First Trip to Italy

Suggest you look at weather.com, or equivalent, to see the historic averages for whatever locations, other than Rome you are considering.

Where do you want to go?

Check out the itinerary for RS 7 Day Rome tour for some suggestions. We took it in May and had a good time.

Really have no idea of where to go. First trip. How many days in Rome?

That is peak blooming season on Lake Como.

Really have no idea of where to go. First trip. How many days in Rome?

You could spend all of them there and not run out of new things to see or do.

You may want to get a guide book and see what appeals to you.

You may want to look over this itinerary for inspiration-- https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/venice-florence-rome-2018

You could go to Venice on your arrival day and work your way back to Rome

As others have suggested, pick up a guide book and make a list of what you NEED to see while you are in Italy. Rank those things in order. Make sure you see the first one on your list if seasonally appropriate. Then start looking at what else is speaking to you and start to make a list of things you really want to see while in Italy.

This will help shape up where you go and how long you stay in any one place.

Late April - early May should be wonderful weather all over Italy. Bring clothing layers, of course. Feet will probably be happy in sandals.

With 11 days to work with, you could see a fair amount of Rome for the first 3-4 days, take the train to Florence and stay 2-3 days, perhaps take a day tour around Tuscany and/or stop in a smaller town like Orvieto on your way back to Rome, then stay your last couple of nights in Rome.

Fly into Venice and out of Rome. Multi city flight. This will give you the most time without backtracking.

3 N Venice. 3 N Florence. 4 nites Rome.

To travel between cities use trains.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en Use Italian names for stations. Venezia S. Lucia, Firenze SMN, Roma Termini. 3 fares, super economy, economy, base. Buying as early as possible will save you money.

Venice-Florence 2hr 05 min.

Florence-Rome 90 min.

Use these audioguides and maps keeping in mind these are suggestions, choose the ones that interest you.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy

More tips. Use these in conjunction with RS itineraries.

Venice. https://quickvenice.com

free venice walking tour Informative and fun.

http://www.venicefreetours.com

Florence

https://www.visitflorence.com

Rome.

https://www.romewise.com/rome-in-3-days.html

Booking a Rome Pass will save you time with its skip the line entry and allow free transportation on busses, trams and metro.

http://www.romapass.it

If you plan on visiting the Vatican use the official web site.

http://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/visitatori-singoli.html

Hope this helps.

Edited to add some links.

Your first day probably won't be useful for anything more than wandering around outdoors, trying desperately to stay awake.

To clarify, we already have plane tickets in and out of Rome. We have 11 days excluding fly in and fly out. The plane ticket price was just too good to pass up. We want to see Rome should we do beginning or end or both? We want to see some countryside...maybe Tuscany which I am reading we need a car. We love quiet evenings with a glass of wine. Venice sounds great but looks like a long way and we would have to back track. We have dozens of tour books but we are more confused than ever. Thank-you for all the advise. J

With 11 days you can do the big 3 cities (Venice, Florence, Rome) at a good pace. I suggest that after you land in Rome fly to Venice for 3 days since your bags are packed already. Train to Florence for 3 days and train to Rome for 5 days. Put all your Rome days together at the end since that is where you fly out for home. It all depends on how thorough you want to be in a given city.

Eleven days is generous! When you say excluding travel days you mean the international travel part of it right? Not the intercity travel in Italy?

1) 3 days minimum in Rome - a full day at the Vatican, half a day for the Colosseum, half a day for the Roman Forum, and another day for other sights (Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the catacombs). There are so many sights to see in Rome but hit the majors first. Usually I will visit a sight then look for a cafe or a trattoria nearby to rest, people watch, reflect on what I’ve just experienced/seen.

2) At least 2 days in Florence if you’re an art lover. Half a day for the Uffizi, half day for the Accademia (to see the real David). Another day to just walk around and take in the city - Ponte Vecchio, Piazza del signorina, Santa Croce (with a marvelous Pieta at Michaelangelo’s tomb).

If you are an art lover, I would also add a day trip to Sienna or Pisa.

3) 1-2 days in Naples. You have to go to the birthplace of pizza! Use the city to access Pompeii, Vesuvius, or Herculaneum as well as the islands of Ischia, Procida and Capri.

I hesitate to suggest Venice because you will already lose at least a half a day traveling between the cities I mentioned above. You will lose probably another day traveling to and from Venice, which is around 5 hours by car. Also, Venice is not so enjoyable during the day when it is flooded with tourists from the cruise ships. It is best experienced in the mornings before they arrive and in the late afternoon or early evening after they have left.

Venice is less than four hours by train. We were there last and it was amazing. Stayed in a more local area the Dorsoduro. Well worth checking out. Or you could do the Amalfi coast. Stunning vistas.

I know what you mean about travel books and planning. It can be so overwhelming! I’m a bit OCD when I plan my trips. I use an excel spreadsheet.

Each day of my trip has its own column, including my days of departure to/from.

For each column I have the following rows:
1) City - name of the city where I will be. If it’s a travel day, I list all the cities.
2) Hotel Name - the hotel where I will be sleeping for that evening.
3) Breakfast - here I list breakfast options
4) Morning Activity - I make a list of sights I want see or activities I want to try.
5) Lunch
6) Afternoon Activity
7) Afternoon Tea
8) Evening Activity
9) Dinner

On days when there is intercity travel, for example in the morning, I will block out the corresponding cells.

It’s a lot of trial and error and I usually save several versions of this spreadsheet. That’s the the fun part of traveling - the excitement of the planning.

I hope you have a great time in Italy and I hope you fall in love with it as much as I have.

Agree with Nestor you have enough time to visit and enjoy Rome, Florence and Venice.

Although you think Venice is too far it's not and if I may add there is no where else on the planet that is like Venice. Its uniqueness alone is why you should visit.

On my visits to Italy I've driven and relied on train travel. Once trained to Chuisi and picked up my Hetrz rental car there to visit friends in Tuscany. Saw hill towns that aren't over run with tourists. Sarteano being a favorite.

I've also taken the high speed train from Rome to Venice. Little over three hours. As well as regional trains from Milan to Lake Como and from there to Venice.

You are going to a fabulous country. History, art, beautiful countryside, ruins, wine, coffee, etc.

Consider 2 nights in Rome, train to Chiusi to get the rental car, explore Tuscany 3 nights. Return car and train to Florence, 3 nights so you can bus to and see Lucca and/or Pisa, then train to Venice 2 nights. Train from Venice to Milan (if you want to see The Last Supper) and from Milan back to Rome for another 2 nights.

It will all be about what's most important for you to see and do. Read the guidebooks, make a must see list then decide how you wish to travel. Train travel in Europe is commonplace and in Ricks book he explains how to get tickets and how to read them. It's not daunting.

You should also look at the Ron In Rome website. Still a practical source of insight regarding Rome travel.

Lastly I've done both Apartments and hotel stays. Both easy to find via online research. If you want to overnight in a lovely furnished one bedroom cottage in the hills of Tuscany PM me for a recommendation. Friends mentioned above have a rental.

Ciao!

Since you're already at the airport, I'd head to your farthest destination first. Alitalia airlines has multiple flights a day that take 1hr05min. Tickets average $85-100. Give yourself 2 1/2 -3 hours between arrival and departure. Your first day on the ground is normally a jet lagged haze use it to your advantage.

Doing this puts you in a relatively straight line track back to Rome.

Florence is a great stop to visit Tuscany, revised itinerary. Venice 3 nites, Florence 4 nites Rome 4 nites.

Places to visit by train as day trips from Florence. Bologna, Pistoia, Lucca/Pisa. By bus Siena, San Gimignano, Fiesole. Keep 2 days just for Florence.

While I love driving in Tuscany, as a first trip and short timespan, I'd utilize tours.

http://www.toursbyroberto.com Full day €100

https://www.getyourguide.com/florence-l32/wine-tasting-winery-tours-tc104/

Here is another thought. Depending on what time you arrive in Rome, I would go straight to Naples. Either train or flight. Spend 2 nights In Naples. That will give you really one day. However, the archaeological museum and the food ( pizza and pastry ) are worth it. Then go to Sorrento for 5 nights. Sorrento is technically not on the Amalfi coast. However, it is bigger than most of the Amalfi coast villages with more restaurants etc. There you can take the intercity train to Pompeii for a day. Ferry to Capri for a day. Do a day trip to Positano and Amalfi. There are many places to visit and see from Sorrento. Then back to Naples and train to Rome for the remainder of your trip which I believe would be 4 nights so 3.5 days.

Now, if you want more of a city type vacation with lots of museums, churches and just an overall city feel, then most definitely upon arrival in Rome head to Venice. Spend 3 nights which will give you 2 days. See St. Marks Basilica, Dodges Palace and just wonder the streets of Venice. There is no other place like it. From Venice train to Florence. Spend 4 nights in the Florence area. That will give you 3.5 days. Maybe a day trip to Pisa and Lucca or a day trip to Siena and a winery. Then train to Rome for the remaining 4 nights so again, 3.5 days.

I guess you need to figure out what type of vacation you want and what you want to do. Enjoy

Since you fly out of Rome, do it last and do all the days there in one gob.

I join the chorus that advises Venice-Florence-Rome. The weather should be great at that time of year! If you don't want to deal with renting a car on this, your first trip to Italy, I suggest the following: As soon as you land in Rome, get a ticket for the fast train (freccia) to Venice. That day that you land, after all, you will probably be so jet-lagged that you might as well get to your farthest destination, then work your way back to Rome. To book train tickets ahead of time, use trenitalia.com; it's user-friendly and the company's own website. Train Roma-Venezia is a little over 3 hours, and you will see plenty of Italian countryside along the way. You can pick up sandwiches for the train while in the train station, Termini, in Rome. Spend 3 nights in Venice. Then train (2 hours) to Florence. 4 nights in Florence. Do two day trips into Tuscany while in Florence. One day take the train/bus to Siena or Volterra (or other Tuscan town). The other day, take a small group day tour with Tours by Roberto into the Tuscan countryside (highly well reviewed; Roberto is on multiple Rick Steves TV shows. He is a delight to travel with). Then train (2 hours) to Rome, spend 4 nights in Rome, and fly out of Rome. This plan would keep transportation easy. (If you do decide to rent a car, read lots on this website about the many particularities involved..... and there are lots!) Finally, if you haven't already, pick up a "Rick Steves Italy" book which will help you plot out, step by step, how to purchase train tickets, get to the train stations, deal with money, cultural differences, decide how to spend your time in Tuscany, and how to just generally get around.

What great suggestions. I have all of Rick Steve's books and others. I think we are leaning to some city/historic exposure but also want to experience the "countryside" Tuscany. I think we would prefer not to stay in Florence but in a smaller hill town. Is it possible to rent a car after visiting Venice and working back west? Would it be best to get to Florence via train and then head into the countryside leaving Rome last? Or should we save Venice for our second trip to Italy as we want to get to the Lake Region on another trip. It is so hard to decide as this is our first trip. We spend most vacations scuba diving or hiking so this is a very different vacation for us...but one we want to do.

You've done some research and received lots of suggestions. It's overwhelming, I'm sure.

I'm going to suggest you take a deep breath and go back to basics. How many days you need to spend somewhere depends on what you want to see and do there. You have to start with the premise that you can't see everything on this trip and that priorities will have to be set. I think you also need to realize that Italy will still be there and you can return.

Planning is iterative. When you prioritize, some options will immediately jump to the top. You will likely be faced with decisions between two priorities. A Rome example might be deciding between seeing the Roman Forum or St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel. And any decisions may be affected by factors beyond your control like price, timing or availability.

To get restarted, I suggest you go to Explore Europe Italy, then to your main cities of interest listed under Places. Each city has details about going there, including a section listing the main things to see under At a Glance.

By the way, I'd highly recommend that you NOT rent a car. That adds another layer of complexity and frustration to the planning, not to mention extra costs and potential tickets and fines for driving somewhere you shouldn't.

I'm not sure what you mean to see by driving around Tuscany. You might find this day tour out of Florence would be adequate for your needs: Walkabout Best of Tuscany Tour. A few years back I did it with my husband, daughter and granddaughter. You can get to other tours by them from that link as well.

Edited to add: You said, "We spend most vacations scuba diving or hiking so this is a very different vacation for us...but one we want to do." Trust me, you're gonna do some hiking. It just may not be the kind you're thinking of. Even if you do the tour I linked above, you'll be going up and down steep hills to get to Siena and San Gimignano.

I just went on the walkabout tour of tuscany in the above link, and had the greatest time