5 nights to fill in Italy Itnerary Mom and Daughter Trip

Spend a couple of nights in Lucca (it's flat but like a hill town) on your way to the CT. Lucca is connected to Pisa by bus and train. Take the train to Monterosso or La Spezia and spend 3 nights somewhere in the CT then take the train straight back to Rome. From Monterosso, Rome is about 4 hours by train. From the CT it is possible to take a day trip to Portofino; you take the train to Santa Margherita (one hour from Monterosso), walk down to the pier and catch a boat to Portofino. Or, take a ferry that links the 5 towns of the CT. I like to stay in Monterosso; it has good connections, many hotels and places to eat.

Thank you for your feedback, we did like Lucca when we stopped there on our tour a few years back and that might be a good option. We have heard from this forum that Sienna is a good home base in Tuscany because its easy to do a few day trip to other towns. We want to see a few towns we have never been to before like Volterra, or Montalcino etc. We briefly stopped in Siena, San Ginmanio, Lucca, Pisa, Asissi, Verona and Ravenna before on our tour but the stops were so brief that you didn't have time to really explore. Three days in CT seems a day too long for us this time and I think we would rather have that day in Tuscany.

It is as easy (if not easier) to daytrip in Toscana from Florence than it is from Siena but if you have never seen Siena, it is a must in Tuscany.
San Gimignano and Voterra are indeed very nice. Another gem is Pittigliano in the part of Tuscany known as Maremma.
Another idea would be to explore the Tuscan archipelago (Elba, Capraia, etc), for me this is nicer than CT. Portoferraio is such a nice port. Easy boat /ferry connection.

Enjoy your holiday with your daughter.
Enjoy your

I personally think 6 total nights in Rome (3 at the front end and 3 at the end, if I read that correctly) is a TON unless you are exceptionally interested in something specific to that city or have other constraints you didn't mention. For me, 3 nights in Rome was more than enough. I would consider doing 3 nights up front and then returning to the area, but staying in nearby Orvieto for 2 nights, then you can spend your last night in Rome before flying out.

As someone else has mentioned, Lucca is a beautiful town with plenty to do and would be a convenient stop on the way to CT. From Lucca, you could easily do a day trip to Pisa to see the famous Tower, or just hop out and do a quick tour while taking the train to CT. Have fun!

Good Point, Yes 6 nights is a long time in Rome but I was trying to avoid traveling on a Sunday, but maybe that should not be a concern? We leave on a Tuesday morning so we were planning to arrive back in Rome Saturday early evening which accounts for the third night. Right now here is our loose itinerary
5/1 Friday Arrive in Rome stay 3 nights
5/4 Mon go to CT for 2 nights
5/6 Wed go to Siena or Florence for 3 nights(take daytrip to Lucca and maybe one other hill town)
5/9 go back to Rome for 3 nights(if traveling on a Sunday is not an issue we could do 2 nights in Rome and add another day to above
5/12 Tues Fly back home
Thoughts? We are a bit overwhelmed by the thought of independent travel without a tour but we like the idea of having our own agenda and time. We may do a one day tour from Rome though just to get in a lot of places in a short time.

I've taken my daughter 2x to Italy. What a great experience that was...I took my son to Germany, and last year to Italy. I love traveling with my kids.

I'd recommend (if you haven't been) Orvieto - worth a day trip, or over night.

Assisi worth an overnight...both easy access via train.

If you are heading to the CT, then you will want to stay west in Italy. Others mentioned San Gimignano, very pretty town, bus access only (no train station there as far as I know), from San G, Volterra is great, then maybe on to the CT.

We never rent a car in Italy, depending on the trains (great, and easy) or a bus....

I would not take travel advice from anyone who thought 3 nights in Rome was enough. A more relaxed trip to me would be basing myself at an agriturismo and day tripping by car to nearby hilltowns. The extra stop in CT could burn two days in travel so I'd have to reconsider that portion.

Bellastar,

Right now here is our loose itinerary

5/1 Friday Arrive in Rome stay 3 nights

5/4 Mon go to CT for 2 nights

5/6 Wed go to Siena or Florence for 3 nights(take daytrip to Lucca and
maybe one other hill town)

5/9 go back to Rome for 3 nights(if traveling on a Sunday is not an
issue we could do 2 nights in Rome and add another day to above

5/12 Tues Fly back home

You say this: "We are looking for a more relaxed trip".

So, looking at your revised itinerary, here are my thoughts:

• I would stay at least 3 nights in CT as this will give you 2 full days to explore the CT.
• I would stay 4-5 nights in Florence, especially if you want to explore Tuscany via day trips from there. So 4 nights= 3 full days ; 5 nights = 4 full days.
• Spend last night in Rome to fly home the following day.

Have a wonderful trip!

So my one of my concerns was that traveling on the trains or buses is less frequent or harder on Sundays in Italy or should this not be a concern? We do like the idea of staying in one place and doing more day tripping by either bus or train. We are also rethinking going to CT for two nights, we would be there the first week in May which might not be the best weather. If we don't go to CT we would add more days in Tuscany.

So my one of my concerns was that traveling on the trains or buses is less frequent or harder on Sundays in Italy or should this not be a concern? We do like the idea of staying in one place and doing more day tripping by either bus or train. We are also rethinking going to CT for two nights, we would be there the first week in May which might not be the best weather. If we don't go to CT we would add more days in Tuscany.

> So my one of my concerns was that traveling on the trains or buses is
> less frequent or harder on Sundays in Italy or should this not be a
> concern?

Yes, that should be a concern. Buses run less frequently on Sunday.
To determine if trains run less frequently on the routes you're interested in, go to the Italian train site and compare the train schedule on Friday - Saturday - Sunday.

In regards to Sunday travel, I would probably pick a destination that is more easily accessible by train (if only for the ease of researching times and not being confused, I feel like some train schedules are more consistent than buses)......

Thank you for your insight, we will probably stick to not traveling on Sundays to play it safe, this would be my first time traveling independently.

Well, you may want to plan on doing things on Sundays, because most sights are open then--but many major sights, for example in Florence and other places, are closed either Mondays or Tuesdays. So you probably want to take advantage of Sundays. And you don't want your first day in Florence to be on the big closure day, where a sight you really want to see is closed on that day. The major sights are going to have one closure day per week, usually Monday or Tuesday. You can check individual sight websites to see which day is the closure day.

Yes, if we stick to our original plan we would be in CT for Monday and Tuesday, so that would work well. We are just not sure about going to Ct vs spending more days in Tuscany. I am in the middle of reading all of RS Italy books, so far I am putting Volterra, Ovieto and Lucca on the must go to list, but we are open to any suggestions. We did see Lucca and Ovieto on our first trip to Italy but only spent a few hours and we knew we wanted to come back.

bellastar,
Orvieto (that will help as you do further research online)
Good luck on this and let us know if we can be of further assistance.

After reading through the forums and RS books we have revised our trip to include less moves, but would still like advice in which to have another base in which to explore more of Tuscany, here is what we have so far; thanks ahead for your help:
5/1 to 5/4 Friday to Monday :Rome
5/4 Mon take train to Lucca stay until Wednesday 5/6 or Thurs5/7any suggestions where to stay in Lucca? (we will take a train day trip to CT if weather permits or day trip to Pistola? we have been to Pisa before so we don't need to stop there
5/6 or 5/7 Wed or Thurs...take train to 2nd base (maybe Florence or?) stay until Saturday 5/9- during this stay we want to day trip to possibly Greve, Pienza, Sienna or?or possible take a day tour of Tuscany to cover a lot of ground, we also may stop in Orvieto but maybe as a day trip from Rome
5/9 Sat..take train back to Rome until Tuesday 5/12 we go home
So far only my hotel is booked in Rome so I know I have to get my other reservations soon! Thanks!

After reading through the forums and RS books we have revised our trip to include less moves, but would still like advice in which to have another base in which to explore more of Tuscany, here is what we have so far; thanks ahead for your help:
5/1 to 5/4 Friday to Monday :Rome
5/4 Mon take train to Lucca stay until Wednesday 5/6 or Thurs5/7any suggestions where to stay in Lucca? (we will take a train day trip to CT if weather permits or day trip to Pistola? we have been to Pisa before so we don't need to stop there
5/6 or 5/7 Wed or Thurs...take train to 2nd base (maybe Florence or?) stay until Saturday 5/9- during this stay we want to day trip to possibly Greve, Pienza, Sienna or?or possible take a day tour of Tuscany to cover a lot of ground, we also may stop in Orvieto but maybe as a day trip from Rome
5/9 Sat..take train back to Rome until Tuesday 5/12 we go home
So far only my hotel is booked in Rome so I know I have to get my other reservations soon! Thanks!