Hey, everyone. I'm looking for some advice. I'm a 31 year old female that is going to be traveling with two other young, single females through Italy in mid September, hopefully! We want to cover Rome, the Amalfi, Florence and Venice, we are looking at 12-14 days. Is this possible in this time frame? We are in search of a fun vacation, night clubs, great restaraunts, beaches, shopping, etc...any and all suggestions or experiences would be much appreciated.

Oh, and we haven't booked flights yet, so we are open as to where we fly into and out of.

Thanks everyone!

Think of our trip geographically, working your way in one direction. So one possibility is Venice-Florence-Rome-Amalfi (fly into Venice, out of Naples).

If you can't get good flight connections from Naples, fly out of Rome and put Rome last after Amalfi.

For such a plan, 14 days (13 nights?) might look like
Venice 3 nights
Florence 3 nights
Amalfi 3 nights
Rome 4 nights

There's more to do and see in Rome so I would allow more time there. You could rebalance the other locations, 2 nights here, 4 nights there, depending on your interests.

Keep in mind that it will take at least half a day to move from one city to the next when you add in travel time, checking in and out, and so forth. I find it best to stay at each location at least two nights.

You can do Venice, Florence, Rome by train and then Amalfi by train to Sorrento and then by local bus. This is a lot to cover in 12-14 days and since your focus is not in sightseeing (museums, churches, monuments, etc) I would move around less and maybe focus on 2 places or 3 at the most. Rome to Amalfi would take about 4 hours each way, Venice to Florence about 3 or 3 1/2 hours, Florence to Rome about 1 1/2 hours.

I can't help with beaches or nightclubs but I would think that you could find lots of night life in Rome and Amalfi. I'm sure others here can help with clubs and beaches. Or you can check the thorntree site which caters to a younger crowd. What type of shopping, clothes and accessories? Rome is filled with great shopping.

If you do want to experience Venice and Florence I suggest (excluding travel days) 2 days in Venice, 2 days in Florence and the rest of the time split between Rome and a beach area. You can fly into Venice and out of Rome so you don't have to backtrack.

Have a great time!

Thanks! I'm just beginning the process of researching the trip so I really appreciate your input!

To maximize time fly open jaw..
into one place and out of another.

My 30 year old niece stayed in the town of Amalfi and thought it was fun.

I too would spend at least 2 nights in each location.

You will be putting alot into each day, but you are young

Don't buy railpasses. They are not cost effective for Italy.

It's quite possible it won't be warm enough for beaches which in the Amalfi coast area are more pebbly than sandy.

Hi CT,

Good advice from LNM.

Venice, Florence and Rome (my suggested order) are easily done, very enjoyably, in 12-14 days.

Tossing the AC, shortens your visit in each venue, and makes the trip a bit more hectic.

You could fly into Venice and out of Naples (which is what I would do), or VV.

On the AC, I can highly recommend www.lesirene.com in Praiano.

Sure this is a very straight forward trip to plan, at least the Rome/Florence/Venice portion. All you need is hotel reservations, and buy train tickets as you go. And 14 days is perfect for these three.

Amalfi coast take a bit more as you need to also use bus or car to get there.

Fly into Rome and out of Venice, or the reverse, to save backtracking on the group.

In terms of beaches you need to understand that beaches in most of europe are not like those in FL or the Carib. Many are pebbles or stones instead of sand and you won;t find miles of pristine white sand with few people unless you go to a couple of the islands. Mid Sept should still be warm enough for swimming - but do realize what beaches are like on the Amalfi coast before you head there.