France/Italy

Can I suggest trimming your itinerary a bit? My experience is that every day transitioning from one city to another is almost 3/4 of a day lost. For your two weeks, I'd ask WHY? for each city you list. And HOW are you getting from place to place. WHEN are you traveling? Crowds, temperature and humidity will take up more time than you think. And of course WHAT do you want to experience in each place? Here's an couple of ideas for you: base yourselves in Florence for maybe 5 days. From there you could day trip to Siena and Bologna easily. Rome, depending on your interests, could take up almost a full week by itself. Hmmm, not sure that left you much time for Paris but that's my personal prejudice. :) Have fun planning the trip!

You don't have time to do all those places in two weeks.

Paris needs at least 5 days, Florence 3-4, Siena one day, Rome 5-6.

Bologna is OK, but Ravenna is much better (1 day).

I suggest staying in Italy if you only have two weeks.

Save Paris for your second trip to Europe

Agree with the others- your itinerary is too ambitious. Sort your priorities and eliminate at least 2 places. Sticking just with Italy makes logistical sense for such a short trip, but Paris to Florence to Rome is feasible. Fly into Paris, then fly home from Rome on a multicity ticket.

It depends on what you enjoy doing. Last summer we spent two weeks in Bologna and loved it. Good day trip possibilities and time to just breathe in the Bologna culture, food and street life. We had never visited before and so glad we gave ourselves time to explore. We enjoyed a wonderful full day tour from Parma (took the train in the morning and returned that night) and toured and experienced parmigiano reggiano cheese, modena vinegar and parma ham family operations. From there we spent ten days in Florence where we have been before and had already done most of the iconic things so we could just walk and explore and do day trips. So our genre is "slow travel".

Siena and Montepulciano are okay day trips if your itinerary allows otherwise skip it and do another time.

I'd recommend focusing on Paris or Italy as it doesn't sound like you have time for both if you truly want to have an experience.

Here’s some transportation details:

Day 1, fly to Paris & arrive on Day 2 jet lagged. Day 3-4 Paris.
Day 5, fly to Florence. Dinner & Day 6-7 Florence.
Day 8, take the hour bus to Siena. Afternoon & Day 9-10 Siena (reserve a 1-day minivan small group wine tour to Montepulciano for Day 9)
Day 11, train from Siena to Rome takes 3 1/2 hours. Afternoon & Day 12-13 Rome.
Day 14, fly home from Rome.

I am NOT recommending this itinerary! This is just to show how those places, minus Bologna would play out for a 14-day itinerary. I think you would be frustrated that you hardly had a chance to experience those locations, especially for a first trip. I would recommend the Tuscany & Rome locations and save Paris for more time that it deserves.

breann-
what time of year is this trip? where are you departing from?
Have you worked out your best flight options? Into 1 city- out of another if possible!

What is your reason for starting in Paris? it doesn't really make sense with the rest of your list.
(Venice does make sense in place of Paris- just a suggestion)

Count your trip in NIGHTS, not days.
What is the maximum number of nights you will have? (Don't count your overnight flight night)

Hello again,

Thank you all for the feedback! We have updated our plans..We took out Florence and Bologna, and are hoping to enjoy some wine and food in Tuscany. Would love some feedback! We love food and wine.

We have 13-14 days for our trip
We will be getting in to Paris on May 20th in the early evening.
Debating whether to stay 3 or 4 nights.

After Paris we will fly in to Florence then with some form of transportation (would love to know suggestions...train?car?) head down to Siena, which we are thinking will be our home base as we make our way through Tuscany. We would also love suggestions for towns to see (We want to do a day trip to Montepulciano), and if there is a better home base while exploring Tuscany.

We will end our trip in Rome, and fly home from there.

Still trying to figure out how many days each place and what not. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Thank you!

Blymath- The length of time you spend in Paris will depend on what you want to do. Once you start planning your days you may find that in order to see the Eiffle Tower (wonder around the trocadero and surrounding gardens), Lourve, maybe a day trip to Versailles, a walking tours may of the Maris and Sacre-Coeur... oh my that is four days just right there and we have not even talked about Notre dame, Siene river cruise, the catacombs or a food tour!

Florence is in Tuscany and I would never miss a chance to see that city! Florence made a great base for us to visit surrounding cities.

Do for Rome what you did for Paris, write down all you want to see, keeping in mind open/close days. Start a pad of paper (or excel) with a line for each day/date, once you plug in travel days to get from one place to the next you may find those are throw away days, planning travel around your check in/check out times. How are you getting around? Driving? Train? Bus?

Thank you for the feedback! What would you suggest for the best way to get around florence/siena?