Check my itinrery please

Looks like a great trip. Day 19 looks a little jammed; driving in the hills, even if distances are not far, can take more time than you think (especially looking for parking). Glad to see you're going to Arezzo, you might also visit Sansepcro which is very near, and has more of Piero della Francesca's work.

You've chosen some of my favorite places!

You have a lot of traveling around between places and not only do the travel days eat in to your time but you also have your luggage to consider. Have you thought about picking a few bases and doing some of your one nighters as day trips? From personal experience I would check out the train schedules and travel times between places, driving times for when you have a car, parking possibilities in the towns you intend to visit when you have a car and plot your trip on a map to see how much back tracking you will be doing. On my last trip to Italy I wish that I had done this as I wasted a lot of time on trains and in train stations.

Not going to see the Last Supper in Milan?

Is this your first trip to Italy or a return visit? It seems like an awful lot of moving around. You start the trip by relaxing and then build up to frantic travel.

Is this in June or November? By micro managing the stops have you have how will you respond to bad weather?

I hope that you have a mental reservation that says, "we may have to bag some of these plans." Even after 29 years of travel in Europe, I find that somewhere along the line, due to getting lost, or transportation problems, or even just fatigue, we have to skip some things. My eye is on days 18 to 21 of your itinerary, which seemed very jammed to me. I wouldn't move to Siena for one night. You can easily go there as a day trip from Florence. Unless you are planning to buy ceramics, there is no reason to visit Deruta. Chiusi, in my opinion, has one significant attraction, the Etruscan museum. You could see the one in Volterra and eliminate Chiusi. I suggest you choose a base for 4 or 5 nights, staying at an inn or agriturismo, for visiting as many of the hill towns as you have time and energy to do. Here's just an example. Back in the last millenium (1997), we rented a cottage in a village near Lake Trasimeno. In two weeks, we were able to do day-trips to Arezzo, Montalcino, Montepulciano, Cortona, Ovieto, Assisi, Perugia, Spello, Montefalco, Urbino, Gubbio, and Deruta (yes, we bought ceramics). I suggest you get a good map to choose a base. Being near the A1 is very helpful. Check driving times on www.viamichelin.com, remembering to add up to 25% to their very optimistic estimates. We have found that it's not unusual to need 1.5 - 2 hours for a 50 mile drive in rural Europe.
Buon viaggio!

Remember that the first and last days of your trip is coming from and going to the airport, and are wasted days. So are the days you travel from place to place.

I would suggest you start in Milan and take the hour or so train ride up to Lake Como.

Then take the train back to the Cinque Terre going through Milan.

I would suggest skip staying Lucca and go on to Venice via train.
Then come back down to Florence city center for 3 day/nights.

You can rent a car as you're leaving the city, and move 20-30 miles south into Chianti to an apartment on an agriturismo.

From there, you can hit the hill towns like Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena as day trips.
The drive down to Orvieto is easy from Siena, and Orvieto is a great place to take the train into Rome and points south. Don't forget to visit the incredible Civita, just southwest of Orvieto.

You have put many, many cities to visit on your itinerary. I think when you get there, you'll find that you really won't want to visit them. It's just not physically possible without pushing yourself too hard, and many hilltowns look like the next.

sandy,

Your Itinerary is quite "busy" and I suspect you may not get to all the places you listed. Your Profile doesn't indicate where you're from, but I assume you're flying from North America, so will be dealing with jet lag for the first few days.

I'd suggest a slightly different order after you leave Lago di Como, perhaps something along these lines....

• After Varenna, train to Milan and then to Cinque Terre (there are several direct trains each day from Milan to Monterosso, and the travel time with those is quite reasonable). It's easy to get from there to Vernazza using the local trains (you can check the Trenitalia website to find the travel solution that works best for you on that route).
• Train to Pisa & Lucca
• Train to Venice
• Train to Florence
• Bus to Siena. I'd have to spend some time working on the hill town part after Siena, but there appears to be too many one-night stops.

A few other thoughts that occurred to me....

1. How are you planning to "see Amalfi Coast"? That's a considerable area to see in one day!
2. Why are you using Bus from Sorrento to Rome? An easier method would be to use the Circumvesuviana from Sorrento to Napoli Centrale and then Freccia train from there to Rome. Keep in mind that there are only a few Buses every day, and as I recall they arrive at Tiburtina station in Rome rather than Termini. That's not a huge problem, as its a short trip via Metro to reach Termini which adds an additional step to the journey.

Good luck with your planning!

Day 16: yes it's a good idea not to stay in Siena with a car. Siena has a lot of traffic restrictions in the historical center, just like Florence. You can spend the night anywhere in that area: SanGimignano, Colle Val D'Elsa, Monteriggioni, Volterra or anywhere in between. Consider however that even the smallest villages now have restricted vehicular access to the historical center (roughly within the ancient medieval City walls), therefore you need to be careful to choose a hotel that will be accessible with a car.

Day 17: neither Montevarchi nor Arezzo are in the Chianti. Greve is the biggest town in the Chianti but accommodations can be found anywhere in that area and nearly all of them are accessible by car. If you decide to stay outside Chianti, between Montevarchi and Arezzo, I would go for Arezzo, unless you are addicted to Prada like my wife (the big Prada outlet is in Montevarchi). Arezzo is prettier and bigger, therefore more to see and do. Arezzo also has traffic restrictions in the historical center, especially near the Corso (Corso Italia, the main street) and Piazza Grande. If you have seen the movie "La vita e' bella" (life is beautiful) the double Oscar winner by Roberto Benigni, you might recognize some of the filming sites, it was filmed in Arezzo, especially Piazza Grande.

Day 18 to 21. Of all those towns, Orvieto and Todi are the southernmost. The way you have it planned you have some backtracking. Plot them all in a map then have a logical itinerary from North to South.

Day 22: no reason to drive back north to return your car in Siena. Leave Orvieto for last, the southernmost main town and return the rental there. All the rental companies are near the station. From Orvieto, without your car, take the train south to Naples and surroundings (Amalfi coast, Sorrento etc.)

Taking the bus from Sorrento to Rome is a good idea (instead of the train to Naples, then the train To Rome). However I don't think the bus operates in winter, therefore check with the Marozzi company or the Curreri Viaggi company (the operators of the bus service).

Everything else is perfect in my opinion.

Thank you all for your input, I really appreciate advise from other travelers who have been places before us. This will be our first trip to Italy. We have done a similar trip in France. We like to see major towns without dealing with cars, yet also rent a car and just drive thru hills, country sides to take in views. We wanted to drive thru some areas Day 19 to 22, not necessarily stopping and seeing all IN the towns, just what we can, or strikes us. I would love to know if we rent the car in Sienna, then can we turn it in in Orvieto for sure- would change the itinerary then to just keep going south, then on to Sorrento.
I DID wonder why Rick Steves says to go directly to Cinque Terre from Venice??
It seems like going to CT from Milan would be closer??? I would like to stay in a main hub area to see Day 17 to 21, any suggestions of a good town would be appreciated! SS