Gray21

My wife and I are planning a trip to Italy from July 2nd through the 17th for a group of 7 (the two of us and her immediate family). We are both in our early 30's and want this trip to be about 50% relaxing and 50% sightseeing.
The tenative itenerary is:
Sun 7/3 - arrive in Florence
Sun 7/3 - Thursday 7/7 (4 nights) in Florence with a day trip to Tuscany/Chianti region
Thur 7/7 - travel to Cinque Terra with a stop in Pisa
Thur 7/7 - Sat 7/9 (2 nights) in Cinque Terra.
Sat 7/9 - travel to Naples and Pompeii on our way to Capri
Sat 7/9 - 7/13 (4 nights) in Capri/Sorrento/Positano
7/13 - travel to Rome
7/13 - 7/17(4 nights) in Rome

Would you suggest any changes to this itinerary?
Would you suggest renting a car at any point during our trip or should we just take trains between the cities?
Would you recommend staying in Capri, Sorrento, or Positano?
Can you please pass along any hotel recommendations for Florence, Cinque Terra, Capri/Sorrento/Positano, or Rome? We would like to stay at hotels that are conveniently located to sightseeing/restaurants/etc. and have good value for the price. We probably want to keep the cost below $250 per night or so. Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Ackislander

Two questions:
(1) if you don't rent carS (one won't handle 7 people) where will you leave your luggage while you are touring Pisa and Pompeii?
(2) I generally don't like backtracking. You are bouncing from NW Italy to SW Italy (more or less) then back to Rome. I love riding trains and looking out the window, but it is a bit like seeing Washington, then New York, then going back to Philadelphia to me.

k9korps

What Ack said about backtracking. I assume it has somethng to do with your flight plans, but that wastes a lot of time in transit.

One hotel you can consider in CT is the 5Terre in the new section of Monterosso. Family-run place, nice staff, good breakfast, clean and modern (though not large) rooms. You can walk to it from the train station if you don't have too much luggage. Very few Americans stay there, but most of the staff speaks English.

You won't need a car for the Florence/CT/Rome part of the trip. Trains will do just fine. You could take the train to Pisa, store your luggage at the station, take taxis to town and the tower, and then continue on the train to CT.

For a day trip out of Florence, I recommend Luca at hillsandroads.com, used by many here at this forum (inlcuding me). He has a van, but I'm not sure it can accommodate 7.

ellenem

When we toured with Luca, he drove a 9-person van (9 seats including the driver). Since his website quotes rates for up to 8 people, I suspect this is still the case.

ira

Hi G,

What will you do with your luggage while you are stopping off at the various towns and cities?

Are you planning to just pass through Naples, or do you want to see something of the city and of Pompei?

Have you considered flying into Naples and out of Florence or VV?

Gray21

Thank you for your advise. I think what we are going to do now is fly into Florence, spend 4 days there, then travel to CT for 2 days, Rome for 4 days, then Naples for 4 days and fly home from Naples.

We would like the Naples portion of the trip to be more relaxing/laying by the beach. So we are considering staying in Capri, Sorrento, or Positano. Which city would you recommend, and do you have any hotel recommendations?

I emailed Luca to inquire about day trips. I also tried the 5Terre, but unfortunately they are booked the days we will be there. Any other hotel recommendations for Florence, CT, Rome?

Thanks for your help!

Gray21

Ok, for Florence we are looking at the following hotels:
Hotel Casci, Hotel Degli Orafi, and Hotel L'Orologio. Each was ranked very high on trip advisor. We defenitely prefer a more modern hotel versus older hotels. From what I see the Hotel L'Orologio looks the most modern. Any thoughts?