4 week Italy itinerary

if my itinerary seems too ambitious!

At the risk of being the bucket of cold water, there is no "if" about it.

I realize its a LONG ride from home and your desire to see as much as possible, but all the 2 night stays give you only one day and a partial bit of another day to see what is there. You are doing a lot of moving in/out of hotels and going to/from train station, with not so much being there.

I suggest you consolidate so that you spend at least 3 nights per stop.

Less is more, is not just a clever saying. It does have real world truth.

It's been a long time since I've been to Italy. We spent a week in Rome and one day in Florence, which wasn't nearly enough for Florence. So your 3 nights in Florence is good. The only advice I can give you based on first-hand experience is that 4 nights in Rome is not enough. I think you will be very frustrated with only 4 nights in Rome, which is a very large city with so many important historical and cultural sites, and so many interesting neighborhoods to explore, and delicious food to eat.

Your itinerary is also very fast-paced. You are trying to cover the whole country, from north to south, in 4 weeks. You have 7 two-night stays. That's a lot. You will be spending a lot of time on trains.

I'm starting to do my own research for another trip to Italy in a few years, and I think we will spend a month just in Northern Italy including Tuscany and Venice. And save the south for another trip.

The first rule of visiting Italy is that it has way too many amazing things to see in the time you are there. You just have to gulp hard and realize you will have to skip a bunch of wonderful sites, and concentrate on enjoying fewer instead. You will have a more enjoyable trip if you can just hang out in a piazza by a cathedral sipping a spritz for an hour, or leisurely drinking a negroni on the balcony before dinner, rather than racing through a bunch of towns quickly.

Also your locations are really spread out -- Lake Como is super far from Sorrento, so you'd have lots of long days just driving and driving on the autostrada, or long train days, which honestly doesn't let you really see much of what makes Italy so fun.

Plus, spending a lot of 2-night stays means you are spending half your visit wasting time traveling from one place to another. Long travel days are a drag when you are on vacation. I used to have a tendency to do that, but I now try to limit most days to driving no more than one hour from where I am staying. Sometimes longer trips are unavoidable, but it's a lot more fun to just hang out and soak in the ambience in an interesting town, maybe using it as a base to see somewhere nearby, or maybe getting to really really know the neighborhood around where you are staying. 2 nights won't let you do that, but you can start to get there if you aim for 4-5 nights in a location.

Those are all great places (I've been to almost all of them), but I would advise you cut that list in half and spend longer in what is left. Maybe concentrate on a tighter area in the central, or the north. It's really hard to cut sites (it's sad, I always have to cut cool places when I visit Italy), but in the end, you'll have a more enjoyable time.

Here's how I'd streamline it.

• On arrival go straight to Lake Como for 4N. It won't take much longer and it's a low key destination where you can unwind, soak up the atmosphere and get over jetlag, adjust to the time change.
• I haven't been to Brescia, so I'm deleting it too.
• Venice deserves at least 3N. Since it's a longish trip from Como, I might give it 4N - also because it's about my favorite city in the world. But since you'll be there in mid or late September, it'll be kind of hot and crowded, so I'm not sure I'd stay the extra night.
• Forget the CT. It's overrun with tourists (way too many day-trippers from gigantic cruise ships) and it takes way too long to get there. If you really must go there, go between Florence and more southern places. Otherwise you're wasting time backtracking.
• I'd keep Bologna for 3N-4N because it's a rail hub so you can stay somewhere between the train station and the historic center and be able to walk to both in 15 minutes or less. You can day trip to charming towns (Parma, Ferrara, Modena to name a few). Come back in the early evenings to explore the culinary delights of Bologna.
• Florence or Siena but not both because there's so much more that you want to sample. Or spend a week between them and drop the plans for destinations south of Rome. If you love Renaissance painting, sculpture and architecture, you'll want 3 days in Florence at least. If not, you can see the highlights in a day trip. Florence is a good base for day trips to Siena (by bus) to Pisa and Lucca (combined, by train), to San Gimignano by bus. Siena is also a good place to spend a few nights but is better by bus to day trip to other hill towns. If you want to spend a few nights south of Rome, it's better to stay in Florence, because there are fast trains to Naples and/or Salerno (on the Amalfi Coast). Going from Siena will add travel time.
• Allow a week for the "south." What are your goals for this region? If you want to visit the archaeological sights, Sorrento is a good base. Take the local train (metro really) from the Naples train station. Then use the local to day trip to Naples for the archaeological museum (and other sights - there's a good walking tour in the RS guide book), and the ruins of Pompeii, Herculaneum and others. Ferry to Capri for a day as well. I wouldn't recommend staying in Naples to first-time visitors to Italy. If you want to explore the Amalfi Coast (the villages aren't much to see but the hiking and the views from the road and especially from the ferry boats are incredibly lovely) Salerno may be a good choice. It's the terminus for both ferries and buses along the AC. It has a big sandy beach (most of the AC beaches are small and pebbled), a well-preserved historic center, great restaurants and it's cheaper than Sorrento and of course cheaper that the high-priced food and rooms in the AC villages. You can also day trip by train or bus to Paestum for very impressive ancient Greek temple ruins. If you don't want to spend a lot of time at the ruins (from Sorrento), you could skip it, and split your time between one of the AC villages and Salerno, or just stay in Salerno. You can day trip to Pompeii and to Naples by train.
• Rome. I'm glad you've left Rome for last. But 4N is not nearly enough. OTOH chances are you'll be back in Italy again before you know it and you'll have plenty more nights to spend there.

My last two trips to Italy (2021 and 2022) were both in September/October, so it’s a good time to go. Generally (except for Cinque Terre) it wasn’t excessively crowded, and aside from a few rainy days, the weather was pleasant.

I hope, though, that your planned itinerary isn’t completely in the order of your list. Crossing Italy from Venice all the way west to the Cinque Terre, then rebounding pretty far east to Bologna is a lot of back and forth. Regardless of the sequence, it’s ambitious, but at least you’re not planning any one-night-stands, and some destinations are for three and even four nights, so it’s not completely unreasonable. Still, if you kept all these, go from Venice to Bologna, then to Siena, then Florence, THEN Cinque Terre.

Actually, here’s my two and a half cents worth: Cinque Terre, even in late September/early October, was waaaaaay too crowded, and unfortunately, not a place I’ll recommend any more - or a place I plan to return. We first went there in June 2001, and it was magical. Returning in October 2021, we were among the hoards that had descended on the towns and the trails. We’d made restaurant reservations at a couple of places in Riomaggiore, and they were OK. For other nights, we couldn’t get into some places - they were booked. Other places weren’t open - apparently closed for the season, or open on very limited days or hours. People pushing, yelling, cutting past. Shoulder to shoulder mob in Vernazza. this wasn’t supposed to be like the Subway at rush hour - not enjoyable. And we had a rental car at the time, and drove straight from the Cinque Terre to Bologna to turn in the car - long distance, as I said earlier, not the most wonderful situation, with lots of road construction delays. Maybe a train would be easier, but it’s still long, so avoid directly connecting Cinque Terre and Bologna if possible.

Really, skip the Cinque Terre and add time to Sorrento. Stay there, and also visit Naples as a daytrip(s) from Sorrento. Is Pompeii/Herculaneum/National Archaeological Museum/authentic pizza part of your Naples plan? The Circumvesuviana train links Sorrento and Naples.

Italy has 2 main train companies - Trenitalia (owned by the government) and Italy (private company). Italo goes fewer places, and may or may not be cheaper. Many of their trains tend to be faster, but again, don’t go everywhere. Trenitalia has some billet trains on some route, and slower trains on others. Each has its own Website, and you can reserve tickets there or at a train station, but I’ve found the Trainline app to be extremely convenient for trips throughout Italy. Download it and try putting in some locations to see how it works.

IF you cut out some destinations and needed to cover more ground (say, Venice to Rome), flying could be an effective way to get from Point A to Point B. You’d have to weigh the flight price and the time to check in, go thru security, collect bags if you check them, etc. against the time and expense of other means of transportation.

Enjoy your trip, however you do it. Rick Steves’ advice is to assume you will return, so you could split Italy into north and south, and see one part this trip, and the other on a future trip, if you decided you didn’t have to see it all this one time.

Thanks everyone, it's helpful to get perspectives from people who've travelled Italy! I'm now thinking (having realised I have 30 nights, not 28):

1. Straight from landing in Milan to Lake Como (4 nights)
2. Brescia (3 nights) - seems like a good mid-point between Como and Venice
3. Venice (4 nights)
4. Bologna (4 nights)
5. Florence (5 nights)
6. Sorrento/or Salerno (4 nights)
7. Rome (6 nights)

Hopefully this seems more doable? I know doing north or south would be preferable, but I'm set on at least going to Rome + doing a day trip to Pompeii in the south.

Yes! Setting priorities and not having as much checking in and out of lodging will allow more quality time in the places you’ve selected. Herculaneum is another site that was buried in the same eruption as Pompeii, worth seeing, but if you to have to prioritize (as with cities), Pompeii is the biggie. The National Archaeological Museum in Naples does have most of the artifacts recovered at Pompeii, though, so a visit there would help round out the overall experience.

Another ancient sight, close to Rome, is Ostia Antica, what was Rome’s port so long ago. It was buried in silt, not volcanic residue, but its streets, structures, and fabulous mosaics were likewise preserved. If you’re interested in more ancient Roman discoveries, Ostia might be something to fit into your time. We stopped there on our way from Sorrento to Rome. The train stop is just steps from the entrance, and the guards let us stash our luggage in their office. I don’t know if that’s possible nowadays.

Your revised plan looks much better. The first one left me exhausted just reading it. The only "tweak" to the 2nd plan would be to take one night from Rome, and add it to Venice. Venice is unlike any other place we've been, and deserves another night. If you find yourself getting tired of Venice (can't imagine that) you can do a quick and easy day trip to Verona and or Vicenza.

Two things about your proposed itinerary,

1) Not enough time in places like Florence and Rome.
2) Way too many places,

Sienna can be done in two nights.

Easy to fix, eliminate about four places. I would eliminate Brescia, Bologna (Ravenna is worth one day) and Naples. Instead of Naples, stay in Sorrento four nights and to Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Coast.

Well look at that! Hannahm, I was going to add my own concerns about Itinerary #1 (too much moving around) but you've already fixed that problem! Itinerary #2 is much, MUCH improved. Well done! 👍

Yes, Itinerary2 is much improved.

Well done 👏👏
I would consider a tweak to add a night to Sorrento/Salerno but I don't know where. It would depend on your daily plans and your interests. I assume that's where you'll take the day trip to Pompeii.