9 days in Italy

Nice of you to help your friends. You are right: Can't do justice to all those locations in 9 nights! With 6 remaining nights, two more stops is probably the maximum. The classic would be Rome, Florence, Venice, or swap Venice for the CT. Where to go depends a lot on the time of year they visit. If it's April-October the CT is an excellent choice, but so is Venice. If it's November-March, skip the CT. I'd say Florence OR Siena, not both, unless they want to do 6 nights in an agriturismo and tour around Tuscany. Also a nice choice.

Lindsay, Does the 9-days include the travel days to and from Europe? Also, is this their first trip to Europe or Italy? With only a very short nine days, the most realistic plan would be to limit the stops to Rome, Florence and Venice (or substitute Siena for Venice). I'd suggest: > Rome, 3-4 days > Florence 2 days > Venice / Siena 2 days You'll need to allow a bit of flexibility for travel times. Even though all of trips are relatively short, in reality changing locations will take about half a day in each case. While it would great to include Venice, in these particular circumstances my preference would be a "loop" to visit Rome - Siena - Florence. Using trains for most trips except Bus on the Siena - Florence route. I really don't think there will be time for any more stops. Good luck!

How you can visit Northern Italy and omit Venice???

Tim I don't know why I didn't love venice, I think I had such high expectations of what I thought it would be like, and once I got there, it was extremely crowded, hot, and there was absolutely no where to rest in the extreme heat- so all of these things made me think Venice was just ok. Some people absolutely love Venice, some love Florence, and some Rome. It's a family with 19, 16, 14 year old girls so I was thinking they would really like CT, do you like Venice better than CT?

Thanks so much! They will be coming from Belgium, and then flying home on the 9th day. It is 4 out of the 5 first time to Europe. Am I crazy, but I didn't love Venice? Is that weird? I really like Cinque Terre though, so I recommended it to them. I know they really want to see Florence, and I didn't go there, but I would like to. Thanks so much for the advice!

Hi Lindsay. Ken beat me to the itinerary I was going to suggest, but I do have an additional piece of advice. If your friends go to Venice, they should stay there for 2 days. If they go to Siena, they should stop there for the day before continuing to their next destination and add the second day to Florence. It's very hard to "see" Florence in 2 days.

Lindsay: Agreed with the itinerary suggestion of limiting your stops to three places. Fly open jaw if you can - into Rome and out of Florence or vice versa. Again, it depends on the time of year for CT and also depends on what those teenagers like to do. Are they active - do they like to hike? Other than hiking and visiting the local shops, there isn't a whole lot to do but relax. So, with that said, I would start out in Rome - head to CT to unwind and then to Florence. Happy travels. Ciao Linda!

I'm with Ken on this one if it's their first trip to Italy. Venice should be experienced for first timers, as much as Rome. Siena can be done as a day trip from Florence. The Rome-Florence-Venice loop is a classic itinerary for first timers, who don't have a lot of time and don't want to waste it just "getting around".