starman_deluxe

This will be my first time solo travelling outside North America, so helping me with how long to stay in each area would be awesome.
I'll be there 17 nights. Airfare is booked since it's abutting a UK business trip. I love seeing ancient Roman ruins, as well as older architecture. I'm not super into art but will go to the big museums for sure. I want to check out the coast too. How does this sound?

Rome: 7 nights, 6 days (tons of Roman stuff, 2 days for Vatican + cathedrals, possible side trips to Ostia Antica, Assisi, Hadrian's Villa)

Sorrento: 3 nights, 2.5 days (Pompeii, Amalfi coast, then maybe Capri/Naples/Pasteum)

Florence: 4 nights, 3.5 days (Some museums, possible side trips to Cinque Terre/Sienna/Tuscan cities)

Venice: 2 nights, 2 days (I'm decided on this one, 2 nights is enough).

I'm a night short - should I spend it in Rome? That way if I want to do more of the Sorrento region, I can hit Pompeii while in Rome. I'm not sure I want to spend more time in Florence. Reading about all the things I can do in the Rome area, I got pretty excited, but I'm not sure 3 nights is enough in the Sorrento area?

I appreciate the help!

greg

Is this the sequence of visit? Are you coming back to North America from Venice or are you first going back to the UK? If you are flying back from Venice to North America, look at the departure time. From most part of Venice, it takes a long time to get to the airport and unless you can fly direct from Venice to North America, Venice departures to a European hub airport are usually very early. A bad combination: early departure, time consuming airport.

Cinque Terre as a day trip would have you spend the mad house time in CT in season. It has gotten so popular, and the crowd is incredible during the day.

With 3 nights in Sorrento, you can visit Pompeii-Herculaneum one day and Amalfi Coast another day. You don't have time for Capri or Paestum. You might have a few hours in Napoli between Rome and Sorrento.

Assisi from Rome as a day trip? Why? You are already almost half way to Florence. Why return to Rome instead of travel onto Florence?

kja

I'm fully committed to solo travel -- it's such a wonderful self-indulgence! You won't need to compromise with ANYone. Go for it! And if you need some inspiration, read some of our threads here:
http://www.fodors.com/community/trav...collection.cfm

Now, for details:

For the interests you state, I think your time on the Amalfi Coast too limited. As another solo traveler, I travel hard and fast -- and I still can't imagine meeting your goals in the time you suggest. But maybe you have a plan that could work for you?

Greg has offered some great advice about the things you need to consider to make further choices. I would add my recommendation that you get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, check their opening/closing times on the internet, and mark them on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). IMO, that's what you need to do to see how things fit together.

Even if you have to cut or shorten one of your visits, you should have a wonderfully memorable trip -- enjoy!

southeuropetravel1

I agree with Kia and Greg - your time in the south is a bit short. If you do have an extra day at your fingertips, add it there. If you like Roman ruins, you really need to dedicate at least 2 days to see things like Pompei and Paestum.

Kia also makes a good point regarding really projecting the steps of the trip, especially opening and closing times and days, and holidays.

One more thing, I am assuming you are traveling by train so you may want to reserve some time for transportation strikes, missing a train or connection, etc. As the summer nears we'll probably see more issues with transportation strikes, as this has been a heated issue throughout Italy this year in Rome and Milano (which is nothing new really). For that matter, they even closed Pompei one day and tourists were furious. So try to reserve some hours for the unexpected.

Otherwise, have fun.

Laura

sandralist

Consider adding the day to the south of Rome so that you can see Paestum. It would actually be better if you stayed in Naples rather Sorrento if you are very much interested in antiquity.

From Florence, if you are interested in antiquity, I would make a trip to Lucca a priority over other possible day trips. (The Roman ruins in Fiesole are only moderately interesting in comparison with what's available elsewhere.)

In Rome, include the Baths of Caracalla and the via Appia, and you might want to consider a day trip to Tivoli.

bvlenci

I agree with Sandra, who advised spending at least one more night in the Naples area, and I also agree with the advice to stay in Naples. I would suggest also including a visit to Herculaneum, another city destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, between Pompeii and Naples. You can get a ferry to Capri from Naples, and Sorrento is only an hour away by the Circumvesuviana commuter train, but visiting the Amalfi Coast would be a bit of a trek. In the summer there may be boats from Naples.

When in Rome, Ostia Antica is a must. This website has a wealth of information about the site, as well as a print-at-home guide to the ruins.

www.ostia-antica.org

I second the advice to visit the Baths of Caracalla. Also, Rome has three museums that have wonderful collections of antiquities. The Villa Giulia houses the National Etruscan Museum, with a wealth of informative exhibits. The Capitoline Museums, above the Roman Forum have splendid ancient sculpture, but also many other artifacts of ancient Rome, like a portions of the stone Annals or Rome, and the foundations of the Temple of Jupiter. Palazzo Massimo alle Terme has another wonderful collection of ancient sculpture, and also floor mosaics and rare wall frescoes from the Villa of Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus. They also have a great collection of Roman jewelry, coins, and household items, including some fine Roman glass. The ticket is good for three days, and includes three other sites of the National Roman Museum. The Museum of the Baths of Diocletian is near Palazzo Massimo, and has much of interest.

If you're not much interested in art, I think any of the three museums above would interest you as much or more than the Vatican Museums, and would be much less crowded and more pleasant to visit in high season. I will say that the Vatican Museums have a great Egyptian section, and an almost-as-great Etruscan exhibit. (This has recently been reorganized and I haven't seen it since, so it may now be on a par with, or even better than, the Egyptian collection. I myself would never dream of going to the Vatican Museums in the summer. It's not only insanely crowded, but almost unbearably hot and humid. You don't say when you're going, but from May through October (except for August) you can visit the Vatican Museum on Friday evenings, when it's much less crowded, and, one would hope, a little cooler. The Etruscan collection is not open for the evening visits, but the Egyptian collection is.

There are two ancient necropoli at the Vatican. One is the so-called "Scavi" (which just means "excavations") where St. Peter is probably buried, in a Roman necropolis with some painted tombs. The other necopolis, called the Via Triumphalis necropolis has been opened more recently, and I haven't seen it. The "Scavi" tour sells out quickly and if you want to visit, you should contact them giving them a range of possible times you could take the tour.

http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/en/ufficio-scavi.html

The Necropolis of Via Triumphalis can only be visited by guided tour, which you can reserve here, combining it either with a guided visit to the Vatican Gardens or and unguided visit to the Vatican Museums.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-In...ia_Triumphalis

If you just want entry tickets to the Vatican Museums, which allow you to skip the long ticket line, you can get them here:

https://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va...?weblang=en&do

I would urge you to take a guided tour (with a good guide) of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. These are large and complex sites that are very important to an understanding of ancient Rome. Context Travel has excellent small-group tours, as well as private guides. Another excellent private guide is Daniella Hunt, of www.rome-tours.com . The Colosseum has excellent signs in Italian and English and is pretty easy to understand. Ostia Antica would also benefit from a guided tour, but I think the Roman Forum is more important.

Hadrian's Villa is also a bit hard to understand, but even scholars disagree on what the various buildings were used for; after all, there aren't many other examples of Roman Imperial villas.

I agree with Greg that visiting the Cinque Terre as a day trip at this time of year would be a disaster. Siena is a good idea. I second his advice to stop in Assisi en route to Florence. There are a few daily direct trains to Asissi from Rome; often you have to change trains in Foligno, but with luggage, it's best to take the direct train, because at Foligno you usually have to lug your bags up and down steps. When you leave, you can get a direct train to Florence. The train station is at the bottom of the hill, but there's a bus that runs you up to the town. I would recommend spending the night in Assisi, both to be sure of a place to leave your luggage, and because the day will be practically shot anyway, and whether you get to Florence in the evening or the next morning will make little difference to the time in Florence. There is supposedly a private luggage storage service in Assisi at the train station, but I don't know if it can be relied upon.

I don't remember any antiquities in Lucca, although the central piazza takes the shape of the ancient Roman amphitheatre that was once there. The massive wall is fairly recent, designed to withstand cannons, so not even medieval.

Also, Paestum is Greek, not Roman. There was a Greek colony there, and there are three Greek temples, and a good museum, there.

starman_deluxe

Thanks for the help. This trip is tacked on to a business trip last minute (leaving on May 1). I'm flying into Rome and out of Venice (then working in the UK for a while). I will probably take a late flight out of Venice.

Sounds like Cinque Terre is definitely out. I wanted to visit a coast and the Amalfi coast looks better since there's a bigger variety of side trips in that area.

The activities I posted are suggestions, I don't necessarily need to hit them all (except for the stuff in Rome)>
What about this:

Rome: 8 nights, 7 days
Sorrento: 4 nights, 3.5 days
Florence: 3 nights, 2.5 days
Venice: 2 nights, 2 days

Is the time in Florence too little? I still think 2 full days in Venice is enough as a single guy, but people are telling me otherwise.

kja

Re: your time in Florence -- that varies SO much across people, from those of us who found 5 full and very busy days barely sufficient (but then, I am a fanatic about art) to those who spend just part of a day there. Venice is another destination for which people's preferences are all over the place.

Have you laid your priorities out on a calendar? That might give you some sense of how your interests fit with these time frames.

I see that you added a day to the Amalfi Coast, but must admit that I still think you might be shaving it a bit thin there, given your interests. If it helps you plan, you might give some thought to which places might be easiest to revisit. For many of us, getting to the Amalfi Coast is more time consuming and more costly than getting to (say) Rome, so shifting some time to the Amalfi Coast might make some sense (because you can return to Rome more easily -- and might find that you'll end up flying into Rome on some other trip when you visit other parts of Italy). That doesn't always work, though, and is just something you might want to consider.

You'll have a great trip no matter what you decide!

sundriedtopepo

Just as an aside, I don't think anyone above mentioned that it's much easier to visit Pompei from Sorrento than from Rome.

It would be a shame not to see a couple of the hill towns, since this is your first trip to Italy. Besides the suggestions of Lucca and Assisi, another option is to visit Orvieto from Rome. The train gets you there in 1 to 1.5 hours.

And maybe you've heard this before, but one of the nicest times in Venice is sunrise, before the hordes appear, and you can enjoy it almost to yourself. One of my favourite travel moments.

bilboburgler

Good advice above.

I'd pinch a day off Rome and give it to Florence, if you get bored in Florence (hard, but it might happen) you can always jump on the commute train to Pisa or Lucca, both of which deserve a day but could be done as a single long day combo (about 1 hour down the very regular track).

Single travel, can be stressful, no one to talk to etc, if you begin to feel that way, you could book onto short trips, liking walking tours or cookery courses, the benefit of the latter is that Italian's do great kitchen and the kitchen table is the heart of the family which is core to Italian culture.

starman_deluxe

I switched my schedule back and added a day to Sorrento:
Rome: 7 nights, 6 days
Sorrento: 4 nights, 3.5 days
Florence: 4 nights, 3.5 days
Venice: 2 nights, 2 days

I'm worried that I'll be at Sorrento too long. One day visiting Pompeii and/or Herculaneum, a day checking out Amalfi coast. Everyone tells me Sorrento itself isn't interesting, but it's in the middle of everything. I hear a lot of varying opinions on Pasteum. I love ruins, and seeing good Greek ruins would be awesome. Other people say it's not worth spending the entire day getting there and back.

I think 4 nights in Florence is about right. I'll go on at least one side trip out of the city.

Blueeyedcod

Sorrento is indeed a very dull town full of package tourists from the UK but as a transport point it works well. If you can afford a car/driver then use that service to Paestum - it will be around 200-250 euro for half a day but visiting Paestum from Sorrento is laborious and difficult.
If your objective is to see Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum then I would avoid Sorrento altogether and stay in Naples, which has transport links to all three. You can also get to the Amalfi Coast from there by taking the train to Salerno and then one of the ferries that run along the coast.

Jean

Just FYI, one day to "check out Amalfi Coast" will barely give you an overview. Getting around is a slow process.

Pompeii and Herculaneum in one day would be a very long day, albeit very interesting. The Pompeii excavations cover a much bigger area than most people envision, and if your interest in ruins includes the found artifacts, you should also visit the Archeology Museum in Naples. Nearly all of the artifacts uncovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum are now in the museum.

You would have to evaluate your interest in seeing Paestum versus your interest in seeing other things. Paestum is pretty spectacular, but only you can decide how to devote your limited time.

Sorrento is convenient for other sights you haven't mentioned:

Naples
Capri
Ischia
Caserta
Mt. Vesuvius

Kay2

We stopped in Naples (museum), then stayed in Sorrento a few nights (it was OK) to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum, then one day on the Amalfi Coast (bus, boat) as a compromise between my traveling companion archaeologist and me, the outdoors person. She could have spent an entire day in the museum (too much for me). We both enjoyed hours at Pompeii. I felt very cheated with the short time on the coast.

ekc

If you stayed in Naples (which has tons to see itself), you can take the 30-minute train down to Salerno, where you can catch the ferry to Amalfi/Ravello and Positano. You can also take the train from Naples to Paestum. I found Paestum astounding and have visited it twice and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Dayle

Or, if you want to see Greek temples, you could plan a future visit to Sicily IF that is an easy and likely future trip for you.

I'll admit I loved Paestum and the temples there sparked my interest in seeing more in Sicily.

Taking the ferry along the coast is spectacular, but strolling around the towns is equally enjoyable. Try to do some of each.

Never enough to time for it all!

kja

If I understand correctly -- and I might not! -- the real issue at this point is the question of what you want to do in / around Sorrento. (In light of what you've told us, I think you have a good plan for Rome, Florence, and Venice.) FWIW, here are my thoughts:

Paestum is, IMO, very well worth spending the time it takes to get there, even if you take the long and hard way from Sorrento! This site has 3 of the best preserved Greek temples anywhere in the world -- much better preserved than anything you can see in Sicily, not to mention a small museum with very unusual artifacts and some of the best (if not THE best) buffalo mozzarella in the world. And, depending on how you route your trip, you might end up with a bit of time in vastly underrated Salerno. You probably wouldn't be able to see the treasures of its cathedral (your transportation time would probably not accommodate a visit during the cathedral's opening hours), but you might manage a quick glimpse of Salerno's glorious waterfront or a quick walk through its quirky medieval core.

But if your primary goals are Pompeii/Herculaneum and a day on the Amalfi coast, then I really like Blueeyedcod's suggestion to stay in Naples rather than Sorrento. You could spend a day at Pompeii and Herculaneum (yes, seeing both in one day can take some energy and planning, but it worked well for me!) and still have time to see Paestum, the Archeological Museum in Naples (and maybe even a bit more of that fascinating, energetic, and delightful city), and a bit of the Amalfi Coast.

You'll have to be selective whether you stay in Sorrento or in Naples. Given what you've said, I think your choices might be a bit easier from Naples....

Oh, and one last thing to consider about transportation and how long it takes: As a solo traveler, I find that local transportation (e.g., local trains and buses) can be an absolutely wonderful way to gain unexpected glimpses into local lives. Time permitting, I often prefer to take a local train than a tourist bus -- just something to consider!

Again, hope that helps!

sundriedtopepo

Sorrento may be boring as far as historic sights and art treasures but it is an agreeable place to come home to after you have been out for a day trip. I like the views, the fresh seafood at Marina Grande, the overlook above Marina Grande and the passeggiata is fun when everyone comes out to visit.

sandralist

Food is much better in Naples than Sorrento, and Naples is an extraordinary European city, and quite important to the history of Italy. I actually don't find the core of Sorrento all that agreeable, since I tend to have an allergy to the places entirely given over to a certain kind of tourism whose main objective is to cater to tourist expectations and needs.

Some people have an allergy to Italian urbanism. Just need to figure out which sort of traveller you are and pick accordingly, since you are the one taking the trip and footing the bill.