December 2024 Venice/Rome Trip

The best, and most scenic way is to fly into Venice, ( then out of Rome.) Flying into Venice is easy and avoids train travel while jet lagged, and while being new to international travel. Safe travels!

Cindy, welcome to the Forum. The knowledgeable posters here will help in big ways. However, besides the wedding, what are your interests and have you reviewed any travel guides for Italy? Here are some general tips to start you off:

Read Rick Steve’s’ Europe Through the Back Door for an overall lesson on traveling in Europe
When looking at flights, search on Google Flights or Kayak for best options, then book direct w/airline
Book into one city and out another ( called multi-city on most airline sites)
Do you have any interest in Milan or Florence? Are you looking to include either city in your trip?
How many people in your party? How many nights total for the trip? Where in the US are you flying from?

Cindy, come back here with some answers to these questions and we can narrow down whether it’s best to fly into Milan or Florence.

Welcome CindyB!
How exciting - we love Italy, Rome and Venice are definitely our 2 favorite European cities and we’ve been to both multiple times.

You’ve got lots of time to plan. First get yourself some guidebooks.
Rick Steves are very good and you can buy just the Venice and Rome books or the full Italy book. You can purchase on Amazon for faster shipping.

Meanwhile start reading thru this forum, it’s a wealth of info
Here is more:

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy

The hotel you have mentioned is nice and in a good enough location, although a bit too far for sites other than the Vatican. We prefer to stay in the Centro Storico- the historical center. Anywhere near the Pantheon which is dead center Rome is perfect. You can walk almost everywhere in Rome from there.
Look on Booking.com, set the filters for location, budget, amenities, etc and see what you like.

Provide us with more info and we can be more specific in our advice.

ETA
if you want to visit Florence it is very easy to fit between Venice and Rome. All by trains which are fast, inexpensive and fun
Venice-Florence-Rome is a very common itinerary for first timers, otherwise known as The Holy Trinity,

Thank you to all for your input and help. We did think about Florence after Venice and before Rome. We are flying out of Newark NJ and right now plan on flying back from Rome. I will definitely look into Rick Steves' Rome and FLorence books, I was just given the Italian phrase and dictionary by Rick and it's great. I come from Italian heritage so I can understand some Italian, but it's been many years since I've been exposed to understanding/speaking it. I'm not sure what I would want to see in Florence or Milan, but I definitely want to go to the Trevi Fountain, vatican if possible and some of the ruins and St Peter's Basilica. We plan on being in Rome about 3 - nights.

I’ve in Venice for Christmas. Friend had an apartment there by the Park of Remembrance. Away from the masses.

Definitely buy and read guidebooks on Italy. Doing so will help you decide your itinerary.

Have heard about Venice’s acqua ta? It’s real. Helps to be prepared to experience it in December.

Are you walkers? Will you be traveling light as in one piece of luggage. Look at YouTube videos on Venice to see arched walkways over the canals.

Definitely fly open jaw ( into one city, out the other) .

St Paul’s is massive. Book a tour that goes inside before it’s open.

I chose to go to confession and took communion.

Remember thinking so this was what the Sunday collection plate was about.

Florence is lovely. Lots to see.

We were in that region at the exact same time in 22/23.

From what I gather, is you have 5 nights in total, correct.

With this in mind, consider the following

Fly into Venice directly, and spend 1 to 2 nights. Book in Doges Palace and St Peters Basilica
Walk round, get lost and take a 70 euro gondola.
Get some good gelato, and have a good meal. Depending on where you stay, there are plenty of good restaurants, (And also some traps)

Fast train to Florence. You probably will only have one night here unfortunately. Climb the Doumo, See Uffizi if you have time, and catch a glimpse of David at the Academia. We spent 7 nights in Florence, so, just picking out one day is so hard.

Fast train to Rome. Book a Vatican tour, book Colossuem, see the Palatine Hill. If you have time, check out Borghese. Again you a re limited on time, so do the highlights.

We actually found the new years period to be fairly busy, but not as busy as summer. New Years day was in Venice for us, and it was busy. Got quieter during the week

We were there 26 nights, so have just picked out a highlights tour for you. Plenty of options, depends on what is important to you.

Trent

Getting to Venice from Marco Polo Airport. [Make sure you have seats on the right/starboard side of the aircraft, for a view of Venice as you arrive]

Do take a look at your hotel website – there may be info there. Otherwise,

1. Water taxi will get you close, maybe to, the door of your hotel. Can carry about ten people, will cost about €140 for the boat. No need to book, taxis are waiting at the Marco Polo dock.
2. Shared water taxi. Minimum of two people. Book in advance, wait at the desk in the terminal for the others sharing the taxi. Costs about €30 per person. Google “shared water taxi Venice”, use the venicelink dot com web site. Will get you to a vaporetto stop near your hotel.
3. Alilaguna ferry, as per below.
4. Bus to Piazale Roma, then walk to your hotel, or take vaporetto to the nearest stop. Buses leave from the outside the terminal, tickets at the machine.

Water transport in Venice.
1. Gondolas. Only for pleasure, not for transport. 90 euro for half an hour for the boat, more for evenings.
2. Traghetto – big gondolas, two oarsmen, about ten passengers, for crossing the Grand Canal. Found at Rialto, San Toma and a couple of other places. Cost 2 euro per trip, can save a heap of walking.
3. Water taxis, which are like a floating limo, costs to match.
4. Vaporettos - ACTV. Are like a floating bus, operate on a bunch of routes. Get the app Chebateo for routes and schedules. Vaps do not service the airport. Vaps are not water taxis.
5. Alilaguna ferries, service the airport, run from Marco Polo via a bunch of stops to the main part of Venice, Murano and Lido. They stop at some, but by no means all, vaporetto stops.

Trent, We are going to Venice first for my niece's wedding 12/28 - 1/2. Her wedding is actually 12/31 so we'll be in Venice for 5 days, then we plan to either go to Florence for a day or 2 then to Rome for 3 days. I think while we are in Venice my niece has a few things planned, so I'm not worried about there. It's where to go and what to do after as I would love to see Florence & Rome. I also would love to go to Tuscany, but I'm not sure that anything will be open at that time of year. Thank you for your input though.