Help with 24 day italy itinerary in May
 

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if i can get some help planning out trip to italy. Just some background, we (my bf and I) are in our late twenties and are fairly natury and beachy people but also like nightlife and shopping in big cities.
Here's the plan so far but we haven't booked anything

Fly out of toronto May19 fly out of Venice June 13th

Arrive in Rome May20
May20-27th

Stay in apartment in Rome for 1 week (campo di fiori) not booked yet. We really want to enjoy rome and not rush.

May27th-June 3rd. Tuscany
We're looking at staying at SANT'ANTONIO Montepulciano
maybe do some bike tours, day trips to siena and pisa. Maybe a hike at the cinq terre (not sure how far that is though)
We might be skipping florence, i know that this might be a mistake but we think we might be tired of museums etc. after rome

This leaves about 9 days (not including the day we fly back)we definitely want to spend some time in Venice at the end (not sure how long)
We can drive down the almafi coast, visit sorrento, capri, naples, pompeii? find some beaches, maybe find a resort for a couple of days??? We're also looking a sicily, do a tour of Mt. Etna, some biking tours? visit some islands? find a beach resort again? How about Sardinia? Or the Gargano Peninsula??? Or should we skip Tuscany all together and do the Almafi coast and Sicily instead???

I would NOT skip Florence. There is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to see and do without going to museums. I find it one of the most enjoyable and attractive cities in Italy.
I would count out the Cinque Terre as a day trip. The train trip would be 3.5-4 hours each way. Maybe you'd want to go there and spend a couple of days though.
I also would not suggest driving the Amalfi Coast. Hop on a train to Naples and have a driver take you to your hotel. Much easier and more enjoyable! Parking is a commodity on the Amalfi Coast, and many hotels suggest that you NOT bring a car. Travel around the coast is very easy with buses, ferries, drivers, etc.
Check out www.ondaverde.it/hoteli.htm
We've been there 3 times and find it absolutely wonderful. Every room has a sea view and at least a small balcony. Some have some nice terraces. Great restaurant at the hotel, helpful friendly staff. Excursions to Pompeii, Capri, Amalfi, Sorrento, etc., or you can hop on a bus or boat and go also.
[email protected]

thanks for the great advice, we have to fit florence in there somehow.
cinq terre is 3.5-4 hours from Tuscany or Rome? Do you recommend Almafi instead of Sicily or Sardinia?

Will you have a car in Tuscany?

What about Bellagio and the Lakes Region? You could drive up there from Tuscany, stay 3 nights. Drive back down, turn in the car in Florence, stay 3 nights. Then train to Venice for 3 nights.

I may have lost a day in there. Your title says 24 days. Rome a week, Tuscany a week, plus 9 more days = 23 days. Did I miss something?

Thanks JeanneB
Sorry wrong math.
2 weeks + another 10 days
Living in toronto we crave salt water beaches, i believe that we're talking about fresh water lakes in bellagio + lakes? Is it nicer there than almafi or sicily?

Sorry, yes we'll have a car in Tuscany

Hi travellerwannabe:

Perhaps you could continue your trip in a somewhat circular pattern.

Drive over to the Riviera di Levante & stay 3-4 days, drop the car there & use local buses and boats to get around.

Then train/bus to Florence for 3-4 days.

Then train to Venice for 3-4 days.

<< Living in Toronto we crave salt water >>

After Tuscany you drive over to
the Riviera di Levante. You could concentrate on the towns & villages east of Genoa and as far south as Rapallo. There's Livorno, Camogli, Portofino, Santa Maria Liguere, etc.

Maybe chose one as a base & do short day trips. You can swim, sail, waterski
relax at the beach. Definitely will be salt water!

Di

I would have to agree with everyone else - Florence is a must, even if you go for 2 days. I would recommend at least 2 days, 3 if you can manage. It's a beautiful city and you don't have to hit museums to appreciate it. There's also a wonderful leather market where you can find quality leather for cheap (if you can haggle!). The food and atmosphere of the city is something you don't want to miss.

I would also suggest Capri, if you can swing it. It's really wonderful and the caves are just amazing. Cinque Terre is also worth a visit - easily done as a day trip from Florence/Tuscany area.

You have a good start, and are going at the perfect time. I would stay north and spend time at either the CT of Lago Como before ending in Venice. You can see Florence from your Tuscany base camp--no reason to change locations. I like your idea of a week stay at primary locations. You will have a great time.

Thanks everyone for your great input. We definitely won't skip florence then. We also really wanna do a hike at the cinq terre and head south.
I think right now we're thinking to do the following after the 1 week in Rome and the 1 week in Tuscany
1 night cinq terre
1-2 nights florence (this could depend on whether we day trip it beforehand or not)
3-4 nights AC (including capri)
4 nights Venice

Is the consensus not to drive to Florence?

Are you planning to do those places in your last post in that order? That's a lot of backtracking to get back down to the Amalfi Coast. It would make a lot more sense to go there after Rome, then up to Tuscany and the rest. Have a great trip!

We were thinking of following this order since we're renting appartments in Tuscany and Rome and most rentals go Sat. to Sat.
I'll verify the tuscany rentals, it makes sense not to backtrack if we can get a one week apartment rental midweek.

After a good start, you are now trying to add too much. The AC does not fit your itinerary---too many travel logistics. After Tuscany go north or south---not both.

I agree with Bob.

((I))

Have you already rented the Rome/Tuscany places? It would work much better if you could fly into Venice and reverse the order.

Venice
Tuscany/Cinq T
Rome
Amalfi Coast

Thanks everyone again!
I think we're gonna reverse the order.
Venice
Tuscany/florence
Rome
AC
how does that sound?
Jeanne we haven't booked anything yet (that's the lucky part)
What's the minimum amount of time required to "do" the following cities

Venice
Florence
Sienna
Naples
capri?

On going to Florence - if you are more nature/beach people, then maybe it makes more sense for you to save Florence for another trip (you WILL go back). You'll be doing a lot of the art stuff in both Rome and Venice, after all. Really read up on Florence, get a picture guide book (like Eyewiteness guides) from your public library, and try to get a feel for whether the sites/sights in Florence are important to you for this trip.

In your re-scheduled itinerary, I agree that you're trying to fit in too much (and my personal preference is for Liguria over the Amalfi Coast).

If you want to do the beach thing, then I'm not sure the Lakes Region is the right place. We've visited there, though haven't spent a huge amount of time, but there aren't a lot of white sand-type beaches, to my recollection.

There are actually seaside tourist towns in Tuscany; you might want to look into those. As I've never visited them, however, I can't tell you their names. :)

OK--that is better if you are intent on doing the AC. However, I would end in Rome. Keep the car and drive to Sorrento to drop it. Then, train back to Rome---probably from Salerno---and spend your final week there. I see this timing: 3-7-3-7--does that make sense?

seaside tourist towns in tuscany?? that sounds great :)
Bob, we actually have 24 days, possibly 25 not 20. So that should give more time in the 3-day places :)
rome first vs. AC first will depend on what day we get to rome and when we can get a week long apartment rental for (this is gonna be the challenging part :) )

here's the revised itinerary
we might be able to pull off 25 days instead of 24.

Fly to Venice, leave from Rome
1. Venice arrive Wednesday –leave Saturday (3 nights)
2 Tuscany arrive Saturday- leave Saturday (7 nights)we can only get sat. to sat. rentals. Includes day trips to Florence, pisa and Maybe Sienna.
3. Cinq Terre arrive Saturday- leave Monday (2 nights)do some hiking, relaxing
4. AC arrive Monday-Leave Sunday (6 nights)(includes naples, pompeii, sorrento, positano and capri)
5 Rome arrive Sunday- leave Sunday (7 nights) if we can't get sunday to sunday rentals in rome then take away a day from cinq terre, and shift everything up so we're in rome sat. to sunday.

This sounds like a very doable itinerary with the right amount of time in each place. If you're driving from Tuscany to the CT, we stayed in Lerici, where you can take a boat for a day trip to the CT. It was easy to drive in/out of. We also drove the Amalfi Coast and it wasn't that bad, but the parking was very expensive for the 3 days we stayed in Positano. May is also a wonderful time to go!

I would suggest an open jaw ticket, flying straight into Venice and out of Naples or Rome depending on where you end your stay. You do not have to book a "round-trip" ticket.

Also, I suggest that you visit Pisa on your way from south/central Tuscany to Cinque Terre.

I wouldn't take a day from Cinque Terre, I would prefer to borrow one from the 6 nights in amalfi instead. You need at least 1 full day ( 2 nights) in the Cinque Terre.

You have 5 cities listed for your 6 nights in Amalfi, I'd reduce that by one. (I'd probably skip Sorrento - its a good base but not the ideal destination)

where's lerici?

Lerici is across the Gulf from Portovenere, which may be a better option.

Sounds like a heavenly trip! Pisa is only one hour from Florence, so I would try to combine those two if possible- perhaps with an overnight in between (though I know you just debated this!) Going up to the same area twice from Montepulciano seems like a waste of precious Tuscany time!

You'll love Montepulciano. We spent a week of our honeymoon at the Politian apartments (www.politian.com) and fell in love with the town. I would recommend Pienza as another nice side trip. We actually hiked there, following the itinerary in "Walking and Eating in Tuscany," but it would be an easy drive.

One other small note- we were there at basically the same time last year (June 4-11) and there was a cold spell for a few days that we weren't prepared for. So just keep in mind that you might want a pair of nicer closed-toed shoes, and a sweater or light jacket.

Enjoy! :)

Great suggestions guys.
I'm thinking of hitting florence on the way from Venice before getting to Montepulciano and spending time there (leave Venice super early)and hitting pisa on the way to cinq terre to minimize travel time.
We can always do one day trip to Florence in addition if we feel the need to spend more time there.

Check out inflorencehotels.com They have at least 4 apartment rentals that go day to day. There is a beautiful one next to the duomo for 200.00 a nightfor a 1 bedroom, Palazzo Gamba. I just booked a 3 bedroom apartment for 6 adults and 2 children for 250 euro at Palazzo dei Ciampo. They have great rates and a good review on venere.com.

There are also day to day rental apartments in Rome. Just do a google search for apartments in rome. I found several companies that rent day to day. Good Luck!

Ok so this is the current itinerary / Status. Thanks everyone for the great advice

Leave toronto May16th evening. Fly into Venice and Leave out of Rome on June 11th (just booked an aircanada flight)
1. Venice arrive Wednesday May17 –leave early Saturday (3 days 3 nights)
pick up a car and drive to Tuscany
Saturday visit some towns on the way from Venice (Verona? Padua? Ferrara? Bologna? these are the options, any advice?) We're staying at Ca'Formenta in Venice
2 Tuscany arrive late Saturday- leave early Saturday (6 days 7 nights) Booked an apartment at Sant'Antonio. We haven't put together the schedule for Tuscany yet but we're hoping to do some driving tours of Chianti and hit maybe Elba and Saturnia and maybe Pisa.
Drive to Florence and drop off the car there.

3. Florence arrive Saturday morning-leave Tuesday morning (3 days/ 3 nights) No hotel booked here yet. Any advice would be great. We like to stay in busy happening areas, close to nightlife. We would probably want to keep this close to 100 euros for a double if possible. What areas are good? bad?

Take the train from Florence to Naples.

4. AC arrive Tuesday-Leave Monday (6.5 days/6 nights)
We're hoping to do Naples+pompeii/mt.vesuvius
maybe hire a driver to do down the Almafi coast and hit Positano or Ravello
Go to capri for maybe 3 nights
We're really not sure how to divide up the time here. We're very good at browsing small towns in very short time. We do want to make the most out of beautiful views and swimming as well as the archeological aspect of this region.
Since Naples can be dangerous, any suggestions on good/bad areas to stay in? How about the rest? Where's good to stay in Capri? should be do
2 nights naples
1 night positano
3 nights capri?


5 Rome arrive Monday- leave Sunday (5.5 days/6 nights) check in june5th, check out june11th We booked the farneseII apartment with Comfortitalia at Campo dei Fiori.


We're very excited at this point with the flights and most hotels/apartments booked :) I'm also taking an italian course starting on Feb1, it's a 10 week course. :)

topping

Reverse Florence and Tuscany--train to Florence & get your car as you depart. Keep the car after Tuscany and drive to Sorrento to drop it--saving a big hassle on a train. The rest looks good. Have fun !

thanks bob. Unfortunately the tuscany rentals only go saturday to saturday so they're not reversible at this point.
Our main open items are
Where to stay in Florence (close to 100 euros)
and the AC itinerary (how much time to spend where at the AC)
thanks everyone

tt

On your trip from Venice to Tuscany: On our most recent trip to Italy, we also started in Venice, which BTW is a magical way to start a trip to Italy! We then spent several days in Ferrara, visiting Bologna as a day trip, before heading to Tuscany.

Ferrara is a cute little town and quite un-touristy, but you might want to save it for another trip, given your other options. Bologna is great for food, has a great food market, but is a bit difficult to get in and out of with a car. I haven't been to Verona or Padua, so I can't offer any advice re those towns. Consider stopping in Ravenna, however. It has a number of buildings decorated with very old mosaics, dating from the very beginning of Christianity. I would put those mosaics on the "top 10" of beautiful sights I have ever seen. On our trip, we left Ferrara after breakfast, drove about 45 min. to Ravenna, spent at least several hours viewing the various buildings and ate lunch, then made the 3 1/2-hour drive from Ravenna to southern Tuscany, arriving in the early evening. That drive really allows you to see the change in terrain from Emilia-Romagna to hilly Tuscany.

Thanks! that sounds really good.