How to spend 8 days in Italy

8 days....Is that 9 nights? It's helpful to plan in terms of nights in each place so you get a view of the FULL DAYS you have to tour. Your days between locations are travel days and at best you'll haea half a day on a travel day to see-and-do things.

With 8 or 9 nights, 3 locations is pushing it. If you only have 7 nights, then two locations is the best you are going to be able to do. The Amalfi Coast is your outlier, far in the south, so if you really have 7 nights, target only the Cinque Terre and Venice. Those two locations will give you quite a contrast and many magnificent views. You can find nightlife in each area.

Three follow-on question that might help with additional responders: What time of year? What is the other country? Will the other country come before or after Italy?

This is great, thank you! We're in the early planning stages but it will most likely be 7 nights. I probably will cut out the Amalfi Coast then. At this point the other place will most likely be Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) and I'd do it after Italy.

Then you should look at flying into Venice, spend 4 nights, train to Cinque Terre, 3 nights, and fly Genoa or Pisa to Spain. (I say that without looking at an airline site, so do some research).

I would consider visiting only one country for an 8 day trip.

Spain and Italy may not seem large countries by Australian standards, but they are large by European traveling standards as both have a ton of gorgeous locations to visit scattered all over the country. And I'm talking only about the most famous familiar places featured in traveling magazines, not the hidden gems. With two weeks you should stick to only one of the two countries. I can guarantee you that you will not get bored in either place because just to scratch the surface of the top world famous places in each country you need several weeks, if not months, in each.

amber,

I agree with the comments from the others. With such a very short holiday, limiting your trip to one country would be prudent. If you only have 14 days total, that will leave 12 days for actual touring once the flight days are deducted. On top of that you'll be dealing with jet lag for the first few days, so may not be up to full "touring speed". One other point to keep in mind is that your trip from Italy to Spain would use one full day, so that reduces your touring time further.

As the others have mentioned, the Amalfi Coast area is the "outlier" and will take more time to get about there as transportation is not as well developed as in the north of Italy. The "easiest way to travel" is usually by train, especially the high speed versions which run at up to 300 km/h. "How long does it take" will depend on which route you're travelling, and whether there are any changes. I gather this is your first trip to Italy, and also should mention that there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit there. If you need more information on that, post another note.

If you do decide to limit your trip this time to Italy, you should be able to add one more destination to the list. Some that you could consider would be Florence or Rome. Florence would be easy, as it's on the way from Venice to the Cinque Terre. Rome is probably your best bet to find good flights back to Australia.

There are many possibilities. As others have mentioned, it would help to know when this trip is taking place. I'll leave the question on "night life" to the others, as I'm considerably older than 22 and not exactly "in tune" with night life these days.

Do two countries, you are only 22 years old once and you have the stamina. Just don't expect anything but nightlife. Do careful planning, travel will eat time.

5 Terre nightlife might be a disappointment, but you can make up for that in Spain!!!

Buon viaggio.