My husband and I are going to Italy and Switzerland this July for 12 nights. We are thinking 7 days in Italy and 5 days in Switzerland.

We usually like to do activities and visit naturally beautiful places.. We are not huge fans of museums..Unless there is a Must-see

We are flying into Rome and flying out of Geneva. everything else still needs to be decided.

This is our rough plan:
Day 1,2,3 in Rome - Collessium, Trevi Fountaion, Forum, Vatican,
Day 4,5 in Naples- Day trip to Capri, day trip to Positano
Day 6,7 in Venice
Switzerland
Day 8: Lucerne
day 9 - interlaken
day 10-12 - geneva
Back to Chicago

Please help me figure out what are must see things in these spot based on our interest of acty

I might be confused, but it doesn't appear that you have accounted for travel between any of the cities. Day 4 would have you traveling south to Naples from Rome. That would not leave time for day trips to both Capri and Positano. Then, presumably, on day 5 or 6 you would have to go all the way back north to Venice. On day 7 or 8 you would have to travel to Lucerne. You will barely have enough time anywhere to see anything, except perhaps in Rome.

Are you going to rent a car and drive on your vacation, or taking trains and public transport?
In any case, you are going to have long journeys, and are going to spend a lot of time travelling, so you do have to take that into consideration, especially when you mention 2 day stays. 6 stops in 12 days (all different regions in Italy) is quite a challenging vacation. For example, it is going to take you basically a whole day of travelling to reach Venice from Naples, so you are really going to have only one day and not two in Venice, same goes in Naples. By the time you arrive from Rome, check in at hotel, etc, it will be afternoon, and that is a really short time to visit the beautiful Amalfi coast with its really lovely cliffside towns and villages. Again, same goes for Lucerne, by the time you arrive in Lucerne from Venice, you will not have much time to visit it.

But then again, it is up to you, but I do think it is going to be a stressful holiday for you.

Are you teleporting between locations? If not, sounds awful.

"Day 4,5 in Naples- Day trip to Capri, day trip to Positano"

I suggest you to saty in Sorrento, not in Naples to be closer to capri and Positano.

Mayve take one day from Geneva and add it to Rome or Venice.

Thanks for the feedback!
We just booked the flights to Rome and back from Geneva.. We can change the amount of days or eliminate any locations if this is not feasible..

I feel a bit overwhelmed on how to plan this trip.. I am not familiar with Europe at all and honestly don't know how long we need to plan for each place..

Can you let me know based on your experience which places we should cut out and what is the best way of transportation?

I am sure we will be going back to Italy again in the future..

Mock itinerary?

OK... 12 nights, open-jaw Roma/Geneva, first-timer, and you plan to return someday. Activities and natural splendor. So far, so good.

What month?

First 2 weeks of July.

OK, I just saw that you mentioned "this July" in the first post.

So, starting 2 weeks from now? Is that correct?

Two weeks from now? Oh, my! I hope you can find accommodations! Things are going to be very booked up now.

If you can manage to find places to stay, Fly into Rome OR Naples, spend four days. Take a plane from Naples or a train from Rome to Venice for three days. Then a train to ONE place in Switzerland for three days before spending your last night in Geneva.

Charnees, the flights are now booked. OP, if you are really leaving in two weeks, you must make resevations yesterday if you catch my drift. And I would cut out the Naples part, add those nights to Venice, AND pick 1 Swiss destination, not 3 in 3 days.

Agree you have way too many destinations - as well as a huge challenge in finding hotels in so many places unless your budget is unlimited. The pleasant places with moderate prices were probably fully booked 3 or 4 months ago.

You need to make decisions and reserve hotels in the next day or so -= or risk being 1)shut our or 2) paying way more than you want.

If it were me I would do rome, Venice and Lucerne - with a day trip from Rome and a couple of trips into the nearby mountains/lakes from Lucerne.

You really don;t have time for the Amalfi coast as well - and I think that will be the most difficult to find a place to stay at this very late date. If you really MUST do the Amalfi coast - do stay in Sorrento (much better connections) and drop Venice.

If you havent booked yet and are still planning a few days around Geneva, check out Annecy, France which is a short drive across the border. On our last trip to Europe we stayed in old town Annecy and took a short daytrip into Geneva. Annecy was one of our favorite and most picturesque stops. Geneva is very much a large, working city and although the lake and parks/gardens are nice it isnt necessarily as naturally beautiful. Enjoy your trip!

I would skip Amalfi Coast, and would not make more than two stops in Switzerland. So at least you would have 3 nights in each stop. Alternatively, make just one stop in Switzerland.

To search for reservations, I would go to booking.com, type in required destination and dates, and see you would be able to see immediately the accomodation that still have vacancies and their rates and that also suits your budget. Make sure that you read the reviews, and that the accomodation has a high rating. Then you can either email or book through the required hotels directly or book through booking.com.

Not much time to lose, but we did manage to book a few holidays having an even shorter time to make all travel arrangements, so do not lose heart.