I am visiting Italy for my first-ever trip to Europe. For 2 weeks I will be cycling out of a bike hotel in Gabicce Mare (along the Adriatic Coast.) Afterwards I want to extend my visit for another 8 days. I am planning on following Rick Steves' suggestion to visit Rome, Florence, Cinque Terra, and Venice if you have 8 days. I am flying home out of Venice. In which order do you recommend I visit the above locations. I will be traveling by rail. My initial thought is to go from Gabicce Mare to Rome, then Florence, then Cinque Terra and finally Venice. Thanks for your thoughts.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16236 posts
The most logical way is to do
GABICCE
VENEZIA
FIRENZE
CINQUE TERRE
ROMA
Fly home from Roma.
If your flight home is already set in stone and is from VCE (which would not be my first choice due to the difficulty of reaching VCE airport in the early morning), then I'd do exact reverse of the above list (GABICCE Rome Cinque Terre Firenze Venezia)
Posted by
San Antonio TX, United States
2393 posts
That is a lot to cover in 8 days - is that 7 nights?. I would drop one - probably CT.
Gabicce - Rome 3 nts - Florence 2 nts - Venice 2 nts
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
While it may be Rick's suggestion to see four places in 8 days, it wouldn't be my idea of a good time. This is particularly true since Florence, Venice, and Rome are stuffed full of art, history, etc and can be quite overwhelming on a first visit. It's no accident that Stendahl Syndrome is named for something that happened to Stendahl in Florence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal#Stendhal_syndrome
Pick three of these at most, but preferably two, and actually enjoy them.
As always, do follow Roberto's suggested order and his tip about trying to end in Rome rather than Venice if you haven't bought your flights yet.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
Rick's suggestion is definitely based on 8 nights or more, with 2 nights and 1.5 days at each stop. It assumes an early start each day and moving pretty quickly.