Thank you all for your responses so far on some ideas for my trip...as recommended I'm reposting with "Italy" in the title. So, we are thinking of a 3 week trip to Italy, and hope to include Venice, Tuscany and area (wineries and daytrips), the Cinque Terre, and Rome, also hopefully the Amalfi Coast, but that is definitely depending on the timeline and routes. Any other suggestions.

I'm not sure what you're wanting to know. Is this doable? Yes, but even with 3 weeks, you'll be very busy every day. I think I'd do either the Cinque Terre or the Naples/Amalfitano area but not both. When is this trip?

Are you traveling from the U.S.? Does your 3 weeks (21 days) include your travel days? If the answers to my questions are both "yes," then

You depart U.S. on Day 1 (overnight flight)

You arrive in Italy on Day 2 (early to mid morning)

Depart for home on Day 21 (mid morning to early afternoon)

Therefore, Day 2 you will only have part of the day by the time you reach your first hotel and will probably be jet lagged. Day 21 will be all about getting to the airport and flying home.

You really have Days 3-20, 18 full days.

Every time you change hotels, moving from one city to another, the travel, connecting, and checking in and out takes up at least half a day. With your 5 dream locations, that takes up 2.5 more days at least.

Your 18 full days is getting closer to 15-16. For your 5 dream locations, that averages to about 3 days per place before you have to pack up and move on.

I've providing these numbers as food for thought. Some enjoy such a pace, others do not.

I, too, would probably not visit both the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre in the same trip--too similar.

Hi R.

Where are you flying into and out of?

When are you traveling?

- Motorino

Thank you all for your replies. I will be flying out from Calgary, AB Canada (not sure what other stops), going May 2010 for 3 weeks.
We were thinking of flying into Venice for 2 days, then going from there, possibly flying out of Rome or Naples...just in the beginning stages of research and planning, so anything can change.

Hi Rhomson - we live in Okotoks - small world. We spent 21 days in Italy in 2006 - flew into Venice, spent three days, then Eurostar to Florence for 2 days, picked up rental car and spent week in Chianti and week in Umbria. Then back to Florence to drop off car for two days, train to Pisa, flew from Pisa. We didn't feel rushed, I think it's because we had two weeks to stay in one place and explore something different every day. (We flew from England, where we'd spent the first night sleeping off our jet lag.)

We are planning our second trip to Italy in the fall of 2009 and will spend a month because we loved it so much. We will fly into Venice again and will spend a week, then Eurostar to Rome for a week. After that, we don't know what we will do. Perhaps, rent a car and follow my father-in-law's route through Italy when he was with the BC Dragoons during WWII.

My point is, in my opinion, Italy is a country to be savoured. Whatever your timeline or routes, if you keep that in mind, I think you will have an amazing holiday.

RThomson,

We did 2 weeks in Italy. Venice (3 days), Florence (7 days) and Rome (4 days). I'd suggest that given your timeframe, you're shortchanging Venice by not staying at least 3 days. IMHO 4 would be plenty but many would also see that as sacrilege . You really do need to allow time wherever you land to allow jetlag to catch you up to the local time and I really don't think you're building that into your schedule as is. We're in Toronto and our second day, I intentionally didn't schedule anything in particular and even with the benefit of 2 fewer hours to have to adjust the circadian rhythm to, we still didn't wake on the first full day in Europe until noon.

Travelling should be relaxing, not a contest to see how many locales and sites you can cram in to the shortest span of time. Better to leave somewhere off your list and see it next time rather than compromise your enjoyment of a lovely country.

I suppose we still have quite a bit of things to figure out, and will definitely have to make sure we do include travel time/check-in and out time, etc.
Thanks again everyone for your responses. I enjoy hearing about different peoples plans and experiences.