First time to Italy--couple's trip--8 days

Are you heading to Italy this Sept?? Do you already have your flights booked? It sounds as though you do not lodging reservations. I'm traveling close to your dates, and booked my lodging in December 25/January 26. You are more than likely to face limited lodging options and more expensive pricing.

Are you locked into your travel arrangements? If not then I have some major revisions for you. Hint -- both Naples and Venice are not good arrival or departure cities. And I assume we are discussing 27.

Is your flight booked in to Naples, rather than Rome already? Because you will be jet lagged on the 26th don't expect to get much done, but do try to stay outdoors & awake until at least 8pm. Rome is an exhausting city, but has lots of great things to do. Would you prefer to stay as close to the train station (Termini) as possible since you will be arriving at night? (Assuming your flights are already booked.) I think you are trying to see too much, especially since this is your first time. I'd cut Tuscany out of your planning even though it is one of my favorite spots in Italy. My favorite spot to stay in Venice is Al Ponte Mocenigo, but it appears to be booked. I'd start searching with Booking.com to see what is still available, but be sure to book directly with the hotel.

2026 September. We are not in a position or situation to plan or book 6-8 months in advance. Flight already booked into Naples and out from Venice, cannot change. Yes, I have not booked any accommodations yet, Planning to do it today. Hence asked if there are any recommendations for stays in Rome, Venice and Florence? Should I plan one extra day in Florence? Is it too ambitious to think we can see most of the Florence landmarks/attractions/museums/in one day and do the Tuscan countryside Chianti the next day? Or should I plan 2 days in Florence and 1 day for Tuscany countryside?

It’s o.k. Book ypur trains ASAP.
my wife and I stay in convent/monasteries in Rome,Florence,Venice. Check if there is any vacancy at www.monasterystays.com if you are interested, although it is probably too late.

wandering around in Naples for a bit on 26th

WIth your luggage in tow? And you're gonna be dragging from the flight. That might end up being a wasted day.

Visit the Tuscany countryside on October 1st

I would cut this. Enjoy Florence for one more day/night. And to really enjoy the "countryside" you'd want a car.

Is there still time to book the high speed trains between these cities?

Yes, but prices for high speed trains tend to increase the longer you wait and some might sell out (most popular trains seem to be around chkec-out time 9-11a). I would book high-speed trains now from Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice.

9/26-29 - Rome (4)
9/30-10/1 - Florence (2)
10/2-4 - Venice (2)

I specified in my first post that we are only bringing carry on luggage and I read up that there are options to store luggage in Naples area?

We were in Naples for several nights last fall, and I’d have a great hotel suggestion, but you’re just there for part of a day. Not sure where you’ll be able to stash your suitcases, if you don’t want to be toting them around Naples until you catch your train to Florence.

I used to use VRBO, but they haven’t worked so well lately, and I’ve used Airbnb a lot in the past 3 years, including in Rome and Florence. Venice has been many years ago, and unfortunately I don’t think the outfit I used twice to get apartments in Venice, Vacanze in Famiglia, is around anymore. One thing about Airbnb, make sure they’ll accept a just-a-couple-of-nights stay.

I would want 2 days, minimum, for Florence, especially if you’re spending one day touring Chianti.

The last train we took from Rome (Termini Station) to Florence (Santa Maria Novella Starion) was a super-fast Italo train, very smooth journey.

If you add a day to Florence, would you be taking that away from Venice?

8 nights on the ground.
Not sure why you are flying to Naples if you plan to Rome the same day.
In your shoes I would do 1 night in Naples, 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence, 2 nights in Venice.
Too short and too rushed, but if you want to see all 4 cities in 8 nights that is what I would do.
VRBO/AirBnB is something to do for longer stays or bigger groups, but in a rushed trip like yours I would do regular hotels. Less hassle with checking in and out and meeting hosts etc..
For hotels Im not recommending anything since so late in the game many I might suggest may have no vacancies at this point. Go to Booking.com and search for your dates. You can filter by type, amenities, price, etc.
for Naples stay not far from the central station (Piazza Garibaldi) to minimize time to the station.
for Rome you can stay anywhere close to what you are interested in seeing. The city center is larger than other cities, so you need to select.
For Florence anywhere in the city center works. The city center is small and walkable.
For Venice anywhere works. But given the short time I’d stay in Cannaregio or San Polo, so not too far from the station or Piazzale Roma.

Flight to Naples was about $450 cheaper per person (believe it or not) as opposed to Rome. Not planning to spend night in Naples, going to Rome that night after spending afternoon in Naples. Yes, I know I am late to the game, was hoping to get some hotel recommendations that people here may have used and liked.

If you are leaving the US on the 26th, you will not be there til the 27th and if you leave on the 4th, you will not have much time that day since you will need to be at the airport 3 hours prior to your flight…..so you are actually looking at 6 days that will also have to include travel between cities. I would take a calendar page and mark your days out including train travel, hotel checkin/checkout times to visualize what time you actually have. For example, you aren’t going to see much in only a couple of hours in Florence. You are really late for booking accommodations but look at booking.com. to get an idea of what’s still available…good luck!

You have 8 nights and can’t change flights

Honestly I would skip Florence this trip-you just don’t have enough time

Spend 2 nights in Naples
What’s the point of flying in to Naples but leaving that day for Rome? Makes no sense to me
(If you don’t think Naples has enough of interest you could see Pompeii or Herculaneum, take a ferry to Capri or Ishia or Sorrento)

Or if you really don’t want to see Naples then take a train to Rome right after arrival
Fast trains run several each hour
Dragging around Naples jet lagged is a waste of time
Yes there are luggage storage places but that is a time consuming hassle

Train to Rome 3 or 4 nites-make a list of what you want to see and do (can you still get tickets for those venues?)

Train to Venice-2 or 3 nights (I would opt for 3 here-it will take half a day to get there etc)
Figure out how you will get to airport for your departure flight

You can book train tix once your itinerary is firm
Use the official sites, get their apps
Prices do not increase but discounted tix may be gone

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
https://www.italotreno.com/en

Go to booking.com and get lodging booked asap

I don’t think you will be seeing any “green hills” this time of year

Absolutely agree about skipping Florence on this trip.

What is the price limit for hotels in Rome and in Venice?

In your shoes I would do 1 night in Naples, 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights
in Florence, 2 nights in Venice. Too short and too rushed, but if you
want to see all 4 cities in 8 nights that is what I would do.
VRBO/AirBnB is something to do for longer stays or bigger groups, but
in a rushed trip like yours I would do regular hotels. Less hassle
with checking in and out and meeting hosts etc..

I'll agree with all of the above. As well, you could skip Florence and do Naples> Rome> Venice but I"m a huge fan of Florence so it''s hard for me to tell you to skip it. No, you can't see it in a day, and you need to be cognizant of attractions that have closure days, usually on Mondays. Additionally, many of the most-visited attractions in Rome and Florence require advance, timed-entry reservations. I don't think "green hills" fall into a rushed plan with 4 major cities over 7.5 days...and that 1/2 day being a potentially jet-lagged one.

As suggested by several other posters, go to www.booking.com and search per your desired per-night budget. You do need to book as quickly as possible as it'll still be very busy in Rome, Florence and Venice.

"I don’t think you will be seeing any “green hills” this time of year"-- this is what I was wondering about. Would we get to see the much photographed and described rolling green hills and lush beauty of Tuscan countryside during this time of the year? my visit was planned for October 1st or 2nd. If most of the land is going to be tilled and brown, it takes away from the beauty. I was debating between Chianti or Val D' Orcia area? Do either of these regions make sense during this time of the year? Any advice on this would be so appreciated!

Adding my voice to the chorus, I think cutting Florence is the best way to relieve the pressure on this itinerary. I’d also second staying at least 1 night in Naples. Naples is rad, and with a day you can see stuff to rival any other city.

For all its treasures, I didn’t love Florence the city so much compared to say Rome or Venice (or Naples tbh.) I think it’s a hard, expensive place to try to dip into on the fly.

If Venice accommodations look outrageous, you could look into staying in one of the Veneto towns like Padua. It means you’re day tripping into Venice, but these are also great towns. Padua has regular bus service to Marco Polo so it’s convenient too.

Tuscany is famous, but for green countryside in late September/early October consider going to the Veneto region and to beautiful places like Verona, Padua, Treviso, and some smaller medieval towns. All easy by train. Also there are hills full of of vineyards like the Prosecco Hills. Renting a car or taking a tour for that. You could skip hot and crowded Rome and Florence entirely, and just fly straight from Naples to Venice. You will find available and less expensive hotels and apartments (except maybe in Venice), and plenty of architecture including ancient Roman. Sorry to be up-ending your trip, but this is the option I would go with in the short time you have and given what you say you'd like to experience in Italy.

Having not been to Naples, I can’t make many recommendations. It looks like you can take a bus from the airport to the train station. They have luggage storage where you can stash your carry ons if you want to walk around Naples for a bit. Then you can pick up your luggage and hop the train to Rome.

The Airbnbs that we have stayed in are unavailable during your dates. As others mentioned, I would try booking.com or look for the popular neighborhoods that those on the forum typically recommend. In Rome, we like to stay near Campo d’Fiori or the Pantheon. In Venice, we love Cannaregio. Cannaregio would also be convenient for you as it is closer to the train station. You might be cutting it a little tight on dates, but since many places offer free cancellation until 30 days out, perhaps you will luck out!

We prefer less rushed travel so I would recommend skipping Florence. That would allow you to add time to Rome and Venice. As others have shared, you could add a day trip from Venice to give you some of the “green rolling hills”.

In the fall, the Tuscan hills are golden, as the leaves have turned. Green hills are in the Tuscan spring.

We like Hotel Ai Mori d'ORIENTE for Venice, in the Cannaregio neighborhood - no crowds, just charm.
What is your budget?

Good luck with the planning.

Here are forum search results for hotels in Rome - all of the favorites will turn up - whether available on short notice is TBD:

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Hotel+rome&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Instead of Florence you might consider a night or two in Orvieto, which is on the slower train line between Rome and Florence. It's technically in Umbria, but should give you an experience similar to a Tuscan hill town. To get to Venice you would take a Regionale to Florence then transfer to a fast train for the remainder.

There is a left luggage service at the Naples train station (Napoli Centrale). Also, there is a public bus from the Naples airport to the train station (maybe a 30 minute journey).

A walled Tuscan village that you can reach by train (in about 70 minutes) from Florence is Certaldo. You would see countryside on the journey and from views from some places in Certaldo.

So now are we also going to Val d’Orcia and Chianti on this same trip? Without renting a car I suppose.

This trip reminds me of the movie “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium”.

In any case, I can assure everybody that Tuscany is not California, therefore the hills will be largely green, except for the occasional wheat field. Maybe not as vibrant green as in spring, but green nevertheless. The trees’ foliage might start turning yellow however, but the grass won’t be yellow and ugly like we have in California now.

Below is the Chianti in October 2024.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hb65W2cwi9KSAyqN7

A few thoughts:

1. I cannot imagine visiting Napels without seeing Pompeii.
2. The magic of Venice is in the morning and evening, when the day tripprs are not there. See https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/ for more info.

These are just my thoughts. Your Mileage May Vary

Hi there, welcome to the Forum. There has been some great advice here, (except for adding any extra destinations.) Naples isn't bad to flying INTO, no hassle, it can be awful to fly OUT. You can always find a place to stay, why not start your search on Booking.com to see whats available. .

Sure, drop off your bags at Naples central station, it's where you'd catch your train to Rome anyway. Good luck! If you really wanted to see the Tuscan countryside from more than a train window, I would consider taking a day tour. Hey do let us know if you think of changes you'd like to make to this itinerary so we can follow along with suggestions!

I agree with the advice of several - on arrival, proceed to the train station to store your luggage. Even “just carry-on” is still luggage. When you see the craziness of Naples, you will be glad you did. Get a specific plan of what you want to see in Naples even if it’s just wandering. Otherwise you will have wasted that time in Naples. https://www.througheternity.com/travel-guide/naples-in-a-day
This seems like a good site for ideas. We had a driver from arrival in Rome to Sorrento and stopped in Naples for about 2 hours, just enough to get a feel for it. But we didn’t have to navigate luggage, directions, etc. So have a plan.
Then get to Rome and be prepared to crash!

We stayed at the Hotel Raffaello on our first trip, walkable from the train station (but maybe a taxi that first day) but also walkable to the major sites. You didn’t specify your budget and I don’t know about availability, but you might have some luck in that area.
If you want to see Florence and a bit of Tuscany, I would take a day from Venice and spend 3 nights in Florence. Again, have a plan! If Venice is a “check the box” stop, 2 nights is plenty. I know many will disagree with me, you can certainly spend many days there, but you will still get the Venetian experience with 2 nights.

We rented a car in Florence and took a day through Certaldo, San Gimignano, Siena and back to Florence. It gave us all the Tuscan feels! The vineyards should be ripe then - maybe? We stayed in an Airbnb between the train station and the duomo. It is not available any more- but that was a good walkable area.

Good luck, you have a lot to do in the next few days - don’t delay!!!!

You have 14 days of travel crammed into 8 days. It's just too much. Eliminate 2 of your cities or extend your trip
You're traveling during at the tail end of peak season and haven't made reservations yet. Check Booking.com for prices and options
Using Naples just as an airport here isn't great. Rebook transatlantic to a central/southern European gateway & take discounter to FCO
VRBO/AirBnb are unnecessary and inefficient with this type of trip. More time wasted meeting managers. Do hotels.
Airfare is expensive to you. Spread that fixed cost over more days and build a better trip.
Carryon luggage - Smart, do this! Packing light is liberating and you won't need a lot. Check discounter size limits though

Naples and Venice are not good arrival or departure cities

Really? Why not? I'm referring to Naples (having never been to Venice) and I arrived there on my last trip to Italy and LOVED it.

If you do go to Florence, a hotel that we liked was Hotel Albani Firenze on Via Fiume 12, Santa Maria Novella. It is on a quiet side street only a couple of blocks from the train station. It is easily walkable to the Duomo and the squares of Florence. Breakfast was very good. There are only a couple of rooms left on Booking.com.

...for Naples stay not far from the central station (Piazza Garibaldi)
to minimize time to the station. for Rome you can stay anywhere close
to what you are interested in seeing. The city center is larger than
other cities, so you need to select. For Florence anywhere in the city
center works. The city center is small and walkable. For Venice
anywhere works. But given the short time I’d stay in Cannaregio or San
Polo, so not too far from the station or Piazzale Roma.

The advice above is worth repeating. Be cautious that hotels you are looking at fall within city centers. Rates further out may look attractive but could be a time-wasting distance away from the things you want to see. All 3 of the "Holy Trinity" cities (Rome,Florence, Venice) are atmospheric places to walk after dark and in the early mornings so you'd want to easily be able to take advantage of that. :O)

Plenty of great advice given here. My two cents would be to reduce some of the moving around. An eight-day trip is short, I am confident will love Italy enough to return in the future. Every time you jump on a train to move to another city, you lose time. Personally, we never stay less than two nights in one location – prefer a minimum of three nights. We find Italy’s cities to be more enjoyable at night.

Most importantly, you have only three weeks to find lodging, make train reservations and if you plan to visit top attractions, you need advance tickets. Hop to it. For hotel recommendations: In Rome we have stayed at Albergo Santa Chiara, Hotel Nazionale and Hotel dei Consoli. In Venice we stayed at American Dinesen Hotel in Dorsoduro neighborhood – they have a dock which makes water taxi convenient. In Florence we stayed at Hotel Monna Lisa (currently closed for renovations) and Palazzo Niccolini al Duomo. We have only used AirBnb once in Rome and made sure we selected a local host. We do not support investor rentals when we travel. Enjoy your trip.

We found the train stations in major cities to be very large and hectic. It takes more time than you might think to navigate each station. Also, they typically don’t know the track (bin) number until about 30 minutes before departure time.

For your walk, on the east side of the Plazza Garibaldi in Naples, consider visiting Sfofliatelle Attanasio, a bakery that makes the famous sfofiatelle pastry.it is open 6;30 am to 7:00 pm daily except Monday.

We do not support investor rentals when we travel.

Amen

So it’s an AI generated itinerary with a cruise from Venice (or whichever actual port) at the end?
The cruise bit is not mentioned here-says “leaving back home from Venice”
So maybe the arlines tix are not actually booked-hard to tell

JMO but drop the cruise and add all those days to the main itinerary

Seems the responses/reactions from TA posters same as here

Not much point in responding any further til we know all the actual firm details

I’m exhausted reading this proposed itinerary.
If the OP and partner are in their fifties, there’s a great chance of returning to Italy another time.
Have they settled on a more realistic timeline for this trip?
I hope they got accommodation.
I booked mine 6 months ago, and checking now out of interest for the dates of my upcoming Italian trip, there is virtually nothing in between “extremely bad” and “give us your first-born child and all your bank accounts before we even consider letting you book our beds.”

Thank you to all who gave excellent suggestions and advice! Much appreciated. Yes, I had checked into chatgpt to generate an initial itinerary to help with planning, being my first trip to Italy. Booked flight tickets from US to Naples inbound and leaving from Venice outbound, so I can travel South to North without double tracking. Also tkts to Rome was much much more expensive! We finish our trip on Oct 4th in Venice and then I proceed on a Mediterranean cruise with my girlfriends from Marghera, Venice, which is also already booked and done. I dock back in Venice on 11th and will have the day to explore Venice by myself, till my night flight back to US from Venice. I know I am pretty late to doing the hotels, train and sightseeing tickets, so I am feeling quite anxious on that. Some of our trips overseas have been with tours, so the plans are taken care of. This time I am planning and it is exhausting and overwhelming. I am not finding reasonable accomodations, as can be expected, but I am hopeful things will work out in the end! Thank you once again for all your time!!
And to the one who quipped that now both Chianti and Val D' Orcia are added- my query was --which city would experienced people here choose between the two? Not adding both to my plan. And I am glad that we have become movie stars now :)

Chianti and Val D’ Orcia are not “cities”
They are regions in rural Tuscany

Both really need a car to explore

Can you change anything or are you 100% locked into this fight plan?
I would try to limit it to three stops in 8 days. Still hectic but realistic.

Your "south to north" idea is great except only makes sense if you have enough time to do it. You don't. You have 7 days and you are spending 2 of those changing hotels. You are trying to do way too much

“We do not support investor rentals when we travel.”

That cuts down most hotels.

In any case, individuals and families that rent on Airbnb the apartment in the city where they grew up and inherited from the parents to move away from the hectic city centers (some are my childhood friends in Florence) are also investors.

In OP’s defense, given that the first partial day is a walkabout in Naples, they are really talking about 3 cities in 8 days. And all they have to do in Venice on the last day is get to the cruise port. If they do 3 nights in Rome and 3 nights in Florence, this is definitely a doable itinerary. For a first trip to Italy this will be a good Taste of Italy and will leave them wanting to come back for more! The real problem is securing lodging. This late, they either can’t be too picky, or up the budget! Have a great trip!

I am sorry but most people do not seem to reading through my original or subsequent posts. I did NOT make that comment--

“We do not support investor rentals when we travel.”
I do not even know what that statement means !!!

(That comment came from Roe).

If you have actually settled on a firm itinerary we can probably help you find lodging.

Tell us what your budget is, what your needs are- AC, elevator, type/# beds? etc
I just looked at booking.com for what I assume are your dates for Rome and there are a number of places available.

You keep bringing up Tuscany so I must assume that is a priority.
Have you considered skipping Rome and giving time to the Florence/Tuscany portion?
As it is you just don't have time for everything- at least not for more than a drive by/check it off your list..

The most reasonable hotels tend yo be close to the train stations. We have ended up in some we did not especially like, but always enjoyed our experiences exploring the cities, none the less.
We like to use the map feature on Booking.com to see where hotels are located.

I also like to note where the main parks are located (like Borghese gardens in Rome and Parco Otto Viotolle in Florence) for when we need a peaceful break with some greenery.

I don't know where you live or how used you are to using public transportation, or how used to walking 2 miles you are, but many people looking at a map of Rome, Florence, or Venice think that places are much farther from each other than they are and/or that using buses and other public transportation is much more difficult than it is. Use google maps to check walking or public transport times --- you may be pleasantly surprised.

For example, in Rome, we often stay in Testaccio fairly near the metro station and can get to anywhere in Rome quickly and easily by metro, bus, or walking. Try looking for a hotel room in that area. Or in Venice, look in an area farther from San Marco and then walk or use the excellent and fun (although pricey) vaporetto system.

Anyway, that's where I would look for last-minute, less expensive accommodations: more out to the edges than either near popular sites or next to train stations (although in Venice there are nice areas a short walk from the station).

People here will help you!

In Venice, we stayed at the Hotel Al Codega. My biggest suggestion is to see if there is a you tube video showing exactly how to get to whatever hotel you chose from the Grand Canal. All those alleys, canals and bridges look alike! Our hotel was behind a wall in a courtyard. We would have never found it without watching a video first!!!

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions. I was able to find pretty decent accommodations in both Rome and Florence. I am a fairly active person and do not mind long walks/hikes. In fact what I have read about Italy is that the beauty lies in getting lost some and wandering. We will spend 4 nights Rome, 2 each in Florence and Venice, for this trip. I am excited for our first ever trip to Italy.

PS: I would appreciate it if people would please stop linking my Tripadvisor posts to my discussions here. I realize both forums are public, but I prefer to keep my participation on the two sites separate and don’t feel there is a need to cross-reference my posts across platforms. Thank you for respecting that.

PN, about previous linking of the TA thread....
Some of us work across multiple travel platforms and it's not that unusual to notice questions from the same posters, about the same trips, on those other platforms as posted here. That's fine; not a bad thing to gather input from multiple places! However, you were including additional information on the TA thread that hadn't been included here and which would have been useful when trying to assist you. There was also a posted itinerary that was different than what you'd had people working with here. With time very much of the essence, both were of concern.

It only made sense that there was interest among those trying to help you pull a trip together, and who were aware of both conversations, to get down to the brass tacks with whatever was available to work with. Look at it this way? Just as you can gather information across multiple platforms, so can we. Fair's fair? Shoot, a helper on the TA thread made mention of this one so sharing went both ways. All good. :O)

Have a great trip!

If you let us know where you booked in Rome and Florence, we may be able to recommend nearby restaurants and sites we liked.

I am sorry that you are getting some advice that you are not happy with but that is a problem with public forms. The advice given is given with good intentions even if the results are not what you expected or wanted. But this also a classic example where holding this discussion six months early would have been beneficial.

There is one piece of misinformation I would like to correct. --- prices for high speed trains tend to increase the longer you wait and some might sell out ----- That is not true. Assuming something has not changed in the past 18 months, fares do not charge over time like US airlines. All fares are set on day one and stay that way to the last day. However, there is a pool of discount fares that may be available. It is a set number of deep discount tickets (no change, no refund) that are available for each train. It is a limited number and once sold out, they are gone. They are available on all trains except regional trains. So buying earlier is necessary to get the cheap ticket.

In your situation you probably have missed the opportunity for the discount tickets so I would buy the tickets as you need them. That gives you the max flexibility to use the trains on a very tight schedule. With your limited time and a planned tight schedule you need maxmium flexibilty. Italian rarely, if ever, sell out. And they are frequent enough that the need for lots of planning is min.

Good luck.

I read all of your posts but stopped reading all the criticisms.
I hope you have fun.

My wife and I were in Naples several years ago and we inadvertently walked in circles.

this was on my list of things to see and we didn't get to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMJ4SwdBf8
For me, it is a key reason to want to go back!!

There are SO many things to do in each major city that you'll be choosing based on availability and your interests.
If you still don't have your Florence location booked, I'd suggest getting a place in the historical area. I makes walking, dining, everything more "in the heart of why you're there"

You are visiting my favorite foreign country. I have been to all the places you mentioned, some several times.

Your itinerary is very, very rushed, spending too few days in every location. You will hit some high spots but miss a lot.

You will need to go back at some point.
Next time research WHAT you wish to see in each location. TripAdvisor.com is a great source, use "things to do in ------"
Then plan how long it will take to see those places. Also, you will need to make reservations in advance for some key sites, like the Vatican Museum and the amazing Sistine Chapel. Also, doing the Coliseum and Forum.

Visiting the Tuscany countryside would be best done on. a day trip from Florence, but frankly, you should stick to Florence. One day in Florence is just plan ridiculous.

Personally, I don't use Airbnb or VRBO since most of the time those places are not in as good a location as hotels. They are better for large families.