Venice and Florence in 4 nights???
 

My husband and I spent a week in Rome in 2004 and had the best trip of our lives, largely due to the wonderful advice I receive from this forum.

We are returning to Italy this year, and unfortunately, again can only spare a week's vacation. We want to return to Rome and spend the 1st 3 nights there. This time we want to go to Venice for sure, but are wondering if we should split the remainder of the week between Florence and Venice to see both, or is that just not enough time and save Florence for next time? I'd love some thoughts!!! thanks so much!

Suggestion: Arrange your trip so you fly into Venice, spend two nights, take a train to Florence, spend two nights, take a train to Rome and fly home from there.

Use the multicity feature (not roundtrip, not two one-ways) on any airline search site, you'll find it often costs no more, or if it does, the extra cost is offset by the savings from not having to backtrack just to go catch a plane home.

Venice has mostly very inconvenient early-morning departure times, so it's better to go there first and proceed as per above. Venice is also a good place to walk off your jetlag...

This will not amount to much time for either Venice or Florence, but it's better than nothing, and you're maximising what little time you do have.

Hi Car,

Good advice from DL.

You could also do a day in Florence on your way to Rome:

A DAY IN FLORENCE:

Train to Florence SMN:
The Luggage Office is to your left as you leave the train.

From Piazza d' Stazione, walk up via Nazionale to via d'Ariento and the Mercato Centrale, wander through.

Take any street going NE to Via Degli Alfani and go right to the Accademia for The David.

Take via Ricasoli SE to the Duomo, the Baptistry and the Opera Museum (Originals of the bronzes on the doors)

From the Campanile, take via Calzaiuoli S (do some window shopping) to the Piazza d' Signoria. Look around, take a break.

Continue S to the Uffizi. Visit.

From the Uffizi, walk W along the Arno River to the Ponte Vecchio.

(You can walk up to the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Gardens if there is time. Great views of Florence from the top of the Gardens)

If you have time, walk E along the S bank of the river to Ponte alle grazie and cross over to visit Santa Croce.

If not, go W along the Arno from Ponte Vecchio to Ponte S. Trinita and go right. Go left on Via d'Spada to via d'Fossi and go right to Santa Maria Novella. Look around.

SMN is across the square from the train station.

If you have time, take the no. 7 bus (you can find it at the SMN train station) up to Fiesole (0:20 hr 1E) to watch the sunset from the terrace of the Bar Bleu.

Be sure to have lots of gelato (in a cup, not a cone), take some wine breaks and a light lunch.

Train schedules, prices and tickets are at http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html
Call center from outside Italy is 39-06-68475475

Bus routes are at http://www.ataf.net/
Buy your ticket before you get on the bus. Stamp it in the yellow box on the bus.

Uffizi and Academia Museum Reservations
The easiest and cheapest way is to call Florence 1010987 (dial around number), 011 (U.S. international access code) 39 (Italy's country code) then 055-294-883 8:30-18:30 M-F and 8:30-12:00 Sat. Florence time. There is a long listing of press 1 for this and 2 for that--press 4 for bookings. You will get an English speaking operator and in 2-3 minutes YOU CAN RESERVE FOR BOTH. This is through the reservation service at the Uffizi and costs beyond the normal entry fee only about 4 euro for the service. This is MUCH cheaper than the commercial booking services.

Or, you can book online at www.uffizi.com. It will cost more, however.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

OOPS,

The website to buy tickets online is
http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/

No additional fee.

((I))

dear cabernet,

I like the idea of Venice first while you are fresh and leave Rome to last since you've already been.

I think Florence can be nicely done in 2 days and even a tasting in one long day. Everything is in walkable distance, and you can see the highlights per Ira's post. Venice I think takes a bit more time and it is not as easy to do so many things or really get a feel for the city outside the tourist mobs (which you should try to do). So, I'd spend more time in Venice, less in Florence.

I recently planned a 4 day, 3 night trip for a more thorough visit to Florence but there was a train strike and so I had to head out a full day early. Even in 2.5 days, I felt I had really seen this city and was not overly disappointed to have to leave. In fact the last 1/2 day, I visited the Jewish Synagogue and Santa Croce and although I enjoyed this, they were not my favorite parts of the trip. The Accademia and Uffizi are not huge (like the Louvre or D'Orsay) and you can see a lot there in an hour esp if you reserve in advance. Follow Ira's plan and you will see everything you need, and enough to know if you want to return. I think I did everything on his list in my first day (I arrived at 7:30 am by sleeper train.) I also stopped for a real lunch and dinner. I will say, I was there in November so there were no crowds which was nice and sped things up I'm sure.

Enjoy!

gruezi

thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. I'm now planning on doing the venice first, and love the stopoever idea in florence! I'm working it and am sure I'll be back with more questions. thanks so much!