I'd appreciate some help with planning my upcoming trip to Italy in the second half of July 2026, flying into Rome and flying out of Venice. The 14 days does not include the flight days. My wife and I will be travelling with another couple (all in our 40s). 3 of us have been to Italy before and 1 is very easy-going, so we aren't planning to do much in-depth visiting of the main attractions. The main goal for this trip is more towards activities/experiences, have good food and walk around the cities enjoying the vibes and shopping. We would not be doing museums in this trip.

Given that, we were thinking of around 3 days in each place, except for Venice with 2 nights:
From Rome, we would take the train down to Naples and then Sorrento, which will be our home base to make day trips to the Amalfi Coast. After 3 nights there, we plan to take the train back to Rome and get a rental car to drive up to the Tuscan countryside. We would most probably be staying in the Val d'Orcia region. We'd then drop off the car at Florence, spend 3 nights there and head to Venice by train.

The dilemma was whether to stay in Rome and then head down, or head down straight to Sorrento and then continue our trip up north. We decided that with the flight to Rome taking 17 hours in total, it'd be better to stay in Rome first and then head down. How does this itinerary sound? Is there any other place like Orvieto, or Chiusi that you would recommend getting the rental car from? Thank you!

PS : Flights have been booked but accommodations have not.

Welcome to Fodors. Only one quick comment for now (its getting late here) but others will chime in . . .

IMO/IME you are way (WAY) short changing Venice. You will have barely 1.5 days there. I'd see if I could juggle things a bit to get 3 or even 4 nights there.

I must be counting wrong. I count 6 locations, each save one at 3 days. I think that makes 17 days ... or 18 nights. I'll wait to comment further... except to note that I agree with janisj about Venice.... until you clarify. And please lay your plans out by nights, not days! Thx.

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my first post. The breakdown is :
Rome - 3 nights
Sorrento - 3 nights ( I mentioned Naples purely as a train station stop between Rome and Sorrento)
Val d'Orcia - 3 nights
Florence - 3 nights
Venice - 2 nights

Flight into Rome lands in the morning of night 1. Flight out of Venice is the day after the 2 nights there. Sorrento/Amalfi Coast and Venice are the places we have not been to before, so we'd prefer to have those as a must in our trip.

Rome : Visit the Colosseum, St Peter's Basilica, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain. We have done the Colosseum underground and arena tours before, so this time it would just be from the outside. We have also done Vatican Museums before, so we'd probably just visit the Basilica.

Sorrento : Day trips to the Amalfi Coast and Capri. However, I'm now considering staying in Amalfi town or Atrani, since the main aim is to visit the coast. What are your thoughts on this?

Val d'Orcia : Visit the towns there, which we have done before but the other couple hasn't. Possibly a day trip to Siena.

Florence : Enjoy the sights in this city, which we have been to before. Experiences like a cooking class would be nice.

Venice : Visit the main sights.

I understand that this plan leaves me with, effectively, 2.5 days in each place after taking into consideration the travel between places, and 1.5 days for Venice. I can try to allocate 3 nights in Venice, and which place would you suggest cutting from?

Thank you.

Hi, in addition to the advice and questions already posed by Janis and kja, if you're intending to travel this July, you may already be too late in booking accomodations for Amalfi Coast. If the AC is a priority, my suggestion is to button up your itinerary quickly and book AC accomodations ASAP.

How are you flying? Where into and home from? That changes things and see far too many folks fly into/out of Milan and spend all of their time far south, making the savings flying into Milan moot.

The OP said they are flying into Rome and out of Venice and that flights are booked.

If Amalfi and Venice are the places you haven't seen and are most important, you don't have enough time in either place. As much as I love Florence, I would skip Florence and add a night to Amalfi and two nights to Venice.

My initial reply must have posted as you were posting your second reply.

And, I really think you need to cut your destinations down. With what you have listed that you want to see, you do not have enough time to cover all of that with all of the moving you are planning on doing.

Each time you change hotels and transit to another destination, you are losing time of your sightseeing budget. 3 nights, gives you 2 days of sightseeing. And despite you already have seen some of Rome - you have planned 3 full days of sightseeing into basically 2 days - can't be done.

July is high season. It's going to be packed to the max in all of these places. For example, Trevi fountain now requires a ticket - it is no longer a pass by. You will need 2 full days (3 nights) to see the "main" sites of Venice - and crowded, crowded sites at that. Same with Florence. If you're not interested in museums, what is the draw to Florence since it is mainly Renaissance art?

My mistake. Reading on my phone and missed it

I understood your original post. My point is the same. - you have VERY little time in Venice. Barely 1.5 days so definitely not enough time to see the 'main' sites. It will take at least half a day traveling from your accommodations in Florence to checking in to the Venice hotel. So maybe (if you are lucky) half of one day and the next full day, then you are flying home the next (probably) morning.

It is best to list the itinerary in 'nights' but one also needs to note what that itinerary means:

Rome 3 nights . . . 2.5 days free to see/do, and some of that jet lagged, possibly very jet lagged.
Sorrento - 3 nights . . . 2.5 days
Val d'Orcia - 3 nights . . . 2 days
Florence - 3 nights . . . close to 2.5 days
Venice - 2 nights . . . 1.5 days

Most feel rushed, but especially Venice. And all of these places will be very crowded in July. It seems you are squeezing in at least one too many destinations, but maybe you like to travel this fast.

We love Florence as well and that's why it is so difficult to skip it! Tough decision to make, but between Florence and the Val d'Orcia, seems like the latter should stay in the itinerary as it is a different feel to the others.

My post must have been under moderation I believe. For the AC, would you suggest Amalfi/Atrani as opposed to Sorrento, since we're mainly wanting a coastal escape? For Rome, I see where you're coming from. Would you still say it's too little time if we aren't going to be entering these places as we have been there before? At Trevi, it's only ticketed for being right up in front of the fountain, right? As for Florence, we simply love the city as we have been there before and went to all the museums that we wanted. This time around, we planned to take it easy and just enjoy the city.

The clarification was in response to the other poster. Yes I did agree with you in my reply that it's going to be effectively 2.5 days in each place and Venice 1.5 days, and thinking of adding one more night to Venice. I agree that it might be one destination too many. We usually try to stick to a maximum of 3-4 places in a two-week trip, and I'm trying to see which city I can cut.

Thanks for clarifying your plan!

I’ll join those who are encouraging you to trim your plan. I think you are underestimating both the time required for each change of location (transportation, getting to / from the train station, checking in / out, packing / unpacking, getting lost / oriented) and the time to see the things you want to see in each place. I would urge you to lay everything out on a calendar, and be sure to include meals, time for waiting in lines, time to get over jet lag, etc.

As for Sorrento or Amalfi, if your goals are Amalfi and Capri, then stay in Amalfi or one of the nearby towns.

In addition to sites being crowded during high season, it will likely also be extremely hot, if past summers are any indication. Make certain that you stay in places with a/c.

NOTE: Unfortunately, for some reason all of Roger_S' posts have been caught up in the Moderation/spam queue. We clear each post as soon as a moderator sees it but there can be a delay, sometimes several hours. This can cause responses to be out of sequence. As an example #11 and #12 were posted before Roger_S' post #10 displayed. Sorry for the confusion/disruption but sadly the spam filter has a mind of its own.

For your goal as a coastal time on Amalfi, keep in mind just how busy it will be. Ferries/catmarans will be packed, busses will be standing room only. The towns and beaches will be shoulder to shoulder with people, especially in Amalfi, Positano, and Capri. If you are wanting to relax, it may not be all that relaxing unless you enjoy that atmosphere - some people do.

Suggest staying in Atrani as it’s small and off the tourist beat. But just 7-8 minutes walking distance from the transport hub of Amalfi. Minori would be good too.

As Travel_Nerd says buses and ferries will be packed in July. We stayed in Atrani end April and even then buses were full as many of the locals use them too, not just the tourists.

And you are most definitely shortchanging Venice, try and add at least one more night there.

Do you mind sharing where you stayed? BnB or hotel?

Yeah I'm thinking of cutting some place and adding at least one more night to Venice.

We had an Airbnb right on the main street, with a small balcony and windows overlooking the bay, really gorgeous. It did get a bit noisy a couple of times when traffic backed up on the road, but even that was fun to watch, and it usually cleared up pretty fast.

We loved staying in Atrani, which has some pretty good restaurants, despite being so small. And we were in Amalfi in less than 10 minutes, there’s a walkway tunnel carved through the rock.

Our apartment would be too small for four people, especially two couples, but you can contact our host for larger apartments or a hotel. Luca is on whatsapp and also has a website, a super nice guy, we had no complaints at all.

Luca, G&G Apartments, Atrani
+39 339 2211709
[email protected]
www.alfierirooms.com

Your plan actually looks really well balanced, especially if you’re prioritising food,, walks etc. I’d also keep Rome first, after a 17h flight you’ll appreciate easing into it instead of jumping straight into trains. We did something similar and Sorrento worked really well as a base. I’d definitely mix in ferries for the Amalfi Coast, way more enjoyable than buses. We got the idea from here and ended up doing Capri and a couple smaller stops (Minori and Cetara), which felt way less overwhelming than Positano. For the Tuscany part, picking up the car outside Rome is a good call. I’d personally avoid driving in Rome itself and instead grab it from somewhere like Orvieto or even Chiusi, both easy by train and much less stressful. Orvieto in particular is nice for a quick wander before heading into Val d’Orcia.