I'm a person with limmitted time (ie I may not be back to europe for a very long time). I'm planning a trip to France and Italy this September. I have 16 days (including the day I arrive but excluding the day I leave). Here's the places I would like to see:
Paris (4 days)
Nice (French Riviera) (2 days)
Cinque Terre (1 day)
Venice (2 days)
The Dolomites (1 day to hike a bit)
Florence (with daytrip to Tuscany) (3 days)
Rome (3 days)
I'm going to fly into Nice and out of Paris, so here's my problem: how do I cover Italy without wasting a lot of time on trains? I plan to fly to Paris from either Venice or Rome, but it still seems I'll have to backtrack to cover Cinque Terre if I go to Venice first, and I'll have to backtrack from Rome if I go there first. Any suggestions on deleting part of the itinerary? I realize Paris is really out of the way, but I just can't bear to miss it.
Thanks in advance!

Hi raindrop,

Your problem is that you are trying to do too much.

What are the 4 most important places to visit?

What about flying into Rome, since that's the most southerly, then heading up from there? That way you don't really have to back-track at all. Do pack light.

With 16 days plan a max of 5 destinations, with a max of 4 hours travel time between each. Ira is right. I would drop one of the geographic extremes--either Venice, Rome, or Paris at the end.

If you can't "bear to miss Paris", I'd probably advise dropping Rome, and the one day trip to the Dolomites. My suggestion for your revised itinerary would be:

Fly into Venice
Train to Florence
Bus/train for day trip to Tuscany
Train from Pisa- Cinque Terre
Train from Cinque Terre to Nice ( with change at Genoa)
TGV from Nice- Paris

I don't know whether there's train service from Florence to Cinque Terre, which would save you the 50 minute trip from Florence-Pisa. I'm sure another poster here ( Ira? Bobthenavigator?) knows the answer. I know for a fact that there is train service from Pisa-Cinque Terre, since we're going that way this summer.

Good luck with your plans!

I agree with Ira.

Thanks for all the advice! It took me this long to figure out what I could and could not live without seeing. Does this sound more reasonable:
Fly to Paris (4 days)
Train to Nice (2 days)
Train to Venice (2 days)
Train to Florence (3 days)
Train to Rome (4 days)
And there is one extra day somewhere.

Spend the extra day in Paris or Venice. And if you haven't made your plane reservations yet, start in Rome and end in Paris. Rome is hectic and you have more energy at the outset of a trip. With the five stops you have mentioned, you have a very manageable trip. Enjoy!

You might want to see if some of these destinations have an overnight train. The train trips alone will eat up all your days.
I really like the places that you picked, this should be a fun trip for you.

Hi raindrop,

How important is Nice?

If you fly into Paris and out of Rome. You can fly Paris Orly to Venice on www.volareweb.com for about 40E.

If you skip Nice, you get more time for Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome.

This will allow you day trips to Siena, Ostia Antica, Orvieto, Verona, Bologna or even Pompeii.

We had a much longer time there but we flew to Paris and then flew to Nice from Parisn (found very cheap round trip Paris/Nice tickets). Then we rented a car in Nice and drove around Italy and returned the car to Nice and flew bak to Rome. It gave us a lot of flexibility and we didn't spend so much time in train stations waiting.

Hi again, I'm still revising! I originally planned to get a taste of France and Italy, plus I really want to see the French Riviera, so I want to keep Nice. So I'm thinking of:

Fly to Nice (2 days) (get over jet lag on the beach!)
train or fly? to Venice (2 days)
train to Florence (3 days)
train to Rome (3 days)
fly to Paris (5 days)

There is still one more day, so I'm thinking that if I can't get a flight from Nice to Venice (I believe the train is overnight or 7 hours) that I'll try to add that day to Nice and or Venice. I know many people would spend more time in Rome, but I've looked at the Frommers guide and I think I can cover what I want to see in 3. Also, I'd like to keep the arrival/departure in Nice and France because it is less costly this way.
Thanks a lot!

Hi raindrop,

Much better. You could do this and actually enjoy it.