50th Birthday Trip to Italy May 2016

Hi Connie, Sounds like a great trip! If your air tickets are not already booked, consider flying into Venice (instead of Rome), but fly home from Rome. In Venice, I really enjoyed Hotel Abbazia which is near the train station with no bridge to cross so if you don't pack light, you will appreciate it. Although I think there is no elevator in the hotel. The rooms were a bit small, but ask for a room with a new bathroom and you will be glad you did. Also ask for a room overlooking the courtyard. There is a nice lounge area in the courtyard. The breakfast was also quite generous. Staff at reception are fantastic: friendly & always ready to answer questions. As for train tickets, you can find great deals 4 months in advance on Trenitalia's website, but be sure to grab the tickets right away as soon as the clock strikes 4 months prior. Your itinerary does seem a bit ambitious. I would consider taking some day trips out and leaving some wiggle room for unexpected (pleasant) surprises... like say you decide you really like Florence and what to explore longer. If you are interested in Renaissance art, you will want to spend a bit more time in Florence. Book tickets for the Uffizi and Accademia in advance on-line. Have you been to Italy before? Give us a few more details about what you have/haven't yet seen and we will tailor our advice for you. In Rome, be sure to book the Vatican Museum in advance and/or consider booking a tour for that to get easier entry to the museums & Sistine Chapel.

I would stay in hotels, not apartments. You can check in/out whenever you want, there are staff available to give you directions, recommendations, information. You'll have the opportunity to meet other tourists.

I'm trying to figure out your itinerary from the clues you give.

Day 1 (of 18) . . . spend most of day getting to Venice (4 nights) from Rome airport
Day 2-4 . . . ("few days" = 3) Venice
Day 5 . . . 1/2 day travel to Milan (3 nights)
Day 6-7 . . . ("couple days" = 2) one day Como, one day Milan (I don't know if a day trip to lake Como is feasible)
Day 8 . . . 1/2 day travel to Florence (6 nights)
Day 9-13 . . . Florence, Tuscany . . .
Day 14 . . . 1/2 day travel to Sorrento (4 nights)
Day 15-17 . . . Pompeii, Amalfi Coast
Day 18 . . . 1/2 day travel to Rome (4 nights)
Day 19-21 . . . Rome in 3 days
Day 22 . . . fly home

From this, you can see that you need to plan nights, not days, and you need to take travel time into account. As Susan said, if you haven't locked into flights, it's more efficient to fly open-jaw, into Venice and out of Rome. You need to pare down your destinations. I'd start by dropping Milan

In general a rail pass will not save you any money in Italy. You can save by buying point-to-point tickets well in advance. Use the Trenitalia website to see train schedules and prices. Note that regionale trains only show up about a week in advance. The schedules don't change much, so just choose the day of the week you plan to travel to see them.

Assisi is too far for a day trip. It's almost 3 hours by train, and then you still need to get up to the town from the station.

To get to Sorrento, you need to take the train to Naples, then transfer to the local Circumvesuviana train (which runs about twice an hour and takes up to 1.25 hours to get to Sorrento). From there you can take the train to Pompeii and buses and/or ferries to the Amalfi coast towns. You could take the train to Salerno, but it is less convenient to visit Pompeii. The Circumvesuviana stops just a few meters from the entrance to the site, while the train from Salerno stops at the city train station. From there you have to make your way to/from the site.

Also our tours of the Colosseum and Vatican we thought of booking through Viator and apartments we have been looking at Airbnb and Trip Advisor. Help for Venice and Milan lodging is needed. Any advice for Florence, Sorrento or Salerno and Rome apartments that someone has stayed at that were great would be cool to know about.

Viator is a consolidator. I would make plans for tours directly with tour operators. For the Vatican, I highly recommend Walks of Italy and their Pristine Sistine tour. It is a small group tour, with a very knowledgeable guide, usually an art historian in my experience. You can also use Walks of Italy for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill, but we prefer to use a private guide. Sonia Tavoletta charges 50-55 per hour (last I knew) and will customize to your interests. It's so nice to tour these complex sites with your own private guide. Contact her at [email protected].

I like to use apartments for stays of 4 or more nights. Otherwise, we do hotels or B&B. I usually use VRBO.com to search and recommend you do the same. If you want opinions on specific apartments, you can come back to the board and post links to them for us to react to.

18 nights on the ground in Italy, is that correct ?
Something like this ??
Venice (3 nights)
Milan (2 nights)
Florence (6 nights)
Sorrento (4 nights)
Rome (3 nights)

Thank you Susan, Chani, Laurel and David ! We have never been to Italy and David yes , your nights were correct in our plans. 18 days on the ground with 2 flying days. We did book the flight but I can see about price to change it to fly into Venice. I wanted to see Lake Como but I also wanted to go to Assisi. I must have read the train time wrong from Florence to Assisi, thought we could do that in a day. If we should skip Milan and Lake Como completely and take those nights to do Assisi , since it was further from Florence than I thought. In your opinion is Assisi a good choice? If that is something you all think we should skip please let us know. I just love St. Francis is all and figured his birth town may be cool to go see.

I love to plan trips , but I have been a little overwhelmed! In Florence , I want to see the Baptistery Doors, the Duomo , Accademia .... So much to see in this city. Clients who have been to Florence suggested Siena and San Gimignano for some possible day trips . Definitely want to do Siena! So many beautiful small towns and just the scenic drive through Tuscany alone looks amazing. I honestly just want to experience the culture , taste great food and see the beauty of it. Day trips from Florence base we are open to suggestions from you all. Pompeii and The Path of the Gods Hike are the two things we want to do when down around AC but the rest of the time in that area was being in the moment and just going with it. Maybe taking a ride along the AC one day . Rome , I stated in earlier post the things we want to see there. Venice, open to suggestions.

I will get links about some apartments this coming weekend to share here.

I love nature and hiking. Love the architecture of old churches. So , with that I am totally open for any input ! Thank you all again !

Day 1 - Arrive Venice (3 nights)
Day 2,3 - Venice sights
Day 4 - Morning train to Milan (2 nights). Duomo rooftop in the afternoon.
Day 5 - Excursion to Lake Como (by train)
Day 6 - Morning booking for The Last Supper. Afternoon train to Florence (6 nights)
Day 7,8 - Florence sights
Day 9 - Excursion to Assisi (an organised tour may be your best bet here)
Day 10 - Excursion to Siena (easy by public bus)
Day 11 - Excursion to San Giminano (an organised tour may be your best bet here)
Day 12 - Train to Naples, then to Sorrento (4 nights)
Day 13 - Ferry to Capri
Day 14 - Excursion to Pompeii / Herculaneum (by Circumvesuviana train)
Day 15 - Excursion to Positano / Amalfi (by public bus)
Day 16 - Train (via sightseeing stop in Naples) to Rome (3 nights)
Day 17 - Rome sights
Day 18 - St Peters and the Vatican
Day 19 - Depart Rome

Connie,

It’s not clear from your post how many bedrooms you need but if you need two bedroom apartments, I can recommend apartments in Venice, Florence and Rome. (Just PM me.) I also posted reports on the Trip Reports forum (search “My Ital Trip”). I booked (and paid for) my apartments through TripAdvisor and it was a piece of cake.

We did a Chianti region wine tour out of Florence (probably the highlight of our Italy trip) and both the Coliseum/Roman Forums and the Vatican tours while in Rome. All three tours were booked off Viator. On a previous trip to Florence, we also did the Accademia/Uffizi tours booked through Viator. Although all the tour guides we’ve encountered have been acceptable, some have been (head and shoulders) above others. As a side note, if either of you have difficulties with in-ear headphones (ear buds), take your OWN over-the-ear headphones for these tours.

When I looked at rail passes versus point to point rail tickets, for our 14 day Venice-Florence-Rome (with side trips to Vicenza, Padua, Pisa and Lucca), point to point were the way to go. My impression is the rail pass is quickly becoming a novelty of a by-gone era. Since you have some dates locked in, you can purchase online at around 120 days prior for deep discounts.

I would purchase your train tickets direct from either of the train operators (Trenitalia or Italo), just become familiar with the Italian (not English) city and station names.

Trenitalia ticket vending machines are super easy to use but they require real Chip and Pin credit cards. Be sure your bank has issued you a chip and pin card versus a ‘chip and sign’ card. Chip and pin cards will allow you to make purchases using the new C&P readers by entering you pin. (It’s more than just an ATM pin…)

However, on the day of arrival in Rome (if you still plan to go directly to Venice), I would give yourself a very large cushion to make your train – these tickets are non-refundable. I would also pick one of the straight-through routes versus one where you have to make a train change. It’s really easy for the train to lull you to sleep after a long trans-Atlantic flight…especially on the Rome-Florence-Bologna-Padua-Venice line (80kms between Firenze and Bologna are in tunnels).

Verona, on the way to Milan from Venice, is also worthy of a stop. I believe they have a “left luggage” room so you can pop in for several hours of sightseeing and then continue on to Milan.

Since you are doing so much traveling by train, be sure to pack light. I would limit your suitcases to airline carry-on size because the primary storage space on the trains is shelves/racks over the seats.

Good luck and have a blast.

We did a similar three-week trip this past summer and it was fabulous.
Things we learned though:
Stay longer in a few places than go-go-go. We were getting tired and cranky by the end (plus it was 100-degrees much of the time, so that didn't help).
Definitely allow for some down time... beach or just people-watching. You don't have to see everything this time -- it's a good excuse to go back again!
We booked all of our places through AirBnB. They were all fine except for one outside Florence that we didn't realize was SO far out and such a hassle to get to and from. Stick with places with a lot of reviews and ones who communicate fairly quickly with your emails.
We booked our train tix in advance too, because there were 7 of us, but that's the first time I've done that. It will save you money, but cut down on spontaneity.
Vote #2 for https://www.walksofitaly.com/ ... We did a Night Tour of the Vatican Museum (doesn't include the church), which was awesome! They only offer it in the summer and it is far less crowded at night. Our guide was excellent.
As others said, definitely book Ufizzi and David in advance (maybe 3-4 hours apart, or one in AM, one in the PM with lunch and duomo in between). You'll waltz past all those other suckers standing in line for hours.

You'll have a great time. ... do remember to take time to enjoy Dolce Far Niente – the sweetness of doing nothing.
Ciao e buon viaggio!

Spend a couple of nights in Assisi, you will really love it in the evenings. Give up two nights somewhere else to do this.

Rail pass is not necessary.

I would stay in hotels or B&Bs rather than apartments. In Assisi, there are many guest houses run by religious communities. You will meet more people this way, and perhaps get suggestions.

Thank you! All the information you guys provided really helps out! Zoe , we are ditching Milan and Como and going to go to Assisi. Todd, sent a private message to you and , Icarter2626 appreciate advice on more time in less places and enjoying some down time! The info on the Chip card with pin was good to know. This travel forum has been a huge help . Thank you guys again!!!

For a day-trip, I would advise going to Assisi mid-week (avoid weekends) and getting there early to avoid crowds. Last year in mid-July I arrived around 8:15 am and entered the lower level of Saint Francis' Basilica just as mass was ending. They left the lights on for a few minutes, then turned them off which left everything very dark. Visit the underground crypt. If you do some research prior to your trip, you can do a self-guided tour; no need to join a tour group or hire a guide. I enjoyed seeing the town at my own pace, choosing where I wanted to stop. Be sure to wander around the residential neighbourhoods. If you do manage to fit in Lake Como, you will find it very relaxing, a nice change from the bigger cities. If you like hiking, there are some nice hikes around Varenna.

Thank you Susan!

My only visit to Assisi was one night (Sunday) in mid-May 2014. I left my luggage at the train station and took an overnight bag up to the town. I had the better part of Sunday and most of Monday to sightsee. The town wasn't at all crowded, enjoyed the RS self-guided walk, and much more. The Basilica wasn't particularly crowded on Monday when I went. Be prepared - Assisi is the hilliest place I can remember in Italy. A lot of the paths are so steep, you get from place to place by steps. I am glad you decided to visit!