Advice on 5-weeks in Venice/Tuscany/Amalfi/Sicily/Rome

No high-level comments -- overall it looks amazing, and I'm glad you don't have 1- or 2-night stays. Also, there is always more to see in Rome, so I don't think you'll regret the extra night there.

You did ask about driving in Taormina and Syracuse. We visited there 10 years ago. For Taormina, we parked at our hotel (the wonderful Hotel Villa Ducale up the hill). They parked our car for us, and had a very reliable shuttle to get us into town. I'm not sure how it would work for staying in the town, and I'll be interested what others suggest.

We only made a day trip to Syracuse, and parked in a big lot in the north of town that had shuttle service into the good area. If you know your hotel there, you might ask them how they arrange parking for their guests. Some Italian towns are difficult to drive in, but a good hotel can handle parking for you and get you to your car in the morning.

Buon viaggio!

Train to Florence, stay 4 nights (with day trip to Lucca & Pisa)

You need three nights for Florence and if adding day trips add a night per trip. I would not combine Lucca and Pisa on the same day. Tip: buy tickets for the Uffizi Gallery two months out to guarantee a reservation.

Hire car to visit Tuscan countryside / hill towns, stay 4 nights at an agriturismo maybe near Siena

Hire a driver or rent a car? You need a car if staying at an agriturismo.

Train to Salerno, ferry to Positano, stay 7 nights (with trips to Capri, Ravello, Amalfi, Sorrento)

Since you spent one week in Positano, have you considered sleeping on Capri?

No high-level comments -- overall it looks amazing, and I'm glad you
don't have 1- or 2-night stays.

Ha yes! I've been researching for a while and have learnt to avoid this rookie error! Staying out of town is probably best as Hubby will already be super stressed driving on the opposite side of the road! Adding Hotel Villa Ducale to the list - it looks wonderful. :-)

Thanks for the Uffizi tip Mary. Can I ask why you wouldn't combine Pisa and Lucca on the same day trip?

Definitely planning to rent a car to get around Tuscany, just wasn't sure about renting one in Sicily as well. Any recommendations on Tuscan farm stays and must-see towns would be much appreciated. As for sleeping on Capri, had not really considered it. How many nights there would you recommend?

Based on the comments of others, because I've barely touched down on the Amalfi Coast and that was back in the early 1990s, I think you may be pretty shocked at how much busier it is and the challenges of moving around the peninsula. I hope you don't end up disappointed.

I'd recommend reconsidering the Sicilian plans. Two nights in Palermo will give you just about enough time to see Cefalu and Monreale but virtually no time for Palermo, which to me would be a higher priority than Cefalu, given how much time you will already have spent in cute coastal towns. I'd want at least four nights in Palermo if you're going to go to Cefalu. (Monreale is as big a "must see" as anything in Sicily.)

Your three nights in Siracusa after the drive from Palermo via Agrigento (and presumably also via Piazza Armerina) is going to mean a rather rushed visit to Siracusa itself, Ragusa and Noto. Scicli and Modica are also worth visiting. The stretch of the trip between Agrigento and the end of the stay in Siracusa is where a car will be really beneficial; I'd want to take full advantage of that car by including Scicli and Modica and allowing sufficient time to see all four of the towns.

I am not a fan of Taormina--crowded during day tripping hours and full of boutiques, but plenty of people do like it a lot. It is a beautiful town in a stunning setting. I wonder, though, whether it won't be a great deal like Positano for you.

Eight nights is really not enough time for a non-hectic visit covering Sicily from Palermo to Agrigento to Piazza Armerina to Siracusa to Taormina. I'd trim at least two nights off the Positano stop and shift them to Sicily if you can't extend the trip. If extending is possible, I'd add four to eight nights to Sicily; two weeks is a reasonable minimum there. Eight extra nights would allow a trip west of Palermo and extensions of your time in Palermo and Siracusa.

As for the Vatican, I'm afraid your husband needs to be prepared for a very sub-optimal experience. Until this year it was possible to book an early-access tour that allowed some (though not sufficient) time in the Vatican Museums before the general public with regular admission tickets was able to enter. That is no longer the case. The Museums now open at 8 AM for anyone able to score a ticket for that entry time. It may be a bit less crowded then than at 9 AM or later (you can check the website to see whether 8 AM tickets remain available one day in advance, which would indicate slightly lower visitor levels than later in the day), but the Museums are going to be much, much more crowded than they were in 2010. I'm not saying he shouldn't go (I went myself at mid-morning back in March), just that he should temper his expectations so he's still able to enjoy himself.

St. Peter's is free to enter but has a security line that can be monumental. It looked so bad in March that I skipped the church, which I really wanted to see. I'll go back the next time I'm in Rome and drag myself over there to line up shortly before the 7 AM opening time. If it's St. Peter's your husband is most interested in rather than the Vatican Museums, that's what I'd recommend for him as well. Or, if you take a combination Museums + St. Peter's tour (that would be a commercial tour, because the Vatican doesn't sell tours like that), the group may be allowed to cut through the door between the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's, thereby avoiding the long walk back to the main exit from the Chapel and then around the exterior of the complex, as well as the interminable St. Peter's security line.

I don't mean to be a downer about the Vatican experience. I just think it will be a lot more pleasant if you're mentally prepared for the crowd scene. If your husband's major interest is the art and decorative art in the Museums, the Borghese Gallery is an excellent substitute.

Hi Dani, it looks like a wonderful trip! And it’s nice to return to favorite spots, too.

For your Lucca/Pisa day trip, take the train from Florence to Pisa’s S. Rossore stop to save time reaching the leaning tower. Afterwards, leave from Pisa Centrale, so you can see more of the city. Pisa is just a 30-minute train ride to Lucca, so you could go to Pisa in the morning, take the train to Lucca for lunch, seeing the city, and be sure to walk or rent a bike for the wide medieval wall. I liked the restaurants & atmosphere of Lucca much more than Pisa (I’ve stayed in both of them.)

I see you’re not staying in Salerno, but I will mention that Paestum’s amazing Greek temples are just a 30-minute train ride from there - just in case you didn’t know about it.

I agree with the comment about Palermo. Wow, that’s a short amount of time if you’re also planning day trips from Palermo to Monreale & Cefalu. I will be there five nights this year, and I’m needing to narrow down my choices of things to do during that time.

”I’m glad you don’t have 1-2 nights stays.”
”Ha yes! I've been researching for a while and have learnt to avoid this rookie error!”

These comments made me laugh out loud and smile! I’m currently planning my 17th & 18th trips to Europe this year….and still a rookie? : ). I still purposely have several 2-night stays in both and a handful of 1-night stays in my 1-month solo trip. Just throwing in this comment for our readers that there’s many travel styles, even differences depending on who is traveling with me. It’s great to read advice and learn from each other; just be sure to make your trip your own.

Have a great time! It’s such a beautiful country!

Yes, rent a car for Sicily. There is a large parking lot on the north end of Ortigia.
Take a day from Taormina and add it to Siracusa.

why you wouldn't combine Pisa and Lucca on the same day trip?

In Pisa you can visit the Leaning Tower and Field of Miracles then move on. Lucca is a place you need to linger or else what’s the point of going. Do walk the ramparts then find a nice place to enjoy a meal. Lucca is a good place to sleep and day trip to Pisa. You won’t get much out of Lucca as a day trip from Florence when it’s combined with Pisa.

Hi again. It's my birthday today and I was blown away to wake up and see so many comments! Many thanks to all of you, especially acraven and Jean for the very generous advice. Hubby also sends his thanks acraven for the detailed advice about the Vatican & St Peters - very helpful to know.

Sounds like we have some more thinking to do about Sicily. Two weeks would be wonderful, but I think the best we can do is 10 days. Our original itinerary skipped the west side altogether, but Palermo seemed like a must see (plus easier to travel from there to Agrigento) so we added it in. Could we afford to skip either Monreale or Cefalu so we can focus on exploring Palermo?

I hope Taormina is not a disappointment after Positano! It's been on my bucket list for a good decade (for the history as much as the beach/views) hence the 3 nights. Appreciate though we might be rushed in Siracusa if we don't add another day there. Decisions, decisions!

These comments made me laugh out loud and smile! I’m currently
planning my 17th & 18th trips to Europe this year….and still a rookie?
: ). I still purposely have several 2-night stays in both and a
handful of 1-night stays in my 1-month solo trip.

Glad you had that reaction Jean. With that many trips under your belt, you are definitely not a rookie by any means! Sorry, hope no offence was taken with my comments. A key part of my avoiding 1-2 night stays is that I absolutely detest packing and re-packing! And trips that are jam packed! I don't want to need a holiday after the holiday, ha ha.

Lucky you to be planning two trips this year! Where are you going?

I wouldn't skip Monreale; it is magnificent. Although it's not hard to get there by public bus, that's likely to take some extra time; this might be a situation in which coughing up the money for a taxi--at least one way--would be worthwhile. I say "one way" because I don't know how easy it would be to get a taxi back to Palermo. I don't think I'd want to pay the taxi's waiting time at Monreale, because there's a lot to see there. Similarly, there are bus tours to Monreale, but I'd want to be very sure I'd have enough time to fully enjoy the complex, and I don't know how the price of two seats on a tour would compare to the cost of a taxi.

I think, given the amount of time you're spending in small coastal spots, Cefalu is dispensable on this trip. In the context of your full itinerary, I believe the sights in Palermo will be more memorable for you.

Hi Dani, no offense taken. It truly did made me laugh! And everyone travels differently, so what works for some doesn’t work well at all for others. I travel very light and am very organized, so it’s no big deal for me to change locations, plus I love photographing cities in the mornings before the pictures are full of people.

My husband & I will be in southern Spain for three weeks this winter. It’s a relaxed trip, so we have a 3-night, 5-night, 7-night along the coast, plus a 2-night in lovely Sevilla and finish with a 2-night at our favorite hotel in Madrid.

I mentioned Palermo. That trip will be a solo trip, so I like to move at a much faster pace. I dislike day trips because I don’t like to think about taking a train late afternoon and won’t take an evening one when I travel solo. For a month, I will be in several regions of Italy - Puglia, Sicily, Lazio, Abruzzo and end in Umbria before flying home from Rome. This trip will have six 1-night cities, many 2-nights, a 3-night in Lecce & Spello, and the 5-night in Palermo.

Venice is our favorite city, so I’m glad you gave it four nights! Take at least one day to put away all map devices and purposely just wander & get lost! Eventually stop for a beverage, and you can look up at the corner of the buildings for directions to see which of the main markers you’re near.

Also, the Florian is expensive to eat at San Marco piazza. But, you can sit at one of the tables outside in the evening, just have one apertivo each which will come with a small plate of small snacks. Take your time, listen to the lovely music and soak up the amazing atmosphere. It’s my favorite way to end several nights in Venice.

I wouldn't skip Monreale; it is magnificent.

Noted! And thanks for the tips on getting there, as we won't have a rental car yet.

I travel very light and am very organized, so it’s no big deal for me to change locations

Oh to travel light! It would certainly make my detested re-packing between locations a lot easier, but I like to have options!

3 weeks in Spain sounds lovely. And a whole month in Italy on your own... wow! Which place / places are you most looking forward to visiting?

We have watched a few travel shows on Venice recently and I must say they've left us feeling lukewarm so it's really encouraging to hear Venice is your favourite. I don't know if we'll be brave enough to wander and possibly get lost, but it sounds fun!

Hi Dani,

Regarding Venice, you will get lost; it’s a total maze, but an exciting one! Since it’s a grouping of islands, you don’t have to worry that you’re walking miles in the wrong direction. : ). I brought my adult daughter in 2022, and I had her walk in front of me our first morning after leaving the hotel and taking us across the Accademia Bridge. I said, “We’re going wherever you lead! At each intersection pick whether you want to go left or right.” I think eventually we ended up near the Rialto Bridge. And my favorite gelato - Suso & their Manet flavor is in that vicinity!

For Spain, I think our most exciting place will be Cadiz because we will be there during their huge Carnival!

For Italy, oh, how to choose a favorite? Here’s my itinerary:
Rome - I’ve been here multiple times, and it’s past time to see the Borghese Gallery
Caserta - a gorgeous palace with huge grounds like Versailles
Polignano a Mare - I have a wonderful room with a balcony overlooking the main inlet
Bari - attending the San Nicola festival
Alberobello - mainly to stay in a trullo and photograph the city late evening/early morning
Locorotondo & Martina Franca - to enjoy each of these overnight & rent a bike at Martina Franca
Lecce - for the architecture & a cooking class
Palermo - a lot of choices here of things I would love to do & see
Sulmona - meeting a RS forum friend to see her Abruzzo region - really looking forward to it!
Tivoli - I love historical Italian gardens
Spoleto - not going by this again without staying overnight!
Assisi - to enjoy it overnight
Spello - my main reason for the timing of this trip & being in the Umbria region - attending their beautiful Infiorate again.

Venice is the best place to recover from jet lag, and you have ten hours of lag. Venice is quiet, no cars of course, a bit like a dream. We have visited a dozen times, about 300 nights in total.
When you book seats, get seats on the right hand side of the aircraft and you will see Venice as you fly in.

We had a great self-drive trip to Sicily in September, 2022. This is how we spent our days:
1. Arrive Catania drive to Taormina via Castelmola
2. Etna wineries loop, back to Taormina
3. To Ortigia
4. To Ragusa via Noto
5. Ragusa - Modica - Scicli - Ragusa
6. To Agrigento via Villa del Casale
7. Agrigento
8. To Cefalu’
9. To Palermo via Monreale
10. Palermo
11. Depart from Palermo for Rome

We returned the car on arrival to Palermo. Driving and parking there would be difficult and unpleasant. Everywhere else, driving was a pleasure and parking was manageable. In Taormina, there is a parking garage just before you come to the entrance to the old city that is within easy walking distance. For us, one day/night was enough to explore Ortigia as we were not interested in Siracusa. As others have advised, there is a large parking facility at the north end of the island and there was temporary parking at our accommodation to unload/reload luggage. We enjoyed staying two nights in Ragusa. Modica was our favorite of the small towns we visited. We drove early to Villa Casales then on to Agrigento which worked out great. There we spent the afternoon wandering in the old city and had an excellent meal. Next day we drove by the Turkish Steps on the way to a beautiful sandy beach. Late afternoon we went to the archeological museum at Valley of the Temples which we then toured at sunset into the evening. It was magical! Monreale Cathedral was a most worthwhile stop en route to Palermo. The only miss was Cefalu. We found it extremely crowded, touristy, and overall, unwelcoming. Otherwise, we loved Sicily and hope to return.

PS - I detest packing/unpacking too but packing cubes have been a game changer! Maybe try if you have not already. Makes travel easy peasy.

Hi Jean

Being in Cadiz for the carnival will be amazing - great timing! Thanks also for sharing your Italian itinerary. I'll admit I had to double check where a few places are but it looks like a lovely mix of places and activities. Have you been to Caserta before? I only came across this place recently and it certainly looks like something to rival to Versailles but not sure if we'll have time to go there. Funny you mention Sulmona as that is a familiar name to me. My mother was born in the nearby town of Pacentro!

When you book seats, get seats on the right hand side of the aircraft
and you will see Venice as you fly in.

Thanks for the tip fellow Aussie! Lucky you to have visited so many times!

Hi mml

Thanks so much for sharing your itinerary. This looks very similar to what we have in mind but in reverse, as we are thinking it will be nicer to finish up in Taormina, rather than do it straight after the AC. Also appreciate your insight into driving and parking in Sicily. Very happy to hear you found it to be an enjoyable experience. So you stayed in Agrigento for a night and toured Valley of the Temples the next day? I can only imagine how beautiful those views must have been at sunset! Was it crowded? Everything I've read suggests getting there early would be best, and that is another reason we had for travelling west to east so we could make it the first stop out of Palermo.

Good to know about Cefalu. If we are strapped for time, I think we will just give it a miss.

Thanks for your tip about packing cubes. I do have a few which definitely help but my problem is more about how many clothes I pack! I generally don't like wearing the same thing more than once a week and tend to pack lots of layers/ clothes in case of cooler weather. Can't help it - I live in Melbourne which is known for having 4 seasons in 1 day, so you learn from an early age to prepared!

Dani -
We spent two nights in Agrigento, the first arriving in the afternoon after visiting Villa del Casale. Our intent too was to visit Valley of the Temples in the AM but we went late afternoon on the advice of the host at our accommodation. He was so right! We went to the museum first and stayed there longer than planned as there is a lot to see. We entered the Valley of the Temples around sunset and toured much of the site after dark. If we did it again, I would enter the archeological site a bit earlier to experience the views in daylight. But, after dark was truly magical — the highlight of our trip! It was not crowded. The evening temperature was comfortable. Most people seemed to be in groups with guides. We wandered on our own, felt perfectly safe and loved it.

Just a thought. Our last trip was Melbourne to Dublin (Emirates), Dublin to Venice Marco Polo (Ryanair) and Marco Polo/Dubai/Melbourne (Emirates). We had an unavoidable layover in Dubai of about 18 hours, which did not excite us. For us, Dubai is awful.

Emirates have a thing called Dubai Connect. If you are faced with an unavoidable layover in Dubai of more than eight hours, they bus you to a hotel, give you a room, meals, and bus you back. Hotel is maybe three stars but good enough.

And it’s FREE

https://www.emirates.com/au/english/before-you-fly/dubai-international-airport/dubai-connect/

I'll start by echoing acraven's comment about crowds. My first visit to Italy was in mid-October 2008. I spent 12.5 days on the ground, Milan, Verona, Venice, Florence and the Cinque Terre. There were no crowds anywhere. The only place I booked tickets in advance were 2 museums in Florence. I was alone for most of my walk along the most popular/easiest parts of the hiking trail.

My most recent visit to Italy was in mid-March to early April (3 weeks) 2022. Italy was just reopening after Covid and there were relatively few tourists. Venice was crowded, though not overly much. It was still easy to be away from the crowds in Venice by walking away from the Grand Canal and there weren't long lines for the vaporetto though I bet there will be in September. Florence was full of tourists, but again, not as much as you'd expect. Rome at the beginning of April was crowded. I did do a return visit to the Vatican Museums and they weren't as crowded as usual - only because of the lingering Covid restrictions on capacity. I would caution you to expect large crowds everywhere and be pleasantly surprised if occasionally there aren't.

In between I rented a car for 9 days and tootled around Umbria and Tuscany. There weren't many tourists, though I avoided most of the popular towns in Tuscany, focusing mainly on Umbria (which is very similar). While traffic was light and I was able to find parking in all the hill towns, I found that driving was very difficult. I'd driven on the Amalfi Coast (in February), in Sicily and France, Spain and Portugal. The most challenging time I had was in Umbria/Tuscany. Roads were poor, signage was poor, and my Garmin GPS and Google maps often gave conflicting directions. On the other hand, I had no trouble driving in Sicily outside the big cities of Palermo and Catania (which were not so much difficult as very slow because of traffic).

Now for some specifics on your itinerary.

Venice. Last time I was there (4th, I think) I stayed at a small B&B - Corte Campana - and LOVED it. There are all of 3 rooms, it's a 5-minute walk to San Marco, super quiet and the hosts are an invaluable resource for visiting. He's a native Venetian, she's from California, so you have both the local's insights and the tourist's-eye viewpoint.

Florence. Stay longer and do day trips to the Tuscan towns. Even if driving isn't difficult, parking will be. You can get to Siena by bus. Or consider spending the car time in less visited Umbria instead. Or stop in Bologna before Florence and spend 3-4 nights there and day trip by train to nearby towns like Modena, Parma, Ferrara.

Amalfi As has been discussed, there will be crowds and probably long lines to board buses and ferries. The beaches are also likely to be packed. It sounds like you'd be there at the end of September or beginning of October. I'd try to find out what the AC was like this past Sept/Oct - maybe there are trip reports. I'd also take a look at tripadvisor.com. BTW Salerno is not just a convenient train station. It has a well-preserved medieval center, great restaurants, a large sandy beach, and a great seaside promenade.

Even 10 days in Sicily means cutting out a lot of good stuff. There are much better beaches here than on the AC. Agrigento is wonderful, but I liked Selinunte even more. Monreale was the highlight of my visit to Palermo. I took the bus from the train station. It was slow going because of traffic. I doubt a taxi would have been much faster. I took the bus back and got off at Palazzo dei Normanni. The Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel) is another gem. I followed Old Palermo Walking Tour that I pulled off Frommer's website and it was very interesting. It's an all-day tour, but I skipped a lot, since I had but half a day.

I fear you may be terribly disappointed (I hope not) if you return to the AC now because of the crowds. I encourage you to reconsider and instead, to spend more time on Sicily.

Thanks mml. I want the magical too! So I'm going to take that same advice and visit VoT in the late afternoon. :-) So our Sicily itinerary now looks like:

• Palermo - 3 nights
• Agrigento - 1 night
• Siracusa - 3 nights
• Taormina - 2 nights

Thanks aussie, I think we'll probably fly Qatar. Best option coming up on Skyscanner for our dates.

Wow Chani. Really appreciate the detailed advice - thank you! When we visited the AC in 2010 we literally plonked our ourselves in Positano for a week, only venturing out to Capri for a day. So I won't really be able to compare crowds, getting around then vs. now but hopefully it won't be too much of a shock! Reading some recent trip reports sounds like a good idea. I hear you and I'd love to allocate more days to Sicily, but the main reason for our trip is to get back to the AC and explore that, so that's what's we are sticking to!

With Selinunte, I've come across a few other posts where people have said the same thing. If you don't mind me asking, what were your main reasons for liking it more than Agrigento?

We have set aside 4 days in Florence, and then 4 days with a rental car so we can get around to some towns. Still need to work out the exact ones but thinking Siena/San Gimignano and Montepulciano/Pienza.