Italy in August - Need Advice!
 

I posted a concern last month as to whether I should keep my plan to go to Italy for a week at the end of August. I was (and still am) worried about crowds and heat, but the replies convinced me to go as planned. I was originally supposed to do a 12 day, well planned trip last May and had to cancel it all out due to family circumstances. I rebooked a scaled down version and grabbed August because ff miles were available.

Here's my new dilemma: I am flying into Venice and home from Pisa. That is fixed. I am planning on 2 days in Venice and feel comfortable with that. The last 5 days is supposed to be in Florence and I was going to do a day trip to Siena (a must in my mind). I am now questioning my decision to leave out Rome. I thought 3 cities would be too much to do in a week, but 5 days in Florence, even with a day trip to Siena, seems like a lot and Rome is beginning to call out to me.

Here's my thought - please tell me if I'm nuts. We can either do a day trip by train to Rome and spend the day and return to Florence. OR we can take the train to Rome in the middle of our Florence stay and stay over a night, paying for the hotel in Florence for the night as well. Doing this would enable us to just take a small overnight bag to Rome and avoid all the checking in and out otherwise required. We need to be in Florence the last night since we are leaving from Pisa. Alternatively, we can train from Venice to Rome, stay a night and avoid double paying by arriving one day later in Florence, but we would lose half a day in Rome with our late arrival. We have a free nite in Florence with the purchase of 3 nites so we want to spend the 4 nights, if not 5, in Florence.

Am I being too ambitious? If I can the Rome plan, will 5 days in Florence be too much even with the day in Siena?
Thanks in advance for all your valued opinions.

You can't do justice to Rome in a day or less. Better to add another day to Venice or stick to your original plan. Use Florence as a base for making daytrips, Siena and Fiesole by bus, maybe Pisa, Lucca by train.

Well - I would add a day to Venice. than, have you counted the day to tget from Venice to Florence? Even i you do only 2 days IN Florene - you an still to Pisa, Siena, Assisi etc - esily as day trips. That makes sense.

Wasting half of a day trekking to/ro rome to spend 6/7 hours there just doensn't.

How likely is that within the next 3 years, you will be able to go to Rome for at least a 4 day visit? if likely, then skip Rome. If unlikely, then plan at least a day trip to Rome.

Well, I sorta agree with all of the above - meaning that I agree 2 days in Rome doesn't really do it justice, but if you've never been and don't expect to be able and go in the foreseeable future, then I'd seriously consider taking an early morning train, spending the night, then late train back. Rome is pretty amazing and 2 days is better than none IMO.

Save Rome for when you have a week--we did--it was our 8th trip to Italy.