I am heading to Italy mid June and had the following as a rough guide as to where I would like to go. Has anyone any advise on how long to stay in each place.

Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Naples, then south to Sicily to catch a ferry to Malta.

Would love to hear any suggestions.
Cheers

How long are you planning to be in Italy total? What are some of your top interests and priorites? For example, if you are big into art and architecture, then Florence and Rome might need longer, but if hiking is your favorite then our recommendations might be different.

Good luck and happy planning!

It would be virtually impossible to give a meaningful response without knowing how long a trip you are planning to take.

My advice:

Venice--4 days
Florence--2 days
Pisa--0 days, day trip from Florence
Rome--4 days
Amalfi Coast/Naples--3 days
Sicily--5 days
malta--4 days

Good answer from Rufus, though if Rome merits 4 days, then I think 7 days for Sicily and Malta (combined) would be apt.

For what it's worth (and this is sort of my own little quirk), I think that Florence is an excellent first destination on a trip to Italy like yours.

Best wishes,

Rex

Yes, sorry about that, I got a little excited about my first post. I would like to do about 10 - 12 days in Italy/Sicily and 8 days in Malta - have been here before and just love it.

I will be travelling around by train and my thoughts so far are; Rome > Venice 2nights, Florence 1 night, do a day trip to Pisa from Florence > Rome 2 nights > Naples and the Amalfi Coast. This is where my thoughts go a stray. I want to get to Sicily to catch a ferry from Catania or Pozzallo to Malta. There are a number of options on how to get to Sicily one of which is a ferry from Naples to Catania - is this a good idea? Am I missing stuff by not continuing down the coast of Italy by train or bus? Any advise?
Thanks

Hi MJ,

>10 - 12 days in Italy/Sicily and 8 days in Malta <

Rome is worth 5-7 days
Florence and Venice are worth 5-7 days
Naples and the AC are worth 5-7 days
Sicily is worth 5-7 days.

You will have to choose what you want to see in 10 - 12 days.

You can't do it all in one visit.

> will be travelling around by train and my thoughts so far are; Rome > Venice 2nights, Florence 1 night, do a day trip to Pisa from Florence > Rome 2 nights > Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Not recommended.

You will be worn out and will remember nothing.

10-12 days, I haven't been to Naples or Sicily yet, but if Sicily is a priority I'd suggest

3 days Florence
4 days Rome
5 days Sicily

Yes, skip my beloved Venice, you just don't have enough time and it's out of the way.

Two nights in Rome isn't worth the trouble.

If you can give up Sicily, then add in Venice and add some time to Rome.

I agree with ira and elaine. With 10-12 days, you are going to need to make some choices or truly spend the whole time travelling and not seeing anything. It will not be fun.

It takes time to travel between cities, eat, stop for the bathroom, pack and unpack bags, check in and out of hotels, wait for trains, etc....

For example, I'm not sure how you could possibly do a day trip to Pisa from Florence if you are only staying there one night. By the time you get to Florence from Venice it will be lunchtime at the earliest. You would have one afternoon and possibly one morning in Florence before departing for Rome. That would leave you little time for Florence, but no time for Pisa. Rome is wonderful, but really needs more than 2 nights (even 3 is better).

It is so easy to get excited and overplan, but you cannot see everything all at once. Ask yourself what you really most want to see and do...look at some guidebooks....then start making priorities.

Come back with questions or whatever. Good luck and have fun! It is all great and you can't go wrong with whatever you choose.

we are leaving for malta and sicily tomorrow so email contact me when we get back and we can giveyousome current info

With only 10-12 days in Italy, serious cutting is needed. Elaine has started you off in the right direction to create a reasonable and workable itinerary.

Agree with the others. You cannot see all those places in 10-12 days. It takes a LOT of time to move from one place to another. Pick three venues at most and plan from there....

I agree with those who say that you don't have enough time to do justice to all of the places you plan to visit with only 18 days. We just spent 9 days in Sicily and barely scratched the surface. I suggest that, if you want to spend 8 days in Malta, you forget Sicily this trip. I hate to say that because Sicily is a fabulous place and worthy of a lot more time than you can spend on this trip. That said, if you have never been to Italy before, I would do one of the following:

Venice - 3 days
Florence - 4 days
Rome - 5 days
Malta - 7 days

or

Florence - 4 days
Rome - 5 days
Sicily - 9 days

You can easily fly from Rome to Sicily and probably from Rome to Malta.

Thank you everyone oh so much, i think i need to go away and rethink the entire trip plan. Reading everyones posts has surely helped me a great deal. This is a great site with lots of great people.

Cheers