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 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.