need itinerary

steph,

It would really help to have some further information. For example have you been to Europe before and which cities and sights are you interested in seeing?

As you have to end in northern Italy, I'm assuming you're flying home from Milan (or that area)?

With such a short time frame, it would be a really good idea to limit your trip to a fairly "close" geographical area in order to minimize travel times.

Cheers!

That's a pretty wide open question, and a very wide open piece of geography. My initial thought is you are trying to cover too much territory.

Have you picked up any of Rick's books yet? What do you like to do?

I could tell you how I'd spend (or try to spend) 2 weeks that spread out -- but that would be my trip.

Give us som more info and we can try to be more helpful.

Unless you're one of those rare people who just don't care for Italy, I think you'd get more out of your trip by limiting it to one country and my choice is always Italy. You can cover quite a bit in two weeks there but adding France and Germany will keep you from really getting the feel of any of them. I think entirely differently when planning a trip to Germany vs. Italy. Germany's biggies are more spread out and require more travel time to reach. In Italy you could easily spend several days each in Rome and Florence with great options for day trips from both. Toss in a couple of days in Venice and you've filled two weeks.

Thanks for the replies. Understandably a wide open itintary for such short time but we really wanted to get a feel for all the areas. We definitely want to keep our route in the closest proximity possible thats the main reason for the post. We figured to leave Rome after spending apprx 3 days and drive north to (fill in blank), France and somewhere along the border of (?),Germany back to Milan to fly home.
Any more advice?

Those driving distances are significant. To try some trips yourself, go to ViaMichelin. This website also shows recommended driving routes, and according to them, driving times (for the sake of consideration) Rome to Paris is 13.5 hours; Paris to Munich is 8 hours; and Munich to Milan is 5.5 hours.

At the very least, if you stay on your desired plan of doing destinations that are all that far apart, consider using a night train to connect Rome to Paris, and possibly Paris to Munich -- that will give you 2 of your days back for sight-seeing instead of driving. To find train route possibilities you can test them on www.bahn.de for the clearest website (switch to English in top right corner of first page), or also on www.trenitalia.com or www.raileurope.com.

It's very hard to help recommend options based on the idea that you are wanting to get a taste of European travel. For a first trip, if you have no idea where to go or what you think you might like to see, I always steer people toward doing London & Paris with some side trips from each. That gets your feet wet into international travel, and teaches you what questions to ask yourself. If you have an "I've always wanted to see X" place, then do it first (for example, for my Dad that was Rome -- so we did Rome/Venice/Florence with side trips).

I do recommend you try to focus your trip in a little -- it will be much more enjoyable.

Good for you! My fiancee and I just finished a 2 week trip in Europe. We started in Rome then went north in this order: Florence, Venice, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Koln and ended in Munich. It is do-able, but we did it by train with an overnight ride from Venice to Paris. We had a blast and stayed about 3 days in each spot. We wouldn't trade it for anything. I hope you have a great time!

I forgot to add that we flew into Rome and flew out of Munich. That saved a lot of travel time!

I think that we have an geographically close and sightsee-able intinerary. Any advice on modification or things to do would be greatly appreciated.

Flying into Rome. Driving to Vernazza, might drive over to Tuscany on the way. On the way to Paris we are going to stop in Dijon. After Paris, Luxembourg. (Any comments about Luxembourg? Are there day trips to see castles?) Then to Bern and finally Milan to fly home.

Someone correct my rough calculations if I am wrong.

Day 1. Arrival in Rome and check-in
Day 2. Rome (not the three days you wanted)
Day 3. Drive 5 hours to Vernazza. (Not stopping to see "Tuscany")
Day 4. Vernazza/CT
Day 5. Drive 7 hours to Dijon (then probably fall asleep)
Day 6. Drive 3 hours to Paris, then search for parking.
Day 7. Paris
Day 8. Paris
Day 9. Drive 3hours 30 min to Luxembourg City. Check-in and see what you can.
Day 10. Drive 5 hours Luxembourg to Bern. Check-in
Day 11. Bern
Day 12. Drive 4 hours Bern to Milan. Drop off car. Check into hotel.
Day 13. Milan
Day 14. Departure

Fourteen days, eight of which are spent primarily or entirely getting to someplace else. Ugh.

A castle in Luxembourg that may be worth a stop to you is in Vianden, a town near the German border (it's also a cute little town). HERE is a link to the relevant page on the Luxembourg tourist website, which also has a wealth of information about other sights in the country.

Have fun!