msreddy10

Hi,
I am flying in to Rome on September 22nd and flying out from rome on October 7th. In this trip, I am planning to visit
1. Venice for 2 days
2. Florence for 2 days
3. Sienna/Pisa for 1 day
4. Sorrento/Amalfi for 2 days
5. Rome for 4 days
6. Paris for 3 days

I am planning to fly in to Paris and out.

What order should I visit these cities in so that it is cost effective and also so that I don't lose too much time in travel? I am mainly confused about where to fly in to Paris from and where to fly out from Paris in to.

Currently, below is what I am thinking
1. Fly in to Rome and stay in Rome - 9/22, 9/23
2. Take train to Venice and stay in Venice - 9/24, 9/25
3. Take train to Florence and stay in Florence to visit Florence/Sienna/Pisa - 9/26, 9/27, 9/28
4. Take train to Rome and stay in Rome - 9/29, 9/30
5. Fly to paris and stay in Paris - 10/1, 10/2, 10/3
6. Fly back to Rome, take bus/train to Sorrento, and stay in Sorrento to visit Sorrento/Amalfi - 10/4, 10/5, 10/6
7. Take bus/train back to Rome - 10/6
8. Fly out from Rome - 10/7

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sri

michele_d

You are hopping all over the place and losing a bunch of valuable time with getting from place to place and packing/unpacking. You have not taken into account for any travel time.

If you follow an itinerary such as below you can maximize your time. It is still a very rushed itinerary but it gives you an idea how to proceed.

Fly open-jaw (into one city and out of another)

Fly into Rome 9/22
Stay Rome 3 days 9/23-25
Train to Sorrento 9/26 (or Florence)
Sorrento 3 days 9/27-29 (or Florence/Siena/Pisa)
Train to Venice 9/30
Venice 2 days 10/1-2
Fly to Paris 10/3
Paris 3 days 10/4-6
Fly home from Paris 10-7

michelhuebeli

Fly to Naples. Do Sorrento/Amalfi.
Train to Rome. Do Rome.
Train to Florence, stay, do day trips Siena and Pisa.
Train to Venice.
Fly to Paris.
Fly home from Paris.

Graziella5b

Is this your First trip to Italy ? And París?
...
My First impresion is way too many places. As Michele said most likely you will be exhausted packing unpacking ,checking in checking out, not to mention hop in taxis or buses to airports or train stations...
Get the idea?
First try to take a deep breath and visualize all this, then you, only you, should prioritize which places will be put aside for your next trip.
Paris, Rome, Florence are fantastic destinations,actually everything you have in your list are great destinations h but you have to be realistic and prioritize.
A good way to save sometime is to start with an open jaw ticket, for instance, like arriving in Paris and leaving from Rome. In between you can fly ,take trains, check www.whichbudget.com , take into account that getting from airports to downrown is time consuming ,also cost money in most cases.Subways might help but then it is a good idea to have a light suitcase or backpack.
Where ever you wish to go , you will enjoy it more if you allow yourself some relaxed time in a cafe favored by locals, or window shopping, or whatever your fancy takes you. Some travelers like a exchange of words with a local, walking in a food street market buying some local delicacies....what can I know? May be you hate these possibilities but fill in what you care and love to do and give yourself time....do not rush, because you might end
with lots of kilometers but an empty trip... Good luck.
..






.....
S

ellenem

I am assuming your flight tickets are already booked roundtrip to Rome. I am suspecting that you are now beginning to realize that a multicity ticket (home-Rome, Paris-home) would have offered a neater itinerary. Here's what you suggested:

9/22: Fly in to Rome
9/23: Rome
9/24: Train to Venice
9/25: Venice
9/26: Train to Florence
9/27: Florence to visit Florence/Sienna/Pisa
9/28: Florence to visit Florence/Sienna/Pisa
9/29: Take train to Rome
9/30: Rome
10/1: Fly to Paris
10/2: Paris
10/3: Paris
10/4: Fly to Rome, take bus/train to Sorrento
10/5: Sorrento to visit Sorrento/Amalfi
10/6: Bus/train back to Rome
10/7: Fly out from Rome

Your plan has you staying in Rome three different times--lots of time wasted on returning to Rome. Plus, virtually every two days you will spend half your day traveling to the next place, using valuable vacation time as michele_d mentioned traveling to and from stations and hotels, checking in and out, getting oriented in a new place.

I think Paris is the outlier here, and should probably be dropped. However, here's my suggestion of how to include it but switching your order and eliminating so many stops in Rome and giving you at least two full days in each place:

9/22: Fly in to Rome; take bus/train to Sorrento
9/23: Sorrento to visit Sorrento/Amalfi
9/24: Sorrento to visit Sorrento/Amalfi
9/25: Train/bus to Florence
9/26: Florence to visit Florence/Sienna/Pisa
9/27: Florence to visit Florence/Sienna/Pisa
9/28: Fly to Paris (from Florence or Pisa)
9/29: Paris
9/30: Paris
10/1: Fly to Venice
10/2: Venice
10/3: Venice
10/4: train to Rome
10/5: Rome
10/6: Rome
10/7: Fly out from Rome

I would still eliminate Paris.

mamcalice

I would drop the day trips from Florence. And, if you have already purchased your plane tickets, I would drop Paris.
If you have not yet purchased your plane tickets, consider a "multicity" route, into Rome and home from Paris. Stay only once in Rome at the beginning; train to Venice, train to Florence, train to Naples and Sorrento, fly from Naples to Paris. This is a very hurried trip but the fewer times you pass through Rome, the less time you spend traveling rather than seeing.

msteacher

I agree with the suggestion to fly into one city and out of another. I also agree with the suggestion to drop one city, probably Sorrento, giving you a little more time in the places you do visit.

However, if tickets have already been purchased, then you can make the most of the time you have by flying directly to Paris as soon as you land in Rome. This reduces a trip back and forth from the airport, which can easily take an hour on each end. Then, fly from Paris to Venice, visit Florence, and put all your Rome time at the end of the trip, so you are there for your flight home.

msreddy10

Thanks for the replies. Tickets have already been purchased to Rome . I never planned to visit Paris, but for some reason my wife wants to see Eiffel Tower and I am trying to accommodate her. May be I should just do a day trip to Paris from Rome just to see Eiffel Tower?

StCirq

A day trip to Paris from Rome? Seriously?

michele_d

That would be such a long day...I can't imagine.

Your day would look like this:
Leave Rome accommodations at 4 am
Arrive Rome airport 5 am
2 hr flight to Paris 7-9am
Transport into Paris 10 am at best
Sightsee 10-5
Head back to airport 5 pm
Arrive Paris airport 6 pm
Flight to Rome 8-10pm
Return to Rome accommodations 11 pm

If you insist: Easy Jet leaves Rome at 7 am and leaves Paris at 8pm for return flight. This would give you about 7 hrs in Paris if everything went smoothly. 7 hrs sightseeing and around 12 hrs non-sightseeing time.

http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Booking.mvc

AlessandraZoe

Drop Paris. We LOVE Paris, but it is feasible to see Paris on its own another time; it really is not feasible on this trip.

Take your wife dancing on St. Mark's Square under the moon. Much more romantic.

RoamEurope

I agree you should drop Paris but sometimes you need to do something crazy for the one you love. So here is a crazy thought: overnight train trip to Paris.... and back. I've done the Paris to Rome leaving late in the day and arriving in Rome the morning. I think the overnight works the same from Rome. So (in theory) you could sleep on the say to Paris, hang out in Paris for a day and then sleep on the way back without giving up your Rome hotel. All with a small day pack. It's nuts but in a good way!!!!!!

Then cut out any location that starts with an "S" and redistibute those days into the other locations. As others above have said more eloquently, too many stops not enough time at each.

nytraveler

You simply don;t have time for Paris in this trip unless you change your international flights - into Naples and out of Paris. You might want to consider the cost of doing this.

Otherwise I think you really must drop Paris.

Going to Rome twice is bad enough - 3 times is ridiculous - and give you not a vacation but a tour of the train stations of Italy.

michele_d

Is it not possible for you to switch your tickets to open-jaw? Or is this just too cost prohibitive?

annhig

well, I think you can do Paris - but of course at the expense of not seeing other places.

firstly, as you are flying out of Rome, make Rome your LAST stop. THAT applies whatever you do.

Day 1 - arrive Rome. train to Venice. you'll be suffering from jetlag anyway, so you might as well use the day to do the some of your travelling. spend 4 nights in Venice.

Day 5 - fly/train to Paris .[ I was going to suggest that you go to Paris straight from Rome, but the flight times, using easyjet, aren't brilliant whereas the Venice to Paris ones are much better and, for the time you want to go, cheaper too.] Stay 3 nights, near the Eiffel Tower, obviously.

Day 8 - Fly to Naples for Sorrento. Stay 4 nights

Day 12 - train to Rome, stay 4 nights

Day 16 - fly home.

Sadly, that leaves out Florence and Siena. but you can't have everything.

msteacher

I'll reword what I proposed above. In order for Paris to fit in this trip, you really should drop one of the other locations, either Sorrento, Florence, or Venice.

When you arrive at the airport in Rome, get directly on a flight to Paris (you are already at the airport and already tired from travel, so just plow on through). After a few days in Paris, fly back to Venice or one of the other Italian cities, then work your way back to Rome to spend your final few nights there before boarding the plane back home.

ekc

If you MUST include Paris, then I like the day trip idea that Michelle_d suggested, since the main point is seeing the tower.

So my suggestion would be as follows:

9/22 arrive Rome, train to Venice
9/23 Venice
9/24 Venice
9/25 train to Florence, afternoon in Florence
9/26 Florence
9/27 Florence
9/28 day trip to Siena
9/29 train to Sorrento, cab/bus to Amalfi Coast
9/30 Amalfi Coast
10/1 Amalfi Coast
10/2 Amalfi Coast
10/3 train to Rome, afternoon in Rome
10/4 Rome
10/5 Rome
10/6 Paris day trip
10/7 Fly home

IMO, if you want to see the Amalfi Coast, stay somewhere on the Amalfi Coast. Sorrento is near, but not on, the Amalfi Coast. If you don't really care about the AC but are more interested in Pompeii and Naples, then stay in Sorrento.

msteacher

Looks like annhig and I were posting at the same time and had similar ideas. Hers are slightly better, though. Do what she says and have fun!

annhig

mst - I thought of going straight to Paris, but the flight don't work very well and if the inward flight is delayed, it can throw things right out, whereas flying out from Venice is relatively easy and won't be dependant on other flights being on time.

I wish i was as good as designing itineraries for myself!

Judy

I agree. annhig has the best plan for you.