My husband and I are both in are late 20's and planning a trip to Italy this summer for 5-6 weeks. We'll be leaving the US the last week of May. We are thinking of renting an apartment in Florence as a "home-base" and just traveling by train to different cities and staying a few days in each (I'm thinking Venice, Pisa, Sienna, Rome, and I would like to travel a little on the coast around Naples). Of course we want to make our money stretch as much as possible, so I am wondering if this is the best way to travel for that many weeks. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks!

You plan is not feasible. Those other places are too far away to make trekking back and forth on the train sensible.

Much better to find 5 or 6 different bases and spend a week in each place. That will give you the time to really learn each place and do shorter day trips (for instance one base in Tuscany and see several towns from there).

But doing Venice or Amalfi from Florence makes no sense at all - you would be spending way too much time - and money - on the train versus actually seeing sights.

Wherever you decide to make your home base, please don't miss Bologna, it's an incredible city with a lot to offer. The region of Emilia Romagna has the best food in the country IMO, and it really is a great city, you should definitely not pass it up!

With 5-6 weeks I would suggest u might base yourself in a couple locations. As mentioned some of your destinations would make for VERY long days. Perhaps stay for 10-14 days several different areas. U could start in the NItaly and visit Venics, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Bologan and lots more. Then move a bit South to Tuscany and then further South to iSouthern Italy (Amalfi Coast) or further.
Also agree about Bologna -- its fabulous! But there are many fabulous places in Italy -- have fun picking which ones u want to stay in and visit.

I agree with one location per week, and try to rent apts. in most of them. Having to pick the locations will not be easy.

Thank you for the suggestion on making a home base in a few locations vs. one. I agree this would be better. Any tips on the best way to rent an apartment?

Go online and look for apartments at sleepinitaly.com or VRBO.com or perfect places.com. If you need help deciding, come back here and post the URLs so we can take a look.

I would start in the south and work my way north, as you want to hit the hottest areas earlier. You did not specify when you would go. But start as early as possible in the summer. Try to avoid being there in August, as it is hottest everywhere and jammed more than usual with tourists, because half of Europe will be vacationing in Italy, too

Since you are going to be there in the summer, and you have the luxury of time, I highly recommend that you include the Dolomiti in your plans. It is one of the most spectacular natural sights in the world, and many visitors to Italy never get there because they usually only spend two weeks at a time in the country.

I disagree with the advice to rent 5 or 6 different apartments, or one location per week. I think you need more than one base, but you will end up constantly skimming the surface of Italy if you keep moving every seven days, and doing "day trips" to boot from your base. If you pick 3 bases, you will spend time in the bases themselves and get breaks from "day tripping." It can be tedious to be on an Italian train everyday when it's hot, especially if you can't afford first class in the high speed trains.

I also heartily disagree with the statement that Emilia-Romagna has the best food in Italy -- especially in summer! There is much to like about the region and the food, but it is quite rich and the cuisine of coastal Italy can be divine as well.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you at least partly go with your original instinct to have extended stays. If you really need to save a lot of money, pick Pisa or Montecatini Alta over Florence as a base, Padova or Treviso over Venice, and somewhere on the Amalfi coast, like Cetera or Maori, that isn't Positano but still gives you good public transport access for peeking at the luxury towns along the coast and on the islands. (Sorrento can be quite affordable, and it makes a fine spot for seeing the treasures in Naples, Pompei and reaching the islands).

If you end up near Venice, I hope you can find a way to spend some days visiting the Dolomiti as part of your six day stay, the later in your trip the better to give you the best chance of brilliant weather.

Six weeks is a wonderfully long time to be in Italy. I hope you will go beyond the tourist track and the tourist resorts and have a chance to observe more of every day Italian life. It's marvelous, and so are the people, and many visitors never pause to take a long look at it, they are so eager to be in motion.

Sorry for my typo! I meant to write:

"If you end up near Venice, I hope you can find a way to spend some days visiting the Dolomiti as part of your six WEEK stay"...

If u want to do some hiking go to the Dolomiti--otherwise, its not that different from lots of other beautiful mountain ranges.

I have to disagree with yestravel about the Dolomiti, which are a unique geologic formation. It's a bit like saying the Grand Canyon is like a lot of other gorges. Not.

Everyone has an opinion - so here's mine.

Two weeks in Sorrento - easy to do day trips to Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Amalfi, Positano - and the getting there - both by bus and by boat - is half the fun. Sorrento is a perfect size to spend a couple of weeks in, and just as beautiful as anywhere else in the area.

Then move to Rome for a week or so.

Then to Tuscany. For this area a car is best. I based in Florence for a week once and did some day trips by train/bus but I had already been to many of the smaller Tuscan towns (by car) on a previous trip. You don't need a car in Florence. Maybe base in Siena and then you could day trip easily into Florence and still have a car for the rest of Tuscany.

For the Veneto area I suggest Padua as a base. Venice is magical at night, but trains run to Padua (only half hour away) until very late at night so you could still be in Venice in early morning or late night times even if your base is Padua. Besides being a wonderful little city itself you can do day trips to Verona, Vicenza, etc. I did a day trip to Bologna but do think it is "worth" more than a day trip (I then went back again on another trip and stayed in Bologna).

If you have three bases for 1-2 weeks each then you could do a few shorter stops and just stay in a hotel for two or three nights in between the apartment rentals to see areas that warrant more than a day trip, but not a whole week (obviously everywhere warrants more than a week but there are time limits).