Revising Itinerary for Italian Honeymoon
 

My wife and I are traveling to Italy and would appreciate some help refining and filling out our itinerary. This is my current tentative schedule:


Day 1 AUG15 (partial day) Happy Ferragosto! Arrive in Rome, ride train to Venice, check in to hotel, dinner.
Day 2 AUG16 Venice: Focus: Main Sights
Morning: St Marks square and the Doge's Palace
Lunch:
Afternoon: Take the Vaporetto #1, Rialto Bridge
Dinner: Random Place found after wandering
Day 3 AUG17 Venice: Focus Getting lost in Venice
Morning: Glass blowing tour in Murano
Lunch:
Afternoon: Return to St Marks Square and begin wandering aimlessly
Diner: Random
Day 4 AUG18 Leave Venice - Travel to Sienna
Day 5 AUG19 Explore Sienna
Morning: Piazza del Campo
Lunch:
Afternoon: Museo dell'Opera
Dinner:
Day 6 AUG20 Daytrip to Florence:
Morning: ride to Florence, Accademia, Bargello Museum
Lunch: in Market Neighborhood
Afternoon: Uffizi Gallery
Dinner: after walk through Oltrarno
Ride back to Sienna
Day 7 AUG21 Day Trip to Tuscan Hill Villages with driver/guide Luca (thanks ellen, still working on reservation for this though)
Day 8 AUG22 Rome: Focus: Ancient
Morning: Capitoline Museum, Imperial Forums, Colosseum
Lunch: near Colosseum
Afternoon: Roman Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain
Dinner: Take in dinner in Piazza Navona
Day 9 AUG23 Rome: Focus Museums
Morning: Vatican City and Museums
Lunch:
Afternoon: Castel Sant'Angelo, Galleria Borghese, wander around Villa Borghese
Dinner: somewhere in the area
Day 10 AUG24 Rome:
Morning: Out of Rome Journey to Ostia Antica
Lunch:
Afternoon: Appian Way and Catacombs
Dinner:
Day 11 AUG25 Rome:
Focus of Today "get lost" wondering around a neighborhood (Trastevere) need ideas on this one
Day 12 AUG26 Leave Rome

Would appreciate any suggestions for eating establishments, for the most part I want to rely on chance to find lunch places.

I never understand itineraries like this. We get advance tickets for things that you must have them for (Vatican Scavi tour) and leave everything else to serendipity. To be this organized you have to ignore weather, how late you've been out the night before and what you just feel like doing that day.

We naturally have a list of what we want to do - and know which is closed what day (as much as you can in italy) - but other wise just play it by ear. this gives us time to just sit in a cafe and watch the world go by - or explore some random thing that seems interesting.

That's also why we drive versus train - so we're not stuck with someone else's schedule - or see something we really want to explore pass us by out the train window.

Your overall schedule looks good - but Rome seems rushed - IMHO the Forum is good for 3 or 4 hours. And seeing both St Peter;s and the Vatican Museums in one morning is going to be very rushed - if you want to see the dome, the treasury etc.

One thing you must do in Rome is sit for a while in the late afternoon in one of the cafes opposite the Pantheon. Order a campari and soda - and they will bring free munchies and just watch the world go by - and listen to the music from the nearby churches.

While I would not discourage you from wandering and finding a random spot for dinner, be aware that many restaurants in Venice and Rome are small and fill up quickly leaving those without reservations waiting or looking elsewhere. One strategy that has worked for us is to reserve ahead for at least one night in each city. As you wander during the day and come across an appealing spot, you can try to reserve for that evening or another night.

nytraveler, thanks for your input. Im not sure if you can tell but its our first time to Europe and while we normally like to vacation in the States in a manner such as you suggest (i.e. casually, mostly unscripted, and at our own pace). However we were unsure as to how much planning is really necessary in order to ensure a good time is had. Reading your reply has made me feel more comfortable in saying that I realize all the stuff in the itinerary may not happen, but I know we will have a good time. Again, thanks.

gh21, point well taken. will be sure to stay at least a day ahead in restaurant choices for dinner. Thanks!

Ah, I see that you've decided to open a new thread, so I should probably have posted here rather than on the old one, and so here goes once more:

HTownResider, what you're planning for August 24th is actually two days - if you're serious about seeing it, then you need a full day for Ostia Antica; ditto for the Via Appia Antica, particularly if you want to include one or two catacombs.

Also, didn't you want to include off-the-beaten-path sights in Rome? What became of that idea during the planning process? This thread http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ightseeing.cfm should be helpful as far as off-the-beaten-path sightseeing in Rome; plus this one http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...odistricts.cfm as far as in which part of the city to stay.

Ah, I see that you've decided to open a new thread, so I should probably have posted here rather than on the old one, and so here goes once more:

HTownResider, what you're planning for August 24th is actually two days - if you're serious about seeing it, then you need a full day for Ostia Antica; ditto for the Via Appia Antica, particularly if you want to include one or two catacombs.

Also, didn't you want to include off-the-beaten-path sights in Rome? What became of that idea during the planning process? This thread http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ightseeing.cfm should be helpful as far as off-the-beaten-path sightseeing in Rome; plus this one http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...odistricts.cfm as far as in which part of the city to stay.

<<However we were unsure as to how much planning is really necessary in order to ensure a good time is had.>>

Not as much as you're putting into it. I can't imagine following a script like this - what if it's pouring on your Ostia Antica day? What if there's a special event you come across while trekking to the Vatican? What if you meet someone by chance in Venice who offers to take you on a tour of hidden places in the ghetto (this happened to us last time we were there)?

It's great to have a plan and know what you want to see and do (and know what's open when), but most of the fun of traveling for me is the unexpected and serendipity. Congratulations on doing excellent research, but be ready to toss it all out the window when you're actually on the ground.

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Congrats!

Franco, thanks for the links to your threads, they both will be very helpful. As for neglecting the off the beaten path train of thought, it happened as I became overwhelmed with well known things that I, she, or we said "Oh!, I gotta see that". However thanks to the advice of my friends nytraveler and stcirq, I am now looking at my itinerary for the most part as an ideal situation and will be happy to supplement it with some of the lesser known sites as noted in your thread. Just out of curiosity, what would you cut from my rome itinerary? I realize it is your personal opinion, but I would certainly appreciate it.

Thanks

That's easy: I'd definitely cut out the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain (tourist stuff not really worth seeing), the Castel S. Angelo (not worth going inside with your limited amount of time, and seeing it just from across the S. Angelo Bridge, which is the much better sight btw, is an easy stroll after visiting Piazza Navona), but I'd also cut out the Appian Way & Catacombs - interesting, but more for your third or fourth trip to Rome IMHO. As far as the Imperial Forums, I just hope you know what you're doing; there's not much left of them, particularly not since Mussolini's brutal road construction, so this is just a valid point on your list if you actually mean "Traian's Column and Markets". And I'm not even sure that I would see the Vatican Museums on my first trip to Rome; sure, there are the Michelangelo and Raffaello frescoes, which are truly stunning and justly famous, but if any museum in the whole wide world is overwhelming, then it's this one (and there's no way of reaching the frescoes without walking across the entire length of this megamuseum).
I'd rather try to sample all the flavours that this fascinating city offers; two of which are sorely missing from your list: baroque, which has been invented in Rome (I mean GOOD baroque, not the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain!!); and medieval sights, which are definitely Rome's least known, and definitely among Rome's very best.

I might add that I also don't think the Forum Romanum is the best introduction to ancient Rome, and I for one don't recommend visiting it as a first timer to Rome (but then, I know perfectly that nobody has ever and nobody will ever listen to this advice - if I were the first timer, I wouldn't listen, either). Ostia Antica is a far better introduction, and in Rome proper, the walk from the Terme di Caracalla to the Foro Boario, the Teatro di Marcello and the Portico d'Ottavia. Plus the Colosseum, of course. Plus the above mentioned Mercati di Traiano.