Need Italy Itinerary help
 

I am planning a trip (13 nights) in Iraly for next summer with my husband and our teenage son. We will land in Rome where we'll spend the first three days. After that we plan to rent a car and head to Florence. Then on to Venice or Lake Como or both. Is this too much for two weeks? I need help finalizing this itinerary. Also, I need to figure out whether we should fly home from Venice or Milan. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Might I suggest that you take the train from Rome to Florence, and also to Venice. There is no need for a car in any of these cities (rathar difficult to drive a car in Venice). You can probably take the train to Lake Como too.

Personally, I would drop one of your destinations (my choice would be Lake Como) and drive through the lovely Tuscany countryside for a few days instead.

Four nights in Rome, 3 nights in the Tuscany countryside, 3 each in Florence & Venice would be perfect. You could fly out of Venice, but many people would recommended that you start your trip in Venice because flying out in the morning can be a little difficult.


Stu Dudley

Excellent advice from Stu.

((I))

Definitely take the train! It can take the strain out of all that driving on the autostrada (narrow lanes and crazy driving!). Rome to Florence by train (4 nights Rome, 2 nights Florence) then on to Venice by train. The first view of venice from thr steps of Santa Lucia station is wonderful! 4 nights in Venice- lots to do- do include a trip by boat out across the lagoon to Burano and Torcello. 3 nights by Lake Como and fly back from Milan. Perfetto!!

We took a car from Rome and drove through Tuscany. It was beautiful. We stayed in San Gimiango and took day trips out. From there we drove to Florence, dropped the car off. Then we took the train up to Santa Margarita and went to Cinque Terra for a day trip and Portofino for another. We took the train up to Genoa and flew out from there. Our trip was for 12 nights...and we thought 3 days in each area was perfect.

If you can do an open-jaw flight by flying into Rome/FCO and out of Milan/MXP, seeing these 4 cities in 13 days is doable but rushed. You will lose 2 days just traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, and that first day in Rome you'll likely be basket cases with jet lag and culture shock. So that really leaves you only 10 full days. To do all four cities would give you 3 nights in 1 place, and 2 nights each in the other three. Allow up to half a day to travel from point A to point B, and you can see that there won't be much vacation left on your vacation with this itinerary!

I will offer the dissenting opinion and recommend dropping either Florence or Venice and going to Lake Como instead. Logistically, it would be better to drop Venice, since it's &quot;over there&quot; out of the way from the other three destinations. I would do 3 nights Rome, 3 nights Florence, 2 nights Lake Como, 1 night Milan Malpensa airport (Gallarate or Busto Arsizio area). A third night in Lake Como is reasonable <i>IF</i> you're staying in or near the city of Como. If you're looking to do Bellagio, Varenna, etc., then I'd spend the last night near Malpensa instead.

It's possible to do the Rome-Florence-Venice itinerary too -- and fly home direct from Venice -- but then it's one more city that's overrun with tourists. Lake Como has plenty of tourists, but it's not of the magnitude or degree that Rome, Florence, or Venice are overrun. Also, dropping one of the Big Three gives y'all an excuse to have to come back to Italy: to see the third city in the Big Three!

The Italian lakes region is pretty and interesting--including Lake Como. But there are many, many pretty and interesting mountain lake regions throughout the world.

There is only one Venice--a unique world treasure.

If you're sure you'll be going back to Italy--then you can skip anything. If you arent', you will never see anything like Venice anywhere else in the world.

As to flying out of Milan or Venice, I would find out if you can fly home direct from Venice (Direct being the keyword). We have gone from Lake Como to catch an 11:00AM flight out of Milan. You rise early and it is hectic but easily done.

For your destinations, your family needs to decide what is important. Venice is beautiful and I have not heard of another city like it in the world. Lake Como is one of the most jaw dropping area that I have ever been to. I think taht most people classify Rome as a 'must do'. But family might really want to go museum hopping through Florence.

You have a good balance of major cities and the chance to experience small town Italy, which should make for a good trip. This is all doable without a rental car.

Well, if you don't particularly want to go to Milan, don't fly out of it. I agree, go to Venice. Not only is it my favorite city in the world, but it makes a good contrast to Rome and Florence. And kids like it, more so than the Italian lakes, beautiful though they are.

And do try to see something of the countryside if possible. You might want to skip Florence unless somebody in the family has a particular interest.

We took our son to Florence when he was 14. He zipped through the Uffizi in record time. In retrospect, we should have discussed visiting art museums and made a practice trip or two ahead of time. (He loved Venice.)

Summer is of course the busiest time. When restricted by the school year, we used to travel immediately after school was out in June. Fewer other tourists, cooler weather.