Italy
 

I am thinking about going to Italy in mid-Septebmer. I am interested in visiting Rome,
Florence and Venice. I would stay a total of 11 days.
Where should I stay first and how many days at each location?
When I fly into Rome how long and what form of transportation is
best to travel to Florence or Venice?
Your recommendations for hotels in Rome, Florence or Venice.

Your suggestions, comments and/or advise would very much appreciated.
First time to Italy.

LNM

OOPS..THE ABOVE QUESTION WAS POSTED FROM THE U.S.

LNM

So do you have 10 nights in Italy? If so, I would fly into Venice, spend 3 nights there, train to Florence for 3 nights, train to Rome for 4 nights, fly home from Rome.

How much do you want to spend on a hotel? If you give a price, you will get much more helpful answers.

September is a great time to go!

Venice, Florence, Rome is a pretty standard quick first trip to Italy. I would suggest you throw in a night in the Cinque Terre ("Five Villages") which is on the NW coast of Italy, south of the Italian Riviera - great place to hike especially and the villages themselves are amazing! It would be a shame to visit Italy and visit only the big cities.

Consider also a day trip (by bus is better than by train) to the town of Siena from Florence - a terrific old Tuscan city that's much smaller than Florence.

I would fly into Florence 3 day
train to Rome 4 days
Train to Vnce 4 days and fly out of Venice

Take airport to hotelin Florence.
September great time to viait

Oh, and the Italian train system is terrific - very easy to get to from Venice to Florence (and up to the Cinque Terre) to Rome. Try www.trenitalia.com for Italian train info. You can buy train tickets at self-service kiosks right at the train stations with a credit card. (Some trains require reservations and do fill up at busy times, though.)

I have to disagree both about including Cinque Terre (too far out of the way with the amount of time you have) and with starting in Florence. Why do the train trip between Florence and Rome twice? Doesn't make sense.

It's generally better to fly out of Rome because so many of the very early morning flights out of Venice require an expensive water taxi to get to the airport in time.

I live in Liguria and I don't recommend adding Cinque Terre to this trip. It is time consuming to get here from Venice and Florence.

I also don't understand the recommendation to fly to Florence first.

Also, while Siena may indeed be a terrific old Tuscan city, its historic center is no smaller than the historic center of Firenze. Both are pedestrianized. While Siena has magnificent treasures, it is no substitute for Florence.

You have a very reasonable trip planned and if you should go to the places you are interested it. The "standard" trip to Italy involves rushing around too much and cramming in too much. If you can avoid that, you're way ahead of most.

It doesn't matter if you start in Rome and end in Venice, or vice versa. But the train connections between the 3 cities are fine. How long you stay in each location can only be answered by you doing some research about each city. If you don't care about seeing Roman Emprire artifacts or the Vatican, you won't feel a need to spend as much time in Rome as others do. If you aren't interested in the museums of Venezia (and there are some great ones there), Venice may not appeal to you as a long stay. Firenze also has some mega-museums, plus mega gardens, and some really wonderful small museusm -- plus many churches -- but if you aren't fascinated by the Renaissance.... etc etc

Well, it's all of 2:30 each way from Florence to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre; looks like you can be there before 10:30am, spend the day hiking and browsing through a couple of the villages, enjoy a nice dinner and sunset, and train back out the next day. The Cinque Terre may have been the highlight of my entire trip to Italy; others may not agree, but I'd hate to think I'd have missed it.

Andrew,

I'm going to stick by my recommendation about doing a dogleg to Cinque Terre on the trip that interests the original poster -- unless the original poster comes back to say that he or she actually isn't interested in the great art cities of Italy, but has only drawn up this itinerary because they thought they were "supposed" to see these 3 cities on their first trip to Italy. I understand that le Cinque Terre is the highlight of many people's trips to Italy, perhaps especially those who would rather hike and browse in beautiful Italian villages than visit museums or historic sites, and find it a relief to get away from all that. Look forward to seeing you for a longer stay in the neighborhood.

I will amend my post regarding Siena. It can be a wonderful day trip from Florence. But Rick Steves has often proposed going to Siena INSTEAD of Florence, and I just want it on record that the two places are not interchangeable.

Oh, I definitely wish I'd followed Rick's advice and stayed in Siena instead of Florence - but that's me. Doesn't mean the two cities are interchangeable. People have different tastes and preferences in travel. People who live for art and want to spend hours absorbing Florence's best museums should never stay in Siena instead of Florence. But, that's not me.

I think one afternoon hiking/wandering in the CT and the rest in Venice, Florence, and Rome isn't exactly going to deprive the average traveler of Italy's best cultural experiences. Instead, it's a slightly more balanced trip to Italy.

You can't do it all in one trip. I' spend three nights in Venice, four nights in Florence(can do day trips from there if you wish),and then four nights in Rome. Then you can decide what you want to see on the next trip.

Andrews,

Since I moved to Italy in order to live up the seacoast from le Cinque Terre, I'm hardly going to diss any part of Liguria as one of Italy's loveliest sights. But I don't think a night in le Cinque Terre is a more balanced view of "Italy." (Perhaps especially le Cinque Terre, which has almost no Italians left living in it.)

You seem to pay lip service to the travel choices of people who want to focus on art and at the same time subtly deride as unbalanced or living for art, or not seeing Italy. Your comments about Siena -- which is filled with great Renaissance art -- indicate your bias. Like I said, the original poster will be reading these exchanges, and your posts may liberate him from feeling like he or she must visit the great art cities. But for you to imagine that people who come to Italy and spend all their time in the art cities have an inferior understanding of Italy than you because you for spent a night in le Cinque Terre -- well, come back to Italy a few more times and then post again after you've seen Sicily, Le Marche, Piemonte, the rest of Lazio -- or even the towns 30 minutes up the train line from le Cinque Terre full of Italians and no American tourists.

zeppole, are you always so condescending? I merely expressed my opinion. I am entitled to it whether I've moved to Italy or not. Feel free to disagree.

Oh, I do apologize to LNM, the original poster, who just wanted some basic advice. Didn't mean to get drawn into an argument - sorry!

I love Cinque Terre.. We rented a nice apartment andstayed 8 days the first time that we visited these charming villages and are going back again in September.

My daughter think that the CT are heaven on Earth..

Everybody have different taste, thanks goodness!! The world would be a very Boring place if everybody thinks or acts the same.

A lot depends on how much money you plan on spending and how much walking you're willing to do. Two friends and I went in college on a super-cheap budget. We started in Venice for 2 days, Florence for 2 days, and Rome for 3 days and flew home to the US from there. We took the train to each, which was terrific. We booked our hotels at the train stations as we arrived in each city. That sounds risky, but it worked out surprisingly well. We got great prices and the places were super-charming. Be aware, though, that "cheap" hotels are way different in Europe than in the US. Not recommended if you have lots of luggage, as they will probably not have a lift (elevator) and are not very spacious, but great for college students. Also, we walked everywhere we went except for in Rome, which worked out great--no driving or parking hassels, and cheap! In Rome, when we didn't walk, we opted for the buses, as the Metro/subway system was quite limited and was so packed that we couldn't even get on any of the times we tried!
Make sure to have a plan for what you want to see in each place and map it out beforehand. Stick to the major attractions this time. If you walk, you'll find lots of other stuff in between.

Wherever you arrive, after a long overnight flight, assume the first few days (1-3) will be consumed by jet lag. So add a day or so to that first stop.

So even after reading all of this i am not sure how easy it is to visit Cinque Terre on a day trip from Florence. If it isn't reasonable is there a small village along the coast that we should visit instead?

Andrew,

I get called every name under the sun for expressing my opinion around here. You should re-read your own post and see who has the condescending tone. You wrote: "I think one afternoon hiking/wandering in the CT and the rest in Venice, Florence, and Rome isn't exactly going to deprive the average traveler of Italy's best cultural experiences." How would you know? You didn't seem to want to be in those places, especially their museums, and would have preferred Siena.

kismet,

8 days in le Cinque Terre is certainly preferable to 2.5 hour train trip to spend a night and leave. Hope we'll be having good weather in September.