I'm a 21 year old student, going to Italy for 4 nights and 5 days. I arrive in Pisa and depart from Venice. I want to see as much as possible, within reason obviously. Any suggestions?

hi, zaderburg,

to help you, perhaps you could give us a bit more info?

eg interests, budget, time of year, and "must sees", etc.

do you want to travel by train, car, bus? are you alone?

help us to help you!

regards, ann

Everyone will tell you you get the most out of travel if you stay for longer times in each place. With 4 nights you should probably go to Florence for 2 and Venice for 2. Otherwise you won't get a good sense of anywhere you stop. You could easily stay the entire time in either city.

Having said that you should limit yourself to 2 stops, if you really want to experience another city I would think Padua would be very interesting to a student because of the university there. You could stay there and go to Venice or vice versa.

Of course, while in Pisa you should see the leaning tower/cathedral/baptistry.
There are frequent trains between Pisa and Florence.

You will probably get more/better responses to your question if you post a thread that says something like Itinerary help--4 nights northern Italy.

Hi Z,

My suggestion:

Arrive Pisa.

Take train to town. Drop off luggage at train station, see Tower.

Train to Florence. Stay overnight.
See Florence. (Hotel will hold your luggage.)

Train to Venice in early PM.
Stay in Venice.

Enjoy your visit.

Thanks to the responses so far, as I wasn't sure how much information to put in etc and I have a vague idea of what to do, but wasn't sure if it was feasible.

I'm actually going next weekend (5-9 May). Budget is a students budget, aka- not a whole lot, but enough to see museums and galleries. I'd like to travel by the least expensive way. Though I think that the train is the fastest.

My general idea for travel is since I arrive in Pisa to see the Tower, Cathedral etc. Then go into Florence stay the night. See Florence all day the next day. The next day spend the morning in Florence then travel to Venice, spend the rest of the day there and the next day there as well.

I know it's not a lot of time and I do wish I had longer, unfortunately I just don't have the time this time.

Hi Z,

Your plan is close enough to my suggestion to qualify for "great minds think alike".

Have any suggestions for cheap places to stay in Venice? When I have to leave for the Venice Treviso airport early morning...

Can't help you with hotel recommendations--I have not been to Venice for years. If you type in Venice cheap hotels or B & Bs in the search function for the Europe forum you will get quite a few ideas.
Some people stay on the mainland in Maestre for cheaper hotels/proximity to the airport.

You could also try www.eurocheapo.com or www.hostelscentral.com
Or another travel forum option would be
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com.