Italy for 14 days, need help with itinerary
 

Hello,

First time poster here. The game plan for my 30th wedding anniversary is Italy for 14 days. We intend on leaving the US Saturday 5/23/20 and arrive Rome, and depart Rome Saturday 6/6/20.

It is very preliminary planning now, but we are thinking staying 5 days in Rome, travel to Amalfi Coast for 3 days, Travel to Florence for 4-5 days, and then back to Rome to fly out. As I said, those are the initial plans, and I've yet to do anything further. We don't want to be wore out tourist at the end of the trip, so we thought this is practical. Now, we can use any suggestions going forward on how to do this, what to do, or even changing things around somewhat. We do not speak Italian, like food, wine and experiences, are both in our mid-50s, and want this to be a reasonable costing trip. Can anyone provide some initial input.

Sounds like wonderful itinerary - leisurely compared to many. I'd suggest taking a private transfer or train from the airport direct to Amalfi area (train to Naples then either private driver or another train and buses) - direct transfer would cost lots of money but help speed up your trip. You do not want a car on the Amalfi - ferries and buses go all the time along the coast, including ferries to Capri.

Bok trains early for discounted train fares - Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia and www.italotreno.com - two competing rail companies using same tracks and stations -take whatever is cheaper. www.seat61.com has loads on doing that yourself online - general info trains www.ricksteves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts.

Days 1-4 Amalfi
5- Train via Salerno or Naples to Florence
6-7--8-9 Florence and Tuscany - do day trips easily by bus to say Siena for a classic hill town (just an hour from Florence) or take train to Pisa for the tower, etc.
10- Train to Rome
12, 13, 14 Rome - this gives you one less day of relocating by putting all Rome time at end.

With that amound of time I would skip Florence and add two nights in Naples, another night or two on the Amalfi Coast, and the remaining exgtra time in Rome.

Fly into Naples, and home from Rome. Leave Florrence and thte rest of Tuscany for another trip.

Even though I've been to Rome quite a few times in the past, the 6 nights I spent there earlier this month was really so short. You cannot imagine the crowds at the main sights...just give yourselves more time and more leisure to revel in the delights of these destinations, rather than feeling that you have to cram in the main sights in a short amount of time. If you fly into Naples, you can relax and wander around for a day or two, gorge on pizza, see a couple of "sights' and then go on to a base on the Coast. Then go back to Rome from Salerno, or from Naples.
If you love food, consider a day trip to a mozzarella factory or a buffalo farm where they make cheese, either in the area of Paestum (great ancient temples there as well) or in Agerola, near Amalfi which is famous for the quality of their mozzarella.

n the food note, do research in advance of arrival so you are not stuck with tourist-oriented restaurants. book a place to eat at least a few days in advance, even if it is just for pizza in Rome. Maybe take a tour of Testaccio market in Rome.

For me, adding florence would be WAY too much.

Where are you coming from? Is there significant jet lag involved?

Three nights on the Amalfi coast might feel tight, especially given the transport time. I'd reconsider that part. As you do your research, both of you should list what it is you want to see and do, that will help guide the number of days for each place.

I like this, but my departing airport from USA doesn’t have a direct flight into Naples which is why I thought Rome in/out. How would it be under your suggestion, which I like, and using another suggestion, flying into Rome, and train to Amalfi coast for a longer time, back to Rome, and skip Naples too in addition to skipping Florance? I like the idea of staying in one location to become at least somewhat familiar versus moving around too much. If 6 days at Malawi, and then the balance in Rome ..... how would that be?

It really depends on what you want to see and experience, but FWIW, here on my thoughts:

3 days for the Amalfi Coast is very, very little – or perhaps I should say, 3 days for the Almalfi Coast area is very little. If you want to see any of fascinating Naples, stunning Capri, remarkable Paestum, or intriguing Pompeii and/or Herculaneum -- in addition to the Amalfi Coast itself -- then you might want more time there.

As others have suggested, if you don’t already have your airline tickets, consider flying into Rome and out of Naples (or vice versa); you can search for tickets using the “multi-city” option on most airline search engines. And don’t worry about getting adirect flight – even if the airlines route you through Rome (and they might not) it could be less expensive, and should be less stressful, to book on through to the place you want to go.

You might want another day in Rome, too, particularly if that’s the city in which you start – the extra day is to get over jet lag.

I think you really need to choose – Naples or Florence? And none of us can make that choice for you. They are both wonderful, IMO, but they are as different as apples and not even oranges, but, say, fish. You could probably fit them all in, but with a lot of time in transportation and by skimming each of those destinations. JMO.

I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful anniversary (congratulations!) no matter what you choose.

P.S. No need to speak Italian, but learning even a few basic civilities could improve your experience dramatically!

If 6 days at Malawi, and then the balance in Rome ..... how would that be?>

The Amalfi will be more relaxing than Florence, a large city with lots of tourists - the Amalfi offers so many neat day trips as kja suggests (I'd ad ascending Mt Vesuvius to her/his list of options - take mini-bus up to near crater or walk thru cinders there - great experience and great views over Bay of Naples). Rome has many day trips too - Florence is just 1.25 hours on high-speed trains. Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa is a great easy day trip - research both if unfamiliar with them and many more like Orvieto - classic Italian hill town.

Thanks everyone
 

Thanks to everyone for their input. It has been very helpful.

So far for our 14 days in Italy, we are leaning to a direct flight leaving Michigan Saturday to Rome and staying there for 6/7 days and then to the Amalfi Coast, and staying there for 6/7 days, and flying out of Naples Saturday. We will bypass Florence and the other areas do to timing etc.

Although we have vacationed often enough in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, this will be our first attempt going over the pond. Even though my wife and I have much German heritage, my wife being 100%, we have chosen Italy. The primary reasons for Italy is all friends and acquaintances that have been there have enjoyed the people, wine, food, scenery, history and culture.

With the above in mind, we know we want to see the coliseum and Vatican, but other than that we are fairly ignorant of other things to do and see. This is where we could use a lot of help. Our preference in Rome is to find a place where we can stay for the 6/7 day duration and get to other venues in the area without have to pack up and leave to different hotels; the same would apply to the 6/7 day duration in Amalfi Coast area, if at all possible. Both of us are in our upper 50s with good health, and do not have a problem with walking and hiking; but certainly do not want to do it with all of our luggage. Now that we have narrowed it down somewhat, we could use a lot of help, suggestions and advice for good hotel(s) (few as possible), places to visit, places to eat, things to try, and best ways to accomplish it etc. etc. etc. And thank you all in advance too…..

You still may want to consider doing Florence for a few days - a week is along time in Rome for folks without a list of things you want to do. Florence i but 1.5 hours by train -a couple of nights there could be neat. But, there is plenty to do in Rome and easy day trips too.

I'm trying to figure out what you meant, Palenq.

You can certainly do a couple of day trips from Rome, but there is enough to see there to keep you busy for the whole time you have planned there. To say that you should go other places doesn't make sense to me. However, I would suggest that you get a guidebook or two, do some research to see what interests you. So much to see there!

You'll love italy and the places you are going are heavily touristified so English will be fine.

Food, well, I tend to choose a hotel/AirBnB/B&B by position and price and then use trip advisor to hunt out good restaurants. Now if I run out of time I use an alternative system, which is look for the noisiest place near where I'm sleeping and eat ther. But generally in each of the places you have choosen there will be a range of amazing restaurants for all pockets and all culinary styles. As it is your first time in Italy there are a few rules you need to understand, most restaurants operate fixed times, so while you can get food in the afternoon, not at anywhere you would want to tell your friends. lunch (pranzo) is the main meal of the day while supper (cena) is normally more of a light meal. Lunch comes in "steps", antipasta, prima, seconda, dolce. You don't have to eat every step, but say you just want antipasta and your wife wants just seconda then you may have to tell your waiter that you want to eat both meals together. Supper can be the same but you are more likely to enjoy snack foods of light meals in the same restaurants, but they will also look after you as a tourist so don't fret.

Wine: Italy is one of the largest wine producing countries in the world. Certainly you can visit wineries, drink in restaurants or wine bars "enoteca" where glasses can be obtained. You'll find that Roman wine is not that exciting and the food of Rome tends towards tripe and liver (it is a long story), luckily most restaurants are branded from other areas so you will eat and drink well. Tuscany is, well, Tuscany so you'll be fine. Napoli is famous for fish, clams and of course pizza.

Well, there is so much more to Rome food than tripe and liver! What about Saltimbocca ala Romana, numerous wonderful pastas (carbonara and amitriciana just to name a couple), Coda alla Vaccinaro (delicious oxtails), fantastic rissoto, etc etc etc. Not to mention great pizza!

I'm trying to figure out what you meant, Palenq.>

I was quoting the OP, who posted above:

<< I like the idea of staying in one location to become at least somewhat familiar versus moving around too much. If 6 days at Malawi, and then the balance in Rome ..... how would that be?>>

Then I'm wondering what Dec meant, because the last I heard, Malawi was in East Africa. I can't even think of an Italian town that it could have been spell corrected from.

I was going to ask where Malawi, Italy was!

I'm just guessing but the 'Malawi' is very likely an auto-correct where the OP meant Amalfi and his typo was closer to Malawi than Amalfi . . . just a guess. But in the context it does make sense.

Yes of course - I thought OP was talking about some town on Amalfi from context and janis' take makes perfect sense.

It couldn't be some little-known town, because the Italian alphabet doesn't even have a w. Nor j, k, x or y.

I think Janis probably has it figured out.

IMO, that's a great choice that should allow a very memorable trip!

I'm a great fan of guidebooks, and so my primary advice would be to go to your local bookstore or library and get one or two that seem to suit your needs. You will find a wealth of information in any one book, including answers to questions that you don't even know to ask. ;) You can also search this board for trip reports, and don't skip other people's planning threads, as there are often some great ideas in them.

Planning a trip can seem daunting at first, but it can also be extremely rewarding.

The point I was trying to make is that carbonare, pizze and risotti are not Roman, yes you can eat them in Rome but that is not quite the same thing. You can eat very well in Rome. You can eat Roman food very well, but for me the best would be in a market for an "unidentified meat" in a bun. You'll also find Italian food people love to talk and if you just ask they will do their level best to explain why their food is the best. In the market, with a bun and a glass of wine you can often sit on a bar stool and watch the market progress around you.

Another piece of advice is that in the highly touristy places you will find buskers luring you into each restaurant, I would avoid, but if you want to see a suberb salesman in action go with it.

Finally you will find Gelatarie in a number of places, my advice is to look out for "gelato artigianale fatto in casa" this means the icecream is not made in a factory or from powdered ingredients knocked up out the back, but by skilled workers on the premises. Prices will be high E3 a little tub, but the quality is worth it. Especially after a good evening meal walking "home" with the one you love.

Just an enivronmental note here. Bottled water is not a necessity of life in Italy. The water is drinkable and restaurants will bring you tap water if you ask for it. "acqua di rubinetto" while drinking fountains and street taps are everywhere (most map apps will even show them as a small blue water drop). Re-using water bottles is better for the climate.

Thanks again
 

Sorry for the immense confusion. This is a 14 day trip to Italy and Malawi was idea Amalfi ....

In Rome we are thinking of hubbing out of a hotel in the colosseum/piazza venezia/monti area for that 6/7 day stay. Would that be suggested workable and a good idea? And as far as the Amalfi, for the 6/7 day stay we would like to know if it is possible to hub out of one hotel for the duration of that stay too. Is that practical and a good idea?

I think your idea to base in two places - one in Rome, one in the AC region is very good. Day trips are great because you can plan for several of them, but then once you are there if you find enough to do and don't want to take the day trips you don't have to (no hotel reservations to deal with, etc.). From Rome you can certainly do a day trip to Florence and while there is more to do in Florence than can be done in one day, at least you can see some of it, decide if you want to go there on a future trip. Another great day trip from Rome is Orvieto, a hill town in Umbria but a quick train ride from Rome. Totally different feel than Rome and small enough to really enjoy in a day.


In Rome the two hotels I have stayed at the most are Hotel Julia which is about a five minute walk from the Trevi Fountain, and Hotel Floris ( www.florishotel.it) which is on Via Nazionale about ten minute walk from the train station or from Piazza Venezia. I recommend both.

For the Amalfi Coast I suggest basing in Sorrento, a town I really love for itself, but it also has the best transportation connections to the smaller towns along the coast (Amalfi, Positano) as well as the islands (Capri, Ischia) as well as to Pompeii and Naples. It's at the end of the train line so easy to get to coming from Rome (with luggage) whereas staying in Amalfi or Positano is a bit more trouble to get to initially.

Here's my photos of these places - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f739967755, abaout te

This would be my advice.
1) Don't stay within a couple of blocks of Termini station. While hotels are cheap there is a reason, lots of tourist traffic, lots of back packers, a fair few dodgy types.
2) Do stay somewhere near either a bus stop or a metro terminal/train station because using the public transport system is so easy and cheap you will want to and because, though Rome is a great place for walking, sometimes you just want a lift. If you look at google maps you will see the metro lines form a sort of complicated U and I'd advise against being miles from any of these stations. BTW Rome is built on 7 hills, don't stay on the top of any of them.
3) Make sure your shoes are broken in, there are a lot of cobbles and new shoes or high heels will kill you.
4) Where you propose is where many tourists stay and everything is on your door step.
5) When I go I prefer to stay in the Vatican area (near St Roma Pietra station) as it is a bit more residential but nothing wrong with your destination.

I agree with bilboburgler about the immediate area across the street from Termini, and also the area on the opposite side (away from the center). But there is at least one five star hotel within two blocks of Termini, and the hotel I recommend, the Floris, is another few block past that (towards Piazza Venezia). Mixture of mid and upper priced hotels, stores, etc. Not at all dodgy.

As for two bases on Amalfi I would say yes - split between Sorrento and do Pompeii and Capri and Vesuvius, etc from there then move to say Amalfi the town and putz along the coast -Positano and Ravello are neat. Then take ferry or bus to Salerno and take dirct trains to Rome- bit easier than going back via Sorrento and Naples.

We stayed at https://www.hotelcampodefiori.com/en/ in Rome. The staff and location were great. They have an incredible roof terrace. We walked almost everywhere, took taxis when we were too tired. The best part of Rome is walking around a corner and finding some wonderful fountain, building, piazza, sculpture. Lots of museums besides the Vatican.

Every time I open up Fodor's it makes me want to get on a plane...

The Termini station area is very heterogeneous. As Isabel said, just across from Termini station there is the 5-star Exedra hotel. (I don't remember which chain owns it now.) There are also quite a few four-star hotels, to balance the cheap digs and youth hostels. The area around to the west and southwest are fine, and there are plenty of people around at night. There are several excellent restaurants in the area, uncluding the Trattoria Monti. The restaurant is located in the trendy Monti neghborhood. It's a convenient area for your stay, especially if you'll be doing any day trips by train. I used to turn up my nose at the train station area, but the area has improved greatly in the last ten years, and some other parts of the city are now overly inundated by tourists. Now, more often than not, I stay near Termini station.

I think it really depends on what you want to see and experience while on the Amalfi Coast. As others have noted, you can certainly stay in Sorrento and day trip from there. But some of us love Naples, with it dynamic and vibrant ways, and so would want to have two bases, Naples and (in that case) perhaps Amalfi or Positano. And so people want to spend a night on Capri (which is, IMO, much nicer after day trippers leave) and so include a night or two there, even though it means changing locations.

I wish this were true. I once did a Google search for gelato artigianale, and up popped all sorts of "just add water" mixes that could legally be called artigianali as long as they were mixed on the premises.

The rules for "gelato artigianale" are very flexible, and there's no rule at all for "fatto in casa" (home made)

bvlenci, you are right, but at least it gives you a fair chance to avoid "just add water"

bvlenci - since you are talking about gelato and you live in Italy maybe you know - how hard is it to find sugar free gelato? Is that even a thing? Here in the US at 'good' ice cream shops they often have just one or two flavors, but they do make it. Just found out I can't have concentrated sweets and I'm not sure how I'll deal with next summer's trip to Italy since gelato every day is what I do on vacation.

I just googled gelato senza zucchero and found hundreds of websites devoted to the issue. Seems stevia is sometimes (often) used instead of sugar, which wouldn't be my first choice but can be a decent substitute for sugar, I guess.

I've never seen sugar-free gelato, but I've never looked for it.

What exactly does "concentrated sweets" mean?

I'm not a big consumer of ice cream, and I eat it very slowly, to avoid getting a persistent tickle in my throat. I've found that most gelaterie will sell me the kiddie size. If you're allowed to have ice cream in moderation, a kiddy sized gelato every now and then might be permitted. Ask your doctor.

Good news! Generally speaking, Italian gelato has less fat, fewer grams of sugar and fewer calories than American ice cream.

https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nut...ream-2157.html

Thanks StCirq, bvlenci and Jean. That article was helpful, and while I had googled gelato in the past I was mostly concerned with calories and fat, not sugar so now I've researched it a bit more. And you are right that portion control is probably the answer. I finally found a couple of reviews of at least two gelato shops (both in Rome) that have it, so maybe other do as well. I'm not too concerned about being able to eat healthy in Italy even though up till now my diet in Italy was certainly very heavily pasta and pizza and gelato, none of which I'm really supposed to have now.

To answer your question, 'concentrated sweets' is basically desert - candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, etc. I just got diagnosed with diabetes which was a shock cause I have none of the risk factors. That also means though that the usual things they tell you to do to manage it - loose weight and get active - I can't really do as I only weigh 110 pounds and already walk 4 miles a day (more like 8 when traveling). So nice to know there's hope I can still indulge in my favorite gelato.

All things in moderation. At least the portions are smaller in Italy!

Which diabetes?
How tall are you?

Yes definitely portions are more reasonable in Italy than here in the US

bilboburgler - type 2 and five foot 2