Please Critique My (somewhat long!) Italy Itinerary
 

My husband and I will be visiting Italy in September 2007 and after incorporating many of your great recommendations, we have come up with the following itinerary. Please note that for the first half of the trip we will be in the Cinque Terre region on a culinary tour based out of Rapallo. Because this tour is pretty much set in stone, I have only briefly outlined the day trips we will be taking from Rapallo.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I have put “???” by all of the parts of the itinerary that I have questions/concerns about.

Day 1: arrive in Milan Malpensa Airport at 11:20 a.m.; check into Hotel Dei Cavalieri

-- see the Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle, La Scala Theatre, [Museum Castello Sforzesco (time permitting)] and Santa Maria delle Graziea,
-- 6 p.m. reservation for Leonardo’s da Vinci's Last Supper
-- Dinner: any suggestions???

Day 2: early morning train to Rapallo, where we will be staying for the entire culinary tour

-- visit Santa Margherita

Day 3: visit food market in Rapallo, cooking class, visit Portofino

Day 4: trips to Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore and the promenade Via dell'Amore

Day 5: trips to Sestri Levante, Chiavari (here we take a gelato lesson)

Day 6: trip to Camogli

Day 7: trip to Genova

Day 8:leave Rapallo

-- train to Pisa (see the tower, Duomo if time permits)
-- train to Florence (check in at Hotel Casci)
-- Dinner: Trattoria Garga, Via del Moro 48/R

Day 9:

-- Early Morning: San Lorenzo Market
-- Late Morning: Uffizi
-- Late Lunch: Ristorante Omero
-- Evening: Accademia Galleries

(or we were thinking of getting a tour of everything from www.artviva.com--any comments???)

-- Dinner: Il Latini –OR– Il Guscio, in the Oltrarno, Via dell' Orto, 49 (any suggestions?)

Day 10: All day tour to Siena and San Gimignano (this is a Monday so most museums will be closed)

-- Dinner: Acqua Al 2, Via della Vigna Vecchia, 40/R

Day 11:

-- Climb to top of Duomo, Opera de Duomo
-- late morning check out (leave bags with hotel?)
-- Afternoon: Science Museum
-- Late Afternoon: train to Rome (check in at Hotel Albergo del Senato)

Day 12:

-- Morning (9:00 a.m. start): Scavi Tour (1.5 hours), St. Peter’s Basilica
-- Lunch: can anyone recommend a good place near the Vatican ??? I hear places are very touristy and expensive ???
-- 2:00 p.m.: tour of Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel
-- Late Afternoon: Castel Sant’Angelo, Enoteca Piero Constantini, Boat along Tiber to Isola Tiberina, Trastevere
-- Dinner on Tiber Island: Sora Lella

Day 13:

-- Morning: Palatine, Roman Forman and Colosseum (can anyone recommend a good tour of these places??? Rome Antica maybe???), Piazza del Campidoglio
-- Afternoon: Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps), view from Trinita dei Monti at top of steps
-- Late Afternoon: Drinks at La Terrazza dell’Eden

Day 14:

-- Morning: Galleria Borghese (tour); fixed air balloon ride—Galoppatoio of Villa Borghese
-- Lunch: any recommendations near the Borghese???
-- Afternoon: the Catacombs and the Appian Way (suggestions on whether we should take a tour or go at in on our own???)

Day 15: All day trip to Pompeii and Naples

Day 16:

-- Morning: the Baths of Caracalla, Aventine (Pyramid of Caius Cestius, Temples of Forum Boarium, etc), and Jewish Ghetto (visit Enoteca Bleve in the Ghetto)
-- Late Lunch: Piperno (in Ghetto)—OR—‘Gusto (restaurant or pizzeria) (near Popolo)
-- Afternoon: Church Santa Maria del Popolo; shopping on Via del Corso, Enoteca Buccone on Via di Ripetta, Enoteca Parliamento on Via dei Prefetti
-- Dinner: Ditirambo (this day is a Sunday and we heard this restaurant is one of the few oppened)

Day 17: fly back to NYC (will take www.romeshuttlelimousine.com from hotel to airport)

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I realize this is a packed itinerary, but we are both in our mid-twenties and it is our first time to Italy. Also, we are not trying to “overplan” by choosing all of the restaurants in advance of our trip, but, based on research and many reviews written on this forum, there are a couple that we would like to try, so I have tried to fit them in where appropriate.

Thanks in advance for everyone’s help! I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Your schedule in Rome is very busy! Of course, I understand you want to see as much as possible.

On Day 12, you have 3-1/2 hours between the Scavi Tour and the Vatican. Maybe get an earlier tour of the Vatican?

I believe the balloon ride in the Borghese Gardens is gone.

Day 16 is espcially full. I don't think you'll get to all that.
In general, be prepared to not get to everything you have listed. You will go back! Have a great trip.

Hi Greene,

I agree with SusanP. I was thinking the same thing. I don't think you will get to more than 1/2 of what you list in Roma! Make sure you set priorities and optionals. And take moleskin!

Buon viaggio!

Yes, that is an ambitious itinerary, but when I was in my twenties, I did similar trips. As for Rome, your first day is packed. I take it you will see the Basilica after the Scavi Tour. You will have about two hours, so climb the dome, visit the grottoes, and see the treasury. You still have two hours before your museum tour, so have a leisurely lunch at one of these restaurants: Da Roberto (the Pope's favorite when he was a cardinal), Dino and Tony's Hosteria; Dante Taberna di Gracchi, or Trattoria Dino's on Via Tacito. I bet you will be too exhausted to see Castel San Angelo. As for the Forum etc. Context Rome does an excellent Ancient Rome tour or you can pick up a free tour at the Colosseum that many people have enjoyed. Not many great restaurants near the Borghese. If you go down Via Veneto and keep walking to the Piazza Repubblica, in the Galleria Esedra is a wonderful tavola calda (cafeteria) called Dagino that has excellent food, out of this world desserts (the owners are Sicilian and the cassata and cannoli are outstanding) all at a very moderate price. Tour the catacombs on your own; you need to go down with the official guide anyway.

Rome: contact Daniella Hunt for tours of ancient rome e.g. forum. www.rome-tours.com [email protected]; phone in rome 066832058 we spent a wonderful rainy november morning in the forum with her. Try da Ghigetto for lunch after...near by in Jewish getto and visit the Capitaline Museum after lunch (top floor terrific cafe for view and vino. Context Rome, did several walking tours including Vatican all terrific.
Florence: lunch go to Trattorio Mario, unique delicous working class place near Mercato Centrale; dinner we loved Buca dell'orato near Uffizi and Ponte Vecchio. This last trip we did the Vassari Corridor with Select Italy. If you are into frescoes...Santa Maria del Carmel, Capella Brancacci and the Massacios!

I don't think your age is the issue. For any age, I think you are trying to do too much...you run the risk of racing through Rome and Florence and it may be a blur. Slow down - Italy is to be absorbed and you'll miss so much of the culture and ambiance if you're hitting the sites at breakneck speed. I think you would benefit from another full day in Florence at least.

Thank you for everyone's advice. I was thinking of doing an extra day in Florence, but we requested a Scavi tour on our first day in Rome and I hear they do not look friendly upon people who try to reschedule the tour.

Also, we made this list so that we never feel like we don't know what we want to do next (or, more likely, like we have too many options and can't make a decision). I realize it's very likely that we won't get to see everything (but I was counting on more than 1/2 Dayle!). I am ok with missing things on our list, but I want to have a general outline to guide us while there.

Thank you Grinisa for the restaurant suggestions. I am going to look into all of them. I guess we will try to have a quick lunch so that we can get to the Vatican earlier than two-thanks for the suugestion Susan.

Grinisa, does the Context Rome tour do Palatine Hill in addition to the Colosseum and the Forum? We would love to see the Palatine.

Jane, thanks for your suggestions. We will definitely look into your Florence eat picks. Sorry for my ignorance, but what is Vassari Corridor? Can you tell I haven't done much research on Florence yet?

I agree with others that you may have too much packed in, but as long as you keep the positive attitude that you may not see it all you will be fine.

I recommend eating at Gusto on Day 16. We really enjoy it and the food is great.

When we were at the Borghese Gardens in June the hot air balloon was gone.

Check out Context Rome at www.contextrome.com for their itineraries. We did their Vatican tour and their Ancient Rome tour, but we did them both as private tours (there were 4 of us, so it wasn't that much more to do the private tour), so were able to make up our own itinerary for the day.

Hi again Greene,

I didn't mean to imply that you won't see a lot of your choices! I'm a very ambitious sightseer too. With the list you have, you can decide as your day goes along what your priorities are and what you can pop into in the neighborhood. Once you have a list and know the opening hours/days, you are fully prepared!

My last trip I had 5 days in Rome. Here's what I did - I start pretty early and go until dinner. Don't usually go for the nightlife...

Arrival from Naples - did laundry at an Italian laundromat, unfortunately a priority, and interesting too. Lovely dinner, crashed while it poured rain all night long on all the Note Bianca parties!

Day 2: Sunday - 9am Borghese Galleria, wander the gardens, Spanish Steps, shop a bit on Via Condotti, short lunch, Pantheon, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Piazza Navona, cat sanctuary, wander back to hotel for a short rest, dinner with friends, Trevi fountain,crash.

Day 3: Monday - Domus Areus (SP?) with an archeologist, lunch, Antica Rome tour with Context Rome (4 1/2 hrs). Dinner with friends.

Day 4: Santa Maria Maggiore, San Pietro in Vincoli, Arte Vaticano tour with Context Rome, climb the dome, short 2nd visit to San Pietro and the Piazza, dinner with friends.

Day 5: Day trip out to Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa, Villa D'Este, late snack, back to Rome, last night dinner with friends.

Of course along the way I popped into other churches, visited other ruins, walked a lot! (This was my 2nd Rome visit, although the first was obscenely short.)

Maybe this helps give you some ideas!

Buon viaggio and be sure to have some Melone gellato for me!

Thanks Dayle. We are also thinking about Tivoli instead of Naples. We haven't decided yet. The rest of your schedule was very helpful too.

Hopefully we will be able to stick to the general structure of our schedule, but I completely realize we'll probably give up some things because we've spent too long seeing others. But that only gives us more reason to return one day, right?

Hi again Greene,

I would choose Tivoli over Naples, just because it's a shorter trip. I would save Naples for a trip including more of southern Italy, like the Amalfi Coast.

Getting to Tivoli was easy and took about 1 hr. via metro and then bus. Walked a ways to Villa Adriana, spent probably a couple hours there. It's a big, beautiful park-like setting and easier to envision how things looked back in Hardrian's days because the site hasn't been buried under centuries of "remodeling" and buildings.

I have to admit I forgot why it was people visited Villa D'Este. I just knew it was a place to see. What a wonderful surprise to finally see an Italian garden as I always imgined it should be! And - the fountains were an abolute delight! I noticed everyone was walking around with smiles on their faces, including me. Wonderful place to see, they have placed modern sculptures around the gardens and it's a perfect setting for them.

Buon viaggio!