Looking for advice on rough itinerary through Italy and Central Europe

In order of most to least time IMHO

Rome 3
Budapest 3
Prague 2/3
Florence 2/3
Venice 2
Vienna 2
Salzburg 1/2

I don't question your concept as much as your route. It's a long haul. But have a blast!

For these cities, what route would you recommend? Venice to Salzburg appears to be an overnight (if I want), so that could save a hotel night.

Currently, night train #234 runs from Rome to Vienna, with stops at Florence at 22:00, Venice Mestre at 00:45, and other Italian stations. Night train #236 departs Venice S. Lucia about 21:00, arriving Salzburg at 4:00 and Vienna at 8:00. So you have options for night trains to Vienna, but I'd rather not wake up at Salzburg at 4:00 a.m. Check schedules again next January, since any significant changes to night trains tend to be implemented in mid-December.

Travel from Venice to Salzburg by day takes 6-8 hours with 1-2 connections. The simplest train connections from Salzburg to Prague take about 6 hours with one change at Linz. If you find that Salzburg is the hardest stop to fit into a smooth travel plan, then I'd also consider it the most expendable from this list. Traveling east-west such as Munich-Salzburg-Vienna has more direct and frequent train service.

If your Italian travels headed north to south, you could also fly from Rome to Budapest (e.g., Ryan Air or Wizz Air) or another city; see www.skyscanner.com.

You have picked too many great cities worthy of many more nights than your 18 allotted days. Please note your first day in a city, last day in a city and any travel days between cities are essentially wasted days. And some of your planned cities are not in close proximity of each other--a little far and without budget airlines flying between them.

I would suggest you start from Genoa by taking the train thru Milan to Venice--and spending 2 nights.
Then take the fast train down to Florence for 3 nights--reservations required.
From Florence, the train is quick and easy to Rome for 4 nights--again, reservations required.
Wizz Air flies from Rome FCO Airport to Budapest--for 3 nights.
Take the train into Vienna for the remainder of your time. Vienna's a great city to fly home from.

Save Prague and Salzburg for a future trip--grouped together with Munich--another great European city.

As a sampling of some great European cities, you have a good selection. I agree with the previous poster's breakdown of how much time to spend in each.

My concern for you is the night train - have you taken one before? There are frequent stops during the night, noise and commotion in the corridors. You may not get as much rest as you think, and it's important with as much moving around as you plan to do. I would take day trains or fly between the longer distances.

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses so far, particularly as to the situation on the trains. I looked at some of the times, and re-arranged (in my head) the order because of this

1) Rome (3 nights)
2) Florence (3 nights)
3) Venice (2 nights)
4) Salzburg (2 nights)
5) Vienna (3 nights)
6) Prague (3 nights)
7) Budapest (3 nights)

We would still be on an overnight train from Venice to Salzburg, but probably get a hotel nonetheless and have a (very) late check-in, to get some sleep. Also, there is an 8 hour overnight train from Prague to Budapest that arrives at around 8:30 in the morning. Going to/from Prague was going to require some backtracking anyway, so we figure better to have a long trip and backtracking overnight - is this sensible?

Also, I started putting in exact dates and times, and noticed that we'd be in Florence on Easter Sunday - would it make sense to swap Rome and Florence so that we'd be in Rome for Easter weekend?

Hi,

As you say, that Prague-Budapest night train arrives at 08:35, a good time to arrive, although I prefer it to be an hour earlier. It's also a direct connection. Whether you should take this option, I would, unless you want to time it right to go (day) on a direct connection.