Hi all,

Husband and I plan on a Spring 2007 trip to Italy - 16 days including travel days from San Francisco. He's never been. I've been probably a dozen times including a year abroad in Florence. I haven't been to anyplace in Italy except Florence since '99 and I want him to see as much as possible anyway. He's ok with hectic but is this too hectic? I wanted to take him to Cinqueterre but is it too far out of the way, considering we'll be taking the train from place to place? When I was living there, we were traveling on the weekends, not to mention I was a student with no standards, so we'd do as much as possible. Times have changed a bit for both of us!

Fly into Rome
5 nights Rome
1 night Assisi
4 nights Florence (with a day trip to Lucca to see the family and a day trip to see Siena and San Gemignano if we want)
1 night Cinqueterre
3 nights Venice
Fly home from Venice

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Dana

Hi stellamarina, you will be going the opposite way of Venice if you go to CinqueTerre. And you will have a long train trip to get to Venice, think it is something like 7 hours. It would sure eat up a lot of your travel time. I personally would skip going to CT this trip. I would take that extra night and either add it to Venice or stay one night in Bologna while travelling on the train from Florence to Venice. Have a wonderful time!!

CT seems pretty out of the way to go for just 1 night.

I agree with previous posters re CT.

I also wonder if one night in Assisi is enough. Travel time from Rome is 2-3 hours depending on whether you go on direct or connecting trains. You'll have to leave Rome in the early morning, see some of Assisi in the afternoon, the rest the next morning, and then train to Florence in the afternoon. It's another 2.5 to 3 hours to Florence. Check the train schedules to plan your time in Assisi.

stellamarina

I have a similar itinerary to yours. Just click on my screen name to read recent postings re Florence/Tuscany and CT.

Cheers!

Hi S,

Nice plan, but I also suggest dropping the CT.

Add the time to Venice.

Hi Stellamarina,

I agree, skip CT this time. I think your day will be better spent in either Assisi or Venice.

If you would like to have a small town experience, Spello is very near Assisi and very lovely. Hotel Palazzo Bocci is wonderful! Not sure how close tothe rain station it is, but you can ask.

Thanks all, you've pretty much confirmed what I was thinking with CT... We'll just have to make that part of the next trip right? I appreciate the help!

Dana

Regarding Dayle's suggestion of Spello in place of Assisi, I think Spello would work better if you were spending more time there and if you were driving rather than training.

The town of Spello is a few kilometers from the train station, and Assisi is about 4 km. from its train station. Even traversing those short distances between train stations and their towns (there are buses about every 30 minutes) will eat up precious time.

Having said that, Spello has better restaurants and more nightlife than Assisi.