Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice....

Rick Steves My Way Europe in 14 Days or Best of Europe in 14 Days sounds like a good fit for you. Fly into Paris.. take road trip (via the tour) from Paris to Swiss Alps, Munich, Venice, Florence, Tuscany and finally Rome. Then fly home out of Rome. I'm going in May and CAN'T wait! And no, I do not work for Rick Steves tours but I've shopped around and asked around and heard nothing but great things about the tour! Good luck in your travels!!!

If doing it on your own.. no.

Cut one.

Maybe just do Italy this time..

Agree with Pat, do Paris another time if possible. We flew to Rome for 5 nights, early train to Venice for two nights, then train to Florence 3 nights, then train back to Rome to fly home. That was plenty for us. Thirteen days might mean only 11 days if you aren't counting flight days.

Hi msmooren. I think your plan looks great, 13 days is plenty of time. I would suggest a minimum of two full days in Paris, two in Rome, one in Florence, and one in Venice. Fill in remaining days based on your preferences. Enjoy your trip!

Bob.. according to your schedule there is only one day remaining.. not days..

Two full days equals three nights in one place.

Doable with proper transportation planning.

Doable but not advisable, since you are asking for opinions. Apparently your flight into Paris is arranged so as you probably only have 11 days of the 13 on the ground, if it were me I'd spend 5 days in Paris, and divide the remaining days between Venice & Rome.

I don't see why not with proper planning and expectations. Especially if you can power through your first day in Paris after your flight. If you are set on going to the top of the Eiffel Tower buy advance tickets, walk up to 2nd level then buy ticket to summit, book at the restaurant or do one of the "skip the queue" tours - the last two are pretty pricey but a nice work-around rather than wasting hours in line. Pre-book what you can to avoid lines. I would do 3 nts in Paris (hopefully you will be able to take advantage of your landing day and not be too jet lagged to function which would give you 3 days in Paris) then 4 nts in Rome (you will lose a good part of the day flying from Paris to Rome), you could do 4 Paris & 3 Rome but that will really limit what you can see in Rome, 2 nts in Florence and 3 in Venice with the last day I am assuming would be your departure day. You will not see everything but will get to the highlights of each city and determine where you might want to return on a future visit.

IMHO there is no point in going to Florence for 2 nights. This is a city where what it has to offer is its dense Renaissance artistic heritage. You cannot scratch the surface of that in a day.

Of course I think the concept of 'powering through' in order to tick off as many boxes as fundamentally pointless. If you want to 'see Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice with only 11 days on the ground then get a video tape. 11 days on the ground gives you enough time to do the minimum in Italy; add Paris and the trip is all about getting there and travel logistics with almost no time to see more than a few highlights of those places.

I agree with Norma - skip Florence.

My husband and I went to all 4 cities last April from the 11th - 26th. I think it was 14 full days/nights and we felt is was somewhat too short to do all 4.
We started in Paris (5 nights), then flew to Venice (2 nights), then train to Florence (2 nights) and then train to Rome (5 nights). If I did it again, I would cut 1 day off Rome and put it into Venice or cut Florence out all together. (If I repeated the trip I would absolutely cut out Florence).

It really depends on what you like to see and do. We had 3 days of museum-going in Paris, and 2 days planned in Rome, so more in Florence was just more and we were a little burnt out on museums.
If you truly intend to do all 4 cities, you have to REALLY plan your time and absolutely MUST make use of every time saver available:

1. Get the Paris Museum Pass so you can skip most lines. You can buy it at the airport when you arrive.
2. Make your reservation (several weeks in advance to be sure to get your date & time) for your Eiffel Tower visit.
3. Make a reservation if you intend to go to the Vatican.
4. Make a reservation if you intend to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia
5. Make a reservation if you intend to go to the Uffizi gallery.
6. Make a reservation IN ADVANCE if you intend to go to the Borgese gallery (and you DO want to go - trust me). This isn't so much a time saving thing, but if you do not make a reservation - you are NOT getting in.
7. Get the the Roma Pass if you intend to go to the Colosseum as it will allow you to bypass the lines.
8. If you intend to go to Versailles, go out to see the outer building of Petite Trianon and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet first and wait to see the Chalet after 1pm - the lines will be shorter.

It is not our usual pattern to schedule our itinerary so much, but the time we saved NOT waiting in lines due to the above saved us at least 8 hours - a whole days worth of site-seeing!!! Not to mention that our legs were not already fatigued BEFORE we even got into the venue.

You might want to consider flying from Paris to Rome as a train ride will take up a day of your trip time. When I priced out a night train from Paris to Venice versus cost of flight on EasyJet + hotel night, flying was the way to go.

Have a great trip!!

Save Paris for another time. Give yourself extra days in Rome, Florence and Venice instead. There will be more than enough to occupy your time there. Extra travel days take away from quality time.

I agree with Chani, but you need to consider the importance of planning carefully, and how you like to travel. Personally I prefer to spend at least three or four nights somewhere with perhaps a daytrip to somewhere, but this is your trip, not mine.

If you are not interested in Renaissance art beyond the major museums, you can have a good time in Florence in the time you've planned.

When are you going? Have you already bought your airline tickets?