My husband and I are planning our first trip to Italy for this summer. I have started the research and would like some suggestions on the best way to get around. Our major focuses are Tuscany (I work in the wine industry so we plan on spending 4 days here), Amalfi Coast (with additional day trips- about 4 days here as well) and Rome. We are not big museum people but plan on touring the Vatican.

My question is, is it best to fly into Venice then take the train to Florence? Or fly into Rome and take the train to Florence? I plan on renting a car for Tuscany only. Just did not know which way makes more sense. From Tuscany we plan to take the train to Naples and a transfer to Amalfi.

I am working on winery set ups in Tuscany through work but would also be open to any suggestions of places to stay also in the countryside.

Would you recommend a night stay in Capri or a day trip only? Also, if anyone has recommendations for transfers, hotels and boat transfer/tours that would be greatly appreciated around the Amalfi coast area. I also would like to take a cooking class so if anyone has one to recommend as well that would be fantastic!

We are open to any other suggestions of places to see and/or visit. Thank you all for taking the time to recommend and give your input!

You don't mention visiting Venice. If you are not planning on spending any time there, I would not bother to fly there. It seems that Rome would be a better choice - either at the beginning or end of your trip. The train ride from Rome to Florence is easy.

On the Amalfi Coast I would recommend Hotel Onda Verde in Praiano http://www.hotelondaverde.it/en/
I like Praiano because of its location- midway on the coast.

I did a day trip to Capri and it was great. Many folks love staying in Capri because once the day-trippers leave the island, it is lovely. In Rome I stay at the Hotel Mozart. It is a great hotel near the Spanish Steps.

Its too bad you don't have time to visit the Piedmont Region, as a wine affectionado, you would love the Barolos and Barbarescos.

Thank you for the input! I have toyed with the idea of spending a day in Venice if we do fly into there. Any suggestions on hotels would be great.

I am a huge fan of Piedmont- I wish I could see it all- I can only drag my husband along to so many vineyards at a time. Piedmont is on my list for my next visit!
--is it possible to squeeze Piedmont into a 10 day trip?

No, no time for the Piedmont on a ten day trip, with the other destinations already mapped out.

What do you plan to do and see on the Amalfi? If you want to visit the other towns, you should stay in a town with boat access. The SITA buses will be a nightmare and getting around by boat the best, and most pleasant, option. Consider Positano, Amalfi, or one of the lesser known towns with boat service. I love Praiano too, but I would not Try to travel from the town during peak season.

Do you want to see Pompeii or the Archeologial museum in Naples? If so you don't have time for Capri. If you go, have your hotel make advance reservations for the earliest boat. They do sell out. Personally, I most enjoyed the activities away from the hoards of tourists, a boat ride all around the island was lovely and the hike up to Villa Jovis very nice. Didn't care for the town and all the designer shops. I stayed 2 nts in and also enjoyed the beautiful Chiesa de San Michele and its famous tile floor.

The problem is you have to give something else up. I'm a believer in cramming a lot into a trip - but if you literally bounce from place to place with only a day or two each, you really don't see anything. Three stops in 10 days is really enough.
You definitely need the 4 days in Tuscany. How long will you spend in Rome? My first trip to Italy was 10 days and I did Rome, Florence( 4 days) and Amalfi coast (3 days). I only spent 3 days in Rome - for me a big mistake. The Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's takes a whole day. If you are there on Sunday, many things are closed. There's so much to see and experience in Rome.

You should probably save Venice for the next trip (with Piedmont). My first trip there is later this year, so for sure, I'm no expert. But, it does not seem a good idea to add Venice. Rome and Florence are relatively close to each other by train ( 1 1/2 hr). The train from Florence to Naples takes 3 hours. Then you will spend another hour or so getting to a hotel on the coast. That's probably enough traveling between areas If you fly into Venice its 4 hours to Rome and Venice to Florence is a little more than 3 hours by train. My advice would be to fly into the place where you want to start your trip or as close to it as possible.

Any reason you're not flying into Florence? The airport is small and picking up a rental car there and driving to the countryside is pretty quick and easy.

If the wineries you plan on visiting are near this farmhouse, I highly recommend it-

http://www.fontebertusi.it/en/

Fantastic location, accommodations, and hosts.

Enjoy your trip!

Regarding the flight, it depends on how you defined "best."

From cost point of view, many find flying into Milan to be the cheapest.

From travel time point of view, Rome would be fastest, then Venice, then Milan, but by not that much. To Firenze SMN station, it is two train rides from Rome and Milan, and from Venice airport, it is bus/taxi to Venezia Mestre station than one train to Firenze SMN.

The arrival time point of view depends on from where you are flying from.

There is now a direct train from Rome airport to the Florence train station. It does not run every hour, however, so it may not be convenient to your arrival time (and to get to Rome you would need to change trains).

I think you need to first figure out (or post here if you've done it) which wine region of Tuscany is your main focus. There are 3, and it is not easy to transit between all 3 from one location, only because there are no train connections and driving (while pretty) is slow going.

Also, if you pick southern Tuscany as your main wine focus, then it becomes a tad easier to fit in the Amalfi coast and use Rome for your round trip air. But if you are going to one of the more northern wine areas for your main focus, you might want to see the Amalfi first -- and then if it's possible to fly into Naples, it would be best.

So that is the way I would go about planning this trip: deciding on the wine "must-dos" first, and then looking at how to order the rest of the trip for ease of travel.

Also, for what it is worth, if you like Barolo and Barbaresco above all, then of course it makes sense to visit Piemonte in the future. But with very few exceptions, every region of Italy has outstanding/historic wines, and several world-class winemakers. Also, within Italy, the attitude toward wine tends to be that it is but one part of a meal, and if you are not big on eating the beef and butter of Piemonte, then a Barolo is not a particularly compelling destination -- whereas if you love the seafoods and tomatoes of the Amalfi coast area, you might be thrilled with a fine local Greco di Tufo.

(Just to be accurate, Tuscany has more than 3 notable wine growing areas, but the others have not become as famous.)

I guess you know your tuscany wines, but you are not popping into the Amarone growing area of Valpolicello which is pretty close to Venice?

Yes you will want a car in Tuscany and only after Rome/Florence et al.

Getting from FCO to Florence is easy and quick. It appears that the direct train is at 11:08...most trans-Atlantic flights from the US east coast arrive in time for you to catch that train. (You didn't say where you are coming from.)

But even if you cannot make that train, the usual way has a quick and easy change at Roma Tiburtino and runs retty much every half-hour or more often.


...much easier, IMHO, than going from VCO.

ssander

<em>...much easier, IMHO, than going from VCO.</em>


...I mean,VCE (Venice).

ssander

Thank you all! we are flying in from Dallas so depending on whether Milan or Rome is cheaper to fly into I guess we can go that route and then fly home out of Rome. As far as the wine goes, I would love to see everything however, I know that is not realistic and I can only drag my husband around so much before he is ready to change gears and do something else.

From what I have seen, if we fly into Rome there is a train to Florence that is just about 2 hours? since I am unfamiliar with how to navigate around the Tuscan area, (very familiar with Napa as everything is right next to each other) do you think it is smart to get to Florence then from there get a car to drive to the countryside? OR rent a car in Rome and drive up from there? I am not sure how long the drive is from Florence ( I know I need to pick an area to focus on)

Other than Tuscany, we are planning to spend about 4 days in Amalfi- Poistano area looks like the place from research. - Add in a day trip to Capri.
Is Pompeii easy to do as well?

Last thing we want to see is in Rome- The Vatican. We don't plan on spending much time here just looking to "see" it.

Again thank you all so much for the great info, ya'll have been so helpful!

also when looking for a hotel in Rome- what area it best that is easily accessible to the Vatican/Spanish steps?

I think it de-ends which wine region of tuscan7 you want to visit. If it is one closer to Rome just pick up the car there, if northern Tuscany then Florence would make more sense.

sorry, just did some research into this... Is it best to get a transfer from the Rome airport to Roma Termini? Ive read this is where the train is to get to Florence... Is it easy to navigate once you land or is it a cluster?

Dead easy to use the train. Easy train connection at the airport, Termini is big but not silly big, all the platforms are parallel and the big message board is at the end which you normally have to walk past anyway moving platform to platform.

We like Hotel Mozart. It is very close to the Spanish Steps.

katiegerman...

You do NOT have to go into the center of the city and transfer in Termini when going from the airport to Florence. (See my post above.) There is one direct train each day and many, many trips that have a fast transfer (15 min) at the Rome Tiburtina station.

Enter Fiumicino Aeroporto and Firenze S. M. Novella on the Trenitalia website, and you will see them all.


NOTE: I think that the direct train is at 11:08 but only during the summer...I saw it in May but not March.

NOTE: Italo (http://www.italotreno.it/en) also has trains from Roma Tiburtina to Florence...so you can look into those times to see how they match up with the FCO-to-Tiburtina schdules.

NOTE: Roma Tiburtina is on the east side of the city.

ssander