Yet another itinerary feedback request thread
 

Hi Fodorites! We are planning a 2 week trip to Italy next May. It's our first time in Europe and are in the early stages of planning. Here is what we are thinking right now, I would love to get some feedback!

Leave SFO and arrive in Rome on Saturday night
Sunday - Wed: Rome
Thursday: Train up to Florence, store luggage at train station and explore Florence. Drive out to Tuscany for the night
Friday - Sunday: Tuscany
Monday: Maybe more Tuscany in the morning, then drive to Florence and train to CT
Tuesday - Wed: CT
Thursday: train from CT to Venice
Friday - Saturday: Venice
Sunday: Fly home from Venice

Some questions:
1) It appears a lot of places are closed on Sundays. It Sunday a good day to spend in Tuscany then?
2) Is this the most optimal/easiest route if we are to travel mostly by train? Would it be easier to swap the ordering for CT & Tuscany?
3) Are we trying to bite off too much or would this be a good start? Anything to watch out for?

Thanks!

Without your giving more information about what you hope to get out visiting Italy, what you specifically don't want to miss and won't budge about changing, it is really hard to give helpful feedback.

Presumably you already know that Rome has at least a dozen world-class unique tourist attractions that are time consuming to see. So I'll take a big guess that you've already decided most of them don't interest you personally -- which is fine -- and for whatever reason you are flying into Rome, you are confident you only need a day to your personal wish list, and will be ready to move on once you are over your jet lag.

However, if I'm wrong in my guess, and you want to explore the major sights of Rome thinking it can be done in a day, you are seriously shortchanging yourselves spending one day in Rome.

Tuscany is a very large and varied area of Italy, in the same way that California is a very large and varied area of the United States (And just like Sacramento is the capital of California, Florence is the capital of Tuscany.) Tuscany has beaches, it has hilltowns, it has centers of famous art (like Pisa, Lucca and Siena), it has marble quarries and wineries. So without knowing why you were attracted to "Tuscany" in the first place, it hard to answer your question about whether you would enjoy a Sunday there, or whether you are spending enough time there or too much time there.

Just a matter of logistics, you might find it easier (because of plane arrival and departure times for international flights), to begin your trip in Venice. Ask yourself if you really want to include in Rome in this trip. If not, end your trip in Florence (or Pisa or Genova, if your last stop is the Italian Riviera) and fly home from there.

If you want to include Rome for a day, I would start in Venice, followed by a train to Florence, followed by renting a car if you want to tour the Tuscan countryside, drop off the car in La Spezia (next door to le Cinque Terre) or at Pisa airport if that day is a Sunday, and after seeing le Cinque Terre, take the train from there to Rome.

In May, daylight hours are still not super-long, and your plan to arrive in Florence, stow your luggage, then rent a car that afternoon to drive into rural Tuscany has to be looked at carefully so you don't end up having your first experience of driving in Italy taking place in the dark countryside. It can be extremely difficult to find your hotel in Italian farm country if you don't already know where you are going. You might as well spend the night in Florence and rent the car the next morning -- or rent the car in Venice, drive to Tuscany, return the car in La Spezia, see le Cinque Terre, and take the train to Rome via Florence, and use that day to stow your luggage at the station before moving on.

Hi bk,

I suggest that you are moving around too much.

One day in Florence, 2 days in Venice, yet 4 nights in Tuscany and 2 on the CT?

As this is your first visit, I suggest skipping the countryside and dividing your 2 weeks among Rome, Florence and Venice.

((I))

If I am reading your itinerary correctly, and I am sure I am, you will have 5 nights in Rome and 4 full days to explore before you leave for Florence. Personally I would spend more time in Florence and skip CT but that is just my preferance. Again, just my preferance I would add more time for Venice. Have fun planning your trip, bkyp, I have always thought the first trip to Italy is the most fun of all!

In US time the OP has five nights, four full days in Rome. Do you calculate time differently in Italy, zeppole?

Hmmm ! Am I reading this right---do I not see 5 nites in Rome? If so, that is perfect.
I like this trip, but I will give you some credit for having done enough homework to know what appeals to you.
I would not train to the CT. I would drive from my Tuscany base to Pisa---see the tower et al---and then drop the car either in Pisa or in La Spezia and then train to the CT. Actually, I prefer driving and would keep the car until Venice. The train trip to Venice is not much fun.
Try hard to avoid the early Venice departures--Delta has one about noon to JFK.

I think it looks pretty good.

We had 4 days in Rome, and while we didn't see everything we wanted, it was a really good introduction to the most important sites.

We also had 3 full days in the Cinque Terre, but spent one day in Pisa. We did not get bored in that time and loved the area.

I like this. My personal choice would be to skip the CT and make it one full week in tuscany. That way you could either base in Florence for 2 nights after arriving there from Rome and then have 5 nights out in the countryside to explore. Or, since Florence was not our favorite (realize we are in the minority), I would pick two different towns so that I could explore more of Tuscany, which is much bigger than you may think. But if you really want to see CT I would even consider making Rome just 4 nights and adding the other night to CT. We love Rome and agree that you could spend even more time and not see everything, but the good thing about Rome is that you are very likely to fly back there the next time you come to Italy. We have enjoyed 3 Italian trips so far and two involved flights to Rome so it is on the list of cities that I have and will return to.

Oh sorry! I completely misread your post regarding Rome! Thanks to others for pointing that out to me.

Regarding Tuscany, after rereading your post, I still have no idea what you want to do there, but still caution you against driving after dark as your first driving experience of Italy. Something to watch out for.

I used to live in California (and for some years in San Francisco) and I now live on the Italian Riviera, not far from le CInque Terre, and I woudn't (and didn't) make my first trip to Italy focused on rolling hills wine country or dramatic cliffs on the sea. Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestion, this is exactly the type of input I am looking for!

Yes, it's a concious decison to have "only" 4 full days in Rome. I know there are of world-class attractions, but I feel like there will be another opportunity in the future once we get our bearings and figure out what we like.

We are not big art history people, so we might be okay to skip Florence. One option we are looking at it to leave Rome with a rental car, drive out to Florence for a few days, then drive up to Pisa/La Spezia to return the car. I would rather not keep the rental cars (and paying for it) while we are at CT, then finally train to Venice. Do you guys have a favorite rental location out of Rome that won't make us drive through the heart of the city?

If you aren't terribly drawn to the museums of Florence, consider taking a train out of Rome to Chiusi, and picking up the car there. Take several days to enjoy a scenic route through southern Tuscany (roughly via Pienza/Montepulicano/Montalcino and then on toward San Gimignano/Volterra) but which ultimately lands you in Pisa. You can turn in the rental car at Pisa and proceed on to le Cinque Terre. (If you like, you can store your luggage at the Pisa train station, which is right next to the car rental office, and take a 25 minute walk across town to see the leaning towner of Pisa.)

On you way back toward Venice, you could get off in Florence, stow your luggage in the station, and have a limited day waling about in the very small historic but beautiful town, have lunch, and enter just a few carefully selected small sights. Just make sure you retrieve your luggage in time to catch a train that arrives in Venice before nightfall, because it can be hideously difficult to be both (a) carrying your luggage over many bridges while (b) trying to locate your Venetian lodgings in the dark.