shuki1

Planning a family trip [11 days], beginning and ending in Rome. Seeking recommendation whether to visit Venice or Florence first, and wondered if a Sunday is better spent in one city or the other, or if one is more crowded on weekends than the other?

rex

I think that Venice has a noticeable increase in crowds on the weekends, probably year round; in the summer, this could be a subtle distinction between extremely crowded (weekdays) and extremely, extremely crowded.

The month your trip will occur might influence the answer.

Have you thought of beginning or ending in different cities? Avoids backtracking.

And I personally do not recommend starting in Rome unless you give yourself at least four nights there. Rome is very, VERY intense and it takes 24-48 hours to get "into" its rhythms, sounds, scooters, visual and auditory overload.

Best wishes,

Rex

adrienne

Hi Shuki,

Both Venice and Florence will be crowded on a weekend. Can you plan your trip so that you take a day-trip just outside Rome on Sunday and see Venice and Florence during the week? Usually when I'm in a large city on Sundays I try to get out into the countryside for a break. Or, plan the day in a quieter part of the city.

Why are you beginning and ending in Rome? Since you're in the planning stages why not either begin in Venice and end in Rome or the other way around. Visit Florence on the way to either Venice or Rome.

adrienne

marty

I would always say to visit Venice last, if that is a possibility. I love Florence and Rome very much and have been to city several times, but they are noisy (Vespas and traffic). The times when I went to Venice first, the other two seemed even noisier than ever, because they followed the very quiet Venice!

shuki1

Thanks very much for your replies. I had the same thought about trying to start and end in different cities, but our frequent flyer reservations require that we fly in and out of Rome. The connecting flights to other cities didn't match up with our arrival time and we did not want to spend the first day waiting in the airport. We'll do the best we can and enjoy whatever we are able to accomplish!