First Trip to Italy --12 nights--to say I'm a bit lost is an understatement--thank you

How exciting that you're going to Italy! I'm certainly not as well traveled as many here, and I'm sure they'll come along later with great advice, but my initial thought in looking at your plan is that you may want to hold off on the Amalfi Coast for another trip (once you visit, you'll be dying to return anyway). Many people seem to do Rome, Florence, Venice for their initial trip, spending more or less 4 days in each. If you can fly into one and out of the other, you'll save even more time. From Florence you can do day trips into the Tuscany region (perhaps Siena or Lucca) pretty easily.

I hope you have a great trip!

Can you fly into Venice and out of Rome or vice vs? If you fly home from Venice, make sure it’s not an early morning flight unless you’re willing to pay for a very expensive water taxi to make that early morning flight.
The minimum number of nights needed to visit Rome are four if you include Vatican City. Venice needs three nights. Tuscany, what do you want to see and experience there? Amalfi Coast is the outlier so skip it.

The classic Rome/Florence/Venice trip is a classic for a reason. If it doesn’t really matter money-wise, I would start in Venice and fly out of Rome. I would go 4-3-4 nights in each city in that scenario. Trains between each are frequent and fast. Amalfi Coast needs to be dropped. It’s far too much of an outlier, is complicated to visit, and is simply not the kind of place you can arrange last minute. If you enjoy Italy, just make that your next destination and give it the time it deserves.

That is the most basic of starting points. Filling everything else in will require you grabbing a guide book and deciding your priorities, finding accommodations at this late stage, etc. Obviously, we’re on the Rick Steve’s forum, so I’m biased, but the RS Italy guidebook is what you need. Other guidebooks have a tendency to make everything sound important. RS does an excellent job setting itinerary goals, especially when you don’t know where to start. Good luck, and don’t worry. Tons of people visit Italy every day and figure it out, it’s hard to screw up Italy.

Hi and welcome to the forum, Ron!
I think trimming down your list of 'musts' is going to simplify things a bit. I'll agree with the others than the Amalfi coast is the outlier, plus presents the most transport challenges. For a first-timer to Europe, the fewer moving parts, the better, IMHO. Save the coast for a future trip? :O)

Yes, I'd look at flying into Venice and out of Rome. Besides eliminating the pain of potential early-morning flights out of that one, lots of forum folks have voted for Venice as a better location than Rome to get over a long flight and ease into an Italian adventure, It'll be very busy around the main attractions, for sure, but you can lose the mob with a wander away from them.

We're all different but here's my recommended itinerary for your 11 nights/10 days:
Venice: nights of 9/22 -9/24 (3 nights; 2 full sightseeing days)
Florence: nights of 9/25 - 9/28 (4 nights/3.5 sightseeing days)
Rome: nights of 9/29 - 10/2 (4 nights/3.5 sightseeing days)

It's not what I'd call an entirely relaxed itinerary but with only two accommodation moves it should allow some of the desired chill time. The 1/2 days are taking into consideration the packing up, moving on and acclimation to the next destination.

Florence (from Venice) and Rome (from Florence) are very easy to reach via 'fast' trains involving no transfers. Florence, the capital of Tuscany, is a great transport hub for any number of nice day trips to Tuscan towns/cities around the region by rail or bus. As well, you could book a car/bus tour that explores the countryside if you're uncomfortable with driving on this maiden voyage. Florence itself is a fascinating city but you haven't specified that one as a 'must'. Still, I'd give it lookabout while you're there.

It may depend on your interests but I consider 3.5 days the minimum just to start getting one's head around Rome; there is a LOT of ground to be covered in that one!

Sightseeing: there are attractions that require advance, timed-entry tickets. Without your knowing about your interests, it's not the right time to delve into how/where to obtain those but the clock is/will be ticketing on landing some of the more difficult to obtain. There are also tours available through independent companies - albeit more pricey - if you find tickets offered by the big attractions' own websites to be sold out.

Just a start? What can you tell us about yourselves and what you want to get out of this trip?

American has nonstops to Rome out of Charlotte, but for less money you can fly United (or partner Lufthansa) into Venice and out of Naples with a plane change in Munich.

3 nights Venice, 3 nights Florence, 3 nights Rome, 2 nights Amalfi Coast. Travel by train.

I notice you are leaving on a Saturday and returning on a Thursday. If you could stretch that to a Saturday return, that would give an extra day in Florence to explore Tuscany and an extra day in Rome.

Yes, like mluccia I customize my own list of "must sees." After reading the descriptions in guidebooks and looking at video clips I make my list in three columns: must see, want to see, nice to see. Then I copy the must sees onto green stickie notes and draw columns on a large sheet of paper, one column per day of the trip in that city. Once I have days allotted to the green items, I transfer the want-to-sees onto yellow stickie notes, and the nice-to-see onto pink and fit them in where there are gaps. Watch out for days that museums (for example) are closed. I'm rather tactile, but you could get something similar using a spreadsheet or the app Wanderlog. And of course get lots of input from your spouse.

I always feel that some of Italy's charm is it's smaller towns. I would consider changing Florence for a smaller Tuscan town, such as Siena ( or any of the Tuscan towns). Or you could drop Venice, and just fly into Florence, then do Tuscany and end in Rome. Venice, Florence and Rome are all the most touristy spots, and the smaller towns will give you a chance to step aside a bit from that, and relax.

Always consider that less may be more.

Less means fewer travel days where hours are spent getting from one place to another.

Less means fewer hotel check-ins and check outs.

Less means you get to spend more time in a place to relax, or see more sights, or get a feel for the ebb and flow. To hit the same gelato stand a second time, or compare different ones.

Spend some time with travel books. Not just R/S, but DK Travel Guides that really show you what neighbourhood or certain sights or city walks might look like, Moon Travel and Lonely Planet.

As others have said, consider what you want to see and do. Churches? Museums? Shopping? Food? The Passegiata? Music recitals? (Remember that churches in Rome, Florence and Venice have frescoes and statues by the great artists of the Renaissance - Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Donatello, Ghirlandaio (who taught Michelangelo a thing or two about frescoes), Titian, Bernini and many more.)

Just 10 days. I’d recommend just two main stops and then perhaps a single day trip, e.g., from Florence to Pisa or Siena or a wine tour in Chianti?

You could do the holy trinity of Venice, Florence and Rome. But you would end up missing so much.

If your hearts are set on all three, do four or five nights (3 or 4 days) in Rome, four or five nights (3 or 4 days) in Florence and two nights (one day) in Venice.

Better yet, if you add just two days then you can do five nights in Rome, five in Florence and three in Venice. That gives you 10 full days to spend in the three cities, 4+4+2. And your trip still runs only two weeks from home and back home.

LATE NOTE. While the train from Rome to Florence might be less than two hours, once you consider packing up, checking out, getting to the train station and waiting for the train, and then the reverse at your arrival destination, you have spent 4 hours or more moving about and not enjoying being somewhere. It’s a bit of a bite out of the day. If you do this from Venice, and then from Florence, and then from Rome or the Amalfi Coast, ie three times, you’ve lost a full day. Hence my suggestion to consider doing that just once so you can focus on two main destinations. BTW, if Venice is one of the two, not only is Murano a good 1/2 day trip, Padova (Padua) is also a nice day trip, just about 45 minutes from Venice by train.

Fly to Venice
VENICE 3 nights
train to Florence (2 hrs)
FLORENCE 4 nights (that gives you 3.5 days, one of which you can use to take a day trip to a nearby Tuscan town)
Train to Rome (1.5 hours)
ROME 4 nights
Fly out of Rome

I think that visiting the Amalfi coast is too much with only 11 nights in the ground in total. If it’s just to check off that box, you could borrow a night from Rome and one from Florence and stay 2 nights, but then you wouldn’t have time for a day trip to a Tuscan town. Can you add 3 nights to your vacation?

do like to chill as well

Trying to go to all 4 of the 'must' locations in your time frame, will postpone your 'chill' time until you are on the homeward bound flight.

If you do insist on all 4, the I suggest this order: Venice-Tuscany-Amalfi Coast-Rome
Getting a US bound flight from Rome is much easier and more conveniently done from Rome than from Naples.

I concur with Kathy and Roberto on what would be the best use of your limited time

Look for suggested itineraries from tour books and tour companies (for example, Cosmos) and feel free to copy what they do.

Or use the services of an experienced travel agent, it's kinda what they do. No shame, and less work for you.

You'll have a great time! Per sure to check out Rick Steves recommended itinerary-- see below.

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/itinerary
By Rick Steves
So much to see, so little time. How to choose? To help you get started, I've listed my top picks for where to go in Italy, and my plan for your best three-week trip. (This list excludes Sicily; see my separate recommended Sicily itinerary.) Of course, not everyone has jobs or lifestyles that allow a three-week trip, so make a plan, prioritizing according to your interests and tastes. If you're passionate about Renaissance art, linger longer in Florence. Exploring Italy's hill towns could soak up a week. For mountains, make tracks to the Dolomites. And if you've always wanted to ascend Pisa's Leaning Tower, now's the time for the climb.
Depending on the length of your trip, and taking geographic proximity into account, here are my recommended priorities:
4 days: Rome, Florence
6 days, add: Venice
8 days: Cinque Terre
10 days, add: Siena
13 days, add: Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast
16 days, add: Milan, Lake Como (Varenna)
19 days, add: Padua, Volterra, Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio
21 days, add: Dolomites, or slow down

Different strokes, every traveller his/her own wants/desires. My situation--next April, we are returning to Italy for our 4th trip, but this time with two cousins--one that's been only to the north, and one that's never been overseas. For 16 days/15 nights, we are doing more destination-wise than I would normally like, but to basically 'show them the ropes', we are visiting past hits for us.

Flying Boston/Zurich/Florence, 4 nights @ AirBnB; Train to Rome (1.5 hrs), 4 nights @ AirBnB; Train to Salerno (3 hrs), 3 nights @ hotel near train station; Train to Taormina, Sicily (6 hrs), 4 nights @ hotel/resort. Fly Catania/Munich/Boston. Hopefully with us having the lay of the land at all these destinations, we can be efficient and still have plenty of time to chill...la dolce far niente (the art of doing nothing). This is with the understanding that we absolutely love traveling by train in Italy--so much more enjoyable than the US--and consider it part of the adventure.

What would I advise? For max enjoyment, minimum travel time...I'd travel into Florence, out of Rome. Or...if you can score a cheap non-stop round trip to Rome (don't use ITA air!), it's only 90 minutes to Florence by bullet train, so keep that in mind. Pretty much 5 nights in each place. Daytrip to Tuscany out of Florence, daytrip to Orvieto out of Rome. Otherwise, have your agendas, of stuff you want to do, but keep it flexible. I could spend a month in Florence and 3 months in Rome, and not come close to seeing everything in these culture-rich cities. Always something to do, you are never, ever a captive audience stuck without transportation--let your feet do the walking. I would hope there would be another trip in the cards down the line to see other parts of the country.

We were there 10 nights recently and split the time between Rome and Florence, with daytrips in each. I’d definitely caution against adding too many stops, as you lose a lot of time moving around and you don’t have the time to just wander and absorb each city- a must, especially in Italy!

Highly recommend you fly into Venice and out of Rome (or the reverse) if at all possible as it will definitely save you time.

Also, perhaps consider a visit to Cinque Terre rather than Amalfi Coast? It may be a bit easier to get there from Florence. We actually did this as one very long daytrip and it was lovely, but you could work in an overnight for sure.

I'm gonna throw a total curveball and tell you to save Rome and Amalfi for a "southern Italy trip" next year. That allows you to experience Tuscan and chill a bit.

So Fly into Venice, spend 2-3 nights. Venice is awesome but it's gonna be thronged and hot and locals will not be as patient.
Train to (4hrs) Siena 2-3 nights
Bus to well connected Tuscan city of your choice 2 nights (Montalcino-1hr, San Gimigniano-1hr, or a bunch of other hill towns you can google). You could also see if a nearby agriturismo would pick you up and drive you back.
Then bus (1.5hr) to Florence 2-3 nights hotel near SMN train station/Unita(T1) tram stop.
Fly home from there. T1 is direct tram line to airport. Safe, easy, cheap, convenient.

Your longest connection is Venice to Siena (4 hrs) so even though it's a bit more packing and unpacking than I usually recommend, you still have a minimum wasted travel time. Alternatively, base out of Sienna for your entire "tuscan countryside" time and just do day trips to smaller towns or wineries or whatever.

We've been to Europe several times, including Italy twice and all the places you've mentioned except for the Amalfi coast.

I'll join the others in saying your trip is overly ambitious. I agree with the person who suggested saving southern Italy, Rome and the Amalfi coast for another trip and just do Venice and Florence.

I suggest 4 days Venice, 6 days Florence, with day trips into Tuscany from Florence. You could even do 3 Venice, 7 Florence/Tuscany.

I'll throw this out as a possibility. The last time we were in Italy, we stayed the entire 10 days in an agriturismo in Chianti, ~20km from Florence. We rented a car and visited charming Tuscan villages, as well as making day trips to Siena and Florence. Driving in Tuscany was super easy. When we went to Florence, we took the bus from Greve to avoid driving in or near the city.

As wonderful as Venice, Rome and Florence are, you only get to see part of Italy's charm. Rural Italy is completely different. It's like only visiting Charlotte without seeing the Blue Ridge. Being out in Tuscany then would be great, it is the harvest season and many towns have harvest festivals.

You could fly into Venice and out of Florence, but carefully check ticket prices.

Posted by Ron (NC) on 08/12/24 01:50 PM
My wife and are have booked our trip to Rome, Florence and Venice

Happily it looks like Ron has narrowed the focus of their trip to what should be an enjoyable, manageable 3 stops.