Connections and Questions: Italy in September

Posted by k7pbymark on 06/22/15 04:42 PM

Greetings fellow travelers!

We need your guidance and assistance. We are trying to reduce the number of hotel changes from 5-stops to 3 destinations and want to ask for advice on our upcoming 17-day trip.

We arrive at Milan and will visit the museums and World Expo (3-Days), then plan to move onward to Florence by train.

Will riding the train from Florence to Venice be practical over 2 or 3 days to allow for an excursion along the Brenta and visit the outer islands (Murano-Burano)?

We expect that local bus services will allow us to easily make day-trips into the Tuscany region (Volterra) from Florence.

Our next move on the map of Italy would take us to Salerno by train. We think this would allow us the geographic (and time) advantage of taking day-trips into Rome (3-Days) as well as making it easier to reach sites along the Amalfi coast, Pompei, Paestum and perhaps down the coast as far as Maratea (6-days). Our other idea was to use Nettuno/Anzio as a base, but the rail connections south, might make for some very, very long days.

For the final leg of the journey, we want to use the train to for the trip back into Rome from Salerno and the outbound flight via FCU.

With the Rick Steves' EuroRail connections for rail passes, we see the 8-Day version for less than $700USD for both of us. Any comments on 'riding the rails' across Italy would be outstanding!

We look forward to your comments and any special points of interest, people to visit with and places for sunrises and sunsets to add onto our Italian must-do list. She's bringing her watercolour kit along and plans to paint her way across Italy.

69-days and a wake-up before this amazing journey begins!

Posted by Kathy

Minnesota 🎒

06/22/15 04:57 PM

16776 posts

Will riding the train from Florence to Venice be practical over 2 or 3 days to allow for an excursion along the Brenta and visit the outer islands (Murano-Burano)?

You mean taking 2-3 days trips FROM Florence? If so, I'd say no. You'll spend a total of 4 hours on the train (at least two each way) from Firenze S.M. Novella to Venezia S. Lucia. I would personally opt to stay in Venice than waste this much time - and money - in transport every day for several days. If you have three days for Venice, then I'll suggest staying in Venice.

Our next move on the map of Italy would take us to Salerno by train. We think this would allow us the geographic (and time) advantage of taking day-trips into Rome (3-Days)

I'll say the same here: you'll spend at least 4 hours in transit - 2 hours or more each way - to make a day trip from Salerno to Roma Termini. If you have three days to devote to Rome, I'd stay in Rome.

Eliminating locations/hotel moves makes sense when an itinerary involving multiple locations is tight or when only a singular day trip to a more distant location is in the plan. But in your case, you'd expend a lot of sightseeing time and money dealing with trains multiple times than you would if only using them once for arrival/departure.

Your itinerary could look like this:
Days 1 - 3: Arrive in Milan, expo Milan (3 nights)
Days 4-5: Venice (2 nights)
Days 6-9: Florence (4 nights) Could steal one of these days to add to Venice
Days 10-12: Rome (3 nights)
Days 13-16: Salerno (4 nights)
Day 17: Back to Rome for flight home (1 night)
Day 18: fly home (or do you have to do this on day 17 - in which case you have to steal a day from somewhere else?)

Does your 17 days also include a transit day from the U.S.? We don't usually count those in the total - as we don't count our departure days - so do you really have 17 IN Italy or more like 15?