First-time Italy trip basic itinerary review

Hello Natalie, welcome to the forum - you've clearly done your homework and have some great ambitions.

It sounds like you have your "must sees" covered and you say you have rest days planned in which is always one of my suggestions - especially in Tuscany where the slow pace of life is part of the charm.

My thoughts:
Are you going to be in shape to rent a car and jump into Rome airport traffic and head off right away? I don't know how long your flight is but be realistic about hitting the ground running with potential jet lag and long flight disorientation. There is no shame in taking a day to get your bearings, get cash, get SIM cards, etc.

I would absolutely plan all of your car days adjacent to one another and then ditch the car before Venice and then switch to trains for transportation. Car rentals are expensive and should be managed into as specific a period as possible. I say "Do Tuscany" and then drop the car - Chiusi is a common suggestion and I have done this in Orvieto - and then get on the train to Venice. Then Venice to Rome on then train to Sorrento/Amalfi if you want to do that. Trains between big cities are often as fast or faster than driving and outside Tuscany a car isn't needed unless you have some really specific destination off the beaten track.

Sorrento may be enough Amalfi coast for you. It is super convenient to Pompeii and you can take the bus or ferry (depending on time of year) to see Positano, Amalfi etc as a day trip.

Not upend your plans completely but you could fly into Rome, train to Sorrento and explore Amalfi before taking the train to somewhere to rent a car and do Tuscany. After that train to Venice, train back to Rome to finish and fly out. If you came to me with your list of wishes I would probably suggest something like that.
And to further confuse things if you were fly into Rome and out of Venice I would suggest Rome (land) > Sorrento > Rome (visit) > Tuscany (car) > train to Venice and fly home from there or something similar. That way you're only really travelling in one direction pretty much South to North.

Just my thoughts. I did a similar trip - see Rome > train to Orvieto and rent a car to spend week staying outside Castellini in Chianti and it was great. But I didn't see as many towns as I wanted to because Tuscany gets inside of you. Remember when Frances says that the distances in Tuscany stretch out and things seem far away? It's true. We spent our last precious day in Tuscany walking through the town buying provisions and then spent the afternoon eating prosciutto, bread and cheese while drinking wine and then napping in a hammock looking over vineyards. Now it seems crazy I didn't squeeze in a day trip to Montalcino or Pienza but at the time if was the obvious choice. I know Montalcino will be beautiful and have wine, but it's beautiful here and we have wine here too! I hope you find the same thing.

I'm sure you'll get tons of great advice. Have a great tip!
=Tod

4/10 arrive in Rome, rent car, drive to Tuscan coast - Porto Ercole or Porto Santo Stefano

You do well driving after what is likely to be an overnight flight?

Cortona to Positano is a 6 hr drive( add for lunch/fuel stops) so 3 nights will give you 2 days to do the AC area. So one day for Pompeii and one day for 'the rest of it'. Your decision on whether that is enough time.

In addition to the cost of 5 days parking in Venice, there is the possibility of the car being damaged. Dropping off and re-renting is definitely worth considering.

Driving 6 hours after arrival is not sensible. Stay 3 nights in Roma, rent the car on the way out.

Italy has either the best train system in Europe or the second best (Germany being the other). Trains are fast, on-time, and not expensive.

So, what is the point of driving? Renting a car to leave it for 5 days in a parking lot is questionable. You will need the car for your stay in the Tuscany villa, but the rest? As to the notion of "Florence, Volterra, Chianti, etc" - Florence is a 3 day stop by itself, depending on what you want to do.

In addition, Italy has the ZTL - zona traffica limitationa. Basically, these are sections of many towns with limited or no driving. The fees are steep, the rules are difficult to understand for a foreign driver.

I would map out Italy destinations from a train perspective and drive ONLY in remote rural areas. We were in Italy for 21 days and used only trains. Define the days, use Rome2rio for times and such, and determine where you need the car.

I would get right on your stays. Depending on your budget, you need to make arrangements fairly soon for hotels, etc. 4 months is not too soon.

Italy has either the best train system in Europe or the second best (Germany being the other

Not at all; Switzerland has the best. My last two trips to Italy 2021 and 2022 the trains were always running behind schedule undermining my vacation time.

I'm in agreement with not doing a long drive after an overnight flight--and of course it depends on your flight schedule--but an hour and a half is one I would (and have) done. It's also not a difficult drive, just a zip up the coast, then some winding roads at the end (but that part is brief). I do urge people not to drive on arrival for three or four hours through windy Tuscan roads.

I would not pay for a car and pay for parking for five days.

I'd save the Amalfi Coast for a future trip.

We were there Sept-Oct, took 7 trains in N Italy. None were more than 10-15 minutes late. We always make sure that our schedule accounts for minor difficulties. We enjoyed the train system. I'd take it again.

@ Tod- thanks for the info on Tuscany. I love the idea of spending an afternoon or two just imbibing the food and atmosphere. In planning, I feel like I want to see every village and city I've ever read about, but it's unrealistic to think we can see all of them in 11 days. I can't imagine I will hate it, although people have said that you can overdo the hilltown theme and get sick of it, so I would rather leave wanting more than be anxious to get out and wish we were somewhere else.

Our agenda of flying in and out of Rome is set- from where we live it's a nonstop flight and is much shorter than flying into Milan, which is the only other real choice based on airline and home airport. The week in the place outside of Pisa was decided for us as it was a gift, so everything else has to revolve around that week. We could theoretically see Venice before the Pisa side of Tuscany, but I don't want to be in Rome the week of Easter and I was hoping to wait until towards the end of April to see the Amalfi coast if we go there, because the weather gets warmer as the month goes on. It just seemed better to do Venice after we've had some adjustment to Italy, but I could be wrong about that. So we could fly into Rome and go on to Venice and then work our way down. (Right now we have reservations for our apartment in Venice so that would have to be changed.)

@ all comments - As far as trains - due to reasons I'm not going into here, we rent cars when we travel. So aside from Venice and Rome, we will need a car. That's why I asked if it's a good plan to drop the car at Venice and then get another car when leaving Venice, and that sounds like a consensus, so I'll look into the price differences in doing that. Sometimes longer term rentals are more affordable.

How long is the minimum you would stay in Positano for a first time trip to the Amalfi coast?

@Val and @Paul as for the driving and flying, we have always rented a car and driven to our nearby destination when we land, and because of the flight times, this trip won't be as hard as the others. It's only about 90 minutes or so from FCO to Argentario. We thought it would make a nice soft landing without having to drive a long way or burn a night at the airport. And, my husband is one of those annoying people who actually sleeps for hours on the flight! (If it were up to me I would have to spend the night and then drive bc I'm not one of those people.)

I agree, Natalie--I think there was some confusion above about what the actual drive time is.
I would want four nights for the Amalfi coast, but I travel kinda slow and do a lot hiking. The hiccup is that Pompeii is a long slog from there. Some people stop en route from Naples using a private driver. You won't want the car on the coast--traffic can be nightmarish, parking expensive, and they are now regulating traffic--with the ferries, you really don't need one. Porto Ercole actually has scenery somewhat similar--the natural part anyway (the villages are not as scenic), and you can drive the coastal road without having to pull over for buses, etc.

@Val thanks so much for that input! I would love a week everywhere - but if I keep stretching out my trip I'll never come back:) So maybe it's best to skip Amalfi coast this time.

Well, personal choice to drive is yours to make. Read and understand the ZTL situation in Italy. I am unaware of any other country in Europe which has this system.

Back to your itinerary. With 28 days, I think you should fit in the Amalfi coast. I know you want to prioritize Tuscany, but you have 14 nights dedicated to it. I would drop a day from Eastern Tuscany and a day ( at least) from Rome and do Amalfi and Pompeii.

Regarding how many nights in Rome, I think it could be a bit too many. For context we did a 28 day trip many years ago ( and with kids, so very different experience). We had 4 nights and felt it was enough. This time with a two week trip we did 3 at the start and 2 at the end and liked that. Rome has so much to see, but is also overwhelming at times.

@Lisa - thanks for the input on the number of days. Maybe we should cut a day from Tuscany and a day from Rome? That would give us 5 nights in Amalfi.

Natalie, since this is your first trip to Italy, download this guide to driving there. There are several rules unique to italy, which if not observed, results in some pretty steep fines.

https://italybeyondtheobvious.com/
Yellow banner & bottom of page.

The change from Lisa makes a lot of sense. It will enable you to enjoy, rather than rush this beautiful area.

Consider this path change. It will save several hours of travel time, 3-4 hours and make this a circular route.

Arrive Rome. Train to Chiusi Chianciano.
2 1/2 hours. Rent car here drive to Cortona
55 minutes.

Cortona > Venice. 4H. Drop car.

Venice > Florence. Train 2H13m. Pick up car drive to Salvatelle 1H05m.

Salvatelle > Porto San Stefano. 2H30m.

Porto S.Stefano > Naples 4H10m. Or, to Salerno 4H30m (drop car)Ferry to Positano 40 minutes. You will not need a car here. Ferry’s are running in April.

Ferry from Amalfi to Naples, 50m then Train to Rome 1H10m (Italo Treno or Trenitalia.com). An option would be train from Salerno to Rome. 2H07m.

Edit: https://www.travelmar.it/en/timetable-from-april-2023

You’re going to have a fabulous time.

@Lisa thanks for the info. As I've said, for personal reasons, we are going to drive and not take the train (except for perhaps a day trip here or there) but I thank you much for the link about driving!

I have another view . I think you should spend the days you have allocated to Rome. You have a lot of time in Tuscany. You are going to be doing quite a bit of driving. Rome has so much to see. We recently went on our 5 trip to Rome last month. . Daughter was studying abroad in Rome. She actually is on her flight home as I write this.

We still have not seen everything I wanted to see. We only had two weeks and went to Siena, Orvieto, and Naples too. I wish I had added one more day to Rome.

Hello again Natalie,

After reading your details and preferences I think your plan is pretty well thought out.

Rent a car at the FCO airport and drive to Porto Santo Stefano is probably under 2 hours drive and it kicks off your vacation. I don't have any input on the Tuscan coastal cities. The Tuscan don't celebrate their coast - you need to head up Liguria before you really hit coastal loving people.

Staying in Selvatelle several great cities are easily in range: Volterra (nontouristy hilltown), San Gimignano (very touristy but charming), Certaldo, Siena (the classic large hilltown), various other hilltowns, Pisa and Florence seems like a solid week of adventure and exploration.

The drive to Venice is going to be long - there's no way around it. I can't imagine you want to keep the car while you're in Venice. The advantage of renting and dropping at large locations is more vendors and (hopefully) better hours. You can sometimes drop a car without the office being open but you'll obviously need to have them be open when you pick up a new one. In my experience renting cars in Europe the car you "reserve" and the car you get can often have little connection to one another. Again larger city agencies will hopefully have more selection so you get something that works for you.

Venice is amazing and otherworldly. There's no other way to put it. Squeeze in some trips to the outer islands to get a real sense of the whole lagoon and the city's place in it.

Cortona on the way back puts Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, and Siena all within reach for however much you feel like exploring more on your way back. (Unless you feel like finding a hammock at this point. ;)

Given your description of your love of the ocean I want to recommend going to Sorrento but it is a really long drive past Rome and then back up to Rome again. If you were using the train I would recommend it but 5+ hours from Cortona to Sorrento or Salerno is a lot and the 3+ hours back to Rome together are a lot of driving.

Suggesting something out of left field (again):
Northern Tuscany > Ligurian Coast (Lerici, Chiavari, Rapallo, and yes CT) > pushing Venice forward > Southern Tuscany and then Rome (essentially replacing Amalfi with Liguria earlier in the schedule)
The drive from Selvatelle would be 1-2 hours north to the coast and drive to Venice is not significantly longer from Lerici than from Selvatelle. You could squeeze in a few days coastal ocean cities visit without adding much in terms of driving time.

Tips:
On driving, trains and shop hours be sure to keep track of what day of the week it is because it affects traffic and hours.
Make sure you take accommodation parking into consideration when booking reservations in small towns.
Don't drive in big cities - Florence and Rome especially - and in small hilltowns use the parking lot on the outer edge that the signs ask you to.

I hope some of this has helped, I'm jealous of the amounts of time you're playing with and I'm sure you'll have an amazing time,
=Tod

We never mix northern and southern Italy, rather give each region its own trip.
Focus this trip on the north. As an ocean lover also consider adding time in Portovenere, Santa Margarita Ligure or Camogli.

OP has made it quite clear that they will not be taking any trains anywhere

Sorry Christine. Totally missed the absolutely no train reference. Deleted my inappropriate post!

@SJS - no worries, and honestly if I could I would train, but it's not practical for us. I saw your post and thank you!

@Suki thanks! There's just so much to see. I want to see it all! But like I said, I think that's 3 months worth of traveling, unless you're 20:)

Would you skip Amalfi Coast and do Liguria instead? That was something we had thought of working in.

@Tod - thanks again! I was thinking that might be a good thing to do as several have suggested - replacing Amalfi coast with Santa Margherita Liguria/ somewhere in that area. That was actually in an earlier itinerary, so I'm going to check and see if I can move my Venice reservation up by a day or two. If not I think we could go in a day or two earlier and stay before the week in Selvatelle, although unfortunately that's Easter weekend. I appreciate all your thoughtful input.