italy itinerary
 

Need suggestions for travel type and itinerary options for 10 days in Italy. We want to Ride the Gondola in Venice, Eat and Drink in Florence and enjoy water sports and activities in the Italian Riveriera. Please share your favorite places, experiences and modes of travel suggestions. Also, places to stay that are also attractive to our 18 and 20 year olds!

Transportation - trains are best for going between cities where cars are more and more useless once there - being prohibited from many city centers- trains are great and go much faster than cars between say Venice and Florence - about 3 hours or less.

www.trenitalia.com is the official site of the Italian Railways- schedules and fares - book early for deep discounted fares but also non-changeable non-refundable I think and as sold in limited numbers must be booked in stone weeks/months ahead to guarantee but much cheaper than walk up fares.

For lots on Italian trains check www.seat61.com -good info on discounted fares; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Venice has a Lido - or beach on the Adriatic - maybe stay there when doing Venice and young adults may find things of interest to them there.

It would be hard to go Venice, Florence and Rome AND the Italian Riviera and if never been to Italy I'd certainly want to go to Rome. I suggest you concentrate on those three fabulous cities.

With only 10 days, I would do only Venice and Florence. 5 day each. Use the train between them. Maybe add Rome, again by train and cut back to 3-days in each city.

Adding the "Riviera" will make it a more complicated trip regarding transportation, take more time getting there... but just depends your priorities. IF that's the priority, perhaps just Rome and the Riviera instead?

Venice to Florence by train takes 2 hours, so it is doable to fly in and out of Venice, head to Florence immediately. Unless of course you can fly open jaw.

After Venice, take the train to Ravenna. It's three hours. Ravenna is a small-ish typical town that is near the ocean - nearby are 20 miles of beaches, Marina Romea, Littoral Adriano, Marina di Ravenna etc. All easily accessed from the town itself.

Ravenna is famous for the mosaics in several locations - looking as colorful and fresh as if done yesterday, but from more than a thousand years ago! Google some images!

From Ravenna to Florence the trains take about two hours.

The Ravenna images look stunning! Is Ravenna a good stopping point for water activities that would replace the vibe of the Riviera? Pros-Cons?
If only we had more than 10 days...
Two comments suggest adding Rome over the Riviera. Please share your opinion as to Why? I was thinking the water and activities in the Riviera for the young adults vs. looking at historical sites in Rome.

What sorts of water activities did you have in mind? It's unlikely that you'd do any surfing in Italy, but the Tyrrhenian side has more waves than the Adriatic.

And the Adriatic isn't an ocean. The nearest ocean to Italy is the Atlantic, and Italy doesn't touch it at any point.

Two comments suggest adding Rome over the Riviera. Please share your opinion as to Why? I was thinking the water and activities in the Riviera for the young adults vs. looking at historical sites in Rome.>

IMO you can do water activities at home - if you miss Rome you miss so much- to me it is a slam dunk - I would go to Italy to see Venice, Florence and Rome if on a short trip like yours - you may be disappointed in Italian beach resorts anyway.

Again Venice has the Lido - stay in a hotel there (and save tons of money over staying in Venice proper) and young adults can have their full of water activities there - it's a nice beach area.

It's already the end of August so I assume this trip is for next summer if you are talking about water sports.

First, I would try to get more than 10 days, since you will be spending so much on airfare.

Second I would get your kids involved in terms of deciding on activities and also on which places you want to visit. They could check out the Let's Go Student Guide and also the Thorn Tree section of the Lonely Planet web site so they can pick out students pubs and bars they would want to visit.

If you are stuck with only 10 days - and if that includes the day you arrive and the day you leave then you have only 8.5 days on the ground - you should really limit yourself to 2 places to avoid wasting too much time just getting from one place to another.

If you have more time and want to add some beach time they should identify beaches that have the sports that they want (many Italian beaches are very small and pebbles or rocks versus sand) and options may be limited in many places.

(As for the Lido, it;s a typical city beach, not specially clean. Not sure what activities they have - but that's something your kids could check out. It's only 30 minutes by vaporetto from the main part of Venice.)

Italian beaches outside of the Italian holiday season - July and August can be disappointing perhaps.

I'm wondering why you didn't capitalize Enjoy Water Sports and Activities.

But since we don't know when you're traveling, it's nigh impossible to say. But with only 10 days, you can't do much. Two places would be ideal. If you want personal experiences, I'm not a fan of the Amalfi Coast in high season. Or Venice. Or Florence.I like them all just fine in spring and fall.

You could look at the Italian Lakes for water activities. You can get a train from Milan to Varenna for 6 euros and then go out on Lake Como to Bellagio if you want. Which lake you go to does not really matter (they all have their fans and are all gorgeous).

With only 10 days I would not do more than 2 places. Venice and Florence are easy to go between. It depends how much time you want to spend in transit with such a short holiday.

We are looking at a July, 2017 trip. Based upon the comments above, I think we will stick with Venice, Florence and Rome and save the Riviera for a trip without the kids:) It sounds like adding an extra day or two to our travel is necessary too for the 3 locations.
Any suggestions for a private travel guide for one day to Tuscany area during our Florence stay?
And, please send suggestions for planning out Rome and buying tickets ahead of trip??

Get open jaws plane tickets, into Venice out of Rome. Should cost about the same as round-trip and save you the time and expense of backtracking.

Then take a water taxi (expensive) or the Alilaguna shuttle boat from the airport into town. Venice is the perfect place to get over jet lag and get acclimated to the Italian way of life--Light. Just wander the back "streets."

You've got plenty of time to do some research and find out what you want to see in Rome.