How to allocate time for our first trip to Italy

Sandy,
This may give yu some ideas http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/tuscany/hs_planning.htm

Sandy There is a lot to see in Tuscany. I think your plan in general is very good-Rome, train to Florence, then to Siena and then drive around Tuscany, then train back to Rome. My personal opinion is that 8 days in Rome is a little overkill for a first trip. I would think 5 or 6 but others can give you their opinions. I am not a big fan of Rome and am a big fan of Florence, Siena and Tuscany I would spend at least 3 days in Florence. If you want to minimize car travel, take the bus the short distance to Siena and spend 2 or 3 days there. I would stay inside the city to experience how nice and quiet it is without the day visitors. I would think spend 2 or 3 days at 2 or more places in Tuscany. West of Siena is Volterra and San Gimmy. One nice place to visit for 2 nights. East of Siena is Chianti area or further South is Pienza, Montepulciano and Montalcino. If you are wine fans, these are the places to go. If not, they are still very interesting charming small towns. You can stay in the towns or stay in the countryside and visit the towns. Others on this board are very high on CT, but I just spent 2 nights there in September, it is much more crowded than it used to be. I would skip it for my first trip. You might want to spend last 1-2 nights in Orvieto. It is further south, in Umbria and an easy train trip back to Rome. If you spend all your Rome time at the start, an alternative to end of the trip. Leave South Tuscany toward Lake Bolsena. Have lunch there, then spend the night before leaving from the Rome airport at Lake Bracciano. It is 45 minutes from Rome airport. Very easy drive. You dont go thru Rome to get the airport. It has a very classic castle (where Tom Cruise got married). More importantly, it has Villa Clementina. A great spot for one night. Highly rated on Trip Advisor. Never had nicer people take care of us in Italy. Also had dinner there. As for others trip reports, try fodor's forums/italy

Just train around aimlessly ...at least one day from Florence. Get out side the walls out into the real Italy like Prato: Way out side the tourist places. Then you see Italy as it is. The food is better, the wine is cheaper, and ALL of Italy has surprises to an American. Its all just so much older and filled with local traditions.

Sandy, my first suggestion would be to have a look at the "Italy 2011" Guidebook (available now), to determine what locations might interest you. A time frame of 11 nights is not a long time, so you'll need to be a bit "sellective" and not try to fit too many locations in.

For a first visit, eight days is probably a bit "long" for Rome, however you could use it for a "base" and take a few day trips. One possibility is Orvieto (about an hour each way by train).

Although you're not hikers, you might enjoy a short visit to the Cinque Terre as it's somewhat "unique". You can travel to each of the five villages by train so no hiking would be involved.

One route you could consider after Rome is Florence (4 days? with day trips to Siena and/or Lucca) - Varenna / Lago di Como (3 days?) - Cinque Terre (2 days?) - back to Rome (there's a direct train from La Spezia to Rome, with a travel time of about 4-hours). I suggested a combination of longer stays and day trips in order to minimize travel times (each change of location usually takes a minimum of about half a day, depending on travel times).

You can easily reach all of those locations by train, so car rental may not be necessary. I tend to use car rentals only for those areas not well served by public transport.

Note that for driving in Italy, all drivers will need the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which must be used in conjunction with your home D.L. The IDP is valid for one year, and can be obtained at AAA offices.

Good luck with your planning!

I don't see Venice on your list, and can't imagine a first trip to Italy without it ... especially for someone who likes architecture and museums. I'd take three of those nights from Rome and spend them here.

Sandy, if you like art (particularly early Renaissance) and architecture, I'd suggest you maximize your time in Florence; I spent 10 days on my first trip there and wanted more time; take a look at the guidebooks and decide how much time you'd like to allot for each site. I stayed at Hotel Maxim, which is in a great location (on pedestrian street, 1/2 block from Duomo and about 3 blocks from Uffizi), has elevator, has en suite rooms, and is inexpensive; some of their rooms involve 1/2 flight of stairs, so tell them if you don't want one of those rooms. They can call a taxi if there's somewhere that would be difficult to walk. Assisi is also amazing, but I'd suggest staying a couple of nights - it can be crowded during the day; the Basilica of St Francis is remarkable (and getting there at 6:30 AM, I had it to myself for an hour or two), and the Basilica of St Claire, the Eremo della Carcieri above Assisi, and San Damiano are also lovely. Another artistic highlight for me was the cathedral at Orvieto (which you can do as a day trip from Rome Termini; took about an hour by train, I seem to recall); mosaics on front of the cathedral are the most spectacular I've ever seen, and the Signorelli fresco inside is beautiful. Orvieto old town is also in a lovely location at the top of a rock out-cropping (with funicular and then bus to get you to the top), and will probably be less crowded than Florence or Assisi. Enjoy your trip!

Sandy,

I'm assuming that you'll be booking return flights to Rome, so you'll have to return there for the flight home? I'd suggest not booking a return flight that leaves too early. You'll probably stay in Rome on the last night, so that will allow you some time to comfortably get from the city to FCO.

Given your "mobility issues", try to pace yourselves in Rome. I find that I tend to do a LOT of walking there. When first arriving, I normally take a Taxi from Termini to my Hotel.

Cheers!

Hi:

This is very helpful information. I can see that 8 days in Rome is too much, so we'll cut that back. And we definitely want to minimize the number of times that we pack and relocate. We are older and have some mobility issues, so we have traveled recently (England, France) with a car for a portion of our trip; it enables us to see areas that we really can't otherwise. (Trips to and from train stations with luggage are difficult for us, for example,and we also travel on a very tight budget.)

How many days should we spend in Rome -- 5, 6? And how many days in Florence -- 4, 5? Once we get that nailed down, I think the rest of our "time allocation" equation will be easier.

Thank you so much!

Sandy:
We are wrapping up week 2 of a 3 week "first trip" to Italy. The Cinque Terre will be tough if you have mobility issues, as will many Tuscan towns. We are fairly fit at 57 and 66, can do 6 mile hikes in the mountains, but these hill towns are hard work! Loved Montalcino, for example, but had quite a hike to the free parking from our B&B. Many places you can drop off the luggage once you know where they are and how to drive in legally, but you still have to park a ways away. We are in Orvieto now, and it's very walkable, but we still had to park a few blocks away. You can take some nice tours by van to get you out and into smaller towns, too. Check out Tours by Roberto (Rick Steves recommended). Venice can be challenging, but as long as you can do some stairs up and over the canals, it's level. And the Vaporetto system is fabulous! Have you considered a tour where someone else handles luggage and makes the locations more accessible?

Hi Sandy. My husband and I just returned from Italy for a 12 day stay. We spent 5 days in Rome and saw all the "required" sites [INVALID] Vatican, Villa Borghese, Colosseum/Forum, Pantheon, etc. We flew from Rome to Venice, which I would now rather have taken the train. You should consider Venice if possible [INVALID] we really liked it there and only had one full day, but would have liked two. From Venice we took the fast train to Florence, rented a car in Florence and we stayed with friends at a villa in Reggello, San Donato. When we wanted to go back to Florence we drove to Figline Train station and took the train into Florence, very covenient and inexpensive to do. We only had time for one trip to Montepolciano and it was well worth it. There is a lot to see in the Tuscany area. Just make sure you have a good map of the autostrada routes and exits and keep lots of change for the tolls on the roads. Since our flight home was out of Rome, we returned to Rome for one night and stayed at the Hotel Margaret about 4 blocks from Termini. We gave ourselves 3 full hours to get to the airport for our 11:20 am flight and we needed the time. If you take the Leonardo Express from Termini to the airport, it is a LOOONG walk to the trains for the airport. You will LOVE Italy! We had the most wonderful time [INVALID] I want to go back.

There is a bed and breakfast outside of Rome that consistently gets rave reviews for the hospitality and food provided by the owners. It is called Colle degli Ulivi. You can google it. This sounds like an alternative to the end of your trip if you want to be positioned for your return flight out of Rome. It sounds so wonderful and relaxing and will give you another area of Italy to explore.

DO NOT skip CT!! I was just there a few days ago and could kick myself for just visiting for a day from Florence. The weather should be perfect in April and even if you don't hike you will enjoy the scenery and lifestyle of these individuals. If you want to take a wine tour, go to Veranazza in Greve in Chianti and spend a few days there. Greve is a quaint town and a good location for day trips.
Skip Pisa; I thought the town was dirty and was only there for a few hours. Yes, the tower leans but even that was disappointing as it wasn't nearly as tall as I had thought. Buy a postcard and spend your time somewhere else.

Sandy,
If flying in and out of Rome consider upon landing going straight to Florence only about 1.5 hours by train from Rome. This will cut out a day of travel and packing and put all your Rome days together at the end.

If you love museums and architecture, than you might want to consider focusing your time on the bigger cities. Even lovely places like Siena, San Gimignano and Lucca have fewer museums and less well-known architecture than do Florence, Rome and Venice. We've visited Rome four times, and I still haven't been to all of the museums and churches (those that have great art) that I want to go to. I think you could spend 8 days there, if you want. Get the most detailed guide to the cities that you can, to help you decide which places you would put on your own "must-see" list. For example, in Rome, at the Palazzo Barberini (part of the National Gallery of Art), is Raphael's "La Fornarina." Other good paintings as well, and the palace itself is gorgeous. Not on everyone's list, but it was on ours.

Sandy, for such a long stay in Rome, you might consider an apartment. Staying near the Termini is convenient on arrival/departure days, but you will not be centrally located for sight seeing or restaurants. We are planning an 18 day trip to Italy next May/June with 6 nights in Rome. We found an apartment at www.sleepinitaly.com for less than 120 euros per night. I wanted something near the Pantheon or Campo dei Fiori area so that after sight seeing, we could go back to the apartment to rest for a while before going out for dinner. There are many interesting restaurants within walking distance in Trastevere, Piazza Navona and Campo dei Fiori.

Hi Sandy. I also recommend cutting back some of your time in Rome. Five days there is enough; I spent a week there over 2 trips to Italy and though I'd like to go back, I don't feel like I missed out on anything because of time constraints. I highly recommend spending a lot of time in Florence also - we were there for 2 weeks and still didn't see everything. But I'm an art history major so I'm biased toward museums, churches, and other things that might bore normal people! If you aren't sure about how much time to spend in each place, go to the travel section at the library or a bookstore and read up on all the places you'd like to visit. You might find that Lucca sounds more interesting than Siena, or that everything you want to see in Florence would only take 3 days. When you decide where you want to go and why, you'll figure out a schedule that works for you.

I'm a big advocate of picking areas of Italy to explore in depth: One trip, one area to experience in a relaxed way with out rushing off to some other area to see it all on one trip. You will be back. Last trip we spent 10 days in Florence with one side trip to Lucca and then 3 days in Siena with one day exploring hill towns. It was our best trip to date. We had visited Florence and Siena before in a whirlwind schedule, but this time we got to hang out and discover the "feeling" of being in Italy. We are slowing down with every visit.

I also prefer to spend more time in one location and really getting to relax into a place; but I'm more interested in exploring neighborhoods and charming piazza's and people watching etc.. than I am in visiting lots of museums and landmarks. Some people would consider my next itinerary much too slow: Rome (5 nights) Positano (week) CT (3 nights) Venice (8 nights). I love the long stays and look forward to time just spent wandering around, buying food at local markets (we'll be in apartments), cooking nice meals with local ingredients), finding great inexpensive restaurants with local flavor, meeting some locals, letting my kids run around and play in parks and piazza's, going to the beach, enjoying nighttime strolls and nightlife. I think you need to decide what type of trip appeals to you. Imagine what your want your days to be like. Do you want down time to just relax and wander around. I highly recommend it!