Extending stay on front/back of Heart of Italy 9 day tour.

Florence was one of my favourite cities on a recent trip to Italy, and that's where I'd recommend you spend your after-tour time - otherwise you'll just spend more travel time and less visiting time. Other gems in Florence that aren't on your itinerary that you should consider include: the Bargello, which has some amazing sculpture (I've read someone say it is to sculpture as the Uffizi is to painting); the museum of the Duomo (Opera Duomo) - it has a low profile and isn't nearly as crowded, but it holds some of the real gems of Florence's Duomo and Baptistery that have been moved inside to a safer place. It was truly incredible; the Medici Chapel, designed by Michelangelo, which has some lovely art in addition to the expected sarcophagi; Boboli Gardens, a 110 acre park that is part formal Italian gardens (with artwork) and part rambling woods. It's behind Palazzo Pitti, on the Altrarno side of the Arno river.

I also really recommend the gelato at Gelateria Santa Trinita (on the Altrarno side of the Trinity Bridge) - I had at least one daily. And, aside, the best view of the famous Ponte Vecchio is from Ponte Trinita (Trinity Bridge). And if you want a good, casual al fresco, pizza, grab one to go from Gusta Pizza (also Altrarno), and eat it in one of the nearby squares or outside the Palazzo Pitti. (They do have tables, but they're almost always taken).

I would allow myself at least two days prior to a tour so that you have a buffer in case there are issues with your flight and also allow you to do some adjusting from jet lag. We did the Best of Rome starting at the end of October. We had flown in couple weeks before and planned to arrive to Rome from Florence. We ended up getting to the hotel just a few minutes prior to the start of the tour due to metro issues. We decided for any tours in the future not only would we plan to arrive the country a couple days prior, but also the city a few days earlier. One of the days we were in Italy a general strike for transportation workers was called. It ended up not impacting us, but if we had needed to get to our tour that day, we may have not been able to get there had we been outside of Rome. We also stayed 5 days following to do some additional touring.

We enjoyed what we saw of Tuscany, especially Siena. We liked Florence, but we think we'd like the wine cities outside Florence more. We plan to return for the smaller cities of both Tuscany and Umbria.

Congratulations on your upcoming tour! We have not taken that tour but are taking Best of Tuscany having taken Best of Rome and Sicily this year. After many RS tours let me add this advice: if you can get there a day or two sooner than you plan. The day you land you’ll likely be very fatigued and not up for much, so hard to plan activities that day. Sometimes wandering, eating, sleeping are your best bets. If you have another day before your tour you’ll be much better and able to do things your tour doesn’t. There is a lot to see in Rome. For food and wine hard to beat a food tour. This company has them in both Rome and Florence https://www.eatingeurope.com/italy-food-tours/. We’ve taken the Trastevere tour in Rome and it was great. We are taking a food tour with them in Florence this year. If your inclinations are toward art, the Borghese Gallery in Rome is not on your tour and very worthwhile of a visit. http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/visita/visit-the-galleria-borghese. Timed admissions so get tickets in advance. This next one was a surprise we visited in Rome on the advice of our RS guide the great Sarah Murdoch https://www.palazzovalentini.it/domus-romane/index-en.html. You need to book an English tour (not hard). You are walking on clear floors with the excavations below you while the tour is narrated. Get there on time or no tour! It was great! After our tour this year we are going to Bologna and Parma by train. We love to eat and drink and those towns are not on any of the RS tours. You can certainly spend your day or three in Florence after the tour as there is much to do. The tours are active and we always enjoy a day or two after doing a cooking class, wandering, spending long afternoons at lunch, cafe time watching the world go by, not necessarily visiting museums ad churches, although we have done that. Have fun!

Head to Rome two days pre-tour to recover from jet lag and to visit places not covered by the tour.

Another couple of recommendations for Florence: the Capella Brancacci and the Museo San Marco. They both have some wonderful frescos, in place as originally intended. Fra Angelico lived in San Marco when it was a monastery, and painted frescos in many of the monks’ cells, upstairs.

Uh let's see, I think this is vote #3 for getting to Rome 2 nights ahead, lol! This was my first RS tour and my first trip to Italy and it was wonderful! Just the right amount of big city and smaller town sights.

It looks like you may be trying to minimize your days off but I'd still try to arrive on Wednesday, meaning you'd leave the US on Tuesday. There is so much to see in Rome that you'll find plenty to do on the extra days and getting out in the sunshine will help with jet lag.

I'd agree also just to stay put in Florence for your 2 extra nights. I'd not want to bother to change locations for that short a time. If you had 3 nights I might suggest Venice but I'd not do it just for 2 nights which is really one full day.

Lots of great info in the posted replies, I'll add heading to Italy in May and starting in Rome will likely jump start your Italia love affair. I value adding minimum 2 nights prior/post tour and prefer the ease of staying at the tour hotel. Heart of Italy is terrific in its location variety and giving members quick tastes of big city and small town experiences. Having more time in Rome accomplishes the help-you-get-over-jetlag issue and allows you to add something as wonderful as visiting Galleria Borghese while you are there. Or maybe choose a Walks of Italy small group tour that could be a market visit and pizza making/eating activity or a tour that includes visiting the Capuchin Crypt. Staying longer in Florence allows you time to take a joinable small group tour with toursbyroberto.com and spend a full day on a Tuscany wineries tour. Or, take yourselves on (easily done, short train ride) a day jaunt to Pisa to get your very own holding up the leaning tower pic so many folks love to capture. A smoother tour experience will be greatly helped by being organized and more of a minimalist in the packing aspect of traveling. Peruse closely the tour itinerary for all the timing, site details and suggestions of things to do that are not included on the tour. Soon as you have the hotel list, virtually walk around the neighborhood and familiarize yourself with the area. Read the guide book cover-to-cover -- it's perfectly fine to skim at first but taking the time to drill further down and really bone up on where you are going to be visiting will reap tremendous rewards when you are there. If you want to know what other people have thought about this tour, check out the reviews on this site. These are short blurbs and insights provided can be repetitive but, there are lots of specifics that can be super helpful to be aware of and some provide input on the RS guide and the local guides which can heighten your anticipation of having a memorable tour. Enjoy making your plans and have a fabulous time.

Have we convinced you to add an extra day before the tour? You don’t mention where you are traveling from, so it’s hard to gauge your potential for jet lag and whether you are used to big cities, but Rome can be chaotic for the first time. Adding an extra day pays off in helping you be ready to get the full benefit of the tour. Like Pam, this tour was our first RS tour and it did hook us.

But, because we didn’t do enough to familiarize ourselves with Rome prior to the tour, we didn’t care for it on that trip. We loved every other stop, but had no desire to return to Rome because it felt so crowded and chaotic. This past summer we took the RS Southern Italy tour, added extra days and extra research on Rome, and now we love it. If you look up Cameron Hewitt’s blog on this website, he has some great insights on Rome and how to navigate the city and fall in love with it.

Our one other note about this tour concerns the stop in Volterra, We did a wine tasting where the place had the option to ship their Brunello wine home. We always regretted that we didn’t do it. You mentioned liking wine, so maybe check the price before you leave. Then you’ll know if the offer presents itself whether you want to do it.

It’s going to be a fabulous trip.

Another vote for arriving two days before your tour begins. We regularly do this when we are traveling with a tour group. I do this for two reasons. First of all, I can never sleep on the overnight trip to Europe, so I like knowing that I can stumble through my arrival day and still have some free time before the tour begins. I hate to start a trip still feeling tired from my flight!

My second reason is based on previous travel experiences. Flight delays and last minute changes can happen. Connections can be missed. If I have two extra days before the tour, I have a safe buffer to allow for any flight issues and still reach the first meeting of the tour group without feeling rushed. After I've paid for a tour, I want to make sure I take advantage of it!

Enjoy your trip to Italy!!!

Thanks to everyone who replied to my questions. Your suggestions will help us greatly I'm sure. We will book to leave Indiana on Tuesday so we can be in Rome for a couple extra days and then we will plan to stay in Florence until Sunday to do the same on the back end.

Hey jljowens! My husband and I are also booked on the Heart of Italy 9 day tour! I did something most will think is crazy, probably. I made the decision for us to travel directly to Venice upon arrival in Rome. We'll stay at a hotel there and return to Rome the next day to meet up with the tour. I had felt bad that we were going to miss Venice taking this shorter tour. Hopefully, we'll enjoy the high-speed trains.

Well, you will miss Venice from what I’m reading. You need to clear immigration at FCO. Then, hopefully, get the direct train to Venice, a nearly 5 hour ride. Once there, get to your hotel and collapse. You won’t have the time or energy to do much of anything. Next day, repeat the long train ride and hope there are no strikes or other disruptions that prevent you from getting to your tours first meeting. I love Venice, it is a place I return to often, but to try and visit it like this is not worthwhile in my opinion. Stay in Rome, there is so much to see, save Venice for another trip.

You will be sorry you didn't add more time to each end. If you can do it, then I'd be thinking more of adding a week on at least one end and maybe each end. There is so much to see in Florence itself and it would be thrilling to spend time in Lucca or Siena but of course build your add on s based on what you already saw. Again there is so much between Rome and Florence. A week in Tuscany would be fabulous.

The cost of getting there is so huge, that you should IMHO maximize the time you spend there.

Thanks to everyone for your help and advise. We are limited on the front end so we will stay put in Rome and try to see a few things on Thursday before our tour begins in the afternoon on Friday. Once the tour ends in Florence, we plan to stay an additional 3 days in Florence and soak up as much as we can. We are just so excited to experience Italy and feel that with the limits of time we have, this will be a great first taste of a country we have wanted to visit for many years!

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