ohsomod

Tickets free to me. Bought by best friend's husband's FF miles. Sept 15-26. Basically 10 days not including plane days. In & out of Rome. Tickets bought. I asked for open-jaw, but he said that was not available. Move on.

Plan A.
Originally planning on the big three (Rome, Florence and Venice). I was convincing my travel partner that we won't have any time to squeeze in the countryside, we'll barely have time in the cities. She's not much into museums (but I am). She has her heart on Venice (me less) but not on Florence (I am).

Plan B.
My preference, if we want countryside to not try and squeeze it in, but do 7 days central Tuscany with car, all the small hill towns and some wineries, go to Florence at least one day of those 7 and spend the rest in Rome. Forget Venice.

Plan A or Plan B and why? I'd be interested in thoughts and ideas.

Probably impossible to answer for someone else. I insist on not over doing the schedule and with Plan A we keep wanting to add days to see the countryside and subtract city. I don't think we have time. I keep telling myself I wouldn't even be going this year...so whatever my travel partner wants is what I will want to do too. Thanks in advance.

mod

jdraper

I would opt for plan A because it includes Venice, which is easily the most beautiful city in the world and nothing like your "typical" cities. Surrounded by water and no cars and it is truely enchanting. The other reason that I would choose Plan A is that Plan B includes the one city that your travel partner has no interest in and, as you said you wouldn't even be doing it this year so your travel partner's feelings should prevail. I do agree with you that you don't have time to fit in Rome, Venice and Florence and still have time for the countryside. I would save that for another trip. You will fall in love with Italy and find yourself returning over and over again to see all of the different areas. Enjoy, you will love it.

Lexma90

I agree that it would be too busy to fit in Rome, Florence, Venice and the countryside of Tuscany. It sounds like one of you would pick Florence as the top choice, the other would pick Venice. And maybe both of you would pick the countryside as a second choice?

If that's your list, then you don't HAVE to visit Rome just because you're flying in and out of there. It's your trip. Maybe drop Rome and spend your time between Venice, Florence & the countryside.

The drawback to Plan B is that usually first-time visitors really want to see Florence, Venice, Rome, etc. (and it sounds like you do). You wouldn't see much of those cities if you focused on the countryside. (As lovely as the countryside is.)

In planning, use the useful rule of thumb that every change of location takes up 1/2 day.

ohsomod

Thanks for your thoughts jdraper and lexma90. Appreciate it. Off to work on refining Plan A again (I was close). I got carried away this past weekend when I was trying to squeeze in some countryside and got very distracted to the point that I proposed Plan B dreaming about hill towns and lots of wine.

(jdraper, what's interesting is that I am completely obsessed with water, so I don't know what's holding me back about Venice. I'm sure it will be truly amazing!)

OOOO, I can't wait. Countdown - roughly 7 months.

Anya

I would definitely include Venice, it's beautiful and unlike any other city, just make sure to walk away from the main square. While Florence has the museums, for me it wasn't the city where you could just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. I would think Rome should provide enough museum experiences between the Vatican, Borghese, Capitolene, and others. Maybe you could drive between Venice and Rome stopping at a couple of places.

bombasticlife

Plan A - I was there in the fall and did Florence, Rome and Venice and only had a couple days more than what you have. You can get a very good taste of all three places. In Florence, I would plan on one day to see the city then three or four days seeing the country-side. Rome, you can easlily spend four and then Venice with the balance of your days. If you can swing it, hire a car to drive you from Florence to Rome. It may be a bit pricey but it's a good way to see a lot and it won't feel like you are wasting a day traveling.

I have more info on hotels, restaurants, our driver on my site http://www.bombasticlife.com/places

Good luck and have a great time - if you have any specifics, feel free to contact me directly.

ira

Hi O,

Since Rome is not a priority for either of you, I suggest taking the train to Florence immediately upon arrival.

See Florence.

Train to Venice.

Pick up car and drive through Tuscany to Orvieto. Drop off car.

See Orvieto.

Lunch in the garden at I Sette Consoli is worth the visit.

Train to Rome.

Fly home.

Rome has been there for almost 3000 years. It will still be there on your next visit.

See www.autoeurope.com, www.gemut.com and www.novacarhire for car rental.

See www.trenitalia.com for trains.

Enjoy your visit.

ohsomod

Ira - Thanks for the thoughts. I've read many threads started by you including "Helpful Information Italy 1 & 2". Thanks for all the terrific contributions to this forum.

Rome is absolutely on our schedule and is a priority to both of us. Sorry if that didn't come through. I do like the idea of renting/hiring a driver in the middle leg. This idea was originally proposed by a local friend who had travelled Italy 20+ times. (He also suggested Orvieto as either pick up or drop off.)

Sometimes it's best to stick with your original plan (which was plan A). I just got really distracted with all the countryside threads here over the weekend and wanting to see it all, impossible in 10 days. I know, I know - just dreaming through everyones wonderful recollections.

I'm going to work/rework Plan A and get some thoughts/critiques. We arrive after lunch in Rome and so that day is somewhat lost. We either can stay in Rome or immediately head north upon arrival and backtrack via auto. I originally thought directly to Venice via train, but maybe we could take the quicker route to Florence, then train up to Venice, pick up car and head south by car, drop of Orvieto and then spend the remainder in Rome, and then fly home

Anya & Bombasticlife - Thanks for your responses and ideas. They helped me get back on track.

mod

sleitner

I have done both of your plans, I would skip rome and do Florence, Venice and Lake Como area, there is a great hotel in Varenna on the lake that is a half pension hotel with lovely fews and great food, the name of the hotel is http://www.olivedo.it/ we did the entire Venice/Florence/Lake Como/Milan by train which was also nice, then when you return to a 10 day Tuscany vacation with a stop in Rome...

dilen

Let me put my 2 cents in. I would spend 2 nights in Rome the first afternoon you could see the Colusseum and Forum, the second day St. Peter's and Vatican Museum and the third day Tivoli Gardens or whatever your interest,then take Night Train to Venice (we reserved a private car for 2 and it was safe and fairly comfortable). You will arrive very early in Venice and it's a good time to see the city waking up. 2 nights in Venice. Take the early morning train to Florence for 3 nights. This should give you enough time for a day trip by public bus or private car to San Gimignano and Sienna. The last night in Rome or at the airport depending what time your flight is. September is a great time to be in Italy. Enjoy!

ripit

I would definitely second the notion of night train to connect Venice and Rome however I would do the following:

Day 1 - Arrive Rome, stay 4 nights (giving you 3 full days plus arrival day).
Day 5 - Pick up Rental car early AM, drive to Tuscany. Overnight 3 Nights in Tuscany (Siena would be my choice). See Florence as a day trip from Siena by bus, leaving 2 full days for Siena/Tuscany.
Day 8 - Drop off rental car in Florence, train to Venice. Stay in Venice 2 nights.
Day 10 - Spend all day and evening in Venice. Take 12:04AM night train to Rome (arrives around 7AM day of return flight to US).
Day 11 - Fly home from Rome

I am assuming you are taking an overnight flight from the US and counting the arrival day as one of the 10 days but not the day of the return flight. If you are not count the arrival day and you have another day, I would add it to Tuscany.

annabelle2

I also was going to suggest seeing Florence for a daytrip and staying in the Tuscan countryside for some of your nights.

I know, I know, there is so much to see in Florence, but I did it this way on 2 different trips w/ 2 different sets of friends who aren't museum buffs like me, and we got to see some of the top art attractions, the Science Museum, wander around the Duomo, shop for leather and drink negronis in one long day. I was satisfied, they were satisfied (but I had been to Florence for longer times before, which helped me not long for more time).

You have some good options here for doing Rome then Venice or Venice then Rome, so I won't weigh in on that. If you have, say, 4 nights in Rome and 2 in Venice, you could stay either near Siena, as mentioned, or in Chianti; different than the Southern Tuscan scenery but lovely, and close to Florence.

FYI:
My girlfriend just came back from a quick FF 10 day trip, and visited another friend & kids who are in Europe for a year.

Her itinerary = Flew into Rome, picked up by friends & spent a couple nights in Rome; drove to family's countryside apt. near San Gimigiano for several nights of Tuscan hilltowns and relaxing; day trip to Florence; train ride for a couple nights in Venice; back to family apt; back to Rome and airport.

She loved her trip and it was the perfect combination of city/country.

enroute

I like dilen's plan, as is, but you might also use ripit's idea of staying in Siena/San Gimignano for 3 nights and daytripping to Florence rather than the other way around depending on which of the two is more important to you both.

enjoy,

-e