would be much better, and instead of doing both it and le Cinque Terre, spend more time there or add some time to your other destinations.

How about

Amalfi 6 days
Rome 4 days
See Florence en route to Venice, and spend 4 nights there.

In the Amalfi, there are some towns that have nice swimming places, but it is a rocky coastline with pebbles. If you want sand, you need to go away from the most scenic part of the Amalfi , closer to Salerno. Most people don't mind wearign swimming shoes (which you can buy there very cheaply).

If you stay on the island of Capri then you can't visit other towns on the coast because the ferry schedules don't really allow for it.. So it is better to stay on the Amalfi coast.

You might also consider renting an apartment in the Amalfi. It would be cheaper, and you can often find beautiful ones that have their own private terrace and access to a swimming pool. It can be much more relaxing to have a place where you can make some coffee for yourself, have some wine and cheese, sleep in and have breakfast whenever you want.

Have a lovely honeymoon! And relax! If you miss a few sights it really doesn't matter. They will be there forever. It can be fun to simply enjoy Rome or Venice without making appointments to see famous things. It's nice to see the Colosseum at night, and then go for dinner someplace nearby. Hostaria Nerone has nice food and is affordable.

Sorry, in case my suggestion wasn't clear, I suggest you see Florence on your way to Venice from Rome, and then spend 4 nights in Venice.

So:

Amalfi coast 6 nights
Rome 4 nights
Train to Florence, stow luggage in train station, walk through Florence, have lunch, get luggage, proceed to Venice, arriving in time for sunset
Venice 4 nights

Congrats!

My wife and I go a lot last May for us Amalfi Sorrento Hotel Delfino Best Western Positano intercontinental.com Rome
www.orvieto.info Hotel Grand Italie Florence Boscolo Venice-tourism.com www.bauervenezia.com We had a wonderful time.
We usually hop trains seat61.com/italy for cinqueterre.com Portofino areas we love www.metropole.it
Beaches are not good in Capri or Amalfi for white beaches consider Puglia or Costa Smeralda www.sardegna.com the very best. booking.com for lodging for ususually. We usually fly
RT into Milan(MXP) usually cheapest or ROM cheapoair.com and work our way around spending 2-4 days in neat places we like.

Happy Trails!

Good suggestions from Zeppole. (It's not often that I say this!) Your first itinerary is definitely rushed, especially the first part, when you'll be jet-lagged and sleepy from the overnight flight (and maybe tired from the wedding).

You might reverse her suggested itinerary -- because it's harder to get to the Amalfi Coast than Venice and because flights from Venice to the US leave very early, leaving you less time there. Can you get a flight out of Naples instead of Rome? In either case it's always best to be in the city of your departure the night before. Transportation interruptions are not uncommon in Italy.

I am thinking along the same lines as Mimar and Zeppole:

Fly into Venice - 3 nights
Train to Florence - 1 night
Train/ferry/bus to A/C - 6 nights
Bus/ferry/train to Rome 4 nights.

This, of course, means flying into Venice and out of Rome. You had better hurry and start booking hotels (or apartment in A/C). Early June is just over 2 months away. I have had my apartment in Positano in late June booked for over 9 months.

If doing five longish train rides - assuming you will go by train and train back to at least Rome from Amalfi - then the Italy Railpass could be viable, especially in first class which for folks on the trip of a lifetime I heartily recommend - bigger seats, fewer is the same size train car than 2nd class (which ain't a cattle car but often much fuller if not full) - more room for luggage - IME often empty seats to put my bags on nearby rather than fending for scare at times space in overhead luggage racks in 2nd class, etc. A railpass offers the chance to chose as you go which trains to take - the often highly touted here as a panacea Mini-fares come with severe restrictions that often make them in practice hard to change or refund - and to secure you must book as early as possible as they are sold in limited numbers so you must lock yourself in weeks in advance to a certain specific train - the pass can be used on any train and in decades of Italian train travel I have never ever had a problem making the required seat reservations that every Italian train apart from regional trains mandate - these do however cost usually 10 euros above the pass so factor that in when comparing prices - compare full fares to the pass if you desire flexibility to decide which trains to take once there - and in first class the pass may even stack up well against discounted online first class fares - 2nd class it depends if you can get discounted fares for all legs of your trip - if you have to pay full fare for say Venice to Rome that could be half of what a pass would cost. Another problem with online booking require by discounted fares is that the trenitalia.com site for novices at least can be very frustrating to use - see scores and score of complaints and flummoxed folks posting here about how hard it can be so that may require hours of time as well (but veteran users here report no problems so it can be done but it seems trenitalia.com purposefully perhaps tries to make it as hard a possible for foreigners to use the site - just my opinion on why so so many novices constantly post complaints here about trenitalia.com.

Great sites for info on Italian trains IMO - www.trenitalia.com - official Italian Railways site with all schedules and fares - www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Hi BJ,

>...is this relaxing enough?

Depends on who will be doing the packing and unpacking, packing and unpacking.

How about this?

Fly into Venice 4 nights
train to Florence 5 nights (visit Siena, Orvieto, Lucca, Pisa, etc)
Take the 10:14 train from Florence SMN to Salerno - 3 hr.
Take the ferry from Salerno to Amalfi or Positano - 6 nights (You might want to do an overnight on Capri)
Fly home from Naples.

Enjoy your visit.

Check Ryan Air or EasyJet internal Italian flights. They might prove to be cheaper and definitely quicker and easier than taking all those trains.

Just a FYI: And I only know this from trying to book my own trip for early June- there are no non stops from Naples to the U.S. They all make at least one stop, either in Rome (FCO) or Paris or London.

Secondly, yes, hurry and decide. I booked our trip to the AC 8 months ago, and it was hard to get what I wanted!

consider putting at least one more if not two days into Florence and dropping 1 or 2 from Amalfi IMO! Or just delete Florence - in a half-day you can see very little of it.