Hi, We are planning a trip to Italy in the beginning of Sept for 10 days. Planning on flying into Milan(malpensa), stay there for 1 night and 2 days, take the train to Rome, stay here for 2 days, Drive down to Florence and stay for 2 days, then either drive or take train to Venice. Stay here for 2 days and drive back to Milan to take the afternoon flight back to the US. Is this too ambitious? <BR>Do we need to reserve out train tkts? Is sleeping on trains(overnite train from Milan to Rome)convenient - do they have sleeper coaches? I have booked religious institutions in Florence and Rome. Are these institutions good? What about the Bed & breakfasts? We are trying to cut down on these costs becoz I have heard the car/gas is horrendously expensive. About cars, is it more expensive to rent from one city and drop off at another? <BR> <BR>This is getting a bit long winded, but i hope to get some responses.Thanks

Your times and number of cities is more than you should attempt. You need to spend more time, especially in Rome. You wont be able to scratch the surface in two days. Try quality over quantity.

Your plan's great except for the beginning. If you haven't booked your flight yet, I think you'd be much better off flying into Rome and staying there 3 days. Take the train to Florence (it's only a 2-3 hour trip)and stay there 2 days. Take the train from Florence to Venice (also only a 2-3 hour trip)and stay there for 2 days. I'd use the 1 day you have left to take the train from Venice to Milan and stay overnight, taking the afternoon flight home the next day. With only ten days, I wouldn't waste a precious day in Milan where there is so much less to see than the other cities you're visiting. Also, if you get 2nd class train tickets, it will probably cost much less than car rental/gas.

My suggestion would be to cut down time in Milan, or skip it altogether. <BR>When you arrive at Malpensa, immediately travel to Florence or Venice (plane or train, but plane will save you some time). Florence, Venice and Rome each deserves a minimum of 3 days in my opinion. However, you lose a good part of the day each time you travel, so you'll have to cut down somewhere. If you're sticking to these three major cities, you don't need to drive, take the train.

If you do want to visit all four cities, I suggest you fly into Milan and out of Rome. That would save some time and the cost is the same as flying in and out of the same city.

Our family of four just returned from a wonderful 10 day trip to Italy. We flew into Milan, took the shuttle to the train station and bought tickets for the entire trip there. The agent was quite helpful and made only one reservation for us-Rome-Venice. Here is our itinerary which we would do again: <BR> <BR>Day 1-flew into Milan visited the Duomo <BR>Day 2 train to Cinque Terre-the highllight of our trip <BR>Day 3 Cinque Terre <BR>Day 4 Train to Rome-stopped in Pisa <BR>Days 5 and 6 Rome <BR>Day 7 Train to Venice <BR>Day 8 Venice <BR>Day 9 Overnight at Lake Como-another beautiful spot <BR>Day 10 Plane left at 1PM <BR> <BR>We really wanted to go to Rome, so had to skip Florence which was too bad, but we loved our days in Cinque Terre. I would also suggest that you consider staying at Lake Come-Varenna for you last night. The train left there at 8:25 AM giving us plenty of time to get to the airport. <BR> <BR>This is lengthy, but thought you might like to hear about our 10 day trip ! <BR> <BR>Have a great trip and enjoy! Judy <BR> <BR>

Absolutely agree with Elaine that the best plan is to ignore Milan. If you can fly into Rome and then do train from Rome to Florence to Venice then the trip is absolutely do-able in 10 days. Strongly suggest the train if the focus of your trip is to see the cities (and it should be in that short of a time frame). The cathedral of Milan is beautiful but there's so much more in the other cities. Buon viaggio!