Best route for a 10 night trip to Rome, Florence/Tuscany tour, Cinque Terre, Venice

You're probably anticipating that someone is going to say that your proposed trip is too aggressive, so I won't drag it out. I think you're trying to stuff too much into the available time. And you don't mention the time of year you want to visit. Will it be in high season when both crowds and heat will be complicating factors?

Your first day in Rome will be a blur of arrival, getting into the city, getting into your hotel, then seeing a couple of things while fighting the effects of jet lag and yearning for sleep. That only leaves you 2 days to actually explore the city. 2 nights in CT will only give you at most 1.5 days to explore the 5 towns, because you'll lose half of the first day in transit from Florence. 2 nights in Venice will give you only 1 full day to explore this great city, because over half of the first day will be spent just getting there.

So, as much as I hate to say it (and I really do hate to say this because I love the city), I think you should skip Florence on this trip, if CT is so important. Give an extra day to each of the other places so you'll have time to really enjoy them,

Since we probably won't convince you to skip anything, an easier travel route would be ...
Rome-CT. CT-Florence. Florence-Venice. While it will only save you 1 1/2 hrs travel time, it will eliminate the 5 1/2 hour train ride to Venice and give you a little more time in Venice.

Monterosso is the largest town on the CT. Better choice of lodging and restaurants. But I've also stayed in Vernazza and Manarola.

If CT is really important that I would either take 1 night away from Florence and add it to either Rome or Venice or skip either of the 3 cities and concentrate on the other locations. I feel for your decisions being tough to make.

Thanks for the replies! We are going this October (flights have not been bought yet but planning to land Saturday September 29th at 12pm and leave Tuesday October 9th 10am) I bet that is high season...

you guessed it-I was hoping to get the go ahead because of course we want to see it all and at the same time but at the end of the day we want to enjoy! We were told CT and Tuscany we would love since we love the countryside and walking/hiking and water cities but if we must cut to enjoy more we must cut......thinking maybe a day trip on the way to CT through Tuscany- but then the luggage thing...hmmm. Also we were told Venice is a see it once city...that it is really unique but so touristy we could do it in a day and be good so intentionally wasn't feeling to worried about less time there but I guess I won't know for sure until I experience it first hand!

Thanks for the travel saving time tips! Thats exactly what we needed to know!

I have some suggestions. You want to fly to Rome, as it is a direct flight. That means your flight from Venice isn't direct and you must be okay with that. I suggest you start in Venice. I have a couple of reasons. First, I've read that many people complain about the difficulty of getting to the airport early enough for their morning flight to the U.S. Your arrival wouldn't be a problem, plus it's really cool and not expensive to take a shared water taxi from the airport. Be sure to stay in Venice. The second reason is that Venice is a better place to acclimate yourself to the new time zone. Rome is like NYC on steroids and best enjoyed when you are well rested. You would have your direct flight on the way home, when you're tired from you whirlwind trip.

If you are going during the off-season, don't bother with the Cinque Terre. You will probably find many things closed. Use those nights in Florence and Rome in that case.

You can get a taste of Venice staying 2 nights if that's all you have. I don't know what your interests are, but if you want to hike and explore the towns in the CT I would spend 3 nights there and 2 nights in Florence.

Your proposed trip is too aggressive.

We spent 12 nights in Italy: 4 Florence, 2 Lucca, 2 Venice, 4 Rome

So your itinerary is almost doable. We did a day trip to Cinque Terre, frankly I thought that was enough. Lucca was far more magical. We also did a day trip to Tuscany for one of our nights in Florence.

I think that 2 nights in Venice is doable.

If you are really stuck on Cinque Terre, then I would skip Venice or Rome. I think 4 days in Florence and Rome are allowing you to just scratch the surface.

Transportation by train has been discussed in several responses, but the original question didn't mention the planned means of travel within Italy. While air travel involves trips to/from the airport(s), going thru security, being on the airlines' schedules, etc., there might be a cheap (or not) flight or two that could get someone to/from Venice and Rome and/or Florence that might be worth investigation, and might possibly offer speedy transport..

Our one visit (so far) to the Cinque Terra was one June, years ago, arriving by train from Nice, France. We showed up without a reservation, and managed to score the last room in Riomaggiore. Nice town, but the church bells in the morning made sure you got up early The Via del Amore trail was closed for repair, so that walk was not an option. This was before the area became a national park, though, and I know things are a bit different now. We used a combination of train and boat to shuttle between towns.

my two cents worth:
arrive Rome Saturday. Tuesday noon - train to CT; spend Tues evening and all day Wed and Thur there. early Fri am train to Florence; this leaves most of Friday, all of Sat, and most of Sun in Florence area. Sun late afternoon - train to Venice. Whatever you decide - enjoy your trip!

We were told CT and Tuscany we would love since we love the
countryside and walking/hiking and water cities...

Yo, Samantha! :O)
Here's where I'm getting hung up. Sure, Florence is IN Tuscany but it's a city. You will have 2.5 days for it and little of that for the "countryside". That's barely enough time to explore the city itself, depending on your interests. If not particularly into Renaissance art and architecture - which I love but you may have other ideas - then it's maybe not the best choice.

But you don't really sound all that jazzed about Venice? You might consider flying into Rome and going directly to Florence for 4 nights, then the CT for two nights, and finish up in Rome for 4 nights. That would give you more time for a day trip outside of Florence, like to Lucca.

Doing all 5 CT villages in 1.5 days isn't impossible but you'd need to cross fingers for fair weather both days. It wouldn't be all that much fun in rain and you most likely wouldn't be doing any trails. With the little time you have there are only two trails which make sense and those just happen to be the only 2 open of the 4 connectors on the most direct route between villages (the other two are closed to repairs). Those would be the SVA2 trail sections between Monterosso and Vernazza, and Vernazza and Corniglia.

samantha,

Your trip is a bit "busy" but certainly feasible. Does your travel time include your two flight days? You'll generally lose a day on the flight to Europe and arrive the day after departure, and the last day will be required for the flight home. The "usual" suggestion here is to fly into Venice and out of Rome. However since your flights are already arranged, that won't be possible.

Would something like this work......

• D1 - Flight to Europe
• D2 / N1 - Arrive Rome
• D3 / N2 - Rome, touring
• D4 / N3 - Rome, touring
• D5 / N1 - Train to Cinque Terre - use one of the direct trains from Roma Termini to La Spezia Centrale (travel time ~3H:45M) - from there use the local train to the C.T. town where you'll be staying (about 10 minutes or so). My favourite town of the five is Monterosso, so you might have a look at that.
• D6 / N2 - Cinque Terre, touring (use the local trains to get around - you can easily see all five towns in one day)
• D7 / N1 - Train to Florence - many of these will require at least one change and many will be Regionale so don't forget to validate your tickets prior to boarding on the day of travel, or you'll risk hefty fines - your destination station will be Firenze Santa Maria Novella.
• D8 / N2 - Florence, touring
• D9 / N3 - Florence, touring
• D10 / N1 - Train to Venice - use one of the high speed Freccia or Italo trains - your destination station will be Venezia Santa Lucia.
• D11 / N2 - Venice, touring
• D12 - Flight home - if you need information on how to get from Venice to the airport, post another note here.

Of course, there are many ways this could be arranged and this is only one suggestion. This includes all the places you listed. For your stay in the Cinque Terre, I'd highly recommend getting a hotel booked now!

I'd suggest packing along a copy of the RS Italy guidebook, as that will provide a lot of good information on sightseeing, minimizing time in queues, hotels, etc.

Good luck with your planning!

hey samantha
i would fly to venice out of rome. i've been three times to venice and still love it. you're the only one to decide, don't go by what others say, it's a magical place. venice has early mornig flights (6am) ugh don't cram too much in your short time, you'll be planning your next trip on your flight home. you will be on the go go go, look at eatingitalyfoodtours.com for rome and florence to learn about the city. wear comfortable shoes, lots of walking, check the mercatos (markets) in both cities. book early for any sites you want to see, what time of year, how crowded and long lines, check arrivals times, if you don't have early check in where to put luggage while waiting, trains schedule, remember checking in/out takes at least half a day that you have lost. (packing, check out getting to transportation, ride to next stop, check in again). where is hotel located? don't wanna burst your bubble but lots to think of. have a fabulous time, enjoy and raise your glass of wine.
aloha

We spent a week in Italy and visited the same places you plan to visit, including Cinque Terre. Arrived in Venice from London (our tickets from SFO were to London round trip), and then finally left from Rome. We bought train tickets in advance for Venice-Florence, and for Florence-Rome, and spent an evening in Pisa so we could get to Cinque Terre in an hour (from Pisa) the next day.

One thing we realized is that it’s easy to get an overload of museums, churches, and art in Italian cities. The Cinque Terre was a nice change from that. Also we felt that Venice had a Disneyland vibe to it, with thousands of people and long lines everywhere in June. Depending on what you really want to see in each city should determine how many days you need to spend. Although most people on this board would consider our trip rushed, we got a good flavor for Italy in our one week trip and managed to see all the important attractions in each city. Our itinerary was probably about the same as on some guided tours like RS or Trafalgar, but we had the flexibility to decide how many days for each city.

If we visit Italy again, it’ll probably be to an Agriturismo place.

I would suggest,as others have, that you look at starting in Venice and ending in Rome.

A 10AM VCE departure pretty much means a 430- 5AM wake up; looking at your plans I would not be surprised your sleeping through the alarm by that point of your trip. ( and your bag should be mostly packed the night before)

It is my contention that people who say 2 nights is enough time in Venice are mostly people who spent just two nights (thus 1 to 1.5 days) there, during which they mainly tromped along with all the other visitors between the train station, the Rialto Bridge and San Marco. That path is likely to be packed shoulder-to-shoulder. With extra time one can get into the back streets/canals, where you'll often be alone.

The list of destinations and the time you have available are not going to allow much opportunity for serendipitous discoveries, which to me are one of the major joys of Italy. And I think to go to Florence and not have a couple of days, at least, to see some of the smaller places in Tuscany is a pity. Assume you'll visit Italy sgain; there are dozens more worthwhile places to see. Don't try to hit so many places this time.

The Cinque Terre (which I loved, but I was fortunate to visit it before it became hellaciously crowded) adds a lot of travel time. I'd drop it or Venice. Or stay north and leave Rome for another trip.