4 days - Venice, Florence & Rome

I'd say you definitely don't have enough time to do all 3. My first recommendation is to get a good guide book, read about the three and then decide what you want to see the most. The easiest thing to do is just go to Rome and enjoy it. I've been there several times, my kids have been there twice. Lots of great stuff to do and see there. If you think you can squeeze in a second city, I'd vote for a couple days in Venice. It's a fun city to visit with the whole family. Rick Steves writes in his books about the great memories he has of being there with his kids, and I feel the same. Florence is beautiful, but I have to admit my kids' least favorite of the three cities. But they still really liked it. We didn't do the major art museums with them, but instead did things like the Galileo museum and Pitti Palace. I don't think you can make a bad choice (other than to try and squeeze all 3 cities in).

Jill, please indicate your dates of travel. Flying will be difficult as any flights out of nearby Annecy or Grenoble airports mostly go to Paris or London to get to Rome. One crazy thought is to purchase a Swiss ticket from Chamonix-Mt. Blanc to Venice via Brig. Chamonix-Mt. Blanc in France is one of three cities outside of Switzerland that I know of that sells Swiss passes and cards. You don't need a Swiss Pass or Card but you do need a valid ticket. For your children, buy a Junior Card for each. The Junior Card will cost 30CHF for each. After that, they both travel free for the remainder of your journey through Switzerland. They are both under 16. You should be able to do all of this in the Chamonix-Mt. Blanc train station. If you take the 6:10am train to Venice Santa Lucia, you are in Venice looking at the Grand Canal at 3:10pm. That's enough time to go up and down the Grand Canal, visit a few places, enjoy St. Mark's square in the evening and then spend Monday night. (I hate to indulge your 3-city plan but you don't get to do this too often). Tuesday morning, take the 8:32 or 8:57 high-speed to Florence. If you are willing to lock in a specific train and travel time now, you can get tickets for as low as 19Euro. You'll be in Florence by 11:00. Have lunch, walk around il Duomo, see the Ponte Vecchio and generally wall around. Spend Tuesday night and maybe Wednesday night in Florence. Or, being a bit more crazy, on Wed morning, take the SITA bus to Siena. Spend the day touring Siena and San Gimignano. See a bit of provincial Tuscany. Spend Wed night in Siena. Thursday, take the 3hr. train ride from Siena to Rome. You're in Rome by noon. Spend Thursday and Friday night in Rome. You're only young once. The hard part of this trip will be booking 1-night stays for 4 people.

Jill, The "short answer" to your question is "No". I don't believe you'll have enough time in four days to visit three cities. Since your departure flight leaves from Rome, I'd suggest spending your time there, with perhaps one or two day trips. Orvieto is a good choice as it's only about an hour from Rome. It's a beautiful Umbrian Hill town, and your children may enjoy walking down the double-helix of St. Patrick's Well. There's also the Underground tour and the distinctive Duomo with the incredible Signorelli Frescoes. It will take you most of the day on Monday to get from Chamonix to Rome. If you're travelling by rail, it will be about an eight hour journey (minimum 4 changes). You can peruse the transportation details on the bahn.de website. Once you're settled in your Hotel, you'll be able to relax and enjoy a fantastic city for the next four days. That will also facilitate your flight on Saturday morning (what time does your flight leave?). Rome will an "interesting cultural experience" for your children! I'd suggest booking a Hotel in the Termini area, as that will make it a bit easier to get to the airport. If you haven't travelled by train in Italy before, there are a few "caveats" to be aware of. If you need further information, post another note. Happy travels!

Since most of Monday will be taken up getting to Rome, and since you are leaving from Rome, my suggestion would be to spend all four days there. One day trip to consider is Ostia Antica. It is very easy, quick, and cheap to get there. TC

First, you will love Chamonix-Mt. Blanc. Have dinner at Le Caleche. Your children will love it. I hope you get a chance to go up to the Aiguille du Midi on the gondola. What a treat. As for your plans for Italy, you have an 11+ hour train journey from Chamonix-Mt. Blanc to Rome should you skip Venice and Florence. You will change trains 5-6 times. That takes away your entire Monday. On this particular journey, you will stop in Torino, Milan and Florence (may change trains there as well) but you won't really be close to Venice. If you take the 7:11 train out of Chamonix-Mt. Blanc and choose to get off in Florence, you would arrive in just short of 5:00pm. At this point, you have 4 full days and 5 nights before your flight. I would suggest that Venice is too far out of the way. It's 3.0hrs with a train change from Milan to Venice and another 2.5hrs to get to Florence from Venice. The best you will get with the three locations is Tuesday in Venice, Wednesday in Florence and Thur/Fri in Rome. Experienced travelers will suggest that this type of travel not be done and just head for 4 nice days in Rome but many travelers want to see everything they can. Your choice.

I agree with all that 4 days is not enough time. Best bet would be to use Rome as a base and either spend the time there and maybe take a day trip by train to Florence for the experience of it.

Thanks so much for all of your input. Can't wait to eat in Chamonix where was suggested. I guess my next question is, is the best way to get to Rome from Chamonix by Train? It seems to be the most practical and if you want to do a day trip you can do so by train as well. Am I correct in my assumptions? Thanks again!!

I concur with the others. With four days, I vote for Rome. It will be long train ride but depending on previous activities, it might be a good relaxing time to catch up. Traveling on Monday is good since many tourist sites in Rome are closed on Monday. Our bench mark for considering air travel over train is around the 6,7 hour mark. After that air may be quicker so that might not be true for this trip.

If you are flying out of Rome, and have been before, then I would say, to heck with it....spend three days in Venice. then fly to rome and leave the next day. On that final day, just hit your favorite highlight, have an awesome dinner, then go home and pack. If you have never been before, then stick with Rome.

Loving all the info. Thank you!! I suppose the long train ride should be a blessing to my hubby since he will be running a 102 mile race out of Chamonix called UTMB over the weekend. We haven't been to Europe ever so this will all be a first. We arrive in Paris on Saturday. Leave for Chamonix on Weds. We are staying in Chamonix until Monday and then leave for Italy where we fly out of Rome on Saturday.

4 days...maybe save Venice for another trip- a reason to go back to Italy! The fast trains do take maybe a little less than 2 hours to get to Florence from Venice and it's around 90 minutes from Rome to Florence if I remember right. I was staying in the Venice area around 3 years ago for a week and took the train to Florence for 2 nights. Back in 2010, I went to Rome for 3 nights and wanted to go back to Florence to see some things I missed- the David! fantastico!! I like the using Rome as a base idea. You could look in to taking a morning train to Florence and catching a evening train back to Rome for some pizza in Trastevere! I went just as a single male 40 yr old traveler from Rome to Florence. The Accademia doesn't take long to see in Florence. The kids may like the Galileo museum...going up the top of the Duomo...gelato...lunch...I think I got there around 9:30AM and ended up leaving maybe around 7:00pm or 8:00 pm. The train can dump you out not too far from most of the historic stuff in Florence. I'd probably skip the Uffizi gallery. Or just stay in Rome. It is possible to do the 3 city trip but that's a lot of hopping on trains and leaving hotels, those things always take longer than you figure it seems.