MarinaK

This is the first week of 3 in Italy &amp; France for this summer. We're a family of 5 &amp; will be leasing a car. <BR><BR>Day 1 - Friday <BR><BR>Arrive : Rome Airport 12:35 pm <BR><BR>Coolect car &amp; settle in accommodation. <BR><BR>Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour – for orientation &amp; preparation for Day 3. <BR><BR>Day 2 - Saturday <BR><BR>Vatican City <BR><BR>Tivoli (if there's time) <BR><BR>Day 3 - Sunday <BR><BR>Do Rome. <BR><BR>Day 4 - Monday <BR><BR>Do Naples (only the museum), Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum &amp; Sorrento <BR><BR>Overnight in Sorrento. <BR><BR>Day 5 - Tuesday <BR><BR>The Amalfi Coast <BR><BR>Drive back to Rome via Ostia Antica. <BR><BR>Day 6 - Wednesday <BR><BR>Do Firenze - mainly for David &amp; Pisa - for the Leaning Tower. <BR><BR>Overnight in Firenze. <BR><BR>Day 7 - Thursday <BR><BR>Do Venice - just for the experience. <BR><BR>Overnight in Venice. <BR><BR>Day 8 - Friday <BR><BR>Do Milan - mainly to see The Last Supper. <BR><BR>Overnight in Milan. <BR><BR>Day 9 - Saturday <BR><BR>Drive to France where the 1st week there is relatively *quiet*. We'll need the rest after Italy. <BR><BR>Thanks.<BR>

Grinisa

ROFLMAO! Thanks for the day brightener!

Scullysioux

Day 4 seems a little ambitious, I would just pick two of those things to do in one day. I'd definitely do Pompeii and one other place. Maybe Pompeii and the Naples Museum or Pompeii and Herculaneum, but there isn't enough time in one day to get all those places in. Have a great time!

MarkY

I agree with Grinisa. This post has to be a joke.<BR><BR>MarinaK: If you really try, you can probably see a few more cities in that first week. Why limit yourself to just the few you've selected?

HowardR

&quot;If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium!&quot; Surely, you can't be serious about that itinerary!<BR>PS: A question: When did they move the Leaning Tower of Pisa to Firenze? Did I miss something?<BR><BR>

Mariarosa

Days 4-9 are truly impossible to do. Check out www.viamichelin.com for driving times, etc.

MarinaK

Thanks Scullysioux. We'll just have to do some of Day 4 stuff on Day 5 &amp; skip the Amalfi coast.<BR><BR>Mariarosa, I'm trying to convince my husband to skip Venice &amp; Milan but it's his first trip to Italy and we wants to do it all.<BR><BR>Grinisa &amp; MarkY, take a look in the mirror for a bigger laugh. <BR><BR>HowardR, Obviously, you'll illiterate. I wrote &quot;Pisa - for the Leaning Tower&quot;.<BR><BR>It's sad that the 3 of you have such empty lives.<BR>

HowardR

Sorry about the Pisa misunderstanding. I misread your punctuation!<BR>Still, you ought to pay heed to those of us who've been there and done that when we say it's too much. Perhaps our sarcasm is due to the fact that we didn't believe you were being serious!<BR>

Grinisa

Aren't we testy? You were the one who posted this with the query about it being &quot;doable&quot; so I assume you may have entertained the thought that it was, in fact, not &quot;doable&quot;. There was a thread on the boards not long ago about joke posts like this and it was very entertaining. O.K., I'll play along and take your word for it that this itinerary isn't a joke. So you land in Rome in the afternoon. By the time you collect your luggage, clear customs, get your car and drive into Rome, you may be checking into your hotel around 3pm if you're lucky. Then you have to get to the bus tour and tour Rome, assuming you aren't unpacking (heck I wouldn't with this itinerary) and not eating lunch. Nice blur of a day. Then day two, the Vatican, ok, that's about a whole day in itself but you want to schlep all the way to Tivoli. Day three,one of my favorites &quot;do Rome&quot;. I've been to Rome about 30 times and haven't seen it all but I'm sure you can &quot;do it&quot; today. Day four, another favorite,&quot;do Naples&quot; but just the museum. Does this count the two to three hours it take to get from Rome to Naples? Then the museum, oh and then Pompeii which normal people spend at least a half a day at, then Herculaneum, another at least half a day, then drive about two hours to get to Paestum, see that, and then drive back another two hours (unless your on the Amalfi drive and then it could be four hours) to Sorrento, where you will arrive about what, midnight? Day five, the Amalfi Coast. What? Positano, Amalfi, Ravello? Any and all? Going to squeeze Capri in there too? And add the drive back to Rome (two to two and half hours) but oh yeah, stop in Ostia Antica and see what's that about along the way. Ostia Antica is another half day stop at least. Then its off to Florence and Pisa to see both in one day, including the drive time (two to three hours) from Rome. Oh, it takes about 90 minutes just to drive from Florence to Pisa. Then drive three hours up to Venice to &quot;do that&quot;. I've been to Venice twice and haven't seen much outside of San Marco. But go ahead and &quot;do&quot; it anyway. Then drive to Milan, about another 3 or 4 hours and &quot;do&quot; it too. Yep, I guess on second thought, it's &quot;do&quot; able but then, who'd want to?

Patrick

I know you will consider this helpful post as being rude, just as you have the others, Marina, but Grinisa has spent far more time and thought in her answer than you have in your original plan.<BR><BR>Is it doable? Yes. Does it make even an ounce of sense? No. Are you really interested in the opinions of those with more experience? Apparently not.

MarkY

MarinaK:<BR><BR>Patrick is correct, Grinisa just put way more time in her post than you did dreaming up that crazy itinerary.<BR><BR>I was trying to tell you in a mildly sarcastic way, that your itinerary is absurd. Have you even done a minutes worth of research?<BR><BR>Take your itinerary and go have fun. That's my nice way of telling you to get lost.

MarinaK

Again, there really isn't any reson to be rude.<BR><BR>I have been on the Michelin web site to see the distance &amp; travel times, the travel books to see what they suggest the times needed, eg. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 2 hrs, etc.<BR><BR>You could have been nice like Scullysioux and suggested was too much.<BR><BR>And if you read my second post, you'll see that although I would prefer to do everything, I settle for 3 full days in Rome, 2 in the Pompeii area &amp; 2 in the Florence area.<BR><BR>Opinions are fine, but those by Grinisa, Patrick &amp; MarkY are not constructive, so totally worthless.

HowardR

I'll say this as pleasantly as possible: MarinaK, the more you post, the more you are alienating people and the less likely you are to obtain any solid advice to improve you trip!

Jean

What's the car for? It will be parked 90% of the time. <BR><BR>Forget Paestum on Day 4. You won't have time. <BR><BR>In fact, you don't seem to have factored in the travel time between points. For example, on Day 6, it is not realistic to plan in a 24-hour period to travel from Rome to Florence, &quot;do&quot; Florence, see the David, drive to Pisa, see the Leaning Tower, and drive back to Florence. Every time you move the car, you have to figure out where you're going to park it. Then, there's eating three meals. If your family of five includes children, they'll be completely worn out.<BR><BR>

KathyNZ

Regardless of what anyone else has said or how they have said it, they are correct, this is far too ambitious and unrealistis, have you studied many travel guides, maps etc, searched thru websites. What do you mean - Do Rome. I also agree about the car, do you know how much it is for parking, for toll roads and for gas in Europe? Italy has a perfectly good rail system that will take you into the centre of these major cities.

KathyNZ

Grinisa, I just read your post - extremely funny, thanks for that.<BR>MarkY, with that itinerary they will have no trouble getting lost.<BR>

isabel

Assuming that MarinaK has never been to Europe, her itinerary, while really not realistic, is not THAT far from being something someone might consider. If she did some research and saw it took 2-3 hr to go from point A to point B for example, and she figured she only wanted to see a couple things in each city - then someone might think this was doable. So everyone jumping on her wasn't really fair. What she was probably missing - and what is rather hard to figure out from guide books - is how hard it is to park, how long museum lines can be, how far it is to walk to some of these places, how long it takes to eat, etc. That's what something like this forum is very valuable for - if people share the information NICELY. But also, when people say they want to &quot;do&quot; Venice or &quot;do&quot; Rome - everyone's idea of what that means is different and NO ONE is more right than anyone else. Some people really are happy with just spending one day seeing some highlights, walking around, etc. and that's what they mean by &quot;doing&quot; a city. Others take it to mean fully seeing every church and museum in town.

Mariarosa

In Days 4 to Day 8 Marina has scheduled about 13 destinations, 1,100 miles of driving, 22 hours of driving time, not including the time that it takes to drive in and out of the cities.<BR><BR>This assumes that her family would spend about 5 hours for 5 straight days in a row just driving - not eating, not sightseeing, not queuing - just driving. <BR><BR>Considering attractions in Italy are often open on a limited schedule (e.g., they close for lunch), and that they will spend time checking in and out of hotels, finding parking, pumping gas, quaing to buy tickets, etc., I really think this schedule is beyond impossible, it would not be a fun vacation.

MarinaK

This is the original itinerary before my husband discovered we were not going to Venice &amp; Milan :<BR><BR>Day 1 - Friday <BR><BR>Arrive : Rome Airport 12:35 pm <BR><BR>Collect car &amp; settle in accommodation. <BR><BR>Hop-on, Hop-off Bus Tour – for orientation &amp; overview of the sights. <BR><BR>Day 2 - Saturday <BR><BR>Vatican City <BR><BR> ***St. Peter’s Basilica, Daily 7:00 – 7:00<BR><BR>***Vatican Museum, Mon – Fri 8:45 – 4:45, Sat 8:45 – 1:45, Closed Sunday<BR><BR>According to a couple of posts by Grinisa, it could be done in an hour.<BR><BR>Day 3 - Sunday <BR><BR>From tips on another post, “1 day in Rome”, will go with a guide. <BR><BR>Day 4 - Monday <BR><BR>Rome -&gt; Naples 142 miles, 2 hrs 10 mins<BR><BR>***Museo Archeologico, Wed – Mon 9:00 – 11:00, 90 mins<BR><BR>Naples -&gt; Pompeii 16 miles, 17 mins<BR><BR>Pompeii, according to another post, allow 3 hours<BR><BR>Pompeii -&gt; Herculaneum 10 mi in 0h15 <BR><BR>Herculaneum<BR><BR>Herculaneum -&gt; Sorrento 25 mi in 0h44 <BR><BR>Overnight in Sorrento. <BR><BR>Day 5 - Tuesday <BR><BR>Sorrento -&gt; Salerno, 33 mi in 50 mins <BR><BR>Just for the drive.<BR><BR>Salerno -&gt; Paestum, 28 mi in 33 mins <BR><BR>Paestum<BR><BR>Paestum -&gt; Rome, 188 mi in 3h01 <BR>Day 6 - Wednesday <BR><BR>????? <BR><BR>Day 7 - Thursday <BR><BR>Rome -&gt; Pisa, 199 mi in 3h20 <BR><BR>The Leaning Tower<BR><BR>Pisa -&gt; Florence, 51 mi in 0h58 <BR><BR>Overnight in Florence<BR><BR>Day 8 - Friday <BR><BR>***Academia, Tues – Sunday 8:30 – 6:50<BR><BR>Michelangelo’s David<BR><BR>Still in Florence<BR><BR>Day 9 - Saturday <BR><BR>Drive to France.<BR><BR>We’re early risers and it’s not difficult to be on the road by 7:00 – 8:00. With kids, we’re not looking for nightlife and we would be settled in by 9:00pm. This might make finding dinner so early difficult, but picnics, etc. will be fine.<BR><BR>Car – is just to get from Point A to Point B. Point B is any parking lot out of the City where there is a convenient train, bus or subway station into the City.<BR><BR>Sight-seeing – Except for those mentioned, we know our kids will not stand for being dragged into every Duomo, Museum, *old building*, etc., so we’ll just be walking around &amp; looking.<BR><BR>In defense of my husband, he looked at this itinerary and found a lot of empty spaces &amp; hence, the suggestion to add Venice &amp; Milan.<BR><BR>Venice would have consisted of a ride through the Grand Canal and a walk around Piazza San Marco, etc.<BR><BR>Milan would have been to see the Last Supper and anything we had time for.

Pilchard

MarinaK,<BR><BR>Please disregard what you feel is sarcasm or rudeness. Accept some simple facts from people who have already made their colossal travel mistakes (including me).<BR><BR>Your itinerary is far too ambitious. Everything you describe will take far more time than you think. Moreover, you will be terribly fatiqued making every step a chore. You will all be hot, tired, hungry and very, very cranky. All family members will hate each other after three days. You won't enjoy anything you do. There will be a mutiny because SOMEBODY will want to change the itinerary rather than slog it through. This will lead to considerable conflict. This will turn out to have been an expensive nightmare that will be the source of family arguments for years to come. No one will want to travel together again.<BR><BR>May I suggest that you all agree on perhaps three cities and have a real VACATION rather than a brutal, family-rending marathon?<BR><BR>Trust us. Your itinerary is a mistake. It's okay; we've all screwed up in our travels. We are trying to save you untold grief. Heed our warnings.<BR><BR>Good luck.<BR><BR>You're welcome.