Italy in ten days
 

I am traveling into Rome, Italy and out Copenhagen, Denmark late May, Early June. I have roughly two weeks to explore both. I want to spend at least 5 days in Denmark, leaving me around ten days to travel Italy. Including Rome, i want to visit Sienna, Florence, Pisa, and Venice. I am interested in history, art, biking, hiking, and seeing nature. I really want to visit some small towns, maybe doing pit stops on the way to larger cities.

I realized this is a lot to do in such a short time. I am willing to skip Venice as it is expensive to visit. flights out of Venice to Copenhagen are a lot more than to fly out of other cities. Also, my main reason to visit Venice is to see the canals. but I don't have much other interest in it.

Any suggestions would be wonderful!
-must see's in both Denmark and Italy
-reasons I should go Venice
-possible itineraries
-anything!

Thank you

I believe Transavia still flies from Copenhagen to Pisa, so that might work well for you, especially if you can get a flight out of Rome back to Copenhagen. The most efficient way to see all your destinations would be to fly to Pisa, put your luggage in the train station and visit the sights, get your luggage and move on to Florence for several days, which would give you time to visit Siena as a day trip, and also to see some smaller towns if you go on an organized bike tour for a day. From Florence, visit Venice, and then take a train down to Rome. Fly back to Copenhagen from there.

Or you can do that trip in reverse. Fly to Rome, the trains to Venice and Florence. Fly out of Pisa to Copenhagen. Might depend on the flight schedules from Copenhagen to Italy and back from Italy to Copenhagen as to which would be the better choice.

Venice has lots of cheerleaders who consider a MUST and a FAVORITE and WORTH IT EVEN FOR JUST A DAY, and other people don't feel that way and would much prefer to spend their time in Italy elsewhere. Up to you, really whether you want to include it -- which means spending less time in other places -- and for how long. If the only thing you want to do is look at the canals, it is possible to take a day trip from Florence -- 2 hours each way. But Venice is quite crowded during the day because of all the daytrippers, and for some people a day trip turns out to be the worst way to visit Venice.

I think one thing in my post wasn't clear. I should have written:

"...Florence for several days, which would give you time to visit Siena as a day trip, and also to see some smaller towns if you go on an organized bike tour for a day. From Florence, TAKE A TRAIN TO visit Venice FOR AS LONG AS YOU WISH, and then take a train down to Rome FOR AS LONG AS YOU WISH."

If you decide you want to include Venice, another routing you should check out is possibly flying into or out of Verona. If you fly into Verona, you can immediately take a train to Venice. (If your flight lands early enough, you can even stop by Verona for a visit -- put your luggage in the train station - on your way to Venice. Following Venice, you could go to Florence and do a day trip to PIsa, Siena and the countryside from there, and then take a train down to Rome. Or following Venice, you could take a train to Rome and save Florence/Tuscany for the last, and fly out of Pisa.

Or you could do some version of that in reverse, flying out of Verona.

>>>I am willing to skip Venice as it is expensive to visit<<<

Venice is not as expensive at Copenhagen. If you decide not to visit Venice and Siena is a must, after visiting Rome, you could take the Sena bus to Siena.

http://www.sena.it/

In Siena you will find some bike tours (the Siena Tourism office will have info). After spending a few days there, you could take the train or bus to Pisa (there's one bus per day from Siena around 1pm). Florence can also easily be visited by bus from Siena (Sita bus).

i just spent a week in Venice and apart from accommodation, it is not that expensive - breakfast €5-6, lunch ditto, [a drink, 2 tramezzini] dinner €20 for 2 courses and a drink. if you look for the right places, a coffee is just €1 and a spritz/beer €3. wine is about the same for a reasonable sized glass or we paid €10 for a litre in one place. a day ticket for the vaporetti is €20 plus €11 for a return ticket on the bus from the airport. if you want cheap accommodation, try a B&B, hostel, or even a convent/monastery.

don't let the supposed cost of going there put you off. The Basilica is free as is walking round the world's largest open-air museum.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I definitely have a lot to think about, I guess my main concern with Venice is not the cost but time. is 2-3 days per city enough? OR should I go to less places and spend more time in each?

I would say that 2-3 days is nothing like enough for any of these places, but as 2-3 weeks wouldn't be either, you have to make the best of what you've got. Are you someone who likes a little bit of lot of things, or to study somewhere in depth? - only you know the answer.

Even accommodation doesn't have to be terribly expensive in Venice. There are lots of overpriced and mediocre restaurants there, but you can find inexpensive places to eat as well.

From your original post, it seems like you are traveling solo. If that is the case, you probably have enough time for everything, as one can usually get around quite quickly when you only have your own needs and expectations to meet. But if you are a couple or more, you will likely find keeping everything too rushed to be enjoyable. For starters, I would allow for four days in Rome. The planning is half the fun. Enjoy!

I was sceptical about all of the hype about Venice the first time I visited it, many years ago. For me, it turned out to be a must-see, and we've returned quite a few times. The canals are amazing, IMHO. While there is great art in the museums and the churches, my favorite thing to do is to wander along the streets and next to the canals, looking at the variety of old buildings. To help you decide if it's worth it to you, look at some video guides of the city. And I would say that it's best to be there early in the morning and in the evening, because fewer other people are around.

So I'm thinking this will be my itinerary...

Rome- 4 days
Sienna- 2 days
Florence- 4 days (with a Venice day trip)
Pisa- 1 day (fly out Pisa to Copenhagen)

Thanks for all the help everyone!