Italy, mid May, 10 days, Rome + another city?
 

Hello,

It will be me as a solo female traveller in mid May for maximum 10 days. Never been to Rome so will definitely want to see that city. The second city is really optional. I am open to suggestions. Venice has been recommended but I am flexible. The closer to Rome the better...

Thanks much,
S

Venice is not very close to Rome. Florence is considerably closer. What sorts of things do you enjoy? History? Architecture? Art? Fine cuisine? Countryside?

There are some small cities and towns near Rome that might appeal to you, but it would help to know your interests.

I like Art, Architecture, Fine Cuisine , not doing countryside this time.

5- 6 days in Rome and then the rest in the second city.

Thanks

Florence is a good choice for art and architecture, but it's not where I would go for fine cuisine, although I'm sure there are some excellent restaurants there.

I would go to Venice. It is one of the most unique and enchanting places in the world. As a solo traveler, you could spend hours just walking around the island and soaking in the ambiance. If you have never been there, I would not pass up the opportunity. It is not the closest place to go, but what is another couple of hours on a train on a travel day? My second choice would be Florence. Spend more than half of the time in Rome because there is so much more to do and see there.

Do you have a full 10 days on the ground, or do your 10 days include your travel days getting there and back home, arrival day, departure day?

Hello,

I have 10 days including travel days. Example: departing May 13 and returning May 23.

If I ultimately choose Venice the I will look into flying in between cities.

Thanks

Flying between cities will take a lot longer, and cost more, than going by train. You have to consider getting to and from the airport, and the great delays with security and baggage claim. The train takes 3 1/2 hours, center city to center city. If you buy discounted (nonrefundable) tickets well in advance, you can take the train for as little as €29, and you'll save the cost of the airport transfers. At the full (flexible) price, the train costs €80.

It's not easy to find fine dining in Venice, which is full of overpriced tourist traps, though, as always there are some exccellent restaurants as well. There are plenty of tourist traps in Florence, but my impression is that they're not as overpriced.

Given your interest in art, I have a feeling Florence might suit you better. There is some great art in Venice, but it's not as concentrated as it is in Florence. Both cities have great architecture.

There are also some smaller cities near Rome that you might like: Orvieto and Assisi are two with great architecture, and Assisi also has the breathtaking Giotto frescoes in the upper Basilica of San Francesco. However, if you've never seen Florence and Venice, and don't think you'll be back in Italy any time soon, you probably would want to choose one of those.

While I agree you should take a train from Rome if you head to Venice, rather than fly, I am mystified by the assessment of Venice that its great art is not as "concentrated" as it is in Florence, especially considering that you will have a generous amount of time wherever you go. Both cities are completely walkable and rich in great art. Based on the 4 words you offered as a description of your interests, I don't think there is much indication that you would prefer Florence to Venice after having been in Rome for 5 days.

Just so you know, I personally much prefer Florence to Venice. I rarely enjoy being in Venice, where I have been several times, even though I prefer to eat seafood (the main focus of fine dining in Venice) and even though I spend all my time in art museums and churches because it is so rewarding to do so. Those are my personal preferences.

I am not sure what you mean by "fine dining" for a solo traveler. If you could elaborate on that, you might get helpful suggestions.

Based on your very brief description of what you like as a solo traveler, the only reason I can see for recommending Florence and Venice over dozens and dozens of other possibilities is that Venice and Florence are sufficiently rich in sights of interest that can easily fill 5 days or more without feeling the urge to take a day trip. But otherwise, it is actually difficult to find towns in Italy that don't have wonderful art and architecture and delicious food -- not all of it packaged as "fine dining", but destination worthy nonetheless.

Have you purchased your airline tickets yet? If not, a suggestion would be to fly open jaw, multi-city, into Venice and home from Roma. This would maximize your time in-country. You could spend a few days in Venice and then take a late afternoon train to Roma for the remainder of your time.

You really only have 7-8 days to tour and the above will provide a method to see two places. If you stay in Roma the whole time you will have more time to see the city and maybe take a day trip to Ostia Antica, Orvieto, or Hadrian's Villa with nearby Ville di Este.

Whatever you decide go and have fun.

Buon viaggio,

Ya, I agree. As a solo traveller fine dining is not really my priority. When I went to Paris alone I only ate out twice in 6 days and spent the majority of my time sightseeing or just walking.

And I do prefer seafood to other types of food...

Do those trains have wifi? Do they come in different classes?

Thank you
S

How about:

May 14 - morning arrival Rome - jet lag day - walk around
May 15-18 - Rome & Vatican
May 18 evening - train to Florence
May 19 - Florence...a single day...not a lot but, worth a stop
May 20 morning train to Venice - half-day there
May 21-22 - Venice

...or some minor variation of this.

(I just figured, your Rome-Venice train stops in Florence, so you might as well check it out...especially if you like art.)

SS

august77,

The fast trains between Rome and other big city destinations like Florence or Venice (or Torino or Napoli, Milan, etc) do have wi-fi access:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...008916f90aRCRD

There are several classes of service on the fast trains, including quiet cars. You can browse around the same link I just gave you to see what is offered. Another good resource is the website Man in Seat 61, which will also walk you through how to purchase tickets and how to get discounted fares. It is excellent for an overview of the Italian train system.

If you go to Venice and want a good seafood dinner, I would suggest Al Covo. They specialize in fresh local seafood, much, but not all of which is on the exotic side. I consider it fine dining, but it is small and family owned. It is purely Italian, but the owner's wife is from Texas. I think a solo traveler would feel comfortable there. We always schedule a grand finale dinner on our last night of vacation and the last time we were in Venice this was the place. It is a few minute walk away from the entrance to the Grand Canal from St. Mark's Square.

Given your stated preferences (art, architecture, near Rome), Rome and Florence sound like a great combination to me. And IME, one can dine quite nicely in Florence! That said, you won't go wrong if you choose Venice instead. :-)

The highspeed trains in Italy do have wifi, but I haven't had much success with it. It's not an open network; you have to get an access code. You open a web page in your browser, and they give you two choices for getting the code: you can either give them your <i> Italian </i> cell phone number and they'll send you an SMS with the code; or you can pay a nominal €0.01 for the code using your credit card.

One time that I tried to use the wifi, I still hadn't got access to the wifi when we were nearly at our destination, so I gave up. Another time, I got connected, but the service was painfully slow. Since then, I just use the 3G network on my phone, either directly or for tethering, but even that isn't perfect, because you keep losing the connection as you pass through dead zones.

I once read a review of the wifi service on the Freccia trains, which said that it works reasonably well only on the tract from Milan to Bologna. That was a while ago, so maybe things have changed. I haven't tried it in a few years.

I think Florence has a more concentrated collection of art than any city in the world, not just in Italy. By that I mean that it has many museums, at least five of which are major repositories of art, in addition to marvelous works of art in numerous churches and monasteries, all in a very small area.

I've never had a problem using the wifi on the Freccia trains. I follow the instructions. Wasn't any slower than what I typically encounter in New York City hotels.

It almost doesn't matter if you are spending 5 day in Florence or 5 days in Venice if Florence has 1,000 fabulous works of art and Venice "only" has 700. In 5 days you are only likely to see 30 in either place -- and both places have their artworks concentrated into a very small area. No one has ever experience difficulty getting around either city on foot if they are fit.

Needless to say, what would make a difference is if you very much wanted to see particular art works or study a particular period of art or architecture. Then it might make a lot more sense to go to Venice if it has more of the artworks that interest you personally than Florence does, or vice a versa. "Biggest" is not "better" when it comes to assessing an art collection. If you end up going to Venice, you might want to read John Ruskin's classic works about the city, which included severe criticisms of the kind of Renaissance artwork of which Florence has an overload.

I would just caution you from oversimplified ideas and allowing yourself to be steered, even though I am sure people are trying to help you.

If you want to sit down and eat, there are many restaurants in both Florence and Venice serving fine food in a lovely setting where solo diners are quite welcome.

But why not go to NAPOLI? It has art, architecture and fine dining (truly -- often with views of Vesuvius!) And if you're looking for "closer to Rome the better", it's just an hour away.

I like the open jaw idea flying into Venice and out of Rome. In the first place, Venice is a much easier city, a more quiet and better place to get rid of jet lag than Rome. Flying into Venice and taking the expensive water taxi through the lagoon and into the city is an unforgettable experience (reminds me of helicopter ride we once took in Hawaii). In Venice, the crowds run from Piazza San Marco to the Rialto bridge---but there are many many parts of the city that are uncrowded, where you can walk on small side canals, enjoy the lack of cars, and the play of light on water.There is the wonderful new Museo della Dogana, and the whole city is full of Carpaccios in different places.
May is a wonderful time to be there. We think Venice is an underrated art city and also an underrated food city. We also know of a moderately priced trattoria where we eat at least twice each time we go. We prefer the Dorsoduro area (pensione academia).

I love Florence, but we will only go there between November and March. It is just too crowded and seeing Florence off season is magical. Rome, being a larger city, more gracefully holds its crowds.
Let us know what you decide.

There's a wonderful book on women traveling on their own called A Journey of One's Own.

I'm in the Venice and Rome camp. Venice is utterly unique, has quite enough to interest you for as long as you want to stay, AND may not be with us for that much longer. Stay 4 nights [gives you 3 days there] and then get the early morning train to Rome - you'll be there by lunchtime.

Florence could then form the base for another trip all by itself as there are a multitude of places you can visit by way of day trips, as well as the numerous things to see and do in Florence itself.

You might want to add a small town to the two or three blockbuster cities you may eventually visit. Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples are so jammed with magnificent sights that one's brain (mine, at least) shuts down after a certain point. A night or two in a small town like Orvieto, wandering the streets in late afternoon or early evening after most day-trippers have left, getting up early and watching the town come alive...it gives you a different experience of Italy. And these small towns (Orvieto, Arezzo, Ferrara, Modena, even a small-ish city like Padua not too far from Venice) usually have a certain amount of magnificent art as well.

Another argument for doing Florence (and the beautiful Sienna) on a separate trip. Padua is a 1/2 train away, has very cool Giotto fresco. In Venice itself, there are many quiet areas as you get farther and father from the Piazza San Marco.

thank you all...
i ust viewed some pictures of Venice online and it was breathtaking...
sounds like arriving to Venice ad depating from Rome is most highly recommended.
i will have to look into airfares soon. any recommendations for hotels in Venice?

Pensione Accademia. We have stayed there many times and I listed it on my profile as my favorite hotel in the world. We spent my honeymoon there and many special events since including Thanksgiving of 2010. It's time to return.

The Accademia has 30-40 rooms. It is on an angle of a side canal and the Grand Canal in the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It is a 3 minute walk from the Accademia museum, maybe 10 minutes to the Museo della Dogana and the modern art museum, just down the lane from where they build Gondolas, and a 5 minute walk to the Zattere, where Venetians take their passeggiatas.
It is about 15-20 minutes to the Piazza San Marco, not too close, not too far. We love the location.

The Accademia itself is an old mansion which used to be the Russian Embassy. It has a large courtyard in front where you can breakfast when the weather is good and a lovely garden in back
--something very unusual in a city filled with water, stone, and light. There is a good breakfast, no restaurant, but light snacks at bar, excellent trattoria across the street and bar with great sandwiches at the corner. Also near Campo Santa Margherita and University area.

It is high priced for a 3 star, but well worth it. It also books up. I would reserve now. For a standard room, we like #43. Last time we got a last minute deal on a deluxe room, high up with beamed ceilings, can't remember the number. Staff is wonderful.

What $$ range are you looking for? We also have a favorite hotel in Rome, another small charming well located three star called Due Torri.

thank you very much cmstraf.
i am saving money for this trip so could do up to 250 a night. walkability is really important to me so your choice fits mine.

lookig forward to hearing about your favorite in Rome.

S

I just checked the Accademia's website. I plugged in May 15-20 5 nights) and came up with a single room with view of canal and breakfast for 800 euro. That is 130 euro a night. The room will be small but the hotel is lovely with nice private space. I think they only have 2 or 3 singles--I'd jump on it. I did not count the 775 nonrefundable; I never do those--too superstitious.


The Due Torri is on a small dead end street between the Piazza Navona and the Tiber River. It is a 5 minute walk from the piazza, a 20 minute walk from San Pietro. We walked everywhere in Rome from there. On the 5th floor, next to double 501, there is a small single room (really small) with a huge terrazzo that looks over the rooftops of the city. It too has lovely public space, an excellent breakfast and a great staff. We are regulars. Just checked $715 US dollars for a single room, $1000 for a double room with breakfast for May 21 for 5 nights. Some kind of special offer. The singles are tiny--our favorite double 501 is tiny, but I love the angles and the terrace.

If you have a choice, spend your Sunday in Venice not in Rome. Although Rome is the city of churches, I would want to go to 9:00 mass at Catedrale San Marco. It is a zoo during the day has beautiful mosaics, and you can see it doing its job and all the mosaics lit up for the price of quiet, patience, respect and several euro for the offering.

If your Sunday is in Rome, go to Santa Maria di Trastevere for mass, my second favorite church in the world. Also with mosaics, intimate, small. St Peter's is not my favorite. I go at 7 am or 5 pm to avoid mobs. Michelangelo's Pieta there is spectacular.

I smile to think of your trip. Oh--also Due Torri has a trattoria close by with reasonable prices and very good food. I'd be glad to answer any questions if I can.

cmstraf ( and all),
i just got my tickets. i believe i have a 24hr cancellation. here it is:


Flight summary

Flight: Seattle - Venice - Return USD 1,607.71
Wed 13 May 15 - Thu 21 May 15



Departure: Seattle - Venice
Wed 13 May 15 13:43 Seattle (Seattle Tacoma, Washington, USA)
Thu 14 May 15 08:30 Amsterdam (Schiphol, Netherlands)

Class: Economy
Flight number: KL 6032
Aircraft type: 333 | view seat map
Operated by: Delta Air Lines
The waiting time until the next flight is 3h05

Thu 14 May 15 11:35 Amsterdam (Schiphol, Netherlands)
Thu 14 May 15 13:15 Venice (Marco Polo, Italy)

Class: Economy
Flight number: KL 1653
Aircraft type: 73W | view seat map
Operated by: KLM

Total travel time 14h32


Return: Rome - Seattle
Thu 21 May 15 06:20 Rome (Fiumicino Airport, Italy)
Thu 21 May 15 08:50 Amsterdam (Schiphol, Netherlands)

Class: Economy
Flight number: KL 1596
Aircraft type: 73H | view seat map
Operated by: KLM
The waiting time until the next flight is 1h10

Thu 21 May 15 10:00 Amsterdam (Schiphol, Netherlands)
Thu 21 May 15 11:10 Seattle (Seattle Tacoma, Washington, USA)

Class: Economy
Flight number: KL 6033
Aircraft type: 333 | view seat map
Operated by: Delta Air Lines

Total travel time 13h50

looks great, August, though the time to change planes at Schipol on the way home is a bit tight; the aircraft staff should help you though and you have time to suss out the airport a bit during your 3 hour wait on the way out.

Buon viaggio!

Sadly, $1600 is quite reasonable for shoulder season now and I think KLM is really a good airline. Hope you took it--I've been offline for a few days. I agree with annhig, it's a bit tight on the way home, but their airline is good.

I'd try to get an aisle seat as close to the front as possible to aid speed in transition.

Tell us about your next steps :)