3 week Vacation - First Timers

I don't see an indication of how long you plan to stay in Cinque Terre. If there's any way you could squeeze in a third night for Venice, I think you'd be glad you did. Unless there's somewhere away from the train and bus routes between Rome and Florence that you particularly want to visit, a car would be way too much of a hassle for no benefit. Anyhow, have a wonderful time, and Happy Anniversary!

I have a couple of thoughts (beyond "What a great family!"):

1. Many, many high-speed trains make the Rome-Florence run every day. If you can pin down the date of that trip way ahead of time, you can buy a non-changeable ticket at a super discount. The trip is actually faster by train than by car. You'll save at least an hour, plus the hassle of renting and returning a car (which people say takes more time in Europe than in the US--I've never done it). And this very forum is littered with posts from people who had a lovely vacation in Italy, then--months after returning home--received one or more very costly tickets for slightly exceeding the speed limit, driving in a non-traffic zone in a city like Florence, driving in a bus lane, etc. Driving isn't hard, but it appears that navigating in the big cities and sticking to the speed limit are challenging.

If you want to see small towns in Tuscany, renting a car (probably in or near Florence) is a good way to do it. Just to move from Rome to Florence, it's really not a good plan.

1. Though I've never been to Verona, I understand that it is a lovely city. I'm sure the experience of spending the night there is different from spending the night in Venice. Still, as close together as those two cities are (just over an hour by train), I would use Venice as my base for all four nights. Changing hotels is a hassle and will take more time than expected. Granted, you'll pay substantially more for a hotel in Venice than in Verona, so that's something to consider as well. But spending more time in Venice gives you a bit more flexibility when it comes to planning your sightseeing. If you just love Venice, you can make just the one side-trip, to Verona. If you feel you've seen all the best of Venice and still have a day left (which I think is unlikely), you have two other very interesting cities even closer than Verona--Padua and Vicenza.

I think your basic distribution of days looks good.

It's on transportation that you stand to save the most (in percentage terms) by booking way in advance. You didn't mention trans-Atlantic flights, so I guess you have not arranged those yet. You should start monitoring flights now. Check the "multi-city" [Edited] box and price an open-jaw round-trip from your home airport to Rome and back from Athens to your home airport.

Trains for next summer are not bookable yet, but you can go to TrenItalia and price out your major transportation legs. Look at what each one would cost tomorrow; that's probably the maximum you would pay for that trip if you bought the tickets upon arrival in Italy. Now price the trips well into the future. (I found that at least some prices were loaded for January, but none for late March.) Those prices will give you an idea of the advance-purchase price available if you're OK with a non-changeable, non-refundable ticket. You have to weigh the potential savings against the loss of flexibility that comes from buying your long-distance train tickets well ahead of time.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Venice-Verona leg, because there are fast regional trains that only take an extra 10 minutes or so, and their prices will not increase as you get closer to the date of your trip. You can hang loose on that one, if you want to.

TrenItalia insists that you use the Italian names for the cities, and you may need a specific station name as well.

Roma (Tutte le Stazione) -- that covers all stations
Napoli Centrale (where you'll probably arrive from Rome)
Napoli P.za Garibaldi (from which you'll take the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii)
Firenze S. M. Novella
Venezia S. Lucia
Verona Porta Nuova

For hotels, booking earlier will probably yield places with more charm for the buck (or euro), but you have time to read a lot of online reviews (try booking.com for reviews, and to see hotel locations on a map) and come back here to ask for input.

Concerning sightseeing that needs to be pre-booked:

These are experiences that folks have been sorry to miss because they waited too late to book them. "Too late" can vary a lot, so when you have figured out the key sights you want to see, post a list and folks here can probably highlight the ones you need to book ahead of time. Also, a good guide book (you definitely need one, and Rick's will cover all the places you're planning to visit) will usually warn about advance booking. From such a book you'll learn about some special tours that might appeal to you; those may require advance booking even if the site itself is one you can visit on a whim.

• Coliseum underground tour in Rome (this one seems to sell out very early). The regular coliseum visit seems not so much of a problem, but lines can be long.

• Borghese Gallery in Rome requires pre-booking of a 2-hour time block.

• The Vatican Museums are reportedly grotesquely crowded these days. One way to mitigate the situation is to take a tour that gets you into the museums before they open. Walks of Italy's Pristine Sistine tour is an option, but it is pricey. Definitely read about the situation at the Vatican and check for recent posts here (it comes up a lot) to figure out a strategy.

• I've read that the Uffizi and the Accademia are places for which buying a ticket in advance is a good idea, if only because it's one less line to stand in when you get to Florence. I just looked at the ticket site for the Uffizi and found that most or the morning entry times are sold out for next week. So a sell-out of at least some time periods is obviously possible.

• The Secret Itineraries tour at the Doge's Palace in Venice is something that probably needs to be booked ahead of time.

Again, reviewing earlier posts on this forum will turn up a lot of tips provided to other travelers.

Very good advice, but I think acraven meant "multi city" not "intercity" for booking open-jaw flights.

Fast train tickets can be bought up to 120 days ahead, but the super-economy fares allow no changes. Big savings if you can commit.

Piazza Garibaldi station is just downstairs from Napoli Centrale.

Have a great trip!

Thanks, Zoe. Don't know how that happened. I've fixed it.

And thanks also for clarifying the station situation in Naples.

There is also a Scavi tour in Rome that goes below the St. Peter's Basilica to view St. Peter's tomb and the necropolis. There are limited tours so you have to book this ahead of time. More information about the tour and how to book at the link below. A little early to try and book now but something you should book a few months prior to your trip if you are interested. If you search the forum threads I think there was a recent one about the best time frame for booking.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20090216_en.html

A few random thoughts:

What an amazing trip / present!

You don't say any nights for Cinque Terre, is this a day trip from Florence, if so it will be a long one. if not I assume these nights come out of Florence so may make time in Florence limited.
You are staying in cities the whole time from what I can tell, filled with history and wonderful places but no small villages.

With the one day for a day trip to Pompeii the rest of the time for seeing Rome is good.
Nights in Florence assuming one full day out for Cinque Terre also works fine.
I think 1 night in Verona would be enough, as much as I don't like 1 night stays I am not sure Verona warrants 2 nights, probably better to move a 3rd night to Venice instead.

Don't see any reason based on your plans to rent a car, very bad idea it will add expenses and probably little or no benefits. It will actually be slower from Rome to Florence than the train by a huge amount when you add your time to rent and return it all while avoiding ZTL zones. If you had nights to spare in between and wanted to stay in a couple of smaller towns on your way in between it makes sense otherwise doesn't make sense at all.

Do try and pack as light as possible with a 23 night trip it will be hard but Italy is not kind to those that do not. Moving around with heavy wheeled suitcases in train stations and most everywhere for that matter is a pain in the rear.

Thanks Everyone for the advise.

We have since modified our trip based on many of your suggestions. We are still researching but I think this plan make more sense.

Rome 4 days
Cinque Terra 3 days
Florence 4 days
Venice 3 days

From there we will take our day trips to Verona and other areas on our Wish list.

Looks good and you definitely still have time for a day trip or maybe two out of Florence time to see some hilltowns (maybe Siena one day and if you wanted Chianti wine region another)