Coco6224

The future hubby and I will be honeymooning in Italy in April 2013. We are extremely excited and trying to research as much as possible, but would love so assistance! As of now, our iternary looks like this.

Sunday, April 21 - Depart New Jersey (overnight flight)
Monday, April 22 - Arrive in Rome, around noon
Tuesday, April 23 - Rome
Wednesday, April 24 - Rome
Thursday, April 25 - Rome
Friday, April 26 - Rome
Saturday, April 27 - Depart Rome, and travel to Siena
Sundsay, April 28 - Siena
Monday, April 29 - Depart Siena, and travel to Florence
Tuesday, April 30 - Florence
Wednesday, May 1 - Florence
Thursday, May 2 - Florence
Friday, May 3 - Depart Florence, arrive back in New Jersey

My questions are as follows...

1) What is the best way to get from Rome to Siena? Should we take the train to Orvieto, and then rent a car? I hear car rentals may be expensive for a short amount of time. From there we will drive to right outside of Florence and drop it of. If the car isn't the best option, does a train go to Siena?

2) How many days are recommended in Florence? We do want to enjoy the history, the culture and the art of the city, but my fiance would like to do a day trip to Pisa (I tried talking him out of it. Failed. At that point I would like to see Lucca... so I did find a tour that does both in a day) at some point. Will 2.5 days in Florence be enough though?

3) It it worth taking a day away in Rome and day tripping it to Pompeii?

4) Has anyone ever been to the Vatican on a Wednesday when the Pope is having his Papal service? I imagine that crazy doesn't even begin to describe the scene there. Is it worth the attempt? Or is Wednesday just a day to avoid the Vatican. I do know we need tickets to this.

We both have never been to Italy, and to be honest, don't know when we will be back again... if ever. We do understand that the schedule may be a little tight and jammed pack, but that's the type of honeymoon we know we are going to have. We would like to enjoy Rome and Florence, but also have a moment to enjoy the countryside in Tuscany somewhere. We heard Siena is a beautiful place and figured that was the best. However, we are open to revamping it if there are any new suggestions.

If anyone has any suggestions or answers to some of those questions, I would appreciate it! Thank you!

tarquin

I will leave answering your other questions to the proficient itinerary planners amongst us, but the Wednesday papal audience one is easy. You will have no problems seeing the Pope give his address from the small high window where he appears and it is well worth doing if only to watch the nuns and priests from all around the world who gather in front of St Peter's.

capxxx

There is train service to Siena, but it would take a change and the train station is a little inconvenient because far from the town center.

There are good regional buses that do stop in town center: from Rome take the SENA bus, from Florence (and other areas in Tuscany) take the SITA bus. Or you could rent a car -- but cars are prohibited from town centers often, and a pain to drive in cities.

You might be better off starting by taking the train Rome to Florence -- more direct and better service than Rome to Siena -- then later taking the bus from Florence to Siena.

2.5 days is a minimum amount, imho, but ok.

Forget the daytrip to Pompeii -- it is too far to make a reasonable daytrip.

Can't help with the vatican question.

bilboburgler

I think I'd do the train to Florence route first as well as it gives you a bit of time to get used to country before you start catching buses. (not tricky but just one more complication). The train is very easy, efficient and clean.

I asked an Italian how long Florence needed and he said "6 weeks for the first visit" but you can do well in 2 whole days with art gallery, cathedral, gardens, a couple of churches and a market of two making a good start. Central Florence is not good for cars and there is an extra charge in the central area. The city is all easy walking.

Coco6224

Would you just do a day trip to Siena then? I would hate to end up in a place and have to back track to get to the airport when we depart. That was my only thinking when looking at the itinerary.

Reading54

I enjoyed evenings in Siena when it was not as crowded as during mid day.

You may take a SENA bus ( http://www.sena.it ) direct from Roma Tiburtina station to Siena's Piazza Gramsci, which is closest to the old town center. (There are several stops in Siena, you'd want to get off at Piazza Gramsci if your hotel is in the old town.)

It was very easy to do. I took a SENA bus this May for the opposite direction (Siena to Roma Tiburtina, then a taxi to our hotel).

joannyc

When I attended the Papal Audience, the Pope rode around the crowds in the Pope mobile... he was about an arm's length away from me! He addressed the audience from a stage in front of St. Peter's.

I thought it was worth attending. I arrived around 8:30 am and got a great seat at the end of an aisle (where as I said above, the Pope mobile went right along side). You probably don't need to be there that early unless you want your choice of seats.

Coco6224

Thank you for the information on the Vatican... I think we will give it a try. It's not often that we will be able to experience it!

Thanks for the info and suggestions on Florence/Siena. I appreciate it

Anymore, keep sending them my way!

Jean

As to the Pisa/Lucca question, you can decide after you're in Florence whether you want to take a day (or partial day) away from Florence to go to Pisa and/or Lucca. You don't "need" a tour to see these towns. Both are easy to reach/return by train from the Florence Santa Maria Novella station, and there is relatively frequent train service between Pisa and Lucca. The last train from either town is late enough to allow for dinner.

Although it's too early to search train timetables for specific dates in April 2013, you can do a general search (for example, a weekday or a weekend day) here:

http://www.fsitaliane.com/homepage_en.html