12 days in Italy too much train time??

I definitely say too much train time! Your proposed schedule gives you, basically, one day in each destination. You can easily do day trips from Florence to both Lucca and Siena. I've never had an interest in the Cinque Terre, so can't speak to that - but you could split your 11 days into Rome and Florence and not be rushing around so much. Since you won't be arriving in Milan after a long flight, traveling on to another site upon arrival shouldn't be a huge deal. I would say no more than three destinations in 11 nights so prioritize to the places you want to visit the most - and remember day trips are much less taxing than packing everything up and moving hotels.

Sienna and Cinque Terre are not to be missed.

I suggest you skip Rome this trip. Add those two nights to Florence. Take a day trip to Volterra. Arezzo can be another day trip.

Yes, I would say your itinerary involves too much time spent moving around. Rome deserves more than 2 nights so I'll go along with Swan's suggestion to skip that and add the days to Florence.

It's probably a good idea just to plan on staying in Milan on night #1 in case a flight delay has you arriving much later. Are you arriving at Malpensa or Linate airports?

Whittle your destinations down so that you don't spend most of your vacation days traveling to a different destination. Have you already bought your plane tix to Milan? If not WizzAir flys to Venice which is definitely at the top of my list. I've been to Venice more times than I can count, and I can say that to spend time in Italy and miss Venice is a dreadful thing to do. Cinque Terre is nice (I wasn't overly impressed with it) - but Venice will knock your socks off!

In case you've already bought your tickets to Milan there is a fast train from Milan directly to Venice San Lucia. Definitely try to fit Venice in.

Since your hubby likes the small towns and both of you are looking for some relaxation, allow me to suggest this. Since you are flying into Milan, go directly on to Lake Como and spend a couple of days in Varenna. Lovely place to chill out and get over jet lag and become acclimated to a slower pace of life. Personally I would opt for at least three nights in each of your stops. Otherwise it just a marathon of train rides.

My 2 cents...You could either spend the night in Milan, or catch a train to CT. Monterosso is approx. 3 hrs. Or you just take an early train in AM. I love CT and feel it is not good for a day trip as the travel time is too long. I personally spend 5 nights there and am never bored!

I would then go to Florence, add your nights there, and day trip to both Siena and Lucca. Or possibly staying 2 nights in ONE of those cities. Also, consider a tour of smaller hill towns. Skip Rome this time, since you are flying out of Florence.

michelle,

Yes, that's definitely too much train time for such a short time frame. However, I can suggest a compromise that might work. It would help to know which Milan airport you'll be arriving at? Forget Milan or other one night stops, as you don't have time to waste.

• May 31 - arrive Milan, 15:00 - travel to Milano Centrale and take train immediately to Monterosso (3 nights). Be sure to notify your hotel that you'll be a "late arrival". There's a direct train departure at 16:05 that would be perfect, but doubt that you'll be able to make that one. There are many other departures after that with changes. You should be able to get there in time for a late dinner.
• Jun. 1 - Monterosso
• Jun. 2 - Monterosso
• Jun. 3 - Train to Rome (3 nights as your husband doesn't like large cities) - minimize travel times by connecting with one of the direct trains from La Spezia Centrale to Roma Termini (there are number of those each day). Use a mid-morning departure so that you have several hours to tour in Rome. This will give you about 2.5 days for touring.
• Jun. 4 - Rome
• Jun. 5 - Rome
• June 6 - Train from Roma Termini to Firenze S.M. Novella (5 nights)
• Jun. 7 - Florence
• Jun. 8 - Florence (possible day trip to Siena by Bus)
• Jun. 9 - Florence (possible day trip to Lucca)
• Jun. 10 - Florence (you could perhaps schedule a wine tour or something on this day)
• Jun. 11 - Flight home

I weighted the trip most heavily towards Florence as it has some great restaurants and I'm assuming nightlife (I'm a bit old for that but I'm sure Roberto or one of the others can provide information on the best spots), your return flight leaves from there and most importantly it makes a great home base to easily visit some of the other places you listed.

Monterosso doesn't have much night life, but I find the ambiance in the evenings to be wonderful. There are some great restaurants there and of course great beaches, and you can do as much or as little as you want. I would highly recommend getting hotel reservations booked SOON.

Although your husband isn't too keen on Rome, you haven't been there before and I believe it's worthwhile to include that in the Itinerary. Plan your touring carefully so that you don't waste any time!

For planning sightseeing, transportation and hotels, I would also recommend packing along a copy of the RS Italy guidebook, either in paper form or as an E-book if you're travelling with an iPad or other device.

If you haven't travelled a lot on trains or other public transit in Italy, there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of. If you need more information, post another note.

Buon Viaggio!

Michelle,
It's always a question of quality vs quantity. I understand your desire to see as much of Italy as you can since this is your first trip to Europe, but I think your itenerary will spend too much time looking at the inside of a train.

We just returned from spending a week in Tuscany. Since you fly into Milan and out of Florence, save Rome for another trip. It will eat up the better part of two days just going and coming back.

What time does your plane arrive in Milan? If it is morning, you could spend the day and night there and catch some of the night life. To me there's not a lot that is interesting there unless you like to shop.
I'd then split your remaining time between Siena and Florence as home bases. You can make day trips by bus from Siena to Montalcino, Volterra and San Gimignano. You could then base in Florence and make day trips to Lucca and CT.
It all depends on the kind of trip you want to have. You are the same age as my younger son. If you like churches and museums, you plan a trip that concentrates on the bigger cities. If you like to kick back, do some walking and window shop, the smaller hill towns are fun. Plan to have a long, relaxing lunch in one of the hill towns to soak up the atmosphere of the region.

I really appreciate all of the suggestions! I love all of the possibilities, if only I had won the Powerball :) I really want to see Rome, but I do believe that we will be back to do Rome at a later time. The one thing my husband wanted to do was Cinque Terre, so I am going that direction. So, we fly in to Milan (Malpensa) on May 31st, at 3pm (the tickets are purchased 1.5 hr flight from Prague)I would love to get to Cinque Terre immediately, but not sure about the late time we arrive and being able to get out of the city. I have gone ahead and booked June 1st to June 4th in Cinque Terre. I am thinking of going from there to Sienna (day trips from Sienna), then to Florence on June 8th until we fly out on June 11th at 6:30 am. The details that are keeping me up all night at this point are 1) Do I try to get out of Milan and arrive late to Cinque Terre or Genoa(not excited about Milan)? What train runs that late? 2) Siena, where to stay that is relaxing, clean, good food, wine and people and close enough to the "action". Also reasonably priced (hoping to save money here over staying in Florence. 3) Recommended day trips from Siena (wine, sites). 4) Good, reasonably priced Florence ($150ish) that is close enough to sites but that we can also escape from to make it to airport for our 6:30am flight. 5) That 6:30 flight, how hard is it to get to the airport? They call it Florenz airport right??! Kinda worried me, wanna make sure Florenz is the Florence airport and not just assume. Would be pretty funny if we arrived there and it wasn't.

Michelle, I wouldn't stress about 1 night in Milan. The cathedral is wonderful, and it would be nice to just get into the city, dump the luggage, freshen up, see what you can before you collapse (the cathedral, short walkabout and dinner - enough to keep you awake long enough to get into the time zone- may be it) and then move on the next day. Malpensa is some distance from the center of the city. We had, oh, about 3/4 of a day in Milan before flying home and wished in hindsight that we'd had 1 more day.

Florence's airport is Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola. For the time in the morning you're leaving you may need a cab and that is probably the best idea anyway.

Central Florence is not very large: we spent 5 nights in the city and walked everywhere. In fact, we found so much to do IN Florence that we didn't do any day trips!

I would skip Lucca and spend more time in Florence and/or Rome. Don't sell Milan out. I enjoyed the one day and night that I spent there and wished I could have stayed another day. I wouldn't skip Siena.

Perhaps extend your stay in Florence and day trip to Siena by bus from there.
You could still manage a short stop over in Lucca, but Rome really needs 3 nights minimum.

Milan (1 night)
Cinque Terre Monterosso (2 nights)
Lucca (1 night)
Rome (3 nights)
Florence (4 nights) (day trip to Siena)

If you decide not to include Rome, then Lake Como would be an option.

Not certain that I can add much, but would definitely reduce the itinerary to three cities. I am currently in Verona after a week in Venice and this is my second time in Italy; first time for a week in Rome. My experience plus my wife's week in Florence suggest that it takes at least 3 or 4 days to do justice to these beautiful Italian cities. Also, after three or four train trips we are thinking seriously about renting a car since you can pick them up in one city and drop them off at another city with no penalties. I wish you good luck on your itinerary and hope your trip to Italy works for you both!