Hello everyone! My husband and I will be arriving in Rome on Aug. 31 and departing from Milan on Sept 12th. We are adventurous (at least we think we are) and love art, music, culture and nature, so it appears Italy is the perfect destination! That being said, there is soooo much to see and so little time, so far this is what our itinerary looks like: Rome->Florence->Cinque Terre->Venice->Pula (Croatia)
->Milan. I'd like some advice, I feel like we're missing out on other places and just sticking to the touristy places. Also, our biggest concern is the train system; I am soooo confused by the types of rail passes (i.e. flexi pass) vs. point-to-point passes, I'd like to know what might be the best option. All help is much appreciated! Thank you in advance

Too many destinations - not enough time. You need to cut at least 2 and even better 3 destinations.

Flying into Venice and home from another city (i.e. "open jaw" or "multi city") saves time and energy. Venice is a lovely city for getting over jetlag, since you have to walk or boat everywhere and there are no cars/buses/scooters.

Tickets are better than passes in Italy generally. Book directly with Trenitalia or Italo.

It seems you only have 12 nights in Italy.

In that short time I would suggest no more than 4 destinations and 3 is better. You do not have time for Pula.

You do not need any rail pass--just buy point to point tickets' in advance for discount fares.

That's an awful lot to cram into...twelve days? Wow! I don't dwell much when I travel, but often I visit small places that don't require a lot of time. Rome, Florence and Venice each probably need a few days each, minimum.

How are you planning to get from place to place? How are you planning to get to Pula and back efficiently? (If you really want to train, it's a very long trip down through Slovenia, probably not practical.) I just got back from two weeks in Croatia and Bosnia, and my day trip to Pula from Rovinj was probably my least favorite thing I did on the whole trip. (But Rovinj was amazing.)

I love the Cinque Terre, but even if you cut out Pula out you'd barely have time for the Cinque Terre.

You can get to all the places easily (except Pula) via train. Try the Trenitalia website. They may not have official schedules yet more than three months out, but you can check a month earlier to see the routings. The Italian trains are great. Within Italy, I'm not sure any type of pass makes sense - just buy your tickets point to point. Some of them may cost less if you can buy them in advance (the fast trains between Rome, Florence, and Venice), but I haven't tried to do that in a long time via the web.

Also, our biggest concern is the train system; I am soooo confused by the types of rail passes (i.e. flexi pass) vs. point-to-point passes, I'd like to know what might be the best option>

agree with bob-o - not doing enough trains to consider the Italy Eurailpass - even at full fare - www.trenitalia.com and www.italotreno.it run trains on your routes - the latter being an upstart competitor challenging www.trenitalia.com - Italy's state railway system on main lines - check both - discounted tickets cn save a lot of money but realize that sold in limited numbers they can sell out weeks early and I believe cannot be changed nor refunded - for flexibility just wait until you get to a city to chose your train but then a full fare which on your routes still will not be that huge a sum.

You can always get tickets once in a city IME to the next city - no need to buy ahead unless some public holiday where everyone is leaving town for the seaside, etc.

Anyway for lots of great info on Italian trains check www.seat61.com - good info on discounted tickets; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Sometimes discounted first class tickets may not be much more than the cheapest 2nd class tickets and if so first class is significantly more relaxed IMO and IME, especially for folks porting typically way too much luggage around - less people per same size train car means more room to more easily stow luggage - bigger seats, etc.

Too many destinations. You could get pretty good introductions to Rome, Florence and Venice in your time, with one nite in Milan before your flight on which you could see the Last Supper (tickets in advance) and the Duomo.

Miln is also stage at World's Expo until the last of October with 140 countries participating - not for everyone but perhaps for some!

http://www.expo2015.org/en

We just spent 11 nights in Italy - two nights in Milan, three in Rome, two in Siena, one at an agriturismo near San Gimignano, and three in Florence. We didn't have time to add anything else to the itinerary. I'll join the others and encourage you to drop a couple of places from your itinerary.

Lee Ann

Too many places with too little time! Our 1st trip we went to 3 cities, Venice, Florence and Rome and left thinking we wanted to spend more time in each place. We used RailEurope to purchase train tickets prior to leaving the States and we are returning for a month in Sept and will book our train. Pack LIGHT as you will be hauling suitcases up/down stairs, cobblestones and trains. Used Trip Advisor and read reviews. Look at the Google maps and pick the area you would like to stay based on what you want to see. Florence, Pitti Palace,Boboli Gardens, Ft. Belvedere a must. Venice...amazing, bring a compass and just walk. Rome..stay around Piazza Navona as it is central to most sites, Vatican, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Palentine Hill w/coliseum. Read the history as it will make your trip all the more meaningful.

If you buy train tickets at RailEurope, you may be paying a surcharge. It's better to go to the country's rail site; see PalenQ's post above for links.

I would recommend you look at the accommodation situation in Milan before boxing yourself too much. I was planning to stay in Milan for my September trip, but ended up removing Milan from my itinerary due to tight accommodations choices at high prices. I am not sure if this has to do with the Expo, but felt especially tight compared to other Septembers I have stayed in Milan.

", I feel like we're missing out on other places and just sticking to the touristy places."

CR--You (and we) are tourists and go to the touristy places. Nothing wrong with that. Places are "touristy" for a reason--they have a lot to offer. And that's all we can do with the relatively short time we have available.

'touristy' places are full of tourists like dwdvagamundo says - they are great places - untouristed places these days probably are ho-hum and you go to them to immerse yourself in local life - can be nice but really an ordinary town would hold little interest for the average tourist - you can spend days in say Rome and seek out untouristed areas - even in Venice IME is this possible - tourists stick like magnets to a relatively few areas in these cities - like in Rome the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Vatican, the Colosseum and Forum areas but many parts of the city see relatively few tourists - seek them out for the best of both worlds.

If you buy train tickets at RailEurope, you may be paying a surcharge. It's better to go to the country's rail site; see PalenQ's post above for links.>

Not always at least in Italy as RE is now carrying Italo Treno fares at about the same price - I've seen some 29-39 euro fares Venice to Florence for example. And yes check Trenitalia's competitor - Italo Treno:

http://www.italotreno.it/EN/Pages/default.aspx