Please help with my itinerary :)

Thanks so much for all of your helpful suggestions! I know I’m trying to squeeze a lot in there and it gets a bit tricky with having to be in Florence on the 14th.

So the general consensus is dropping Pompeii. Does Pompeii warrant all of the hype that it gets? I’ve always been very intrigued by it. Roy, you mentioned doing a day trip to Pompeii. Is that possible from Rome? Or would it make more sense from somewhere else. How long would that take? Do you need a car to add the few nights in Tuscany in?

EKC- I’m going to do some research on Ostia. I’ll be leaving in August and I’ll be in Italy for a little over a week before heading on to Paris, then probably straight to Madrid.

Thanks again everyone!

Florence vs Venice.

Florence is the epitome of Renaissance art - painting, sculpture, architecture. If this interests you, then 3 days for sure.

Venice is different than anywhere else (and IMO very romantic). The sights are more varied than in Florence.

But you will find that there are pretty much two camps, the Flor-ophiles and the Ven-ophiles. Never the twain shall meet.

What month are you going? If summer, definitely more Florence, less Venice.

The travel times arent long enough for overnight trains. You can find the schedules on the Trenitalia website. I like to take evening trains to maximize my daytime sightseeing hours. I dont mind having a picnic supper en route instead of a nice restaurant meal.

Those are good points, Chani! Thanks. Between Florence and Venice, I would certainly lean towards Venice, however, the event we're attending is in Florence so I'll have to do a bit of both, if even just in passing. I'm ok with only being in Florence for a day or so if that makes sense.

Most people who are considering the Amalfi coast area (including Pompeii) prefer to stay in Sorrento. To answer your question about Pompeii, the way it gets played up you'd think you're about to walk into an abandoned town pretty much like it was 2,000 years ago. Having visited I was disappointed; a lot of it is little more than brick walls here and there. I thought the ruins at Herculaneum up the coast were much better preserved.

For overall advice, I'd go with the consensus so far and save it for another trip. There's more to see in the region including the spectacular Amalfi coast, Capri, etc. Wait until you have 3-5 days to spend in the region. As for overnite trains, the places you are talking about are too close together to take an overnite train (except going from Venice onto Paris). Since most of your itinerary is in the north of Italy (relatively speaking), I'd suggest visiting the hilltown region of Umbria and Tuscany. IMHO less is really more when travelling, as far as moves go. Every time you move you pack up, carry all your stuff to the train station, ride to your destination, then have to find the new hotel and get squared away. Even a 2-hour train trip is going to take you until noon or later when all is said and done. So what I recommend is extnding the time in Rome to 3 days, the time in Florence to 3-4 days and using the extra time to explore some of the region by train/bus/tour-group. You could go to the wine region on a tour, visit Sienna, etc.

rome has so much to see so you'll find out 2 days are not enough, but Pompeii and amalfi coast is really cool, so if this is your first time then i'd spend 4 days in rome and skip Pompeii for now, but if you have been to rome before then keep going south.

Hi, Jessica (and yes, you're doing this right! :) )

I would cut out Naples / Pompeii this time - always plan like you'll be going back. With your having to be in Florence on the 14th, you'll be wasting a lot of time on the train. Plus you don't want to be packing / unpacking all the time. I also think two nights is sufficient in Venice. So for me, it would be: 10/11/12/13 Rome (with a day trip to Pompeii if you really have your heart set); 14/15/16 Florence (possible day trip to Siena); 17/18 Venice; fly out of Marco Polo airport on the 19th. You also might want to drop a day in Rome and a day in Florence and use those two nights in Tuscany or Orvieto. Montepulciano or Pienza, two of my favorite places, would be enroute Florence from Rome. Of course, you'll need to rent a car to make this plan work.

Decisions on what to cut back on are never easy, but whatever you come up with, you'll have a blast. Enjoy!

Another vote for dropping Naples/Pompeii. Rome 4 days (with a day trip to Ostia if you want to see something similar to Pompeii), 3 days Florence and 2 days Venice. What time of year are you going?

Jessica - Pompeii as a day trip is certainly possible - either on your own or by tour. We stayed at a B&B outside Rome (unfortunately, no longer open) that offered personalized tours of Pompeii (which, by the way, I really enjoyed - it's a lot more than brick walls). Another option would be Herculaneum followed by a trip into Naples (or vice versa) to view artifacts at the museum. We took a train into Rome (Termini) from our B&B, tranferred to the train to Naples, then stopped off at Pompeii on the way to Sorrento. I also like the Ostia option that was offered - a place I really wish we had visited. You'll need a car if you want to do Tuscany effectively. You could train to Orvieto, check it out (wonderful), then pick up your car there. It's a short trip to Montepulciano/Pienza from there. You could then turn in the car on the outskirts of Florence because you DO NOT want a car there (the dreaded ZTLs - restricted traffic zones).