First Time in Italy - Itinerary for Family

I like plan one. It leaves you time to decide while you are there in Venice Rome or Florence if you want to go somewhere else on a day trip.

Sometimes you may find the price of airfare a big factor in the decision where you fly in and out of.

If plan one, suggest going to Ostia Antica from Rome, rather than a long grueling day trip to Pompeii from Rome.

If plan two, spend a 3rd night in Venice and one less in Florence.
With Siena and Florence being 50 miles apart, perhaps consolidate ?
Visiting Pompeii from Sorrento is much easier, than from Rome.

From what you have posted here either plan works. How important is seeing Pompeii to you is your decision and how much inconvenience you are willing to endure, will be the guiding factors for your choice of plans.

1. ARRIVE Venice (3N)
2. Venice
3. Venice
4. Train to Florence (5N)
5. Florence
6. Day to Pisa+Lucca
7. Florence
8. Day to Siena
9. Train to Sorrento (4N)
10. Day to Capri
11. Day to Pompeii
12. Day to Positano
13. Train (via stop in Naples) to Rome (4N)
14. Rome
15. Rome
16. Rome
17. DEPART Rome

If you fly into Venice, chances are you will first fly into another major European airport and then take a 1-2 hour flight info Venice.
And let me warn you about those early morning flights out of Rome. They usually fly you to another European airport where you will sit around unti! midday for a flight out of Europe. I prefer to fly out of Rome later in the morning and preferably to North America in our case.

Thank you all so much for your helpful replies. I'm going to run them by the family later.

Joe, I hadn't even considered Ostia Antica. I need to read up on it more. My husband, who's the only one who has been to Italy, thinks that we would like Pompeii. I myself am flexible either way.

David (in Brisbane), I love the itinerary that you suggested and have been appreciating all your posts here. Thank you!

David (in Florence), thanks for tip on the flights. If we leave from Rome, we'll avoid early morning for sure.

Thanks again everyone. If others have thoughts to share, do please post. I always love and appreciate the feedback and fabulous tips here.

Then someone else mentioned that Milan has non-stop flights to and from the U.S. That would be ideal, but since we're really focusing on that area, I guess that that option is out

I'm not sure understand what you mean. If you are focusing on Milan area it would make sense to fly in and out of Malpensa Airport. If you missed a "not", be aware that Milan is only a "short" train ride (appx. 4 hours) from Venice.

You might want to try https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Grenada-Country/Venice to get some more options - but I don't see anything with less that 9 hours of air time.

Plan one would be my choice. Two nights (plan two) is simply not enough time for Venice as you will probably be jet lagged the first day. Sorrento (also plan two) is south of Rome and that will require back tracking to return home. The fewer relocations you have the better. It almost always takes more time to change cities than anticipated. In addition to the actual travel time, there is also the time needed to check out, get to the train station, get to the new hotel, check in, unpack, and etc. Just food for thought.

Your plan 1 is good but David’s (from Brisbane) is best.

For your flights.
Flying to Venice VCE and returning from Rome FCO is best for your itinerary.
From GND your options are limited.
Basically either Delta Airlines via JFK or ATL or British Airways via LGW.
Both airlines fly to both VCE and FCO from those airport hubs, although I think Delta flies from ATL to VCE only in summer (from JFK to VCE should be all year).

Thank you again everyone.

i..p enersen, you are correct. I wrote that incorrectly. We will be flying out of Miami, not Grenada, but thank you anyway. 9 hours of flight time would be perfectly fine. More than that and too many stops would not. I need to do more research.

TC, thank you for the reminder of not having too many relocations.

Roberto, thank you so much. Yes, as stated above, I forgot to mention in my original post, that we won't be flying out of Grenada. We'll be starting from Miami.
A question for David, you, and anyone else who may know:
Our family is leaning towards plan 1. But we're also interested and open to David's plan. Pros, cons? I guess the pro is to see more wonderful places and the con is that we may get tired from trying to cover too much? Sorry that I'm so indecisive. It's hard when I haven't been there before.

Thank you all again so much.
I apologize for not being clear. Although we live in Grenada., we will be flying out of Miami.
Now, we're undecided between Plan One and David from Brisbane's plan.

If you are indeed a bookaholic, you might want to visit the Aqua Alta Bookshop in Venice http://en.venezia.net/2014/02/04/libreria-acqua-alta-library-in-venice.

I would vote for Plan One. Four nights in Venice on your own is plenty, in my opinion. We had five nights there, including time with the RS VFR tour and, honestly, would have been fine with less time. Whereas, I so wish we would have five nights, rather than three, in Florence, as we totally fell in love with the city. Would love to go to Siena, though it wasn't part of our trip last May. And you could spend weeks in Rome!!

I would also definitely vote for flying into Venice and leaving from Rome. Afternoon, jet-lagged arrival in Venice wasn't too bad, but can't imagine negotiating vaporetto, buses, etc. for an early flight out. Our flight from Rome was late morning, pretty easily handled via flat-rate taxi arranged by our hotel. If you're craving an Egg McMuffin after all that time in Italy, there is a McDonald's somewhere in FCO, but almost everywhere else offers the usual European pasty, fruit and coffee breakfast.

Thank you all so much for your incredibly helpful replies.
I love that bookstore in Venice and we'll be headed for sure!
David's plan sounds great. My only concern would be that it doesn't give us time to stay in Siena and I've heard so many wonderful things about it. Staying in a hill town like that just appeals to me. Then again, I've never been and I could be wrong. Maybe a day trip is sufficient after all?

Consider flying out of Miami. There are no less than 5 airlines that fly to Venice and return from Rome. Though you’ll be able to find direct flights from FCO to MIA, all flights to Venice require at least 1 stop. The flight from Grenada to Miami is 1 1/2 hr. faster than flying to Atlanta.

Philip, yes, I tried to post earlier that we will in fact be flying out of Miami, so that definitely makes it easier.

Thank you all for these great replies and tips!

Hi Bookaholic,

My family of 5 adults (1 in his thirties, 4 in their sixties) just did 3 weeks in Italy in September with roughly the same plan.

I would vote for Plan 2 with slight variation:
2 Nights in Venice
3 Nights in Florence
4 Nights in an Agriturismo just outside of Siena (you could take one night off and add it into Rome)
3 Nights in Salerno instead of Sorrento, that way you can see Paestum AND Pompeii
4 Nights in Rome.

LSD

Thank you all so much for your very helpful replies. I am going to read them all to the rest of the family.