April 2023 Italy Itinerary Help

How many NIGHTS?

IN to Venice
OUT of Rome

much easier to arrive in Venice than it is to fly out of (early am flights just add extra expense and hassle)
Also very good place to get over jet lag

Venice 3
Bologna 2 or 3
Florence 2 or 3 add 1 night for each day trip
Rome 4 or 5

All easily done by train
Only place you might want a car is to explore Tuscany hill towns- but that can be done by guided tour from Florence

If you are visiting wineries and tasting, be sure you have a designated driver

It's always best and easiest to fly INTO Venice and back home from Rome -- even the flight times are best this way.
The train is best and easiest also between towns. We never rent a car in Italy.
If you don't want to deal with renting a car, you can always do day trips from Florence into Tuscany. We really liked WalkAboutFlorence -- we did 2 of their tours - BEST OF TUSCANY and CHIANTI WINE & FOOD SAFARI - check out their website - very easy to book on their website.

Hello Vic, welcome to the boards!

Your plan to fly into and out of different cities sounds correct, but I am concerned you are planning on doing too much if you really have 15 nights. My advice is to start but counting nights because you need 2 nights to get a full day with partial days on either side. Keep in mind that every time you change locations there is packing, checking out, wrangling luggage and checking in etc - also be sure to include travel times in your "days".

(Fly Venice)
Venice 3 nights (really 2 nights with jetlag)
Bologna [1.5 hours by train] 3 nights
Florence 4 nights [1 hour by train] (Tuscany day trips/wine tours)
Rome [1.5 hours by train] 5 nights (Montecassino day trip)
(Fly out Rome)

Four major cities in 15 nights is pretty ambitious and then throwing in Tuscany and Monte Casino days trips is adding to that. You can do all of your major city travel by train - major cities are served by fast trains - however any serious tiny wine town trips in Tuscany will require a car or an organized tour. The train from Rome to Cassino is about 2 hours by train and would pre-plan your time there with a guide or at least an appointment at the abbey. You could shift a day or two here or there - one from Rome to Venice depending on interests - but a reasonable schedule is something like this with the sights you mentioned.

Montecassino was and is an abbey and is therefore a religious site: https://www.abbaziamontecassino.org/index.php/en/visit-montecassino
There are also the war cemeteries and people who organize battlefield and memorial tours if that interests you.
But there are also people who have WWII tours and give guided tours.

I hope this helps - I think you have the basis of a solid plan here but don't overplan and ignore the realities on the ground - travel times, the need to rest and just enjoy Italy.

Sounds like a great trip,
=Tod

If you wanted to do the whole trip by train, you could. Venice to Bologna to Florence to Orvieto (I'm throwing that in for you!) to change trains in Rome to Cassino, then back to Rome.

We are firmly in the "fly into Venice and out of Rome" camp. But if it's much cheaper, it's not at all bad to fly into Milan and immediately take the train to Venice.

I hate to tell people how many nights in each place, but if I have to, I'd say for 15 nights: Venice (3), Bologna (1), Florence (4), Orvieto (3), Cassino (1), Rome (3). Part of my theory with Rome is that, as a main hub city, it is much easier to return to than any of the other places, and you will return!

Great advice from hiredman that I will second: "Keep in mind that every time you change locations there is packing, checking out, wrangling luggage and checking in etc - also be sure to include travel times ." My first trip to Italy was only 6 days; we flew into Venice and out of Rome and that worked perfectly. Venice is a must-see (before the sea overtakes it!) but there's not a lot to it, and it almost seems to exist just for tourists. I think you can see it in 2 days (with one of those being your jet-lag day) to give yourself more nights somewhere else. (That's just my opinion, of course ... my stepmother visits Venice for a few days every couple of years and still loves it.) For Tuscany, Rick recommends agri-turismos (farm B&Bs) and I've heard good things about them from other people your age (estimating your age based on your father being in WW2!). Have a wonderful trip.

Freccia trains will be much faster than driving as you travel from Venice to Bologna to Florence to Rome. Whether you benefit from a car in Emilia-Romagna and/or in Tuscany will depend on what smaller towns you want to see in those areas. I think 15 days, however defined, is going to be tight for what you want to accomplish. I don't see that you're going to have much time for wandering around the countryside. You might well be able to see E-R by train and take a one-day, small-group bus tour in Tuscany without having to deal with a car-rental agency (and without paying the probable very high cost of a one- or two-day car rental),

Venice is magical but your time there may well be affected by jetlag since it will probably be your first stop. Under the circumstances, I'd want at least 4 nights (3 days) in Venice, but I know some people would be willing to trim it to three nights.

You want to see not just Florence and Bologna but also the surrounding areas. Two nights in Bologna would only allow time for Bologna itself, and I'd need more time than that; Bologna has one of Europe's largest medieval cores.

I haven't been to Montecassino, but Google Maps says it's about 6 miles (mostly uphill via a twisty road) from the Cassino train station. Getting from Rome to Cassino by train will be no problem; it can take as little as 1-1/2 hours. There's no indication that public transportation is available up to Montecassino, so it looks as if a taxi will be required, but I haven't Googled to see whether there are local excursions available. Google estimates a one-way driving time of 18 minutes. When all is said and done, the excursion to Montecassino is going to take the better part of the day; I'm sure there are museum-like displays at the site, and you'll need to get some sort of lunch. Take that into account as you figure out how many nights you need to spend in Rome.

Here's my concern about B&B's and agriturismi for you. My husband and I have stayed at at least six of these in Italy and enjoyed every one and loved all the hosts. HOWEVER, while you are eating a wonderful breakfast (on the hosts' schedules rather than your own), the cities and the sites you are planning to go to (except Bologna) are filling up with more and more people every minute. We get up very early (like 5:00am) and it makes me nuts to spend valuable time waiting for and then eating breakfast (lunch is a whole different story --- we normally spend two or three hours eating lunch in Italy). If you had lots more time or fewer destinations, then it's less of an issue, but you don't. Have a coffee and a nibble of something in a bar, and get going with your day. Many Italians seem to do just that.

Also. an agriturismo is rarely in a city or even a town, so there is a transportation problem (bus? taxi? will the host pick you up?) and you can't walk to dinner and then waddle back to your accommodation, which is one of the joys of being in Italy.

It is really difficult for me to spend more than 3 nights in a place if I don't have specific dedicated day trips already set. For Venice, I'd do a day trip to Murano/Burano. If you like the outdoors, I'd recommend Cinque Terre.

Just a word to the wise: Easter Break for much of Italy is April 14-19. Schools are closed and many families travel. It can be quite busy...

Hey Everybody !!

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer some fantastic advice and thoughts.

Easter weekend does worry me a bit and I'm thinking I may move the time frame up a bit. My wife has time off during that period as she is a pre-school teacher at a Temple and it corresponds with Passover. From what I gather Easter weekend is the start of the high season for travel into Italy. From what I've read, most place are open Good Friday but Easter and the Monday after are def major holidays prompting travel into Italy for many reasons.

I really like Tod's (hiredman) itinerary....I'm thinking maybe skip Bologna (save for this another trip) and add those days to Venice/Florence with a possible day trip via tour to a winery....it seems like the hilltop towns can be a separate wine trip combined with Piedmonte !?! Along with Orvieto !?! ;-)

Monte Cassino is a "must" as my Dad slogged up those rugged and jagged slopes under heavy enemy fire to eventually reach the devasted Monastery along with his fellow soldiers. He was there for the 40th Anniversary and I wish I would have went with him then....ahhh young and foolish thinking there's always time.

My original dates were tentatively April 1st/2nd through April 15th/16th depending on flight costs (flying some days are def more expensive than others)...but I can adjust these dates earlier and possibly add a day or two.

Thoughts!?!

Thanks again for all your help....much, much appreciated !!!

Vic

Hi All !!

Update - I've been using Rick's guide for travel in Europe for years...so I've been reading through the articles and watching all his travel talk on Italy as of late. However, I have never taken any of his tours. He has a 10 day tour of Venice, Florence and Rome...all the places I was tentatively planning to visit. So I though what-the-heck....let's do his tour. I signed my wife and I up !!!! We're flying into Venice two days before the tour starts to deal with jetlag and staying in Rome 4 days after the tour ends so I can visit Monte Cassino in honor of Dad.

Anyone have any tips or insight for the tour?

Thanks

Vic

We visited Montecassino Abbey in April 2022. It's hard to believe that it was ever destroyed, the reconstruction is so complete. The drive to the Abbey is beautiful, as is the site. With that said, we couldn't find any mention of WWII at the Abbey - no plaques memorializing the 5th Army. It is much more about Saint Benedict and his (maybe) sister Saint Scholastica.