Hi everyone! I’ve seen similar questions but not this exact itinerary- we’re looking at 2 nights Rome, 3 Florence, 2 Naples with side trip to Pompeii/Herculaneum and 3 in Sorrento with side trips to Amalfi/Positano and Capri. Whew! Does this seem way too crazy? If you were going to ditch one city, which one? (This will be August ‘23 if that makes a difference) thanks so much for your input!!
Chris S
Is this part of a larger trip or the entirety of it?
Do you plan to fly into Rome and home from Naples?
Have you been to Italy before?
Florence is the geographical outlier.
If you have not been before, 2 nights for Rome is woefully little.
Flying into and out of Rome, this will be the whole trip. Been to Florence, Venice and Cinque Terre before and LOVED all three. Maybe we could skip Naples and add a day in Rome? I’m not sure we are super interested in Naples but it seems a shame not to check it out since we’ll already be in that area.
Too many places for the available time. Remember that your arrival day will be impacted by jet lag, and unless your departure is late afternoon, you will need to be in Rome the night before you fly home.
I agree that Florence is the outlier here. Give 2 of those nights to Rome and 1 to the AC. I would be tempted to head straight to Sorrento on your arrival day, to get the longest part of your travelling out of the way. Then a night or 2 in Naples (although you could visit Naples and Pompeii as day trips from Sorrento), and finish with your Rome stay.
We enjoyed two nights in Naples, BUT, we also had 8 nights in Rome, which is chock full of sites. So I'd drop Naples or Florence in order to get at least 4 nights in Rome.
What month of the year? You don't say if you've been to Venice before. Can you please explain why you have more nights in Florence than you do in Rome? Is it because you plan to visit rural Tuscany from Florence?
Sorrento is perfectly nice, but it's not a magical place like, say, Venice. Capri is almost magical, but you are neglecting the time spent getting between Sorrento and your two daytrips. Do you plan to get a car and driver for 8 hours to see the Amalfi Coast? Or are you taking public transportation during high season?
It can be impossible, or at best tricky and risky, to fly home from Rome after waking up in Sorrento. What time is the flight home?
From experience, I can tell you it takes about four hours on a direct express train to get from Florence to Naples. In the time you have, that's a big chunk. Why Naples and Sorrento? Seems like a lot of moving around. We stayed on the Amalfi Coast and then hit Pompeii on our way out of town. Put more time towards Rome. You'll be glad you did.
Trip is in August and yes we’ve been to Florence, Venice and Cinque Terre and loved them all. Rome is frankly lowest priority for our preferences but it’s the cheapest hub so we’re definitely going to check it out / I’m really looking forward to another visit to Florence so I think we’ve added to our itinerary a couple days so now looks more like this:
Day 1 Austin-Rome
Day 2 Rome (bus tour?) (R)
Day 3 Rome - Pantheon/Coliseum (R)
Day 4 Rome - Vatican (R)
Day 5 Train to Sorrento/Sorrento (S)
Day 6 Sorrento - Hiking/Amalfi (S)
Day 7 Sorrento - Naples/Pompeii (S)
Day 8 Sorrento - open day (S)
Day 9 Sorrento - Capri (S)
Day 10 Train to Florence/Florence (F)
Day 11 Florence (David, Uffizi) (F)
Day 12 Florence (Duomo) (F)
Day 13 Florence open day (F)
Day 14 early train to Rome/Rome-Austin
This gives us 12 days to actually do things and accounts for 4 days of travel - we could head back to Rome day 13 depending on flight time.
Thoughts?
You do you, I trust that is not too blunt/obvious? On a trip of your choosing, pacing is at your whim and pleasure and what feels right or instinctual might be heaven or could be hell(ish) but that's the beauty of it being your call. My thinking is that staying regional in focus can be structurally advantageous/efficient/time economical in mapping out/strategizing any international trip. If primarily in the south of a country, BE in the south is my thinking and leave northern locales for another sojourn. Rome and further south is molto fantastico and plenty varied and rife with incredibile adventures that I would argue could be the trip of a lifetime. But, who's to argue that you want to take in the Florentine experience and check out all the Renaissance extravaganza in the same trip? Summertime brings warm temps and crowds, suggesting that tempering expectations and allowing plenty of time for hydration and relaxation is well advised. Rome, not being built in a day, is a city deserving the lion's share of your time, imho. Count me jealous; have a great trip!
Day 14 early train to Rome/Rome-Austin
What time is the flight you intend to take and where does it go?
If it goes to a Schenegen destination and leaves before 11AM, you are in company with the proverbial snowball in satan's domicile.. A flight to a non-Schengen destination that leaves before noon puts you in the same situation
From what I can find the earliest you can get to FCO by train from Florence is 837AM
Really confused by this. Can you actually fly Austin direct to Rome? And do you really arrive the same day? Most flights I have taken granted from Chicago not Texas leave afternoon and you arrive in Europe the next morning.
Then on the first day after being jet lagged you want to do a bus tour? Also you know you can’t go direct from Rome to Sorento. You will be taking the train to Naples. Then a commuter train or private car to Sorento. Which is what we did a few years ago.
I get it being in Italy you want to see it all. I am also planning a lot for our upcoming trip but we have already seen the biggest attractions in Rome & we are still planning 5 days there.
Enjoy
More efficient to go to Florence on arrival
Then south to Sorrento and finish in Rome
Give Rome 4 nights
You are going to need to be in Rome night before your flight
Bus tours in Rome not really the best way to see anything as they can’t get close to or into the pedestrianized historic center
Rome is very walkable
Awesome! Thx much for pointing out some of the travel issues - I like the idea of doing Florence/Sorrento/Rome. No direct flights to Austin unfortunately and I should’ve added a day 15 to account for that flight home. 😬 Haven’t booked any flights yet so this is really kind of a template, but I really appreciate the input - thanks y’all!! 🥰
As has been pointed out, Florence is the geographical outlier in your itinerary, as it stands you're having to transit in/out of Rome THREE separate times (from Sorrento to Florence, you first go through Rome), not to mention, your itinerary is constantly on the-go. Leave Florence for another trip, where you can explore more of the Northern half.
Since the bulk of your trip is Rome and South, I'd take those days allocated for Florence and devote more time to exploring the southern half of the country and/or, adding a day for the other locations; build in a down-day or, two this is a vacation not a march or internship. Most of your trip is coastal, include checking out Alberobello or Sassi di Matera.
If you're able to arrange your flights so its an open-jaw (separate arrival/departure location), that'd be ideal so you're not wasting time backtracking. Plenty of connecting flights through Frankfurt, Heathrow, de Gaulle and Schipol that go into Naples.
Chris, I'm in Christine's camp so just repeating what she posted above:
More efficient to go to Florence on arrival
Then south to Sorrento and finish in Rome
Give Rome 4 nights
You are going to need to be in Rome night before your flight
According to your last post, It sounds like you're leaning this way anyway? I'll also agree with skipping a bus tour in Rome: it's just not the way to sightsee this particular city. IMHO the best way? On your own two feet! Then you can freely travel in and out of narrow, atmospheric streets and pedestrian areas where the buses can't go. :O)
If you’ve never been to Rome give it 4-5 nights (the last nights).
I would go straight to Sorrento upon landing and stay there 5 nights. You can visit Naples from Sorrento on a day trip by train.
If you absolutely must see Florence again then borrow one night from Rome and one from Sorrento and go there for 2 nights, after Sorrento and before heading down again to Rome (or also first thing upon landing, then to Sorrento later). A high speed train can get you from Naples to Florence (or viceversa) in 3 hours. I realize the backtracking, but you have no choice. Rome has to be visited last because your flight home departs from there.
lido23, if you haven't booked flights yet, check BA and American. Last May, we took an American flight from Rome to Dallas. It was an 11 hour long flight that left FCO around 10 am. Without COVID testing, FCO should be easy. We had a 90 minute layover to catch out flight to Denver. It went very smoothly.
Hey again!
Thanks for the input! Because the responses were pretty much unanimous, we've decided to simplify the trip. I think now we're going to fly into Rome and go straight to Sorrento, spend 5 nights there with day trips to Amalfi, Capri, and a couple days of free time, then do Pompeii on the way back through Naples, stay in Naples for 2 nights, and then head back to Rome for 4 nights. This will be 11 nights, which is just about what we were wanting to do and only 3 hotels, with no back-tracking. Florence will have to wait until next time!!
Appreciate all of your advice and happy travels to everyone!
You should take a look at Salerno
Direct train from Rome so a bit quicker easier to get to on your arrival day
spend 2 nights there and visit Paestum and the amazing Greek temples
Or add a third night and visit Amalfi and a Ravello
Salerno is actually on the Amalfi coast, Sorrento is not
Then ferry around to Sorrento- you can visit Naples as a day trip from Sorrento as well as Pompeii, Capri etc
Do a search for Salerno here- we enjoyed our time there very much- less touristy, less expensive, great restaurants
Need way more time in Rome. I suggest either Rome and Florence or Rome and Sorrento/Capri/Pompeii/Amalfi Coast.
