Need suggestions how many days in each city and which cities. I will be arriving at Rome from Dallas then want to visit Florence, Venice. Our flight will be departing to Dallas from Paris. My question is how many days in each city and if should I go from Venice to Paris or Barcelona. In Italy we will be using the train but from Venice we will be flying to either Paris or Barcelona.
I appreciate your opinion and help!
Well, I think I would do Rome, Florence, Venice and then fly to Barcelona. Then from Barcelona either train (6.5hours) or fly to Paris. Then fly home from Paris. I am assuming that you have 19 nights in Europe since you say 21 days. I would do 4 in Rome, 3 in Florence, 3 in Venice, 4 in Barcelona and 5 in Paris.
I am assuming this is a first trip to Europe for you. This will give you a nice intro to all of these cities.
Last summer I spent four days in Florence (which included a day trip to Cinque Terre, a half-day trip to Pisa, and a day trip into Tuscany) and thought that was wonderful. I personally loved Florence and could have stayed for 5 days, but it depends on your personal tastes in art, culture, etc.
I stayed in Rome for 3 days, but I would have enjoyed atleast one more to just stroll around Trastevere or make a half-day trip to Pompeii.
I also stayed in Venice for 3 days which I thought was a pretty good amount of time. I would preferably liked to stay for 4 and take a trip to the other islands around Venice, but I guess I will do that another time! If you strolling through alleyways, art, and history, then you will love Venice and want to spend 3 days.
So, I think your main question is whether or not you have time to add Barcelona (assuming flights to and from). Obviously, 21 days divided by 4 major cities is an average of 5 nights each (including transport time, loosely translates to 4 days of sightseeing) and adding Barcelona would give you an average of 4 nights each. The shorter time is doable but the longer time could allow you to include a couple of smaller-town side trips, for another type of variety. The time need not necessarily be evenly distributed; I tend to give the most to Paris.
Many are now taking the relatively new fast train service from Paris to Barcelona. I think it's about 6.5 hrs. on the train, but not that much longer than flying when you count transport to the airport, checking in, waiting around, flying, getting off and transport into Barcelona.
These are all great European citys fully worthy of 4 days and nights' visit each. Rome and the suburbs is easily a 7 day stop.
The best way to decide how many days you need per location is to make a list for each location of what you want to see and do there. You may need more days in one locations and not as many in another. The only way to know is to make your list. To just assign a random number of days per city means you may have too much or too little time there. Make your list and spend your time wisely.
Donna
