Italy in September
 

Hello,
My husband and I will be flying in to Venice on Sunday September 23rd at 5:10 pm and leaving Venice on Friday the 28th at 12:20pm. We would like to see Florence and Rome. Which route do you think is the best to make our time efficient in each location. We would like to take the trains between these cities. We would like to keep our budget to a minimum, say 120-150 USD a night, but to be in a safe and central place to the tourist sites.
If you could recommend anything that would be great!!

More information please. Are you leaving Venice on the 28th to return home or to go to Florence & Rome. If you only have 5 nights, 4 days since you arrive late afternoon on the 23, I suggest you stay in Venice. If you have more time, how long is it to determine rest of trip?

Leaving Venice to catch our flight back home. I was thinking the in between time to see Rome and Florence.

You only have 5 days and want to see 3 cities?

Are you planning to see Venice, too? Honestly, 5 nghts is hardly enough time to see 3 cities, considering that you lose @ 11/2 day each time you have to pack up and transfer to another destination. You will need to sleep in Venice the night before your flight if you are using trains. Perhaps Venice & Florence will work out, if you take a train to Florence when you arrive, spend 2 nights (really 1 given the time), back to Venice for 3 nights. Doable, still rushed.

If you insist on 3 cities (big IF...) the most time efficient thing to do was not to fly in and out of Venice in the first place. Just do the math.

Your current plan:
Venice airport - Venice center
Venice center - train station
Venice - Rome
Rome - Venice
Venice train station - Venice center
Venice center - Venice airport.

If you had flowing into Rome and out of Venice, the itinerary would have been like this and cut off many time / money consuming items.

Rome airport - Rome center
Rome - Venice
Venice train station - Venice center
Venice center - Venice airport.

Presuming you are stuck with your current arrangement, "IF" you insist on Rome, then one way this "can" be done is:

17:10 arrive in Venice airport
taxi/bus to Mestre train station - very quick
19:44 Mestre - Roma Termini train, arrive 23:19. You might even make 18:44-22:19 train if everything falls in place.
Stay in Rome 2 nights.
Get off at Florence on the way to Venice. Use luggage storage at Florence station.
Stay in Venice 3 nights.

Whew....

You only have 4 days--stay in Venice. September would be wonderful and no hassle.
Good luck! Paul

If you want to see Florence and Rome why did you decide to fly into and out of Venice?

I don't think $150 per day budget will cut it for 2 people. You could stay in convents but you still have to buy train tickets and eat.

I would re-think this plan and use your 4 days in Venice.

In addition to the folly of expecting to see three cities in four days, your budget is WAY too low! The only thing I can recommend is you look at convent stays or monastery stays (google it to find them). They are clean, very simple, decent places, but do have a curfew of about 11 pm I recall.

Stay the whole time at a convent in Venice. Maybe take a day trip to Florence (long day trip). Or to Verona or Bologna, the culinary capital of Italy. You had better get busy finding your accommodations, too, or the good ones will all be gone already.

Agree..stay the entire time in Venice. You could do a long day trip to Florence (2 hours there and 2 hours back). But it might not be worth a day. Too much to see.

Stay in Venice. It's lovely in September. Consider renting an apartment. May be less expensive than hotel.

HI VC,

Enough people have told you what you should have done.

I agree.

As to what you should do:

You could easily do a daytrip to Florence. I would prefer an overnight.

I can highly recommend www.bedinflorence.it It is a very pensione about a 10-min walk from Florence FSM, and within your budget.

If you find that Venice palls, you could do daytrips to Bologna, Verona, Padua or Ravanna

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

OOPS

It is a very nice pensione....

How about Venice and Rome? Enough to stay there couple days each?

Ok looks like we are going to stay one night in Venice, leave to Rome the following day, and stay for three nights. Then back to Venice :)

Your proposed plan:
Sept 23: arrive in Venice. Sleep in Venice.
Sep 24: train to Rome; sleep Rome
Sep 25: Rome
Sep 26: Rome
Sep 27: train to Venice; sleep in Venice
Sep 28: go to Venice airport; fly home

As others have said, no need to stay in Venice when you arrive. You'll have a more pleasant time (and one less hotel change) if you group all your days in Venice together at the end when you must return there for your flight home. Using this suggestion, you will also have a full day in Venice without having to travel anywhere.

The Better Plan (in my opinion):
Sept 23: 17:10 arrive in Venice airport; taxi/bus to Venezia Mestre train station. Take
19:44 Venezia Mestre - Roma Termini train, arrive 23:19. You might even make 18:44-22:19 train if everything falls in place. Sleep in Rome.
Sep 24: Rome
Sep 25: Rome
Sep 26: train to Venice; sleep in Venice
Sep 27: Venice
Sep 28: go to Venice airport; fly home

Agree with the above itinerary that you stay in Venice just once at end of your stay. Otherwise if flights are not already booked arrive at Venice airport and leave from Rome airport, or vice versa, you would be lessening one long unnecessary trip from Rome to Venice.

I do believe, that you will find a good B&B both in Rome and in Venice within your budget. Search well on booking.com and on Tripadvisor, see which ones you like, and contact the owners directly on their website, as discounts often do not appear on booking sites.