my 2 weeks breaks down like this..........
day
1 venice....arrive from US
2 venice
3 venice
4 train fo florence
5 florence
6 florence
7 tuscany
8 tuscany..................can i use florence as a base
9 train to rome
10 rome
11 rome
12 rome
13 rome is this too much rome???
14 rome
15 rome
16 fly home

any suggestions? didnt want to do hours of travel down to amalfi .........

I would enjoy that amount of time in Rome--6 full days. You could also schedule daytrips from Rome if you feel the need to break up too many city days . . . Appian Way, Tivoli, Hadrian's Villa, Ostia Antica, Frascati, Orvieto, Pompeii . . .

That's almost the exact same as my trip coming up in August. So far we're planning a day trip to Orvieto and the rest of the time in Rome. Ellenem suggests some great other places for day trips if you want to get out of Rome.

Depending on what you're interested in doing/seeing I bet there's plenty of things to keep your interest for that many days.

I'v been back to Rome 7 times. Still not enought time for me. Everytime we visit something new and wonderful and some of the usual places over again. I think you will love everyday in Rome and Italy.

Never enough time!! We canceled a portion of our last trip at the last second to spend an additional 5 nights...and left wanting more. It's like any major city in the sense you could spend years there and still not see everything.

Tons to see and do (or just relax!) in all of the neighborhoods of Rome as well as the day trips. Have a fun time!

I spent 5 days in Rome on my last trip (no day trips) and had already been there multiple times. I would love to spend that much time on my upcoming trip, but my travel companion doesn't want to.

You could do an overnight in Orvieto on your way to Rome if you think 6 days is too much.

Obviously most of the Italophiles on the Fodor's board cannot get enough or Rome. A few others (though they seldom post in such threads) hate spending time in Italian cities.

There are days when I could spend the rest of my life in Rome (or at least half of it. I find the Vatican a horror.) There are other days when I am perfectly happy to live among the olive trees and vinyards, enjoy the village life, and leave the city and the educational and artistic joys of sightseeing to others.

What do YOU want out of your trip to Italy? The immersion in Italy's cultural treasure and modern buzz? Or the seductive pleasures of life outside the cities and folkloric tradition? If it's the latter, add a lot more time to rural Tuscany. The first -- join the club who can't get enough of Rome.

(If you want to see Orvieto, do it as a day trip from Rome, not as a separate overnight.)

Up to YOU.

Personally, I don't think you can spend too much time in Rome.

I would not recommend using Florence as a base for Tuscany; traffic and ZTLs in Florence make driving there a very undesirable experience. You might look at Locanda dal Amorosa in Sinalunga as a nice place to spend a few days. We loved it. Nicely situated to visit Sienna, Montepulciano and other places.

Our last (third) trip to Rome we stayed for 7 1/2 days and enjoyed that stay much more than the other, shorter ones. Definitely your planned stay is not too long. You can research day trips like Orvieto, Ostia Antica, etc and decide when you are there whether to venture away from the city.

It all depends if you love cities. Rome in summer is hot and crowded.

I love Rome and big cities up to a point, but I get the most our of a culture by spending more time in more intimate cities ( like Florence or Seville off season) or even better the country side and small picturesque villages off the beaten path ( or off season).

That would be too long for me in Rome ( I like it in smaller bites) and I would go lux out in Cinque terre for a bit on the Italian Riviera and watch the Italians at play.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2009/0...rre-italy.html

Just a thought.

I'm a city girl, love Rome and could easily spend 6 full days there... but in July, August, even early September? Maybe not. If you are going in the hot and crowded season, you may want/need to retreat to your hotel for a cool respite in the middle of the day, and the 6 days could slip away rather quickly.

Too much time in Rome, like in 66 years? Ah no, I see you have just 6 days in Rome! Oh well, so you have still about 65 years and 359 days left before it's going to be too much.

Definitely not too much time in Rome - I've been at least 10 times and always find more to see/do. If you want you can make one day trip - based on your interests - Pompeii (a very long day_ or Orvieto.

As is clear from above answers, how much time is enough, too much, is a highly personal question. I think you need to ask yourself a different question, more like: how do I want to spend my time on this trip? In what environment, at what pace, what do I want to see and do, what will make me happy, how energetic am I, how does heat affect me ( if it is summer? ). Happy discerning!

Have you made a separate Rome itinerary where you've fleshed out your days of sightseeing and activities? Even if it's only a tentative, loose plan, it will give you an idea of how "full" it feels to you personally. It will then help you prioritize and decide whether there are any places or even days that you would rather drop for something else; or whether that's still not enough and you need to come back.

Let's see, so far in the past 6 months I've spent 7 weeks in Rome. I go there pretty much every year for at least 2-3 weeks. I still haven't seen everything I want to see.

dave

P.S. Alane, I do really like your plan and you seem to have a good grasp of the timing. Just like Iowa_Redhead, that's pretty much the same itinerary I'm contemplating for a future trip, but with an extra week to distribute toward southern Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. (I like the idea of the day trip to Orvieto, too.)

I hope you give us a few more details about how you'll plan out the days in each locale as it progresses; and then follow up with a trip report!