Italy 2 week itinerary
 

I plan to visit Italy the last two weeks of July. I want to see Venice, Florence, Rome and Amalfi coast. I plan to stay perhaps three nights in venice, two nights in florence, three nights in rome, and perhaps three nights amalfi coast.

How many hours on train from city to city? Can I take a ""fast train"? Is seeing Amalfi coast too much (Should I go to Cinqu. Terra instead?) Where to stay in amalfi? I will be traveling with my 17 year old daughter. Sorrento and Pompei? Should I fly out of Naples?? Do US flights fly into Venice? Please help.

Thank you

Visit the handy Trenitalia website (google "trenitalia") to check train times and fares (to check fares, look at trains leaving in the near future on the same day, pricing may not be available yet for July).

There are definitely Eurostar (fast, express) trains between Rome, Florence, and Venice, but they usually are expensive. There are also slower but still express trains that cost less and regional trains that cost the least but usually make the most stops and don't have reserved seats. Eurostar is probably what you want but sometimes, the regional trains aren't much slower (at least for shorter routes) than the Eurostars but cost far less.

Whether you go to Cinque Terre vs. Amalfi is kind of like asking whether you prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Everyone seems to have a different opinion. I haven't been to Amalfi (I hear it's amazingly beautiful) so can't comment on it, but I LOVED the Cinque Terre. I think you'd enjoy the Cinque Terre more if you enjoy hiking, it's not a "driving" place (but you can also get town to town by train and boat).

Sorrento is a good base for seeing Pompeii - that's how I did it. I did only a day trip to Naples, after being scared by the reports of how dirty Naples was and wish now I'd stayed in Naples instead. I guess I am in the minority, but I thought Sorrento was tacky and overrun with tour groups, whereas Naples (away from the dirty train station area) is a more authentic city.

Yes, you can fly into or out of Venice. Check www.kayak.com . Flights OUT OF Venice tend to leave very early in the morning, though. Rome may be cheaper to fly into/out of than Naples. If you do wind up going to the Cinque Terre, flying out of Pisa may be an option - I think Delta still has a direct flight to JFK.

Official Trenitalia Italian rail website:

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

I only count 11 nights, so do you have 3 additional nights to add where wanted/needed?

If it's really only 11 nights, I'd only go to three places. Even with 14 nights, I'd just add a day to Venice, Florence and Rome. Since you lose at least a half day every time you change hotels and move from city to city, your current plan only gives you 2+ days in Venice, 1.5 days in Florence and 2.5 days in Rome. That's barely scratching the surface anywhere.

Here's the Trenitalia website in English where you can look up timetables and get a sense of fares.

http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html

I also would stick to just the 3 cities. Those are the easiest to do by train. I would add a night or two to Venice, because I love it, and because it's your first stop to allow time to get over timechange/jet lag issues.