First Trip Planning help

For a first trip you will probably want to edit that list a bit and stick to Venice, Florence and Rome. Will your 10 days include your travel time?

If so (and if you are based in the US) you will likely leave your home on Day 1, have an international flight and arrive on Day 2. Day 10 will be your flight home so that is not going to be a sightseeing day. That makes you down to 8 nights. You may (or may not) experience jet lag on your arrival day. When you plan remember 2 nights in one spot just gives you 1 full day of sightseeing. You could do nights 2/3/4 in Venice, 5/6 in Florence and 7/8/9 in Rome. Travel between Venice/Florence and Florence/Rome will knock out a 1/2 a day each by the time you check out, get to the train station, travel, get to your hotel at the end of your journey.

Have a wonderful time!

I ditto what Pam says above.

I mostly agree with the other posters that 10 days isn't enough for all you want to do, however if you really don't have a strong interest in Florence you could do Venice, Rome, and Amalfi, especially if you're planning on flying into Venice and out of Naples. In 10 days 3 places are more than enough particularly if 2 or more of those places are major cities - Rome takes 4 days by itself - and you have to take into account the travel time between places. Venice is on the opposite side of Italy from your other places but there are high speed trains that shorten the travel time. If you try for too much you will lose some of the quality at the expense of quantity.

It's all very tempting, but I support the advice to limit yourself to three destinations. Venice and Rome are inevitable. Venice deserves three full days to explore, and Rome easily takes four full days of your trip, even without entering one museum. If you don't feel attracted to Florence, stay two nights in a smaller provincial town in between. Perugia or Spoleto are both nice cities to relax between crowded Venice and busy Rome.

Thank you all - I figured we were being too ambitious! I am leaning more towards Venice-Rome-Amalfi. Suggestions on where to stay on the Amalfi Coast?

Taylor, don't forget, Italy will always be there when you want to go back for more. ;)

So as far as flying in, use Google Flights. That's how My Lady and I found our tickets for this coming June, and the prices we found were at least $200 cheaper than we found for the same airports on any of the big aggregators (Expedia, etc). And you'll also save money if you fly into Milan as opposed to Rome or Venice. Our tickets came out to about $1100 each, where it would have been $14-1600 if we flew into one of those other airports. Train tickets are cheap enough ($20-40) that you could fly into Milan and take the train to Venice (which is only 2-3 hours away) or Rome (I think about 4-5 hours).

As far as places to stay, I would highly recommend using AirBnB. You'll save money, have more comfortable accommodations, and will be able to meet locals who can give you some very qualified recommendations on places to go and things to do.

Good luck! Hope you enjoy the trip. I lived in Italy for about 9 months when I was in the Army, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. They're beautiful people, and they live in a beautiful country!

I giggled a little when I read your post about maybe not doing Florence since you are not "huge art buffs". We took our first trip last April/May (BOE 21 day) and were not "huge art buffs" before leaving. It really was a concern for us thinking that we might get "museumed out" by the time we were done. OOOOOOHHHHHH how wrong. The works you will see in these beautiful cities will just amaze you. In fact one of our favorite cities ended up being Florence. When we go back to Italy we plan on staying before or after a tour in Florence for at least 3 days to see things we did not get a chance to see and do some repeat sights. We just fell in love with the city. Make your plans with the thought that you will probably go back again because you will want to stay at least 2 nights (3 is always better) in a city. So fewer cities with more time to see things. Enjoy your trip.

taylor,

I most definitely agree with the others that your original plan was too ambitious for a very short ten day time frame. As someone else asked, does the 10 days include your two flight days? You'll generally arrive in Europe the day after you depart home, so that's a "lost day".

My suggestion would be to skip the Amalfi Coast this time as you simply won't have a lot of time to explore there on such a short trip. You mentioned "Tuscany" and Florence (which is the capital of Tuscany) makes a great "home base" for exploring some cities there. Some examples would be Siena, Lucca or Pisa. You wouldn't necessarily have to visit a single art gallery there, but Florence is also a good choice as it's on the way from Venice to Rome. Also, if you make your return flight from Rome, you'll probably find more flight choices there than from Naples.

First, the weather is usually pleasantly warm and mostly sunny.

If you can fly out of Naples, then the Amalfi coast is a reasonable inclusion. Sorrento is a good base, with connections to the Amalfi coast towns by bus and ferry and to Naples by train and ferry and to Pompeii and Herculaneum by train. You may want to spend your last night in Naples if you have a morning flight out.

It was our 3rd trip to Italy before we hit Florence - like you, we aren't art buffs. And we only spent two nights. The architecture was beautiful tho and I'd love to go back for a few more nights.

I love the thought of Venice, Rome and Amalfi - this was exactly what me and hubby did with my mom in 2014. We did 1 night Naples (after a late flight in from London, so we could see Pompeii the next day), 3 nights on the coast (I would def return and stay 5 nights), 5 in Rome and 3 in Venice.

It was my mom's first time anywhere other than the UK (where she goes for sister visits) and she was happy to let me pick the places. Venice and Rome were both return visits for me and Amalfi was a first time visit. Amalfi Coast was my mom's favourite (tho I dearly wished it would have been Venice, which is my fav).

I tend to a little more off the beaten path places and we stayed in the tiny village of Atrani at a nice apartment airbnb. It was about a 10 min walk over to Amalfi (which I wasn't overly taken with). Ravello was absolutely gorgeous - my fav of all the stops on the coast. Many people suggest Sorrento or Positano as good places to stay. When we return, I may go back to Atrani, or would look at Ravello because it was just so gorgeous or Positano. Sorrento was a little too 'big' for me, but well situated for day trips to Pompeii or other points along the coast.

So much to think about! I really like the idea of the Amalfi coast but also want to have enough time to explore...maybe it makes more sense to come back and spend 5 full days exploring and do Venice, Florence and Rome and explore Tuscany. I wish we could spend 3 weeks exploring Italy! Then we could possibly fly into Venice and out of Rome.

I wish we could spend 3 weeks exploring Italy! Then we could possibly fly into Venice and out of Rome.

Even with just 10 days your touring will probably be more efficient to fly open jaw in to one city and out of another. With a short time frame you also may want to consider flying directly in to a city of choice instead of taking the savings and flying in to a more distant city and taking the train to where you actually want to be.

So few nights, so many opinions... :)

As Carole said upthread, even if you don't like art, make sure you include Florence, which I would do instead of Venice, but that's just me. That being said, I would:

Fly overnight from the U.S., arrive Milan Malpensa airport the next morning. Take Malpensa Shuttle to Milano Centrale train station. 70 minute train ride to Florence SMN station, arriving in the afternoon. Walk to hotel or apartment.

Nights 1-3 Florence
Train to Rome
Nights 4-6 Rome
Train to Naples, then Sorrento or Ravello
Nights 7-9 Sorrento or Ravello

Florence is not a city, yet it is. More of a town it seems. Enjoy the markets, the 'hidden' art--maybe a 3-hour guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery, to get bang for your time instead of wandering, is the ticket for you. It is fantastic, as is the vibe of Firenze.

Then Rome, the Eternal City. Stay in a neighborhood close to attractions--I'm partial to Campo de' Fiori or Trastevere. We utilized the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus to get to the Vatican, Colosseum, Forum, etc.

The Amalfi Coast, especially Sorrento or Ravello (each have their pros & cons) is a perfect way that time of year to unwind at the end of your trip, hike a bit, chill out and see spectacular scenery. And include a daytrip to Pompei if possible--it's incredible. Then plan an early-to-late afternoon flight out of Naples Capodochino airport home.

I would make a decision as to itinerary and get cracking quickly on air & lodging reservations. Late April/early May is just the start of high season, and weather should be just great north to south, 60's to 70's, occasionally over 80. Enjoy your planning!

You really need to read various guidebooks, google the travel pages for the cities you might want to go, look at pictures, read, and decide accordingly. You could follow any of the suggestions given here. We all like different things. Here's my take: I've been to Italy several times. I've been to Venice once on my first trip there and it was my least favorite place of anywhere still...and few people live there any longer so it is not so real for me. However, I will go again sometime (was going to go in 2016, but it didn't tug hard enough on me) and possibly reverse my opinion, because I know people love it...I want to solve this mystery. I digress. I love Florence and have returned and will again, I suspect, as Florence is alive. The reason I'm writing, for an example trip: One trip to Italy was a round trip flight to Rome. We spent the first and last nights in Rome (I'm a night planner in my thinking.) We trained to Florence and spent 4 nights there. Took the train to Naples/Sorrento and spent 4 nights there for Naples/Pompeii/Amalfi coast sites. In Rome there was time for the Vatican and the Colosseum, food, and wine... The train was a nice respite in the middle and, with jet lag initially, from our running around. These two places were chosen by my daughter and step-daughter and it worked out fine and they are quite different in ways. Busy each day, but not constantly changing locations while getting a sense of 3 places, to some degree. But, if Venice draws you, drop one of the above! Or fly open jaws-whatever works for you and your budget. Regardless of what you choose, I think you'll have a great time. There is no right answer to this question. They are all good. Wray
PS. My step-daughter, age 30 at the time, thought Florence was the most romantic place she'd ever been and was stuck with us rather than her boyfriend/now husband. LOL.

Just wanted to echo the suggestion to use Googleflights. We booked tickets from LAX to Milan roundtrip for $940 each in mid-May. I was looking at $1500 tickets from San Diego before that. I couldn't believe it!

10 days = 9 nights. Given your preferences, Venice 3 nights, Rome 3 nights, then Sorrento 3 nights and fly out of Naples.