First time out of country Italy trip logistics

The trip is coming up in 2.5 weeks? Have you already booked your accommodations?

Four days of your trip will be mostly spent travelling - not restful.
Perhaps cut Florence and enjoy your nature time more.
You can always come again.

You're off to a great start! Don’t feel pressure to see everything and everywhere—you’ve got your whole life ahead for that.
The Bolzano area experts will get you sorted, but as a hiker I’ll share that a site you may use at home, like AllTrails, may be useful in Italy as well, and of course local parks and nature areas will have trail and access info.
You have not included any details about what things you wish to see, and that would help others advise you on how much time to give Florence v Rome. Just don’t forget you can come back, and forget about relaxing that last day—go for it and sleep on the plane!

The only bad travel day I see is Bolzano back to Rome, so I would look into changing that flight home, but if you have your heart set on that area, it’s not a dealbreaker. If you share the month, we can share alternative hiking locations,

It will be this upcoming month in September! I know I can always come back but financially it’s taken a long time to save so this may be the only chance I get to explore this country. The goal of the trip is having a mix of adventure. I like the idea of seeing the old artifacts and museums in Rome but do not enjoy crowds or big cities. The goal with Florence was to continue looking at museums and history but take a day to Siena and explore wineries and more small town vibes. We are wanting nature whether it’s the mountains or ocean but away from crowds and big cities that’s why Bolzano was picked. I was trying to find hard hikes or overall gorgeous ones! We’ve talked about the train traveling and I don’t think we are too concerned with the train back to Rome(we already have the flights booked), I figure we get to sleep and enjoy the train experience! We tentatively have booked hotels but have insurance so can cancel anytime.

Could you switch your flight to be roundtrip to Milan instead of Rome? Then save Rome and areas near it for another trip. ”… just want to have enough time to see most not the whole city.”. Honestly, you are not even going to scratch the surface of Rome. You have an arrival night (will be jet lagged) and one full day.

I think it would help if you don’t double-count your days. For instance, you will be in Rome the night of the 15th and all day on the 16th. Florence is the afternoon/evening of the 17th until the 19th. Bolzano is the late afternoon of the 20th, etc. That gives you a truer idea of how little each location currently is given.

But before nailing down anymore specifics, check to see what lodging is still available & the cost of what’s left.. That may drop one of your options.

It appears that your trip is for THIS September, so a change of itinerary at this late date, on a budget, would be difficult. You can Google how to reach the closest hiking trails from Bolzano. Its a small city of over 100,000, so a cable car, bus or train may be necessary to reach them if you wont have a car. Here is a thread from last year with links for further information. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/hiking-near-bolzano

It sounds like you haven't arranged tickets for any of the main sites in Rome or Florence. Since September is still high season, you might want to look into that. Timed entries are required for many of the most popular sites.

In case it helps, we stayed at beautiful Moena instead of Bolzano our second time to the Dolomites. We took a bus from Trento. That may have better prices.

The plane tickets are already booked and we are on a tight budget, I wouldn’t be able to switch our tickets last minute unfortunately.

As to Florence, it's a city with many attractions. We stayed 5 nights and missed several. A side-trip to Siena? I would not do that.

If you are a museum person, the Uffizi and Academia are both 1/2 day items. The Duomo is also important. If you plan on the climb to either the Dome or the Bell Tower that will be several hours. Also the Pitti Palace and the Buboli Garden is quite a lot.

Restaurant suggestion: Restaurant Zeb. Get reservations.

I'd swap out Bolzano for Siena. We loved Siena. We spent 3 nights there. You can also go to San Gimignano on the way. Of the 7 Italian sites we visited, Siena was #2.

If you get up before dawn to explore Rome you won’t find it crowded at all. I stayed in a friends flat in the Jewish Quarter and was able to explore without hordes of humans. Have photos as in 35 millimeter film photos to prove it. Then again it was 30 years ago.

Pre dawn jaunts are fabulous ways to see cities.

Have enjoyed pre dawn jaunts to watch sunrises in Rome, Florence, Venice, London, Paris, Havana,
and most mornings in LA’s Griffith Park. Some humans but not uncomfortable masses

Hi there! What fun, you will see a lot and I hope you have a fantastic time. Since your tickets are booked, consider taking the train directly to Florence from FCO when you arrive? That saves backtracking to a second hotel in Rome. If you haven't booked a hotel, maybe stay in a convent (doesn't matter what or any religion, though some have an 11PM curfew.) https://www.monasterystays.com/?d=Italy-accommodation. You can book directly but it's a bit more time consuming.

You can choose to skip some of the major sites, like the Vatican, and instead go to beautiful, smaller 'Roman' museums. Here's a link about them - https://ancientromelive.org/palazzo-massimo-museo-nazionale-romano/ Combo ticket to 3 museums is only E15. Walking down the Foro Romano from the big white monument (Viktor Emanuele) to the Coliseum in the evening is lovely, no need to pay to enter! Frankly, with only a few days, I would skip going inside the Coliseum & the Roman Forum.

Use the toolbar on RS home page and type in your subject. You will pull up lots of threads, like 'cheap food in Florence'. It's quite helpful! OR 'monastery stay Florence' for example Good luck!

• Yup, it's a heavy schedule. See what the fare change/penalty/logistics is for switching your outbound to Florence. If it's less than $200, I'd do it. You could always skip Rome entirely and do RT to and from Florence.
• Try to add more days if at all possible. You're probably spending maybe $200/day on airfare. Spread that over more days and the cost per day goes down.
• I liked Bolzano. It's beautiful. But your schedule has A LOT of running around that I don't love it in this case.
  

But even the quickest, blitziest trips are fun and exciting. You're gonna have a great time.

This has been super helpful!! I was able to revise the trip I think to be less stressful and more efficient!!

YAY! That’s great. Feel free to tell us the latest itinerary & I’m sure there will be more ideas.

New itinerary!
15th-18th fly into Rome and take a train directly to stay in Florence
18th-21st Bolzano
21st-24th Rome.
Less moving around and still allows us to visit all the stops we are wanting!

Hi Sierra,
From Jean's previous post:

I think it would help if you don’t double-count your days....That
gives you a truer idea of how little each location currently is given.

That is indeed a truer look at sightseeing time. So your new schedule more accurately is:
9/15th-17th: Fly into Rome and take a train directly to stay in Florence. As you don't get into. Rome until the evening, you realistically have 2 full days for Florence.

9/18th-20th: Train to Bolzano. You have 2 full days and some leftover hours on the 18th to work with.

21st-23rd: Train to Rome. You'll have 2 full days + some leftover hours after arrival in Rome.

24th: Fly out of Rome.

While more than I'd personally want to do, it's also not MY trip so there ya go. :O)

I guess my biggest concern is that you'd mentioned several times that hiking/nature is #1 on your wish list for this trip yet you've only given it 2 of your 6 full days. Those other 4 full days will be in very busy cities: September is high season in both Rome and Florence. While I love both of the those cities dearly, I wonder if you'll be happy giving time "in the boots" so little?

I'm truly not trying to throw a wet rag on your plan; just wanting the trip for YOU that YOU would enjoy most. Additional concerns are accommodations: have you made your reservations? As well - and as previously mentioned - many of the most-visited museums in both Florence and Florence require advance, timed-entry reservations. You will otherwise waste oodles of time waiting in long ticket queues.

A fellow-hiker's recommendation for Rome? Our best day to date in that city was a long walk on the Via Appia Antica: The "Queen of (ancient Roman) Roads." We jumped onto it some 6 miles or so outside of the city and walked our way back in. Along the way are all sorts of interesting ruins: lots of crumbing burial monuments; the remains of an emperor's private circus; a wealthy individual's private bath; a couple of very old catacombs, etc. Getting out there in the early morning affords some lovely breathing room - you'll feel like you're out in the country - and while it's going to become busier that closer you get into urban Rome, it's a nice balance. Some of the attractions along the way do involve small entry fees, and we haven't done the Aqueducts section yet. Bring your lunch and your camera.

https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/regional-park-appian-way
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it/smart-info-eng/

A useful map I've bookmarked that I'm not sure is still on the website. Use only for historic background on stuff along the way:
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/via-Appia-Antica_ENG.pdf

I think the easiest way to start on a further end is to take a bus from Termini station to Ciampino airport: there a jumping-on point on the road VERY close by, at the end of Via dell' Aeroscalo. That road could be busy so be careful: you'll likely see a lot of cars parked on the side belonging to others hopping onto the Appia. Still, it's much shorter and less of walk along a busy road than what we did!

Someone posted some convent stays on another thread, thought it might be useful? We always stay in monastery/convents in Italy. In Rome both Casa Maria Immacolata and Casa Margherita Caiani are excellent. Check them and others out at www.monasterystays.com. You don’t need to be Roman Catholic ( we aren’t ) or even any type of Christian to stay there.

I realize this is getting picky, but to simplify trip planning, I like counting nights, not days.

So your trip, if I understand correctly, is :

Sept 14– fly to Rome

Sept 15-17- arrive Rome, train to Florence, 3 nights

Sept 18-20- train to Bolzano, 3 nights

Sept 21-23 - train to Rome, 3 nights

Sept 24 - fly home

And regarding your desire to avoid big cities, have you considered visiting Venice instead of Florence? You could take the train to Venice upon arrival in Rome and immerse yourselves in this totally beautiful, unique place. You’d be closer to Bolzano. Then when you return to Rome you’d be relaxed and ready for a city.