I'm excited to be planning my first trip to Italy in mid-October. I’m going solo and have a total of 8 nights. I’m flying into Florence and out of Rome. I know I’ll at least do Florence & Rome, but really want to do Venice too if it wouldn’t be too much of a whirlwind?
First question…assuming I’m going to Venice, would you recommend going straight there after landing in Florence on Friday afternoon, or just do Florence first, then Venice, then Rome… seems like all the itineraries I see have the same Venice - Florence - Rome order. (I know ideally I’d fly into Venice and out of Rome, but the deal flying into Florence for my dates was significantly better).
Second question…have you found the train travel between cities pretty easy? Could I plan on getting up early, getting on a morning train, and being in the next city by noon… or would it take up more of the day? My Florence and Rome hotels would be short walks from the train stations.
If I visit all three cities, I’m thinking I’d do 3 nights Venice, 2 nights Florence, and 3 nights Rome. My flight out of Rome isn’t until 8:45 pm so I’d have a good part of that last day there. I know I could spend weeks in each city, but this would just give me a nice look at each. Has anyone done all in 8 nights or fewer, and would you recommend for/against? I’m very go-with-the-flow and I’d basically follow Rick’s recommended 2-3 day plans for each place.