Help with 2 Day Trips

In Florence, use a company called WalkAboutFlorence - they have a day trip called BEST OF TUSCANY, that goes to Pisa, Siena, San Gimignano, and a great lunch. We used them for BEST OF TUSCANY and CHIANTI WINE & FOOD SAFARI, both excellent tours.

Cinque Terre is FAR from Florence and will take away precious Florence time. I'd skip the MASSIVE crowds and enJOY Florence -- esp since you are already taking a day trip to Tuscany. You won't have any Florence time. You'll spend too much time traveling to CT. Stay in Florence - it deserves at least 4 full days anyway. 4 nights in Florence is only 3 full days.

The Amalfi Coast is also far from Rome, but doable. Are you renting a car? It's really best to see the AC based from Sorrento. 4 nights in Rome is only 3 full days -

Your hotel may offer trips to Pompeii and AC. Trip Advisor is also a great place to look

I'm sure others will chime in, but don't miss out on Rome and Florence by trying to do so many day trips out of those towns. Rome and Florence deserve time too.

At what time of year will you be going? Remember that with each move you make, it will cost you at least half a day. There is so much to see in each city you are visiting that in the time you have, I would limit day trips. From Rome, instead of traveling to Pompeii, I would recommend visiting the ruins at Ostia Antica. Another wonderful day trip from Rome is the town of Orvieto. If Pompeii is a “must see,” I would combine it with visiting Naples and the Archaeological Museum that contains many artifacts from Pompeii and, of course, pizza! Unless you spend a night there, skip the Amalfi coast.

The Cinque Terre is another outlier. From Florence you could visit Pisa and Lucca for 1 trip and Sienna for another. Personally, I would choose one or the other since there’s so much in the city of Florence.

From Venice, a short day or half-day to Padua is a nice excursion.

Italy is a country to be savored so take it a little slowly to absorb and digest its charms.

I'll let others address the Pompeii trip since I visited Pompeii from Naples.

For the Amalfi Coast, taking a Freccia train to Salerno and then a ferry along the Amalfi Coast will probably mean the least travel time (if you count the ferry time as sightseeing rather than pure transportation). A bus from Rome would take way too long. I haven't done this, so I don't have a good sense of how much time will be lost to connections between train and ferry or waiting for the next ferry when you hop off to see a town on foot. We probably need more specific info on the timing of this trip; I think ferry schedules from Salerno could be very different in late March vs. late June.

Trenitalia.com will give you rail schedules between Roma ( Tutte le Stazioni ) and Salerno. The fastest trains take 95 to 126 minutes each way, but those aren't super-frequent.

Travelmar.it has ferry schedules.

I'm not sure you'll end up with very much feet-on-the-ground time on the Amalfi Coast. I hope your trip is in May or June when days are longer.

I know you really want to do this, but that doesn't change the geography. Four nights in Rome is only 3 full days. You may have a few additional hours on the day you arrive, but if Rome is your landing point after a transatlantic flight, one or all of you may be zombies that first (partial) day. You're proposing to give up one of your two full days in Rome in exchange for a few hours seeing the Amalfi Coast. Perhaps you've been to Rome before?? If not, I can't imagine you'll be very satisfied with what you can accomplish in Rome in one day.

Thanks for your replies!

Kids want to see Pompeii and I want to see a gorgeous Italian coastline. We have been to these beautiful cities before, without day trips and before children. It seems as though omitting Amalfi is going to be a must this trip. CT seems doable though. Walkabout, (mentioned above) has a day tour there from Florence as an option. Now to decide if we need to see Pisa or not???

You might consider visiting Ostia Antica just outside Romo rather than trekking to Pompeii from Rome

Hubby and I did the day trip from Rome to Pompeii with our teenage son. Took the fast train and local train to get there--it was worth it--and we used the suggestions in the Rick Steves book, along with free audio tours and our headphones. I've heard Pisa is an easy train trip from Florence and I think it is also worth the trouble. I do not think adding Cinque Terre is a great idea if you also do Pisa on the same day. I would suggest one or the other, as the C.T. is really five little towns and to do it justice, you'd want a day or two there. I would also consider nixing the Amalfi Coast. It's just too much and you want the kids (and yourselves) to have a great time. Enjoy.