Updated Italy Itinerary - Suggestions?

Old Apr 16th, 2007, 05:51 PM
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Updated Italy Itinerary - Suggestions?

After receiving a lot of great input from all of you, we were wondering if this would work:

Rome: 3 days
Florence: 3 days
Cinque Terre: 3 days
Venice: 3 days
Back to Rome for late afternoon before flight next day

This way we hit the three most popular spots: Rome, Florence and Venice and can have a little relaxation in Cinque Terre. The train rides are only a few hours too so we won't be traveling as much.

Is this do-able? Or still too much traveling?

Any hotel/activity input is also appreciated - we are looking at hotels between $100-200 a night
Thanks, April
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Old Apr 16th, 2007, 06:53 PM
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Your itin sound very do able we were in all those palces last May. You may want to consider and extra day in Venice and or Florence if you are going to try to see alot of the museums and art work this can become time consuming. I would highly recommend getting advance tickets to the attractions you know you wnat to see this worked out great for instance at the Palace of the Dodges take the secret tour very interesting and also the Uffizzi in florence advance tkts gives you a timed entrance and avoids very long lines. We spent 2 night in Cingue terre and walked all five towns in one day unless you plan on doing a lot of hiking one day was plenty with two nights. In cingue terra we stayed in a very nice B&B above town short walk in Monterroso B&B Il Parco www.ilparco.com great views and nice grounds. In florence we stayed in a great house Hotel Villa liberty www.hotelsinflorence.it really nice and reasonable nice gquiet part of town and we walk everywhere from here. let me know if you want restaurant rec but i highly recommend both hotels and in Venice we stayed at Hotel Basilea the location was great for walking and not for to walk to train station. It is in a nice neighborhood andis along Rio Marin if you are looking at a map of venice. let me know if you need more tips
tishkb
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Old Apr 16th, 2007, 07:09 PM
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Hello cinciapril. How many nights will you have in Italy? Your day of arrival will be half filled up with arriving, getting through immigration, customs, getting to your hotel in Rome and you will be feeling jetlag I would think. I say that assuming you are flying from somewhere in the US.

If you are planning 3 days anywhere and if consequently you mean two nights then actually you will only have one day without arriving or departing from that location.

Have you thought about booking an open jaw or aka multicity flight? Fly into one airport and depart from another. That way you will not have to backtrack.

Rome to Florence is about 90 minutes but do add on the time it takes to check out of your hotel in Rome, the time it takes to get to the train station and the time it takes to get to your hotel in Florence, checking in there etc.

I am not sure how long it takes to go by train from Florence to Cinque Terre but I think you need to plan on 6 hours or so to take the train from there to Venice. Plus of course the extra time again to check out of your hotel and get to the train station and to arrive in Venice, get to your hotel, check in etc.

So depending on how many nights you are actually having in Italy this could be or could not be a good intinerary. I would not consider the train trip from Cinque Terre only a few hours.

BTW, it is easier to fly into Venice and depart from Rome as most flights departing from Venice leave quite early in the morning.
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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 05:08 AM
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Hi April - This is a good plan; you can feel free to focus on your exam now.

I'd only suggest (based on your previous posts) that you might add a day to Rome, to allow for jet lag, and to thereby reduce your Florence stay. Also, it's fair to say that Venice is relaxing (compared to Rome) and there are many things to do there (including a day out on the Lagoon), so you might want to add a day there. The result would be 4/2/2/4...
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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 05:35 AM
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Hi cin,

Nice plan.

1. I think that you have 1 day too many on the CT. I would add it to Venice.

2. I suggest that you fly into Venice and out of Rome.

2A. If you have to fly RT FCO, I suggest that you keep going to
Venice after arriving in Rome.

The reason is that Rome is hectic and streesful. Venice is calm and soothing.

You could also go to Florence the first day.

www.whichbudget.com doesn't list discount flights to Venice. You could fly to Milan or Verona, but you won't save much time.

Alitalia has FCO/VCE for 97E that could save you about 1:30 hr compared to taking the train, if the schedules fit.

Enjoy your visit.

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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 07:15 AM
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Thank you to all who replied - I feel like we are finally on the right track! Such a relief...

LoveItaly: we will actually be in each place for three nights - for ex: we will arrive in Rome at like 7am on the Aug 11 and will leave for Florence the morning of Aug 14. We plan on catching the earliest train possible to each location so we can have at least a half day on the day of arrival.

ira: as beginners at this traveling abroad thing, we didnt' think of flying in and out of different locations so we are flying in and out of rome - already have the plane tickets - we were going for the cheapest tickets we could find. i now regret that we didn't find this website before starting our trip. It has already been so helpful and it is only my third day on it!
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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 07:33 AM
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Hi C,

>we are flying in and out of rome -

In that case, I suggest that you keep going to Venice your first day and work your way back to Rome.

Enjoy your visit.

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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 07:34 AM
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That's what travel is all about - learning from your experiences!

Buon viaggio!
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Old Apr 17th, 2007, 07:53 AM
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I agree about one too many days in Cinque terre 2 nights is plenty to get a feel and enjoy, I would recommend starting in Monterroso and walking to at least the first 2 towns after that from here you can use the train or ferrys which stop port to port the hike from north to south is way more imppressive the last two of the five are the least impressive. Also would consider adding another day in Venice it was our favorite and there is so much to see and do no car needed to get around stay at the Basilea and you"ll be close to everything also consider a ferry to Burano an old fishing village that is quite charming to stroll around and have an awesome lunch.
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Old Apr 2nd, 2009, 10:41 AM
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If you travel around Tuscany and Chianti Montalbano and you need a cheap but comfortable resting place I can suggest you http://www.lacasadizefiro.it which is also near the railway station of Empoli (and travelling by train in Italy is really beautiful!)
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