Italy
 

Need advice. Traveling Italy for 1 week with a friend, we are young on a budget, yet very ambitious and excited to see a lot!
Main stops: Venice->Florence->Rome
In-between those stops we would love to check out some smaller not so touristy cities that are easily accessible through trains or buses, preferably. Any recommendations?
Also, I am a huge fan of any costal city I'd LOVE to see Cinque Terrsce, Positano or Amalfi Coast. Based on our main stops which would you recommend to be the most worth it/easily accessible or most beautiful.
Lastly, is 1 week enough to cover all of these cities or would we be too rushed based on the time frame? Thank you!!!!

One week is not enough, IMO. How many actual days and nights do you have in the ground in Italy?
Each move takes a half a day at least.

Tweety,
Your wish list is a bit too ambitious for 7 days. And, really 7 days is not much time for just the big three-Rome, Florence and Venice. If you choose just those three, you will be getting a brief sample, then moving to train, to hotel, to train, etc.

I know this will sound crazy to you, but please consider attempting no more than two of these cities on a 7 day trip. You will see a lot more, ENJOY a lot more, be more relaxed, and will have time to plan for future trips! You will return.

If you must make a day trip from one of those, you could visit a coastal area from Rome,(I love Ostia Antica) or another seaside place. Or visit Verona, Vicenza, or Ravenna from Venice. From Florence, there are many towns that you could visit that are nearby, if you felt you had to get away for a day.

It would be nearly impossible, to do the three cities, and go to Amalfi coast, on this trip.

You didn't say what time of year you are going, but you did say you were on a budget. Staying in one or two places will save you time and money.

Have you read any guide books? Looked at videos? You might get a sense of what your must-sees are for this trip.

Enjoy.

A week is barely enough time to do any justice to Venice, Florence, and Rome, never mind anyplace else.

CALABRIA62 thank you. What about 3 nights in Venice, 3 nights in Rome and 2 nights in Naples?

Still very rushed.

You would have 2 days in Venice (plus possibly part of a 3rd depending on arrival time and how jet lagged you are. Then 2.5 days in Rome (1/2 day is early train from Venice to Rome) and then 1.5 days in Naples.

Can you get flights into Venice and home from Naples at a decent rate?

Well, you said you had seven nights. Do you have seven or 8 days? If you arrive in Venice and depart Naples, then it would be doable, but still extremely rushed. Also, remember you lose 1/2 day for traveling between cities.

It would be a whirlwind, IMHO.

Venice is reasonably close to the sea. If you really want to see it you could take the boat to the Lido.

For youngsters you are sort of doing the "usual tourist thing", nothing wrong with that but I might suggest you drop off the travelator amd maybe do something a bit more lively.

Maybe Venice 2 nights, Bologna 2 nights, Rome 2 nights

That gives you a city on a lagoon, a city of covered walkways stuffed with students and a city full of antiquities. Down side is you miss out on some lovely buildings and some art. Well you can do some art in Rome. Sorry about the lovely buildings.

Anyway the food is better in Bologna :-)

My first trip to Italy was those three cities for 10 days. IMO that is the bare minimum to see all three, with 10 we were rushed but at least got to see the major sites of each city plus one day trip to Pisa and Siena. I agree that 2 plus a day trip would be better for one week.