travel itinerary

If you love sculpture and architecture, Florence is wonderful. If not, perhaps you don't want to spend 2 days there, but somewhere else in Tuscany. If you stay in Siena, for example, you could take a day trip to Florence. That way, you won't have to change hotels. If you want to explore the countryside, and maybe some wine-tasting, a car would be an advantage, but beware that some of the towns (notably Siena and Florence) have the dreaded no-drive zones in the historic center. You can easily drive in by mistake and then get hit with massive fines.

florence is my favorite city in europe. it is easily worth two nights. the same can be said for siena. much smaller, great food and wine, very cool at night after the tour buses leave. two nights as well. not sure if enough time for the amalfi. rome could easily kill your remaining days even if you are not museum people. the streets of rome rock, everywhere you go. you already are moving around alot which is great. but i would either go all the way to the coast skipping rome. which seems wrong. or go to rome and catch southern italy the next trip. sounds like a great trip. have fun, be safe.

For me, it's too ambitious. You get in at 2pm and by the time you get to your hotel and then start sightseeing it will be at least 4 pm if not later. The next day you plan to travel to Tuscany. That leaves less than a day to see Florence. Not enough time in my mind to see much of anything. You don't mention where you are going in Tuscany but you'll only have a day and part of another to see which ever city you choose. You have the same planned for Rome and the Amalfi coast. You really are not giving yourself time to see anything. You'll be checking into and out of hotels and on the train or a bus for most of your trip. If you go from Florence to Siena the trip takes an hour and a half. To go from Siena to Rome is over 3 hours and from Rome to Amalfi is 3 hours. That's a lot of time out of your day. Then you add in getting to the hotels and checked in, you're talking another hour. Being healthy has nothing to do with how much time you'll spend traveling and how little time you'll have in each city. For an 8 day trip I would suggest no more than 2 cities. You say you're not huge museums people but all of these places have so much more to offer than museums. 8 days is really not enough time to do what you have listed. Donna

Hi, I know people want to try to see as much as possible when they go to a new country; and it's so hard to narrow it down, and leave out wonderful destinations; but like many have said, you'll actually get to see less if you move around so much. With this itinerary you will only have one full day and one partial day to explore the sights (and no time to relax and enjoy them). Plus, on the partial day, you may be too tired to do much of anything. You really need to drop at least one of your bases, if not two. Maybe drop Tuscany and spend three nights in Florence (with a day trip to a nearby town in Tuscany) and then three nights Rome (with a side trip to Orvieto) and then two nights in Sorrento (do the Amalfi Coast drive on the last full day) and fly home from Naples.

Hi Sue,
If you look at your itinerary, compare it to what you want to see and do, and think it might be too ambitious, it probably is. However, if you are only wondering if it is too ambitious because of other posts you've read on forums like this, then I wouldn't worry so much about it. I spent about the same amount of time as you have planned in Rome and the Amalfi coast and it was a great trip. In Rome, we arrived around 12:00pm (from another Italy location, not from the airport)checked into our room, had a great lunch at a place recommended by the hotel, then hit the colleseum and forum. That evening, we did the Pantheon, Trevi fountain and Spanish steps. The next morning we saw some catecombs in the morning and did the vatican in the afternoon (with reservations). We did a bit of walking in the late afternoon, had dinner and saw Piazza Navona. All in all, we saw everything I had wanted to see and didn't feel rushed at all. I'm planning my next trip to Italy and will probably end up going back to Rome at least for a day before my departure flight, but really there's not a lot left that I want to do besides some more walking and exploring neighbourhoods. Of course, the more time the better, but if you don't have any more time, 2 days per city does work...check Rick's Italy book for 1 and 2 day itinerary's. I'm planning to do Florence and Tuscany for the first time on my next trip (hopefully this Spring)...I would suggest looking at what you plan on doing in Florence and check the opening days and hours, as I've found things are closed on different days, which makes it hard if you only have a few days in the city. I would probably stay in Florence and do day trips to Tuscany, or if you prefer, stay in Tuscany and do a day trip to Florence.

Too fast a trip for my tastes. Also you seem to have double-counted the 15th since it is spent both in Florence and in Tuscany. You can certainly visit all the places you have listed, but a good deal of the time on your vacation is going to be spent riding transit or getting to/from transit. On the 19th, for example, you have to get from Rome to the Amalfi region. If you choose Sorrento its probably noon or later before you're actually there, make that 2-3pm if you're staying in Positano. And just the logistics of changing hotel rooms (which you're doing every other day) takes a couple of hours when you add in the time to pack up, breakfast, check out, get to and ride transport (train, pick up a car, etc), find the new hotel, check in and drop luggage. With the 8 days you have I'd keep Rome, drop one of the other 3, add a day to Rome and a day to one other area.