First trip to Italy Itinerary Advice

This is a very fast moving trip! Keep in mind that 2 nights in a location only gives you 1 full day to look around. Plus so many moves from hotel to hotel eats up time. You might want to remove Siena (adding an extra night to Florence) and do it as a day trip since it is only 45 minutes from Florence by bus. Then you have an extra day to add somewhere else! Venice is such a unique experience with lots of things to do, that you might add that extra day there.

There really is no need to see both Cinque Terre AND Amalfi Coast on the same trip. Pick one. Cinque Terre is kind of an outlier. It eats up a lot of your precious vacation time to travel from Venice to CT, so if it were me choosing between the two I'd probably pick Amalfi since there is far more to do there.

This is a suggestion as to how I would allocate my time if this trip were mine:
3 nights Venice
4 nights Florence (day trip to Siena and possibly Pisa)
3 or 4 nights Sorrento
3 or 4 nights Rome

While I love the CT, Angela is right. It would take you a minimum of 5 1/2 hours to get there.
Venezia S.Lucia>Firenze SMN will take 2H05m. if you do Siena from here it's 4H15m w/1 change.
If you do want to visit Siena, it's easy to do by bus. As are several other hill towns.
Train from Firenze>Napoli Centrale will take 2H51m using the direct train. You then travel by Circumvesuvian to Sorrento 1H29m. Other option is the ferry from the port.

Trains use...http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ee13721bdd69a110VgnVCM1000003f16f90aRCRD

Circumvesuvian...http://www.eavsrl.it/web/content/orario-ferroviario

And if you plan to see sites other than Pompeii..http://www.campaniartecard.it/.
Click Tutta la Regione then 3 day. This card includes transportation for both Naples and the AC.

Travel goal: absorb and create memories.
Venice: three nights
Florence: four nights w day trip options to sienna and/or Pisa or other small villages
Train to Sorrento: three nights w day trip options to Naples, Pompeii or Capri
Then to Rome for remainder of trip
There are so many well known sites to see that Italy becomes a place ez to spread yourself too thin.
There are so many unknown pleasant encounters to experience that allowing time to absorb may create wonderful memories.
Plan a trip allowing time to absorb!

Keith,

I agree with Angela, you have too many destinations on your present itinerary

Since you will be jet-lagged on your day of arrival so you won't do much sightseeing that day.

Keep in mind that you will lose about half a day (checking-in/ out of hotel, getting to train station, waiting for train, travel time, finding your hotel, checking-in, getting situated to new location, etc, etc...) every time you relocate from one destination to the next.

I'd also recommend to choose CT or Amalfi Coast, as you don't have time for both.

If you choose to keep CT, this is my suggested itinerary in this order:

Venice(3N)> Florence (3-4N) > CT(3N)> Rome (4-5N)

If you choose to go to the Amalfi Coast:

Venice (3N)> Florence(3-4N) > AC (3-4N)> Rome (4N)

Enjoy your trip!

We just put together a two week trip for May with friends. This is our fourth trip to Italy. Our plans are four nights in Rome, three night in Florence, three nights in Cinque Terra and two night in Orvieta, back to Rome for one night before we fly home. We feel this is a comfortable pace.

Thanks for all of the great advice. This is my first European trip and I was trying to squeeze too much in. I'll rework the schedule to spend more time in the chosen places.

Give the 2 nights in Siena to someplace else (add them to your final five) and daytrip to Siena from Florence. From Florence go directly to Sorrento (long trip but you are not losing a night) and spend all your Rome nights at the end of your trip.

Venice = 2 nights
Cinque Terre = 2 nights
Florence = 3 nights (daytrip to Siena)
Sorrento = 3 nights (daytrips to Pompeii/Naples, Amalfi Coast)
Rome = 4 nights

keith,

I agree with the previous reply to just day trip to Siena from Florence, as it's an easy one hour (or so) trip by Bus each way. I'd arrange the Itinerary a bit differently.....

• Venice - 2 nights
• Florence - 4 nights (day trip to Siena or perhaps Lucca)
• Cinque Terre - 3 nights
• Sorrento
• Rome - remainder of time

Travelling from Venice to the C.T. will be at least six hours, so the better part of a day. A more efficient route is to travel to Florence and then the C.T.

The trip from La Spezia (C.T.) to Napoli Centrale will be about 5.5 hours, depending on which train you use. I used La Spezia as the departure point when looking at times, since you didn't say which of the five towns you'd be staying in. From Naples it's about another hour to Sorrento via Circumvesuviana.

If you don't have reservations in the Cinque Terre, it would be a good idea to get a hotel booked soon!

I don't agree in removing the nights in Siena. Siena is really amazing, very quiet and not crowded but full of things to see and visit and a daily trip is really not enough if you are a person who like to discover the real atmosphere of a town and not only the touristic places!!
I really loved Siena and since I was there the first time I am going each 2-3 years for at lesta 3-4 days!
Molly from Finnland

Molly, it kills me to suggest a daytrip, but the OP's trip is short.