My husband and I have plans to do the following itinerary in Oct. ‘25. We plan on using car rental in orvieto/volterra area and trains or busses everywhere else. I would like feedback on length of time i’m allotting for each area, suggested travel methods between places, suggested towns/2-3 star hotels to stay in. We are frugal people, dont care to go to art museums but maybe go to one in Florence. We are More into history. There are certain places we have been to and dont care to go on this trip, ie sienna, venice, northern Italy. We have been to cinque terre and love it there so have worked that in again. Basically we want to stay in the western half of Italy from florence to Amalfi coast. I saw an awful lot of rome in one day a few yrs ago. There is more i could have seen like the vatican but dont think we care to go to it this time either so i’m thinking maybe 1 1/2 days of sightseeing in Rome will be enough. My husband has not been to rome so i want him to see the roman highlights. The below itinerary also includes a stopover afterwards of a few days in portugal which you can comment on also. We went to lisbon 6 yrs ago so this stopover is mostly to see places north of there. Here’s my itinerary. If you can pare it down a couple of days or so in Italy portion, that would be great.
Oct. 5 - arrive 1 pm Rome. Highspeed train ?? to Naples. Sightsee rest of day in Naples (rick steves doesn't seem to put much emphasis here). Stay overnight Naples.
Oct 6 - if we didnt have enough time yesterday to see Naples, do it this morning. Take train, bus or ferry to stay for 4 nights somewhere on Amalfi Coast. No particular agenda other than to see Pompeii and other towns you suggest. Where would be best central place to stay with good transportation to pompeii and other little towns. Am i allowing too many nights here?
Oct 10-11 - stay in Rome (2 nights).
Oct 12 - train to orvietto on 12th. Stay 3 nights Orvietto. Pick up rental car on am of 13th and sightsee additional towns of bagnoregio & civita, perugia and assisi. I’m allowing about two days for these additional towns.
Oct 15 - spend 3 nights in Volterra. On the drive to volterra on 15th, see Massa Marittima. In next two days, see montalcino, montepulciano, val de elsa, lucca and san gimignano. (Too much duplication?)
Oct.18 - drop off rental car in Pisa in morning, probably in downtown Pisa. See leaning tower. Train to Vernazza. Stay 3 nights. Hike and just look at area.
Oct 21 - train early morning to Florence. Sightsee. Stay 2 nights in florence.
Oct 23 - fly to lisbon. Arrive 9:30 pm. Stay overnight in Lisbon.
Oct 24 - train to Porto. Stay 2 nights.
Oct 26 - train to Coimbra in am. Sightsee and stay here 1 night.
Oct 27 - train to Lisbon in am. Maybe go to Evora by bus or train. Stay overnight in Lisbon.
Oct 28 - fly to US very late afternoon. This way we have a few hrs to walk around Lisbon.
Thoughts?
Also economy car rental, unlimited mileage, manual, for 5 days is about $670 (incl $80 one-way drop off fee) thru autoeurope. Does that seem high to you?