H & I have 13 nights, 12 days in Italy in early May. Flying into Venice out of Rome.

We found a great airfare and just decided to do it.

This is our bare bones itinerary. It is my first trip to Italy. My H has been to Venice & Florence, and is more interested in the Tuscany area & Amalfi coast than in Venice or Florence or Rome. We have the 3 nights in Venice and 3 in Rome booked. In Rome we are in the area of the Spanish Steps.

We're considering staying in the Greve area while in Tuscany as it seems central, though we have not settled on accommodations for those days.

Is our day 10 & 11 to Pompeii & the Amalfi coast feasible? If we do, would it be better to drive or take the train for that portion of the trip?

Day 1 Arrive 4:30 pm Venice
2 Venice
3 Venice
4 Train to Florence, stay
5 -9 pick up car for Tuscany, 5 night stay with day trips to hill towns & wineries

10 to Naples/Pompeii
11 Amalfi coast, train to Rome
12 Rome
13 Rome
14 6:15 am fly out Rome

Hi LH,

>It is my first trip to Italy. My H has been to Venice & Florence, and is more interested in the Tuscany area & Amalfi coast than in Venice or Florence or Rome.

A good husband would take you to Venice and Florence and skip two of Rome, Tuscany or the AC.

You have time for three venues. Your current plan has too many one-night stands.

I would fly into Venice for 3 nights.

If you plan to visit Tuscany, get the car in Venice and drop it in Orvieto, if you are going to Rome.

If you plan to visit the AC, train to Florence. Then train to Naples and on to Sorrento, or train to Salerno and on to Amalfi or Positano. Fly out of Naples. You won't need a car.

You could also go from Venice to the AC and then on to Rome.

LHS,

It seems to me that you are trying to meet two very different expectations in far too little time. Both are going to be disappointed. You have 5 hotels in 13 nights and 5 destinations in 12 days, not good either.

I would highly recommend limiting your trip to 3 hotels. Bot of you need to compromise on one of your destinations! For you, seeing the "big 3" in only 5 full days will be a frustrating tease. For the other traveler, 1.5 days on the Amalfi Coast will not even be worth the time it takes to get there.

You can't do it all in only 12 days. I would do:

Venice 3 days (you will be jet lagged the first day)
Tuscany 5 days (day trip into Florence)
Rome 4 days

Save the Amalfi Coast for another trip when you have a week to spend just there in combination with other destinations.

One thing that I feel really helps people realize how much time they will spend moving around vs actually BEING and ENJOYING -

get the train/drive times between your destinations

add an hour for finding the rental office/station & getting there

add a 1/2 buying your tickets/filling out rental paperwork

add an hour for finding your hotel and checking in

if driving, add an hour for getting lost (worst case) or stopping somewhere that catches your eye (best case) & taking pictures

Then add it all up and see how your time is being used. Makes the decisions much easier!

I agree wit Dayle. Venice, Tuscany, and Rome is a very efficient itinerary - very little wasted time. Adding in the Amalfi coast is realy not worth the effort for only 1 1/2 days there. It takes some doing to get there.

So:
- Fly to Venice & stay 4 nights.
- Early in the AM, train to Florence for 1 night
- Rent a car & stay in San Gimignano for 1 night, visiting Volterra too.
- Drive to the Val d'Orcia around Pienza (much prettier area than Greve, IMO). Stay 3 nights - perhaps here http://www.palazzodelcapitano.com/index_eng.htm in San Quirico.
- Drive to Orvieto (1 hr), dump the car, visit Orvieto, and take the train to Rome.
- Rome 4 nights.

Perfect trip !!!

Stu Dudley

Here here--I concur with above---Dayle and Stu know their stuff.

with 12 days I would do

Venice 4
Tuscany or Amalfi 4
Rome 4

May I suggest staying in apartments verses hotels.
Makes you feel more "at home".

In Venice my sister and I stayed at

http://www.knowital.com/veneto/venic...partment1.html

It was very nice, clean, centrally located, and a good price.
The owners were so nice. The uncle met us at the corner bar, bought us a glass of wine, walked us to apt. and gave us the keys. Inside the frig was a bottle of Prosecco from their family stock. INCREDIBLE !!!!

Thank you for the comments, I've been reading here about Itay for 2 years, though I lost my research files in a computer crash a couple months ago. I know the 4 of you know what you are talking about and I respect your opinions.

We could go directly to Tuscany on day 4 and then daytrip back to Florence, as Dayle suggests, but that seemed like backtracking. My H says he thinks I would like seeing Florence at night.

I've seen Pompeii listed as a day trip from Rome, I thought making it an overnight before going to Rome might make sense. Perhaps move day 9 from Tuscany to travel to Naples, giving us a full day & 2 partials in the area?

We can drop Naples/Pompeii/Amalfi, but it isn't likely we will have another trip to Italy.

I guess when style of travel is considered, our last 2 trips were Rocky Mountain camping with a tent set up and break down almost every day and many miles in between. Checking into a hotel seems easy in comparison, but we're trying to change this trip into something more leisurely.

I do appreciate the input, we're trying to find balance.

Do a day trip to Ostia Antica instead of Pompeii. Try not to visit Florence on a Sunday when many shops will be closed.

Stu Dudley

LHS -

Can you possibly add more days to your trip? You get more value for your money that way.

I'm a camper and routinely drive long distances in the west for hiking, etc. - but - for this trip coming up, you will be in a different country, you need to figure out where things are and how they are done. You need to meet train schedules, not pack up equiment you are familiar with then drive at your convenience.

Maybe you could see Ostic Antica instead of Pomepeii? I've visited Pompeii twice, Naples just for a day and night and would love to return. Check the train schedules and see how much is involved to get to Pompeii, or see if you are willing to do the bus tour thing. Make sure it's a tour that won't make you waste time at some sort of factory!

Buon viaggio!
You WILL return to Italy. Nearly everyone does.

>We can drop Naples/Pompeii/Amalfi, but it isn't likely we will have another trip to Italy. <

I am so sorry to hear that one of you is terminally ill, LHS.

You have my sympathies.

Venice/Tuscany/Pompeii/Rome in 13 days?
The answer is a resounding NO. Far too busy, and a day trip from Rome to Pompeii is an awfully long day.
Think Venice/Countryside/Rome as a max.

As usual, I'm the odd person out here, since I am a huge fan of Pompeii, and not a fan of Venice (which would be the first place I'd drop from the itinerary). Ostia is also a wonderful, atmospheric place, and if you are not a scholar of antiquity, it can be just as meaningful as seeing Pompeii -- sometimes even more so, since it wasn't a destroyed town, not a neglected one, and retains a wonderful sense of being a place where you can imagine people living and conducting business.

However, if Pompeii is really super-important to you, I can imagine squeezing it in. I'd steal a day from Tuscany to do it, and include a visit to the archeological museum in Napoli. But I'd forego the Amalfi in this trip, unless I was dropping Venice.

I certainly wouldn't day trip to Firenze with a car, and I, too, enjoy the city at night.

I live in Italy and am less taken with Tuscany as a destination than a lot of other Americans, but I wouldn't try to hopscotch around San Gimignano and Volterra and then Pienza, etc. -- unless you like hopscotching. How important are wineries to you? If the answer is "a lot," than pick according to the wine you want to drink above all. If art and architecture are more important to you, I would pick according to which towns you are likely to find most rewarding in that respect (including considering Umbria), but if pretty farmland is your heart's desire, then you probably want south of Siena (my preference is for the Crete Sinese to the val d'Orcia). It doesn't make a difference to most tourists, but much of Tuscany is really very carefully tweaked to be touristy and just isn't as much fun as some of the less well known farmlands and vineyards of Italy. Many of the towns have beautiful art and architecture (including the frescoes of San Gimignano), so it's always a tough call.

As usual, less is more in Italy, so pick your gems, and ignore the "must see" lists.

Have a great time!

hi, LHS,

IMHO the danger on a first trip is to try to cram everything in. Trust me, you'll wish you hadn't. by the third museum/gallery, you won't know or care whether you are at the uffizi or the borghese. variety is not only the spice of life but also the way to a happy holiday.

so the Venice - Tuscan countryside - Rome itinerary is a good one. but disagreeing with Stu, i would not move around but pick one spot and relax. his Val D'orca recommendation is spot on. save Florence and the places you can go from there like san gim, siena, etc. for another trip. Italy isn't going anywhere.

regards, ann

Ostia Antica looks interesting.

Ira, thank you for the sympathy, but to set your mind at ease, neither of us is terminally ill. I used to think we would return to places we've been, "next time". I no longer have that expectation, but I guess, for Italy, I could be more hopeful.

Stu, Florence will be mid-week. Sunday will be somewhere in Tuscany.

I haven't checked into Sunday closings, but will do so. Any recommendations for Sunday?

Dayle, I just read your wonderful 2005 Italy trip report. I will check travel times more thoroughly, your comparison made perfect sense.

Ostia is amazing. The real beauty is that it is less than an hour outside of Rome and there are often very few tourists there. Bring a picnic lunch and eat in the amphitheater. If you go, don't be afraid to leave the main path and walk into the overgrowth, there are lots of hidden treasures that few see.

The frescoes in Pompei are far better, but the mosaics in Ostia cannot be beat. Plus, you don't lose a day. Spend 1/2 day at Ostia, back in the city by mid-afternoon.

Sunday

Most shops will be open in Pienza. San Gimignano too. Sundays are nice days for scenic drives/walks in the countryside.

Do you have my 20 page Italy itinerary??? I have several scenic drives around Tuscany described in there. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want a copy.

Stu Sudley

I think the trip to Pompei is a great addition to your trip, you have a very good plan! I've been to Italy twice and the Pompeii experience is my most memorable. Please google "locked villas, Pompeii" for more info on getting into the best places that are now closed to the public. You need to make reservations now but it is free to get in. They are trying to supervise the visitors to the best houses to mitigate damage and wear. Good luck on your journey.

Oh, and I would recommend never to drive in Florence. Park the car at an outlying town's train station and train in.

If you feel that strongly about Pompeii, then you can do it as a day trip from Rome. I agree with the others who have said you have too little time to invest in the Amalfi Coast.

Part of the issue is that every time you move from one hotel to another, you will waste at least half a day with the "business" of moving . . . checking out of hotel, getting to transportation, traveling, getting to next hotel, checking in . . .

If you do a day trip to Pompeii you won't waste time moving your bags and aking care of all the hotel business. Yes, it's a long day trip, but it can be done on your own via train or with a bus tour. Many bus tours add in unpleasant shopping stops, but Enjoy Rome offers a simple shuttle directly to Pompeii and back, which is sightly more costly thn do it yourself but you may find more convenient.

http://www.enjoyrome.com/shuttle_tour/pompeii.html