ronnieh

Okay, so we will be in Italy/France from July 18-August 6th. We have already purchased our tickets to arrive in Rome but leave from Paris. Here is our tentative itinerary.

17-Jul Leave From San Francisco to Rome
18-Jul Arrive In Rome (Morning)
19-Jul Rome
20-Jul Rome
21-Jul Rome
22-Jul Leave For Cinque Terre (Train)
23-Jul Cinque Terre
24-Jul Fly from Pisa to Paris, take train or car to Loire Valley
25-Jul Loire Valley
26-Jul Loire Valley
27-Jul Loire Valley
28-Jul Travel back to Paris
29-Jul Paris
30-Jul Paris
31-Jul Paris
1-Aug Paris
2-Aug Paris
3-Aug Paris
4-Aug Paris
5-Aug Paris
6-Aug Leave For San Francisco

The days in Paris and the Cinque Terre portion of the trip are pretty much set in stone and can't be changed.

So here is my question. Since we will already be in Rome does it make more sense to forget about the Loire Valley on this trip and perhaps use those days to visit the Amalfi Coast region? Then from there we could head up to Cingue Terre and then on to Paris.

Also I should mention that on our last trip to Italy/France a few years ago we visited Florence/Tuscany and South of France area

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

yk

<i>So here is my question. Since we will already be in Rome does it make more sense to forget about the Loire Valley on this trip and perhaps use those days to visit the Amalfi Coast region?</i>

Well, do you want to go to the Loire Valley or do you want to go to the Amalfi coast?

Are you looking for chateaux country or are you looking for cliffs/coastline?

Logistically, it is faster to get from Paris to Loire Valley, than to get from Rome to Amalfi Coast.

dandj2

can you add days to Cinque Terre?
It deserves more days IMO. I was there for 4 nights and wanted more.

ronnieh

The only reason I was somewhat leaning towards the Loire Valley over the amalfi coast was since we are already going to Cinque Terre which is a coastal region, it may be nice to see something different. An I didn't realize that it was a shorter trip from Paris to the Loire Valley compared to Rome to Amalfi Coast, so that is something to consider.

yk

If you're looking for something different from Cinque Terre, then Loire Valley is the obvious choice.

If you're flying from Pisa to Paris CDG, you can take a direct TGV from CDG to St Pierre des Corps (Tours). The ride takes 1hr45mins.

If you are flying into a different airport in Paris, you can also take the TGV from Montparnasse to St Pierre des Corps. The ride from Paris is only 1 hour.

ira

Hi r,

&gt;does it make more sense to forget about the Loire Valley on this trip and perhaps use those days to visit the Amalfi Coast region?&lt;

I wouldn't do the CT and the AC on the same visit.

Have you considerd visiting Venice and flying www.myair.com from VCE to ORY?

StuDudley

That's a lot of days in the Loire, unless you are really a Chateaux freak (I am). If you remove the Chateaux from the Loire, it is one of my least favorite regions in France. Four nights in the Loire &amp; only four in Rome seems a little unbalanced. Are you also planning to visit Versailes while in Paris??

Agree that CT &amp; Amalfi would be a little redundent. Perhaps do a Burgundy/Loire swing instead of the Amalfi coast. Venice would be wonderful also.

Nine days in Paris is more than most people spend who don't travel to Europe frequently (we were there for 3 weeks in Sept/Oct - but we also spend 2 months in France almost every year). Alsace is close to Paris (by train), also. So is Brittany (Rennes).

Stu Dudley

ronnieh

I appreciate the comments which have helped me to see that for this trip the Loire Valley would be a better choice since we are already planning to visit CT.

We went to Venice for a few days on our last trip, but thanks for the suggestion.

Yes we are spening a lot of days in Paris, however, for this trip it has to be this way.

Stu Dudley you make a good point that perhaps we need to take a day off of Loire Valley and add that to our Rome days.

Mimar

You will be jetlagged when you arrive in Rome, so it makes sense to add a few more days there.

iris1745

Hi ronnieh; If you are going to the 'Loire', it might makes sense to fly into Paris [ory], bing on the south side of Paris. [CDG is on the north side of Paris]. Easy Jet fly's from Pisa to Orly non-stop. On the travel date you list to the Paris/Loire, there are two flights. One at 8:15am and the other at 5:05pm. On kayak.com the cost is $44US pp ENJOY

ronnieh

Thanks for the airport suggestion. So much thought goes into planning a trip. I guess eventually you just have to make a decision and then go and have a GREAT TIME!!!