Best of Italy Tour: advice on flying into Florence not Rome

Which city depends on how many days are allotted for Florence and Rome individually.
And I assume you'll have to transfer planes in Europe? Which European Gateway city are you flying through to get to Florence or Rome?
If your days on the tour are sufficient to see each city properly and you're booked through Paris, I'd tell you to spend the 2 days in Paris getting a taste of life there.

If your tour starts in Rome and ends in Florence, you should fly into Rome and fly back home from Florence using a multi city open jaw ticket.
Rome is not a dangerous city at all, especially compared to any North American city.
Actually if there is a place where you are at risk of being pick pocketed is at the Rome station or at the Florence station. So if you avoid taking the train altogether you are even less at risk.
In terms of how many days to spend in each, I don't know how much time your tour spends in each, but to me the best allocation is 4 nights in Rome and 3 nights in Florence. If you want to use Florence as a base to take day trips to other small towns and villages of Tuscany, then you could add a night to Florence for each day trip you intend to take.

I agree with you that flying into Florence is far more pleasant than arriving in Rome – the airport is small, and it's close to the city and an inexpensive taxi ride. It's also walkable, so you don't need to figure out public transportation right away.

You talk about Florence being "less dangerous" – I wouldn't spend a huge amount of time worrying about that in either city. Just be alert, and if something/someone feels a little weird, move away from the situation. I almost always travel by myself, and I've decided the taxis are great investment when I arrive in any city. It's when I'm most likely to be tired or a little disoriented, and it is the taxi driver's problem to ensure that I safely get where I need to go.

When you ask if you're allowing enough time, I presume you mean enough time for visiting Florence. I think it depends on your interest in the art and architecture of the early Renaissance. I suggest you look at a guidebook to see what the city has to offer, and also look at what you'll do on the tour in Florence – that's really the only way to determine how much time you should spend.

I was in both Rome and Florence with my family, including my two teen girls. We felt perfectly safe in both Rome and Florence, including at both of the city train stations. Just like anywhere else, be smart about how you secure your valuables: use a money belt or comparable, carry a messenger type purse close to you, pack very light so you are not struggling with bags. We used taxis a couple times in Rome and Florence (only to and from airport or train station in Florence) and found them to be easy and inexpensive in both cities. We flew into the Rome airport and had no problem at all - the fire only has affected departures.

Because we think Florence will be quieter and less dangerous than Rome for two women on their own who have never been to Italy.

2bradleys, this is a terrific waste of train tickets and time. Both cities will be equally busy, and Rome is not a 'dangerous' city at all. In fact, the same rules one uses for securing their valuables in Rome apply to ANY city in Italy, and ANY tourist city at all in the world. Incidents of violent crime in Rome are very low.

Save the money and time and fly directly into Rome. Besides, you're going to avoid the outside chance of experiencing the rare transportation issue on the day your RS tour begins if you're already IN Rome. It's the same reason we usually recommend staying in your departure city the night before flight.

I'm a 5' 1" female and wouldn't have any nervousness at all about wandering Rome all by myself - as I've done some mornings with my camera while my DH is still getting ready for the day.

Rome is not a dangerous city at all, especially compared to any North American city.

Based on massive crime concerns, I now utilize an armed convoy when moving about this area and visiting the delightful country to the north.

Bruce, you can enter but your armed convoy will not be given permission to cross into Canada. So sorry.

The tour itself will allow you a fair bit of time to explore on your own - surely, you'll want to get out there, rather than staying in your room? So, if you allot yourselves a couple of extra days in Rome before the tour starts, you'll not only overcome jet lag but also overcome your anxieties. Have a great time!

Too funny, Norma!

Pish, I've walked all over oodles of American cities by myself, and I'm still in one piece, last I looked.

@Norma: In the past, a large RCMP convoy met us at our port of entry (Roosville, Chief Mountain or Piegan) and fully protected us.

Bruce

I was about to correct my comment to state that Rome is less dangerous than any North American city of similar size, but I just checked and discovered that even the state of Montana, whose entire population is less than the population of Trastevere, has a murder rate almost 3 times the one in Rome.

So yes, you should employ an armed posse while traveling around. Actually next time I visit Montana on a tour, I am thinking to fly into Alberta, Canada, which is probably safer, then take the high speed train down to Montana.

Oh, wait. Delete "high speed" from that sentence.

Roberto:

Yup, Montana is a wild west very dangerous state. Tourists apparently don't care and put their lives at grave risk given over 10,000,000 (10 times our population) come each year.

They are reckless travelers and don't know they are putting their lives in jeopardy. Montana comes right after Iraq in the ranking of most dangerous places on Earth. The State Department should issue a travel alert for your State, especially for the bear infested Yellowstone park.

I agree with those who have said to compare what you're going to see on the tour in each city, then decide where you want to spend extra time at the beginning and/or the end. I think you should do that first, then decide where to start. Having spent quite a bit of time in Florence and less in Rome, and based on what you said about the tour, I'd fly to Rome early, then stay late in Florence and fly home from there.

Explore Google Flights multi-city option to see how that might work. In general, I saw no non-stop option to Florence or Rome from Seattle. You have to go through a major airport in Europe or the US on the way there and on the way back. Most flights for Florence seem to be Delta through Paris or Amsterdam. There is a schedule from Seattle to Rome via Atlanta. I've been on that Atlanta to Rome flight.

It is a long trip to Europe from the Pacific Time Zone. If you are concerned about arriving jet-lagged, take a taxi to your hotel, perhaps the one for the tour or one close by. Having stayed in both cities, the places I've stayed in Florence weren't any quieter than those in Rome. I also haven't found one to be more "dangerous" than the other. Follow the normal travel awareness guidelines (which I do in the Seattle area due to the most aggressive panhandlers I've ever experienced anywhere), look out for each other and you should be fine.

For lots of tips for the trip, go to Travel Tips on the left side of this page. Read and take to heart all of them, but especially the ones on Money, Packing Light and Theft & Scams. Knowledge is power.

As others have said, safety concerns are no different in Florence, Rome or any large North American city.
Fly in to Rome, then perhaps on to Milan from Florence to head home.
(Florence has much less flight options than Rome and Milan, or even Pisa and Venice)

Actually Roberto, it's the bison in Yellowstone this year not the bears. Current score card bison 5/tourists 0. (4 not so bad injuries, one really bad)

To the OP, I would go directly to Rome as well, a few days ahead of your tour. Stay in the tour hotel which will be close enough for you to walk around and see things before your tour starts. I'm guessing it's really Heart of Italy rather than Best of Italy? I would also add a day or 2 on at the end to spend some time in Florence.

I have to tell you that Heart of Italy was my first International trip in decades when I went in 2013. I went with my brother, SIL and their 2 20-something sons. I arranged an airport shuttle pick up because I did not want to have to figure out public transportation in a jet-lagged state. Because I waited late to do it the only one available from the company i wanted to use also included a sightseeing tour. It was a fantastic way to start! The driver was charming, the traffic was scary and our initial drive-bys of the sights were just amazing. We are from a tiny town, have very rusty big-city skills, no city transportation skills but we had a great time pre-tour. It was much easier than I thought it would be! Altho I was not on my own, per se, my SIL was sick the first few days so my brother stayed with her while I took the guys around. However, I would not have been worried being there on my own (mid-60's female who can do nothing to disguise the fact that she is an American tourist!).

BTW, Heart of Italy was a really fun and awesome tour. I loved the combo of 2 big cities, the hill town and the Cinque Terre. Just a perfect itinerary!

If you do decide to fly in to Florence, then as others have mentioned, I would go to Rome the day before your tour starts just so you are in place in case of a strike/whatever.

PS We flew SEA -> AMS -> Rome then did Florence ->AMS->SEA on the way back (of course with corresponding legs to/from Idaho). The only thing I would do different is to fly to AMS the day before the flight back to Seattle, otherwise you have to take an early, early flight from Italy to AMS. I've done that a couple of times, from Florence and then last year from Milan and have decided in the future I will overnight in Amsterdam to avoid leaving for the airport at 430AM or earlier.

From FLR you can fly to the following major EU hubs with multiple daily flights (number of daily flight pairs):

FRA with Lufthansa (6)
CDG with Air France (5)
FCO with Alitalia (4)
MUC with Air Dolomiti (a subsidiary of Lufthansa) (4)
AMS with KLM (4)
ZRH with Swiss (part of Lufthansa) (3)
MAD with Iberia and Vueling (both part of IAG) (2 or 3)
I'm not going to mention flights to hubs with less than two flights a day.
Pisa has more flights but mainly for intra Europe flights with low cost airlines. Traditional airlines offer more options from FLR. Delta has a seasonal flight from PSA to JFK 4 times a week from mid June to August.