15 Day Italy Itinerary

Just my $.02 -- looks like lots of time spent gettin' there, and not much time bein' there. I count nine (or is it ten?) destinations on your list. The most I've had in a 15-day trip was five, and now I prefer to keep it less than that. Two-nighters are fine for some places, but don't underestimate the value of stretching one or two of them out longer, to four or five nights. Relax, catch up on laundry and e-mails and get to know the place. Give the blisters on your feet time to heal. Smaller, quieter towns are good for that.

If you have to cut a couple of the stops (CT might be one -- it's out of the way, and transportation is not the easiest), you'll just have started your list for the next trip.

Many questions first - have you traveled to Europe before? Is is just the two of you? What are your ages? Do you have specific interests you hope to indulge while in Italy? What time of year will you travel? What part of the world/USA are you traveling from (as in, how long will your travel time be)?

I have quite a bit of experience traveling by train in Europe, and in Italy, and this itinerary wears.me.out. If you want to pop in and snap a couple of photos, this would work. If you've never traveled in Europe before this could be disastrous.

I'd try this in 21 days, personally. Can one do it in 15? Yes.

Rick's itineraries can be a little ambitious...

You might consider visiting either Cinque Terre OR Amalfi Coast but its probably not worth trying to squeeze both in the same trip. (The scenery is beautiful and similar in both places). Save one of them for your next trip to Italy. :)

Here's what I would recommend:

1 Rome
2 Rome
3 Rome with day-trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum (sleep in Rome)
4 Rome
5 To Orvieto and Civita (sleep in Orvieto)
6 Orvieto - Rent a car and take day-trip to Assisi (sleep in Orvieto)
7 To Siena
8 Siena
9 Siena
10 To Florence
11 Florence
12 Florence day-trip to Pisa and Lucca (sleep in Florence)
13 To Venice
14 Venice
15 Venice

I think you're going to hear this a lot, but you're trying to go to too many places in too little time. Here are some specifics.

One day for Rome? ( Don't count the day you arrive. Even if your arrival is early A.M., by the time you clear immigration and get to your lodgings, half a day will be gone; and you will be jet-lagged.) Surely you jest. Rome is one of the greatest cities in the world. There is an enormous amount to see, and the sights are spread out.
With the boat ride to and from, Capri takes a day by itself. It's not really feasible to plan to see the Amalfi Coast towns, as well. Pompeii needs at least a half a day. With the transit times, you won't have much left for Naples.

One day for Orvieto is skimpy, but adequate. Skip Civita. It's not worth the bother. (My personal opinion is that RS is cuckoo on the subject of Civita. He has so hyped it in his shows that some people think it's a must-see. I could name a dozen or more nearby towns that are more interesting and more charming.)
As to Florence, see my comments re Rome, especially if one of your days is taken up by a trip to Pisa.
As to Venice, two days is a skimpy, but adequate time allotment. I'm assuming that one of them is a travel day, so really only a day and a half. If day 15 is your departure day, then you should cut out the CT and add a day to Venice. On second thought, that's a good idea anyway.

Have to agree with others, this is WAY too much traveling to too many places. Unless all you want to see is the inside of a train. I would cut it back to 4, maybe 5 places if doing day trips.

A question...do you already have tickets? Most people find it easier to fly into Venice and out of Rome.
Venice departing flights are usually very early in the morning and it takes some time to get to the airport.

As the others have mentioned, your Itinerary is too ambitious for the time frame involved. I agree with a previous comment that you're going to be spending a lot of time in transit looking at Italy through the windows of a train, and not as much time enjoying Italy.

I also agree that flying inbound Venice and outbound Rome would be a better method. If you've already bought your air tickets, have a look at the Itinerary posted by Back2Italy as that would be a good place to start.

Allocating only one day for Orvieto and Civita is not realistic if travelling by public transport (especially if coming from Naples). It takes some time to get to Bagnoregio and then Civita by bus, and then back to Orvieto. You won't have a lot of time to see either place.

I'd suggest taking Rick's Itinerary with a "grain of salt". That may work for some people, but it's going to be challenging for others to follow that schedule, especially if they're not familiar with Italy and only using public transport.

Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate all the details. It does feel like an ambitious itinerary, that's why I'm writing about it and asking. We have already bought our plane tickets into Rome and return from Venice. Our return is on day 16 & flight is late morning. We both have been to Europe, but not to Italy. We are in our late 40s early 50s. We both have been to Europe, but not to Italy. We are in our late 40s early 50s.

Between Amalfi coast & CT, any favorites?

When are you traveling? If you are traveling in the off-season, the CT will be a "ghost town". If you are traveling during the peak or shoulder season, both the AC/Capri and CT will be spectacular but may be a little crowded. What do you like to do? In the CT, there is hiking along with the scenery while the AC/Capri is more scenery without the hiking.

We will be arriving in Italy on November 11, 2015. We realize it's off-season but we prefer that. I'm leaning towards just visiting the Amalfi coast. We like architecture, art and nature, interacting with people vocals and other tourist , I'm also looking into taking a cooking class in Florence. Any other extracurricular activities anyone is aware of would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for answering all of those questions ;-) If you had never traveled in Europe I would have been yelling 'Nooooooooo!!!'

You may have trouble on the Amalfi Coast that time of year; I'll let the Amalfi pros handle that.

The "upside" to Amalfi over CT is that it is convenient to Pompeii, Sorrento and Naples, which I also see on your list.

As long as you have....
Day 0 - Arrive in Rome
Day 16 - Depart from Venice

A more relaxing trip may be
Rome (4 nights)
Sorrento (4 nights) excursions to Capri, Amalfi and Pompeii+Naples
Florence (4 nights) excursions to Siena and Pisa
Venice (3 nights)

Following a tour itinerary on your own is almost impossible. You have to arrange for yourselves all the things the tour company would do, and you won't have your own bus waiting for you.

Off-season means shorter museum times in some cases.

Scale it back, visit the Amalfi Coast instead of Cinque Terre this time, and enjoy the places you see.

For extracurriculars, I would recommend bike tours of Rome and/or Florence. Doesn't require a high level of fitness for the basic city tours and great way to see a lot in a short amount of time. florence felt a little safer biking than Roma but I would do both again in a heartbeat.

I visited Sorrento in February and in spite of warnings to the contrary, I found that nearly everything was open - all the shops and restaurants - and lodging was a lot cheaper than during the "tourist" season. I fell in love with Sorrento. It was a good base for day trips to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Naples by train. I had planned to take the bus to Ravello and/or Positano, but the weather was rainy (it was a particularly bad spell of weather with snow in Rome and the hills around the Amalfi Coast). My guess is that the Cinque Terre will be pretty well shut down in November. Sorrento is a much better choice.

djp has a good itinerary. Since you had Orvieto on your list you could also do a day trip from Rome. I wouldn't go to Civita the same day as it takes 35-40 minutes by bus, from Orvieto, to get to the bottom of the hill, then approx. 20 minutes to walk up the hill. Not including the time you spend waiting for the bus.

I was exhausted after reading 3/4's of your itinerary. One of the above posters mentioned your itinerary reflected more time getting there and less time being there, which was a cogent observation. I would add more time to Roma, Florence, and Venice and drop Le Cinque Terre, Assisi, and Siena. You could see Orvieto in an afternoon while on your way somewhere else.

Sorrento and the Amalfi could be worked in, but at the sacrifice of some place else. Roma is immense and giving yourself 1.5 days, and one of those days being an arrival day, is not a good strategy.

Lastly, flying home from Venice is not the best plan because many flights leave very early in the morning before public transportation is operating, requires expensive private transfers. If it were me, we would be starting in Venice and returning from Roma.

Italy will seduce you while you are there and you will want to return. So, plan on returning to see some of the places suggested you drop this time. Enjoy a vacation and not a marathon at a dead run.

Buon viaggio,

These experts are correct ! I have learned to count NIGHTS, not days.

Make a calendar, put in your sleeping cities, and look up train schedules to pinpoint how long travel may be from one place to another. Then put your list of what you wish to do/see into that calendar.

It is amazing how the travel time can eat at your "planned" itinerary ! Keep playing with it until the travel time works out with the amount of must-sees you have in each location.

It works every time - I learned that here from the pros !

I work the same way as Carla. If I want 2 days sightseeing in a place I make sure I stay 3 nights.
So you end up with a travel day in between. Sometimes that travel will take the whole day.
If it's just a few hours travelling (best done around lunchtime) then you have the morning for last minute shopping, or to catch anything you missed.
On arrival at your next destination you may be lucky to squeeze something in as a bonus after checkin.