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Help me plan trip to Italy?

Me and my family are planning on going on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Greece islands and islands surrounding the area.
We would like to fly somewhere in Italy and spend a week there also possibly spend a couple days in italy after.
We have to be in Rome the day of the cruise.
Some places we would possibly like to go to sicily possibly, we would LOVE to go to venice, naples, Cinque Terre, leaning tower of pisa, pompeii, and tuscany. If it isn't possible to go to all these places in the amount of time plus it would be ridiculously expensive please show me where I should go. We would like to see and experience as much as we can.

Posted by
15678 posts

lyly.figueroa, is isn't reasonable to try and do all of these places in one week. Many of us would recommend only three locations, and at most maybe four.

Time of year can make a difference as well: the Cinque Terre isn't a great choice in the winter.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend the classic "Big Three": Venice, Florence (which is the capital of Tuscany) and Rome, in that order. This is plenty for 7 days, and are cities which are easily explored by 1st-timers to Italy.

I'm guessing that your cruise leaves from Civitavecchia, which is some distance from central Rome so you'll want to spend the end of your week closer rather than farther away from the port.

Posted by
4105 posts

Ok. your cruise leaves from Rome, does it Return there as well?

If it does than Fly into Venice and out of Rome.

Arrive Venice... Alilaguna boat into Venice
http://www.veniceairport.it/en/transport/water-bus.html

3 nites Venice

Train...http://www.trenitalia.com
Venezia Santa Lucia>Firenze SM Novella 2H05m

4 nites Florence.

Day trip to Pisa ( 1 hour by train)

Train... Florence SMN>Roma Termini 1 1/2 hrs Rome Termini>Civitavecchia 41 min.

Cruise to Greece

Rome 3 nights

Fly Home.

If the ship departs Rome and returns to Venice then do Rome and Florence first, head back to
Rome for the cruise and do Venice after the Cruise.

Posted by
254 posts

I like Gerri's plan. But since you want to see more, use the time in Florence to take a day trip to Pisa and Cinque Terre, and another day trip to Tuscany. You could also do a day trip to Naples from Rome when you are there. The night trains are great if you don't want to spend daytime travelling, but you don't get a lot of sleep, so you have to be motivated. I loved it when I was in my 30's, and so did my 4 year old daughter, but I wouldn't do it now (I'm 54).

Posted by
7175 posts

Does the cruise include any Italian ports, and does it return to Rome?
Looking at possible cruises on RCL website and I am going to say it's round trip from Rome.

Start in Venice (2 or 3 nts) and then move to Cinque Terre (2 nts) and Florence (2 or 3 nts) before joining the ship in Rome. The train fron Florence to Rome is 90mins, but then you need further time to get to the port.
If your cruise includes a stop in Naples then you can do Pompeii from here. Otherwise, it is an option afterwards, along with extended time in Rome.

Posted by
11613 posts

Night trains are no longer in service on most routes since the freccia trains can make the Venezia-Roma trip in four hours. A night train on a 7-day trip can be a big headache, so little recovery time if you can't sleep (frequent stops, lights, noise).