How to best plan 2 weeks in Italy

Have you previously been to Italy?

What are your likes/dislikes? (Museums, walking, wine, food, history, beaches, etc.)

What time of year are you planning to visit Italy?

Italy is one of my top five countries in the World to visit. I have been to 72.

I suggest that you purchase Rick Steves guide to Italy and study it to determine what you like.

Italy is full of history, from Roman to Renaissance and modern. Also, its culture is great. The art and music is fantastic. Scenery is great, whether enjoying the canals of Venice, Roman Forum, Amalfi Coast or beautiful lakes in Northern Italy.

For a two week tour, I recommend the big three, Rome(6 nights), Florence(5 nights) and Venice(3 nights). If you add to that, then a day trip from Florence to Siena or a day or two in Sorrento/Pompeii would be my suggestion.

There is so much to see, that I still love going back to Italy.
Do NOT miss St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is in my opinion the single most awesome work of art in the World. Also, the Colliseum, Palatine Hill and Forum is a not miss site. There is a lot more to see in Rome, just check out Tripadvisor things to do in Rome.

Florence is the Renaissance history site in the World. Also it has two wonderful art galleries, Accademia and the Uffizi. David is at Accademia. The Doumo (Cathedral) and Bapistry are great, as taking in the entire city.

Venice, you must see St. Mark's Cathedral, take a gondola ride and go up the tower on the square. Also, visit the Doge's Palace, the Jewish Quarter and a museum or two.

Enjoy Italy. I suggest flying in to either Rome or Venice and flying out of the other. Use the train within Italy. Driving is expensive in Italy, if you use the Autostrada.

In addition to Rick Steves' guidebook, I also recommend viewing his various Italy videos (on this site or Youtube). They are usually around 25 minutes per location (some have more than 1 as too much to cover in one video), very informative and helped us decide on locations and then what we might be interested in seeing, along with the guidebook.

I have been to Italy once, Florence and Venice, but my husband has never been. We are open to the time we go...what do you think is the best time of year?

So I see there are two Rick Steve's books on Italy....The best of Italy and Italy 2018...which is the better one to buy?

We love history and definitely want to go to Rome. I have heard so much about the amalfi coast and wondered if it is worth putting in our schedule on this trip?

The Amalfi Coast is lovely. For both of the destinations you mention, it would be best to avoid the hottest months of the year, which can be quite hot indeed in southern Italy. Popular destinations will still be busy in the off-season, but generally less so than in the peak travel months. At some point, however, it becomes a trade-off, because the (possibly) lower hotel prices and fewer tourists you'll find way off-season are sometimes accompanied by chilly weather (or worse in northern Italy) and will always be accompanied by shorter days. You have to weigh what's most important to you. I hate being cold (being cold and wet is worse) and would never want to travel in the winter. Some other people, who hate crowds, choose to take winter trips.

I have been to Italy once, Florence and Venice, but my husband has never been. We are open to the time we go...what do you think is the best time of year?

I see there are two Rick Steve's books on Italy....The best of Italy and Italy 2018...which is the better one to buy?

We love history and definitely want to go to Rome. I have heard so much about the amalfi coast and wondered if it is worth putting in our schedule on this trip?

Rick Steve Italy 2018 will be the most complete book. Spring or fall are good seasons. April/May or mid-Sept/Oct. Summer is just too darn hot, unless you want to spend time in the Dolomites.

The Amalfi Coast is lovely. The key in planning is to not get too carried away. You cannot go everywhere in one short trip. Sleep in 3 or 4 places only, minimum stay 3 nights.

You might do something like this requires only public transportation:

Fly into Venice: 3 nights

Train to Florence: 4 nights

Train to Napoli and on to Sorrento (read Rick Steves for options on getting to Sorrento): 3 nights

Transfer to Rome: 4 nights. Fly home from Rome.

That is, IMO, pretty fast-paced but a great intro to Italy.

Sara, I'd also go to your public library and take a look at a number of guidebooks which might be available. I usually use a range of publications.

Whether any location is "worth" a stay is a very subjective thing. Some people love the Amalfi Coast and others are bigger fans of cities which have more the sorts of attractions they prefer, like art museums and whatnot. It all depends on your main interests. Anyway, that one works best when combined with Rome and Naples as it's out of the way if others of your chosen locations are further north.

Florence and Rome is also a very good combination as there are any number of easy day trips via public transport from Florence - Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Fiesola, etc - plus it's a great city if you appreciate Renaissance art and architecture. Rome? We've a total of nearly two weeks in that one with no end of interesting things we still want to see. It would be very easy to just base of a week in each + day trips.

The most common beginners trip? The "Holy Trinity": Venice, Florence and Rome. All three are very different cities with their own long histories, all three offer a lot to see (if those things are interesting to you) and there's frequent, efficient train service between them. The usual recommended plan is to fly into Venice and out of Rome as flights from Venice tend to be uncomfortably early in the morning.

When you count your two weeks, it's more realistic to count the number of nights you'll actually have on the ground in Italy; don't count the day you fly to the country - which is usually an overnight flight - or the day you fly home. Arrival days are also only partials that can be a jet-lagged haze so you don't want to plan too much for those. It's also a good idea to keep the number of moves to a minimum as the more of those you do, the more time you spend packing, unpacking, checking in and out of hotels, sitting on trains, etc. instead of sightseeing.

When to go? Anytime but summer and deep winter. Fall (mid to late Sept/early October) is our favorite time of the year to travel almost anywhere but spring can be nice as well.

You also might want to download the free Rick Steves’ Audio Europe app. It has a wealth of information on Italy, customs, food, touring and guided audio tours to use when you get there.

Unless you tell us your interests, it’s difficult to recommend areas or activities which you might like.

Kathy has done an excellent job of laying out the timing issues you should consider. "2 weeks" can mean 12 nights on the ground in Europe (meaning really only eleven fully-usable days), or it might mean 14 nights. Squeeze out every day you possibly can. It won't increase the cost of your airfare, and hotels need not be terribly expensive.

So my husband and I love church history. And I guess I just want to see the best of Italy while enjoying a beautiful vacation with my husband. I would rather not be running to see as many things as possible. I would rather take a slower pace and see less but enjoy what I see more. After reading all these comments I am thinking that 3 days in Venice, 3 days in Florence and the rest in Rome might be a good way for us to go. It is better for us to go in the fall than the spring so now I am thinking an Oct trip might be the best time for us. I just ordered the Italy 2018!

Sara,

The good news about Italy is you can't go wrong no matter what you decide.

Two weeks is more time than most get. Four weeks would be better, but two weeks gives you enough time to relax your pace a little.

You mentioned Rome. I suggest dividing your time between Rome and one other destination. I have two suggestions. Since you mentioned the Amalfi coast, you could go there as your other destination. I have not been south of Rome, so I can't help with specifics. From what I read, having a car is a hindrance there.

My other suggestion, especially if you go in the Fall, is to spend part of your time at a centrally located agriturismo in Tuscany. We stayed at one near Greve, but I think one near Siena would be more centrally located. There are numerous harvest festivals in late September/early October. You could do some research and plan your visit around attending one of the festivals.

Normally folks arrive on Saturday and leave on Sunday. You could either head straight to Tuscany on arrival in stay through the weekend, heading to Rome on Monday, or you could start in Rome and head to Tuscany on Thursday or Friday.

Tuscany is best seen by car. We rented our car at Rome FCO and headed straight to our agriturismo. I rented through Hertz a couple of months before leaving, the did research on driving in Italy. After reading posts by some alarmists both here and elsewhere, I began to doubt if driving in Italy was a good idea. Luckily reason prevailed. I felt sufficiently prepared and had no problems. We had great experiences that would not have been possible without the freedom of a car.

I really have to fight over planning and over scheduling. I've accepted that I could go to Italy twice a year for a month each and not see everything I want to see in the next 30 years. Our last trip to Italy taught me that getting out of the cities for most of the trip, as well as leaving large amounts of time unscheduled allows you to discover memorable adventures. For instance, we left our agriturismo two hours later than we planned one morning. Marco, our host at breakfast, insisted on helping us plan our route to an abbey we wanted to visit. We were the only guests and it was obvious he had some time on his hands. We had already planned our route the night before, but we saw this as an opportunity to relax and spend some time with a gracious man. We made it to the abbey in plenty of time, attended vespers that evening and bought Marco a CD of Gregorian Chants as a Christmas present. The time spent allowed us to get to know him well enough to respond to his generosity. He teared up when we gave him his gift.

Doug Mac, thx!! That is great information and the way I would like to see Italy. We are planning for a 2019 trip. May I ask generally how much $$ do you think we need to set aside? I know it will depend on what we see etc but just would like a general idea to see if I am being realistic in what I plan to save.

Sara, there's a really wide range of hotel prices, just as you would find in the US. Take a look at a website like booking.com for the cities you'd plan to stay in. Use this year's dates for the time of year you expect to visit. Look at centrally located hotels (use "Map View"); those farther out will usually be less expensive but are not as convenient for a short stay. Read descriptions, look at pictures, read reviews.

You can get a sense of whether you'd probably be satisfied with a (small!) budget double room at (I'm making these numbers up) 120 euros per night or are more of a 300-euros-per-night sort of person. Think about bed size while you're at it. In Europe, queen-size beds are rarely found outside very upscale properties. If the hotel prices look painful to you (or if you really need a kitchen), consider an apartment. Booking.com lists some, but there are additional sources. Personally, I think a hotel is a better option for a first-time visitor, because there's usually a person at the reception desk willing to answer questions, provide directions, etc. But some folks insist on apartments, and they can be less expensive, if a bit more unpredictable.

First-time visitors, especially, tend to go to the big-name, most popular places, like Rome. Hotel costs will be higher there, but they need not be super-high unless you're the sort of traveler for whom an especially nice, charming hotel is a big part of the attraction. For me, something clean, functional and well-located will do. It helps a lot to be OK with cramped conditions. (Really, really look at the photos!)

Food costs can vary from very low if you mostly buy things like sandwiches, take-out slices of pizza, and fruit/bread/cheese at markets to the-sky's-the-limit if you go to Michelin-starred restaurants and like fine wines. Breakfast (often heavy on the bread, with little if any protein) is often included in your hotel rate. I figure on one sit-down restaurant meal each day and drink bottled water (which you pay for); my costs in Italy were usually in the 20-25 euro range for two courses in 2015. I'd expect to pay a bit more now. That's in a simple sort of place, not generally a white-tablecloth joint. And come to think of it, on that trip I spent only a few days in Rome, the rest of the time in less expensive destinations. Perhaps 30 euros would be about the minimum you'd pay for a meal in Rome, and many places would be higher. Pizza (excellent) is widely available and usually reasonable in cost.

You can get currently-reliable sightseeing costs by going to the official websites of the major attractions you want to see. Look for the British flag or "ENG" and click on that to get the English version of the webiste. Working churches tend to offer free entry. Pay attention to comments about "concessions" and the like. I don't know whether 60 is old enough to qualify for the senior discount in Italy, but it might be, and some attractions offer one. Sometimes it's only available to EU citizens, though.

It doesn't sound like your trip will involve a lot of long-distance train travel, but for tickets on the Frecce (fast trains), such as those to Naples and Florence, you can save money by buying early. Italian trains are not particularly expensive in general, however.

Doug Mac, thx!! That is great information and the way I would like to see Italy. We are planning for a 2019 trip. May I ask generally how much $$ do you think we need to set aside? I know it will depend on what we see etc but just would like a general idea to see if I am being realistic in what I plan to save.

I'll be glad to share some numbers. This is for 8 days in country in December. Flight in N/A since we used frequent flyer miles. I think the car ran around $300, with another $75 in gas. Our agriturismo was a bargain. With breakfast it was $560. The Hilton at FCO the last night was $180 with a free upgrade to the executive floor. We splurged for a tour of the winery where we stayed, along with a food and wine tasting. It was $120 for the tow of us. The other splurge was for Walks of Italy tours, which were well worth it. We did three, two in Florence and one in Rome. I think they totaled up to a little more than $200. We bought some wonderful framed original art from the shop in Greve. We spent ~$200. Meals and incidentals ran less than $100 a day for the two of us.

We were comfortable, but not extravagant. I think all in was less than $4,000 for both, a third of what our Viking River Cruise cost and at least 5 times more fun and value. I think you could do two weeks for less than double that or you could spend four times that much, it's just according to how you want to travel. We don't like fancy digs, they aren't nearly as much fun.

After reading all these comments I am thinking that 3 days in Venice, 3 days in Florence and the rest in Rome might be a good way for us to go. It is better for us to go in the fall than the spring so now I am thinking an Oct trip might be the best time for us.

Sounds like a good plan. Not too rushed and I think (after having lived there for almost 5 years) giving some time to Rome is good. too many people rush it in 3 or 4 nights. Good for you!

October is our favorite month in Italy.

Thank you so much for all your help!!! This gives me a great foundation to start my planning!

With only 2 weeks my advice is a week in Rome and a week in Florence and save everything else until the next trip. You could spend a month in either place and still not see everything worth seeing, but you'd have a good chance of getting a feel for these amazing cities and rembering what you saw.