Hello Fodorites,

I am off to Rome for a conference and need to be there on the night on December 1st and depart on morning of December 5th. Wife will be accompanying and we thought we could take a minor excursion.

We can only leave a couple of days earlier and the best possibility is to arrive in Italy on the morning of November 29th. That gives us 2 extra days.

There are two possibilities:

1) We fly in via Milan, take a train to Florence (arrive around 3:00 PM on 29th November) and spend two nights there. Train to Rome on December 1st.

2) We fly into Venice, stop for 4 hours or so (lunch, stroll) and take a train to Florence. This way, we arrive in Florence around 9:00 PM on November 29th)

Would appreciate our views greatly. We haven't been to Italy before, so while there is the charm of having a quick peek at Venice, I am also inclined to take it easy and just head straight to Florence (spend two nights, one full day and two half days) and then on to Rome.

There is no reason for you to fly to Milan if you are doing so in order to visit Florence. You won't be seeing any of Milan and will waste a lot of time getting from the airport to the train station. You can just as well fly into Rome and take a train to Florence--only 1.5 hours away.

If you are arriving from the US, flying into Venice and "taking a stroll" before getting on a train to Florence will be exhausting. You'll be bleary-eyed throughout your quick peek.

I'd fly to Rome and train straight to Florence for your two extra nights.

Hi A,

>2) We fly into Venice, ...

This is a good idea

>...stop for 4 hours or so (lunch, stroll) and take a train to Florence. This way, we arrive in Florence around 9:00 PM on November 29th)

This is not a good idea.

I would stay in Venice and take the train to Rome on Dec 1.

If you want to see Florence, I suggest that you fly into Florence FLR or Pisa PSA.

you have received some good info - but you'd have even more if your title was more descriptive. "Help with Itinerary" could be asking anything about anywhere in Europe. I'd suggest you re-post w/ a better title . . .

I would fly into Florence if I wanted to visit Florence, but apparently you already have found out that this can't be done for some reason.

I don't get the point of 4 hours in Venice. You'd barely get oriented let alone really be able to enjoy anything. Seems like a bit of a waste of time and money for very little return.

But different strokes for different folks--my first visit to Venice was at age 12 back in about 1960. My father was a hit and run traveler--he couldn't stand to stay anyplace more than a day or so (unless fishing was involved). We had a whole 2 hours in Venice--just a blur. At least we spent more time in Venice than in Florence, and we did get a full day in Rome!

Thanks all. janisj - thanks for your advice, I have re-posted with a more specific title.