Spain/Italy suggestions
 

Mme & my wife are going to Spain and Italy first week of January. It's our first trip to Europe. We are going to be in Spain for 6.5 days & 5.5 days in Italy. Looks like we don't have enough time but intend to visit major cities. (Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Rome, Venice and Florence). We are traveling by train (eurorail one conutry pass) to travel from one city to another. My question is do we need to rent a car for sightseeing?

Any other suggestions and recommendations also greatly appreciated.

Question: How are you traveling from Spain to Italy?

Suggestion: Brace yourself for comments as to how much you are attmepting to do!

Oh sorry...forgot to mention. We are flying from Barcelona to Venice by AlpiEagle.

Of your 3 Italian cities, I would suggest doing only a day trip to Florence-you can hit the highlights in a day. You're going to be really pressed for time for those cities in 5.5 days but hitting Florence on the way from Venice to Rome may be the best alternative.

I went to venice, rome, florence earlier this year and spent 3 days in Rome and it was just right. A bit packed actually but we would have liked at least a 4-5 day stay in Rome - it's a huge city and you have to walk a lot of it which is wonderful yet tiring if you don't pace yourself well. The must sees are the colosseum, pantheon, forum, Trevi fountain. We loved the Borghese gallery for Bernini's art works as well. So maybe you can do 3 days in Rome or 2 days. Venice you can get away with just 1 day - it's a charming place, again very walkable if you like exploring the little streets and of course don't miss the rides on the Grand Canal or the quieter canals if you so wish. Florence - I think you can do the Uffizi, Academia and be out in max 2 days. Like the earlier recommendation, 1 day perhaps even. I loved shopping in the flea markets in Florence, got a lot of scarves, shawls, purses etc, enjoyed visiting the ponte vechhio and hanging out so a good 2.5 days for us in Florence was actually perfect. But you know - I would totally recommend going to one country and then seeing it well - you just get so tired by the end of the day and by the end of the journey it should't feel like a whirlwind where you haven't been able to really absorb the real essence of the place, its culture, its people. But of course that's just me!

You don't need a car anywhere except if you're going to Tuscany , which we did and then driving around the countryside, which had its own charm.