cayla

Hi there,

My boyfriend and I are planning our first trip to Italy around December 8-23 (flight not booked yet), and I was wondering if you guys can suggest appropriate itinerary that allows us to really take in the Italian culture. The flight that we were thinking of booking arrives in Rome on Dec 9 at 7:45 am and will fly out of Rome morning of Dec 23. I know that two weeks is not much time but we really want to be able to visit Rome, Florence, Venice, and maybe Naples? We are open to any and all suggestions since we do not have an itinerary set in stone yet. Also any advice on renting a cheap apartment in Rome would be awesome. I saw some really cheap apartment rentals through the Rome craigslist website, but don't know if it's a safe way to go about renting an apartment, any suggestions? Thank-you in advance!

ellenem

If you MUST arrive and depart from Rome, then maximize you time by putting all your days in Rome together just before you depart for home. On landing in Rome, head immediately to Florence (or Venice or Naples) for your first night.

With your spread out itinerary, I would check on the multi-city option, flying into Venice and home from Rome. This should cost the same, perhaps slightly more, but you will save the travel cost and time of one relocation.

cayla

Thnks ellenem! Just checked some travel websites and it seems that the cost of an open jaw ticket is not much more, so we will probably fly into Rome and leave Venice.

zoecat

Great advice from ellenem.

I have no personal experience with craigslist for Rome, but I have heard that craigslist is not reliable for apartments in Paris. If you google 'craigslist rome apartment problems' you will probably find some warnings.

For apartments, I suggest you start with recs from here on Fodors (do a search on the forums) as well as here-

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/index.htm

ellenem

Check flight times. Flights from Venice are often very early in the morning (and reaching the airport can be tricky) while flights from Rome are later in the day.

Mimar

What ellenem is saying is you're probably better off flying into Venice and out of Rome -- or maybe out of Naples.

cayla

I just checked flights and there is a flight that flies out of venice 1pm, is that still too early?

ellenem

1 pm would be great. Many people have flights at 9 am which means getting up very, very early in order to reach the airport.

LoveItaly

Cayla, I have always had flights departing Venice around 7:00AM so a 1:00PM flight out of Venice sounds fantastic to me!

cayla

can anyone suggest the amount of days to stay in Rome, Venice, Florence, and Naples? Thanks so much for all the responses so far!

ellenem

Without knowing your particular interests, it's difficult to prioritize the amount of time in each place.

For your anticipated time, December 9-23, you will have 15 nights. A good beginning might be
Rome-5
Naples-3
Florence-4
Venice-3
(The numbers represent nights. Personally, I don't like 1-night stops.)

cayla

Another question: what's the cheapest and easiest way to get to the airport in Venice?

ellenem

Cheapest and easiest are two different things, plus it varies based on where you are staying.

1. Cheapest: walk to the bus station at Piazzale Roma and take the local land bus to the airport. (Cost: less than 5€ per person--might be free if you have a valid travel card)

It may not be reasonable to walk to the station with luggage from where your hotel is located, so the next level up . . .

2. Take a vaporetto (public boat bus) to Piazzale Roma and then take a land bus to the airport. (Cost: less than 10€ per person--might be free if you have a valid travel card)

Depending on your location you might opt for a more direct option . . .

3. Take the Alilaguna express boat from one of its few set stops in Venice directly to the airport. (Cost: less than 15€ per person)

If you have a group or money to burn, you might . . .

4. Take a private water taxi from your hotel directly to the airport. (Cost: about 100€ for up to 6 people)

cayla

Wow thank-you so much Ellenem! You've been such a great help!

ellenem

The websites for hotels in Venice usually advise on how to reach the hotel from Piazzale Roma, Ferrovia (Venice Santa Lucia train station), and the airport. Chances are you will arrive in Venice by train, so the directions the hotel provides will be helpful for both Ferrovia and the airport.

cayla

I'm in the process of booking my flight to rome and leaving Venice. We want to come home by Christmas time and there is a flight leaving Venice on Dec 24th at 6:50am which would get us home in the afternoon of that day, but is this flight too early? Would it be tough and expensive to get to the airport at 5am from Venice? Any advice regarding this would be great!

ellenem

Your discovery about very early flights leaving Venice is why many people choose to fly into Venice and fly home form Rome. Again, since we don't know where you are staying it would be difficult to judge how difficult to the airport might be. Vaporettos run all night on a slower schedule, but I'm not sure that the land bus runs earlier than 5AM, but land taxis should be available. Chances are the airport counters don't open until 5:30AM or later (The Venice airport is small.), so a land bus would be fine. Many with very early fights decide to make the transfer easier by paying a private water taxi.

cayla

Thanks for the advice! There is also another flight that leaves at 1 pm but then we would have to come home on the 23rd because the flight won't get us home until 10pm, which would mean a day less in venice as we want to spend christmas eve at home . The reason why I prefer to fly into Rome and then leave Venice is because from all the flights that I've looked at, flying out of Rome has longer layover times as compared to flying out of Venice. Do you know how much a private water taxi would cost us? We're trying to figure how much more money staying an extra day would cost us and if it's worth it since we would have to catch the 6:50am flight.

ellenem

private water taxi would be about 100 euro for the trip (fits 6-8 people). I think the standard rate is 90 or 95 but there may be an extra "night" rate. I believe there are also some shared taxis services that may be less expensive but cannot recommend one in particular. Sounds like you will have to choose which is more important, flight schedule or Christmas Eve at home. I'm not sure if any of the travel I've described will be affected by your travel day being Christmas Eve. Can you move the entire trip back a day (arrive in Italy a day earlier)?

cayla

Thanks Ellenem! Yes we will have to decide what we want to do about this flight situation. You are so knowledgeable about traveling to Italy, are you from there?