Looking for advice on this- it is our first trip to Europe and we are bringing 2 pre-teen daughters. We will be visiting our 16 year old son who is finishing his study abroad year near Frankfurt Germany. That stop of the trip is set in stone. The rest is flexible including arrival and departure airports. We'll be going May or June 2023. We intend to spend ~week with our son and his host families in central Germany. This stop could be at the beginning or end of our trip. I am not interested in touring Germany at all, I am Italian at heart and must see the Roman ruins, museums and get authentic Italian food and wine. My dream for years has been to visit Sicily but that is so far away from Frankfurt. I'm open to skipping Sicily and hitting my 2nd choices: Rome/Florence/Venice since most people say- despite being overrun by tourists- that those are not to be missed. I see high speed rail is possible between those 3? But even those destinations are a very long ways from our son. We'll have approximately a month to get in the most Italian bang for our buck on this trip. So, Any suggestions on how we could structure an itinerary to see the best of Italy given the huge distance from our German destination?
Posted by
4867 posts
Fly. Frankfurt has a major international airport, so I would start there, fly to any of your Italian destinations, and then fly home from wherever works best.
Posted by
Uppsala, Sweden
6915 posts
Lufthansa has direct flights from Frankfurt to both Palermo and Catania.
Posted by
Charleston & Birmingham
4589 posts
I would skip Sicily, fly to Rome from Frankfurt. I would stay a week in Florence and take a day trip to Siena and possibly Pisa. Do a day trip to Orvieto from Rome.
Posted by
Washington DC
27903 posts
For me, Sicily calls for at least two weeks if you rent a car for part of the trip to simplify the logistics. It takes longer if you depend solely on public transportation, and longer still if you want to go to one or more of the offshore islands. I love Sicily, and I think it is doable for you if you really do have a month to spend in Italy. I'd find it very questionable if the month has to cover your time in Germany as well.
Venice, Florence and Rome are great destinations, too. If you hold off on Sicily for this trip, you'd be able to add some other stops (day trips or overnight stays) in additional places--maybe towns that aren't as touristy as the big three, so you'll feel you've had a broader Italian experience.
With one flight from Frankfurt to your starting point in Italy (Venice being recommended), you can probably handle the rest of the trip by train (and perhaps an occasional bus). Plan to purchase a multi-city ticket into Frankfurt and home from (probably) Rome.
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7891 posts
Most Italian Bang for your Buck? Rome, Florence, Venice are a classic combination, and have a tourist infrastructure that’s well designed to show a lot of visitors what there is to see. But if your dream is Sicily, then go for it.
Sicily has ancient Roman sights (Villa Romana at Piazza Armarena is amazing), but so many of its sights are ancient Greek. And most of those temples are in better shape than what survives today in Greece. if you did what we did 10 years ago, fly into Palermo, rent a car at the airport and head west to Erice, then make your way kind-of counterclockwise around Sicily. When done, 10 days or longer later, take the car ferry across from Messina to the mainland, and drive north from there. We stayed in Sorrento for several nights, taking day trips from there to see Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and more. We then turned in the car and went by train to Rome. More to see and do in Rome, a the end of your trip How about flying over to Germany, and flying home from Rome?
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7099 posts
To add to what Badger said, there are non stops from both Frankfurt and Munich to Sicily. The flight is about 2.5 hours, so not very long.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
I appreciate the good advice! I may save Sicily for an exclusive future trip at this point. It looks like flying Chicago to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Venice, train to Florence and Rome, then fly home to Chicago is our best option. Is it usual for these one-way flights to be quite a bit higher priced than roundtrip?
Posted by
4867 posts
You need to search “multicity” fares (to Frankfurt and home from Rome), which should not be more expensive than round trip. Book the Germany to Italy fare separately.
Posted by
City of Seattle
1945 posts
Flying is a fine choice, nothing wrong with what everyone is suggesting.
That said, the train trip from Germany to Italy is really quite pleasant. There are several routes. One of the nicest and most efficient is Munich to Venice. You pass through the Bavarian lake district, Austrian Tyrol/Innsbruck, the gorgeous Italian Alps, Alto Adige and then Venice. Along the way there are many fun and beautiful Italian cities and villages to stop and take an overnight stay - Brixen, Bolzano, Trento, Verona. All on the same high-speed rail corridor, about 7 hours total train travel from Munich to Venice including 1 train change.
Given that you have a month (or three weeks?) you could easily opt to take 3-5 nights of train touring this route, enjoy short little 2 hour train rides and see a really beautiful and interesting part of Italy on your way through. Might even save a nickel given how rail in Europe tends to be discounted for teens.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9198 posts
If you are staying in the Frankfurt area, there are a number of Roman ruins you can see. First, head up towards Bad Homburg to the Saalburg, which is a reconstructed Roman fort. The Limes came through this area and there are boundary lines to see and walk. Head to Mainz and visit the ruins of the Isis Temple and also the Ampitheater at Mainz Römisches Theater. This would have been the largest ampitheater north of the Alps. Bad Vilbel has some mosaics, and Nidda has many left over ruins as this was once quite a large fort.
The Romans were everywhere in this part of Germany and left baths, pillars, mosaics, etc. behind.
If you have time, go to Trier, which has wonderful Roman sites, especially the Porta Nigra.