kybourbon

I would not plan on swimming in late Sept.

>>>galelstorm on Jun 12, 12 at 6:47pm
Forgive me but what is the issue regarding the closed trails in Cinque Terre, sundried?<<<

There was a storm/flood last fall. Not only closed the trails, but heavily damaged some of the towns.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-off-towns.cfm

clclhlm1 - You need to decide on how much you want to spend per night on a hotel room before people can make suggestions. There's no point in people suggesting things that won't be in your budget.

clclhlm1

Our budget calls for approx 300 dollars/day for hotel and play for the two of us to stay in centrally located hotels. Plan: Venice-Florence-Rome-Sorento (Capri-Pompei) then back to Rome for flight back to Michigan through Amsterdam. Is this reasonable?

jamikins

Yes I think thats reasonable if you have 14 days on the ground, I would cut one location (probably Sorrento as it is a bit more difficult to get to) if you only have 12 days and 2 travel days that = 14.

I would also head to Sorrento from Florence and end in Rome to make your outgoing flight easier to manage. You wouldnt want to be in Sorrento the morning of your flight in case of train troubles etc so best to spend your last night where you are leaving from.

Some hotel ideas to get you started:

In Venice we enjoyed our stays at www.hotelgalleria.it and http://www.aitagliapietra.com/

If you do a search here you will find lots of recommendations to get you going for the other places - just put Rome hotels into the seach box above and voila!

Happy Planning!

kybourbon

>>>Our budget calls for approx 300 dollars/day for hotel and play for the two of us<<<

No one knows what that means. Play? Are you saying you will spend $300 a night on a hotel?

ellenem

Does play include meals? admissions to sights? local transportation? transportation between cities? souvenirs? (I assume it does not include airfare to and from Italy.) Just trying to get a better idea . . .

mamcalice

I read "play" to be a typo for "plan". If that's not right, how much do you plan to spend on hotels. When searching for hotels, try to specify twin rooms (two beds) as these are different from double rooms. As search of this board will give you lots of hotel ideas.

We like the Hotel Casci in Florence.

clclhlm1

The two of us would like to stay on a budget of $300-400max dollars a day to include hotel, food and excursions we choose to participate in. This does not include plane tickets but could include bus fair or train.... Are we being realistic? We plan to fly from Amsterdam to Venice then on to Florence - Rome -Sorento then back to Rome to leave.... Also wondering about luggage? Have a decent money belt. THANKS IN ADVANCE for your responses....

kybourbon

Let's forget about Amsterdam as it seems that is just a plane change (correct me if I'm wrong), not a stop.

You are flying into Venice and home from Rome? List your dates so we know how much on the ground time you will have. Flights from the US will be overnight so you will arrive on day 2. You shouldn't schedule much that day as you will be jet-lagged.

Day 1 - Depart US
Day 2 - Arrive Venice
Day 3 - Venice
Day 4 - Venice
Day 5 - Florence
Day 6 - Florence
Day 7 - Florence
Day 8 - Sorrento
Day 9 - Sorrento
Day 10 - Sorrento
Day 11 - Rome
Day 12 - Rome
Day 13 - Rome
Day 14 - Depart for home

That is 12 hotel nights. Is this how much time you have?

Now you need to switch to euro instead of dollars as that's the way everything is priced. At today's rates:
$300 = 238€ x 12? 14?
$400 = 317€

I'm not sure exactly how many days you plan to spend that. After you figure that out, you need to price your travel between and in cities and subtract it from your total. Then you need to price hour sightseeing admissions, subtract that to see what's left per day for hotels/food.

Transport between airports
Venice MXP to Venice ?€
Rome to FCO train 14€ or shuttle bus 8€ or private limo 40€

Trains between cities

Venice/Florence = 43€ for the fast train (2hours)- advance purchase discounted tickets can be bought as cheap as 9€, but no changes allowed.

Florence/Naples = 68€ (discount tickets as cheap as 19€)

Naples/Sorrento = 4€ (one way - no advance purchases)

Naples/Rome = 43€ (discounts as cheap as 9€)

Capri ferry round trip from Sorrento = 30-40€

Admissions:

Pompeii admission = 11€

Vatican Museums = 15€ (or tour booked with Vatican 36€).

Colosseum 12€

Uffizi = 6.50€ (10€ if there is an exhibit)

Accademia = same as Uffizi

ellenem can fill in the Venice info/prices since it's a yearly trip for her.

clclhlm1

We TOTALLY APPRECIATE EVERYONE'S EFFORT in helping us plan our tour. To be honest, "fear" of our ability to plan this + time constraints the past week interfered with our responses and chance to decide what we really want to do. Several of you mentioned Rick Steve's = we've spent the entire weekend examining his website and wishing the 17 day tour was affordable for us. Daughter now leaning to giving up on Sorento and instead looking to Northern Italy - Lake Como-Varenna, Verona, Dolomites? then on to Venice, Florence and finish in Rome. THANK YOU for providing the exchange for currency and drilling down to costs for excursions, etc too. We welcome any comments about starting in Milan and going North for few days rather than starting in Venice and progressing South. Hard to choose between mountains or Capri....and yes there is always Cinque Terre? Hard to narrow down. As in RS ventures, what appealed to us was the blend of museum/historic information intermingled with nature and scenery. Where is YOUR most favorite place in Italy aside from Rome, Venice and Florence?

Sassafrass

I've certainly not been everywhere, but the Amalfi Coast is one of my favorite places in the world, not just in Italy. I also love some of the smaller cities and towns like Vicenza in Veneto; Siena, Lucca, etc. in Tuscany and Assisi in Umbria.

jamikins

You can't go wrong in picking places...just don't make the mistake of trying to see everything at the expense of seeing anything. Changing locations eats up time and money! Pick 4 places and see all the wonderful sites around those areas!

Dayle

One of the big reasons to travel is to discover YOUR favorite places. Some people prefer Rome over Florence (me), some the coast over the mountains. I personally like a mixture of cities and countryside. Again, IMO small towns are Spello, Todi, Montalcino and larger towns are Pisa (city) Lucca, and Siena.

I have friends who LOVE Limone on Lago di Garda and have returned there every year since their first visit.

For the time of year you are going, I would recommend starting in Venice, Florence, Tuscan countryside, Rome.

The coastal/lake areas would be more impacted by rainly weather than the Tuscan countryside IMO.

As others have mentioned - just don't try to see evyerything at once and end up seeing nothing. Enjoy the journey and your own discoveries.