2 week itinerary - Florence as a home base

"are there any other stops between Rome and our travels to Florence that you would recommend including? "

You really should spend some time with a guide book such as Rick Steve's Italy guide to get a sense of the places you could visit and things you could do. You'll get some suggestions on a forum but the hundreds of pages in a guide book will give you much more detail about how you can spend your 2 week trip than anyone is going to type as a response.

If you are going to focus on the cities (Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice, etc.) then public transportation is a good choice. If you want to get out to vineyards and agriturismos or smaller towns, you might find a car to be helpful. In the alternative, you could try to find a day tour that would take you to the vineyard, etc. You will not want to drive in Florence (or Rome) at all, so if your apartment is near the center of town, that would be another consideration.

Leaving the rental a few days early is one option. Another could be to fly into Venice and out of Florence. You'd then have one longer day going from Venice down to Rome which is less efficient but something to consider. Another option is to drop Venice and focus your time around Rome and Florence, which is what we ended up doing.

Rome is a big city, though still quite compact and walkable, and there is quite a lot to see and do that isn't all museums either. I've gone twice for a total of 10 days and haven't seen everything. You could easily spend the first five days in Rome, especially if you add in a day trip down to Ostia Antica or up to Orvieto.

In your situation, since you will have time to visit the small hill towns on day trips from Florence, and because August can be hot and crowded, I would do a "base" itinerary. Stay in Rome for 5 days, then stay in Florence for 7 days (or less if you decide to keep Venice in the schedule). The less moving and unpacking/repacking you have to do, the better.

Hotel info in the next response...

In Rome we stayed at Hotel Paba, which was 90 euro a night in the off-season and probably a bit higher in August. Nice, small hotel, with extremely hard beds. It's around the corner and about 5 minutes walk to the Colosseum. We liked it, but I would probably stay in a different area just to get a different experience next time.

My previous visit, I stayed at the Hotel Alimandi Tunisi which is across the street from the Vatican Museums. Very nice hotel with an excellent breakfast but probably more than 'moderately priced'. There are many more hotels discussed on this board & on TripAdvisor, so you should be able to find one that suits. I would recommend reserving soon though, as August isn't that far off.

Chelle,
I know your dates are already set, but one thing you should consider is this is the 2-week period when most Italians go on vacation. That means a number of shops and restaurants will be closed during this timeframe. Plenty will still be open-- the Italians are vacationing somewhere!-- but you might find that the places that are open are the more tourist-centric places. I remember walking around Naples a couple years ago around the Ferragosto time frame and the place was deserted (but this wasn't the most touristy part of town). What I'm trying to say is that you might want to do some research before you leave into what will and won't be open just so you're not surprised by what you find. Enjoy-- you're going to have a wonderful time!
Ciao,
Meredith

First question, will you be renting a car for excursions outside of Florence or using public transportation?

Everyone is going to have an opinion, so here's mine. I love Florence, but I found a full week there a bit excessive and I adore Rome. If it was my trip, I would spend several days in Florence and the rest of the time day tripping out to Siena, Lucca, or other towns/vineyards/etc. and spend the previous week in Rome.

Venice is an awkward fit as it's really too far away for a daytrip and Florence is in the center. If you could shift your travel dates so you had a few days before and a few days after your apartment rental, I would say fly into Rome and out of Venice. Spend 3 or 4 nights in Rome, the week in Florence, then 2 or 3 nights in Venice.

Hi Liz,

Thanks for your response. I hadn't given much thought yet to the transportation to locations outside of Florence. I think our preference would be to utilize public transportation where available. If we do start in Rome, which it looks like you would suggest, I think we would prefer to take the train to Florence if possible.

The apartment rental runs from Wed to Wed so there isn't much flexibility with those dates and we have to be back in the states by 9/1. What we might be able to do, since flying back through Venice would work well and wouldn't require backtracking, would be to leave our rental a few days early to head to Venice.

If we fly into Rome 8/18 and stay there until 8/23 or so, are there any other stops between Rome and our travels to Florence that you would recommend including? Or would staying another day in Rome be a better use of our time. Seems like there is a lot to see. Do you have any suggestions for accommodations in Rome (moderately priced)?