12-14 days, Italy and Austria

A rail pass is usually a waste of money in Italy and I'm not even sure it saves you money in other countries anymore. I would check the point to point tickets first then decide which is less expensive. In Italy you'll need to add a 10 euro seat reservation fee for each trip on the fast trains. This is in addition to the cost of the rail pass. With P-T-P tickets the reservation fee is included in the price. You can use the trenitalia website for prices and schedules. As for where to go, with only 12-14 days you should pick one country and one area and tour around there. If you decide on Italy I would suggest Rome and Florence with day trips to Pompeii and Pisa. This will give you plenty of time to relax and "see things". It also means you won't be changing hotels every night and spending all of your time on the train getting from city to city. Your question is very broad and I'm sure you'll get lots of different answers. I would suggest visiting a bookstore and looking at a lot of different guide books to help you determine where it is you want to go. Donna

Thanks. Yeah we actually won the rail passes so we didn't have to pay for them, but I know buying reservations can add up :-/ I didn't mean to sound uneducated or dumb or anything, I guess we're just overwhelmed with the possibilities :-p I think narrowing it down would be a good idea. I think having the 3 country choice makes it seem like we MUST see 3 countries, but I need to remember that we dont NEED to! But thanks, I think I will focus on Italy for now!

What a wonderful opportunity. If you enjoy art, certainly don't miss Florence, and Venice is also wonderful. Both cities also offer many opportunities for music (in beautiful churches, as well as the more typical venues). And they are very different types of cities. You could easily spend several days to a week in each city, depending on your interests and the depth in which you like to experience art. Other places would depend on your interests. Ravenna has some of the best Byzantine-style mosaics in Italy. Assisi has beautiful early Renaissance frescos in the Basilica of St Francis, as well as other churches; and it's a lovely hill town, with other hill towns nearby for day trips. Enjoy your planning; it can be almost as much fun as traveling.

I think 14 days gives you plenty of time to bop around! I remember doing that in my student days--what a wonderful time you will have. I highly recommend Vienna for lovers of art, music and opera. You didn't give dates, but hopefully you are going when the opera is in season. There are killer art museums there and plenty of live concerts. Not to be missed.

Thank you so much for the thoughts! I will do some more research and see where it takes me!

I have not been but am going in a few weeks so I don't speak from experience but I am speaking from alot of research and my group also likes art and music. I would pick Florence, Venice and Salzburg. Salzburg is home to mozart and has many music options and we also love the sound of music. On our train from Venice to salzburg we are having a stop over in Verona which also sounds lovely.I think there is an opera season in Verona and the letters to Juliette wall. Verona is also in the back of the RS book on Venice. salzburg also has some interesting history. Of course the art in Florence sounds unbelievable. We could not pick just one so we are going to Accademia to see the original david and other art work and also Uffizi to see artwork. We are also climbing the Duomo but it is 460 steps up so I am likely to be hurting after the climb. The RS book on Venice does an impressive job of describing all the artwork in many churches, museums, buildings, etc. It is step by step walking tour descriptions of the art work. It would definitely educate you on what kind of art work there is to see and if it interests you. If you have to ahead which 3 countries I would pick Austria for salzburg (this would also include Vienna but Vienna is so far away it might not be practical to include with these other cities), Italy, and for the third country I would say Germany because it is geographically close to the other 2. If you were interested you could take a trip to Munich (close to salzburg), Dachau (close to munich) or even use Munich to fly in or out from.