I5 full days in Italy... where to go.

You’ll have a great time and cities in 15 days with a couple day trips sound quite doable. I’ve not been to Florence or Cinque Terre, so I’ll let others help you with splitting up the time. I can let you know the things we did in Rome that we loved and are actually doing again so our sons can experience it. I typically like to have one structured thing to do each day or evening to anchor the day and not just wander around. But I build that into the day, too, not just all day.

Rome:

2 Walks of Italy tours: Pristine Sistine, early morning (beat the public) and VIP Colloseum Underground with Forum and Palantine Hill.

Travestere Twilight Food Tour : this is fabulous and was a highlight:

https://www.eatingeurope.com/rome/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1s_X0LWK5wIVCaGzCh3K5g3gEAAYASAAEgIipfD_BwE

This time I want to go to Ostia Antica or Borghese Museum.

Trying to fit Pompeii into your trip is a logistical/geographic challenge given your other destinations. I think you would have a more enjoyable trip if you did not try to cram it in.

Suggest arranging you time so you do Rome days last and thus facilitate an easy orderly departure for you return flight.

I strongly recommend at least a day trip from Rome to Naples, if not an overnight in Naples.......be sure to go to the National Archeological Museum. I think it's worth the 1 hour train trip to go to the museum and have a great lunch, at least, if not stay and enjoy the bubbling atmosphere of the old city in the evenings, when everyone is out on the streets enjoying friends, drinks, and good food.

For tours, my favourite company is Context Travel -- I was in Italy last October and took 4 of their tours. They're very small (small groups max out at 6 people), and are often led by PhDs or professionals in that field (my excellent Colosseum/Palatine Hill/Forum tour was led by an archaelogist who would be going to work on a Colosseum dig after lunch, for instance). That was the best of the 4 tours, actually, followed by the tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. If you want to see the "Vatican complex" of those sites, definitely take a tour for better access.

In Florence, I really enjoyed staying in the Altrarno area, across the Arno river from most of the sites, but a little quieter and full of good restaurants. My unexpected favourite in Florence was the Museum of the Duomo -- low profile, but a great museum with some real art and architecture treasures. It's part of the combo Duomo ticket (that includes the Duomo, Baptistery, and Dome climb). Another note about seeing art in Florence......if painting is your preference, see the Uffizi, but if you really like sculptural art, don't miss the Bargello......it's been called the "Uffizi of sculpture". It's not on everyone's "must see" list, but it should be. Also the Medici chapels. And go to the Santa Trinita (Saint Trinity) bridge for a great view of Ponta Vecchio, the most famous bridge.

I've only been to Cinque Terre in Sept, but I think you'll find most would recommend to skip CT in March - I don't think weather is that great and I believe a lot of things may be closed, but I'm sure others will chime in.

Do those 15 days include your flight arriving/departing days? It is generally easier to think of it in terms of nights. So, usually 15 days = 14 nights, if you are including your flight over (which is usually overnight) then that really only gives you 13 nights.

Anyways, with 13 (or 14) nights you can def do the 'big 3' of Rome, Venice, Florence. I would probably land and head right to Venice, spend x amount of nights, then Florence then Rome. It really is best to be in your departure city the evening before, so might as well end in Rome.

We spent 5 nights in Rome on our very 1st visit to Europe and we were able to squeeze in a day trip to Naples - and we didn't even do everything right in terms of time (I think we took a slow train, missed our stop for Herculaneum and had to wait almost an hour for a train going back the other way...it was a Sun) and we were still back in Rome by 7-8pm. We did Herculaneum, stopped for pizza then took a van ride up Mt Vesuvius. Mind you, Herc was much quicker to go thru than Pompeii (which we did on another visit to Italy - our 3 hrs barely scraped the surface, but we had to get to Amalfi). You could certainly do an overnight and see Pompeii, Mt Vesuvius and even go to the Arch. museum. If you just want to see Pompeii, a day trip would suffice. Rome is packed to the gills with sights - we've spent 5 nights there twice and still missed things.

I'd give Venice at least 4 nights, then Florence and Rome could be 5 nights (if you have '14' nights). From Florence you could prob do a few day trips to Tuscan towns. On your way from Venice to Florence you could stop into Padua for a partial day, or even Bologna.

Rome deserves 5 nights minimum, there is so much to see in that wonderful city. Florence 3-4 and Venice 2-3.

That leaves you 3-5 nights, I would recommend skipping CT and go to Sorrento (as a base) and do Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi Coast.

I second the suggestion of Rome last. Land in Rome and take the train to either Florence or Venice, then the other (and CT in there somewhere if you want), then your last 3-5 nights in Rome. Fly home from Rome.

Pompeii - IF you have a lot of days in Rome you can go to Pompeii as a day trip. It’s long and exhausting but it’s possible. So with 5 - 6 nights in Rome, that’s 4 - 5 days. 3-4 for Rome itself and 1 for Pompeii. It’s possible.
I personally like the suggestion of skipping CT and going to Sorrento instead. That kills 2 birds with 1 stone - pretty seaside towns AND access to Naples/Pompeii. I say Naples because if you are into Pompeii, many of the artifacts are in the museum in Naples.

So maybe I’d do this, in this order: 3 nights Venice, 4 Florence, 3 Sorrento, 5 Rome.

We tend to be a just walk around no plans type of travel people, normally loving smaller towns to big cities, this will be our first huge city focused Europe trip.

I encourage you to use the same philosophy on this trip. That's a nice chunk of time to work with. The temptation would be to make it three hectic weeks instead of the standard one or two hectic weeks. I do think you are trying to cram in too much.

I highly recommend Walks of Italy tours. We took three - two in Florence and one in Rome. They offer some "taste of" introductory tours that help you orient to a city. The keep the groups small and our guides were wonderful.

CT was the least interesting area of Italy during our visits. If you could eliminate CT the rest of your itinerary would be excellent.

Another vote to skip the CT. In March it might be rainy, and rain there really affects what you can do. If you aren't hikers, there is little to do other than stroll around the villages, look at the shops and eat! The ferries might be affected as well. Rome and Venice, on the other hand, can fill days!

Since your post does say 15 FULL days I am assuming you have 15 nights IN Italy.
I'd skip CT since it's March. You only mentioned Naples/Pompeii and not Amalfi locations so not going to include that- plus ferries won't be running and again it's March- not a lot open anywhere other than Sorrento.

I would do this:

Arrive Rome- train to Venice- 4 nights
Your first day is a bit of a wash with jet lag and a 4 hour train ride to Venice- so that gives you 3 full days in Venice, allows time to really enjoy Venice, get over jet lag, see the islands. Venice itself is the "sight"

Train to
Florence- 4 nights- allows 1 day for a day trip to Siena or Tuscany hill town of choice. (or 2 day trips if you really have little interest in any museums)
Florence is so compact and walkable it didn't feel like a big city to us.
We did visit Uffizzi, Accademia, etc but the couple places we really liked were Bargello, Santa Croce, and San Marco museum- none were crowded.
(Doumo museum was closed for renovations when we were there)

Train to Naples- 2 nights. Easier to get to as opposed to Sorrento or anywhere on the coast
Visit Pompeii - you could visit Sorrento as well on this day if you are interested. We did enjoy our time there but many advise to see the Archaelogical museum in Naples AFTER you have visited Pompeii so I'd probably just stick with Naples/Pompeii.
(The museum is closed on Tuesday)

Train to
Rome 5 nights- you will never have enough time in Rome
(if you only have 14 NIGHTs then I'd say try to keep 5 nights in Rome, take a night away from Florence)

Tours-
Here is a current thread with lots of suggestions:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/suggested-tours

We used Mondo Guides
www.sharedtours.com
for our Pompeii visit and were very pleased

I'd build in at least 2 nights somewhere in Tuscany. We spent 2 nights in Montepulciano and one in Orvieto, but you could do research (Rick's books, other posts) and see which towns appeal to you. The valleys are so beautiful, it would be a shame to miss the area, even for a few days.

Hello all thank you sooooo much for your advice and recommendations. My husband and I are taking it all to heart and we really appreciate you all. As for questions about our schedule we technically a full 15 nights in Italy. We arrive on the evening of the 15th in Rome at 10pm. **** There is a train from Rome to Venice that night but we would only have 18 min to catch it and so even with only taking a backpack we don't think its possible. *** so we were planning on spending that first night in Rome. We love the idea of heading strait to Venice and keeping Rome for the tail end of the trip! We depart Rome at at 2pm on the 30th.

Based on everyones comments here is our new itinerary **100% changeable and ready for other suggestions!*

March 15 - Arrive in Rome sleep in Rome
March 16 - Train to Venice sleep in Venice
March 17- Venice Day sleep in Venice
March 18 - Venice Day sleep in Venice
March 19 - Venice Day sleep in Venice
March 20 - Train to Florence sleep Florence
March 21 - Florence Day sleep Florence
March 22 - Train to Naples sleep Naples
March 23 - Naples Day sleep Naples
March 24 - Train to Rome sleep Rome
March 25 - Rome Day sleep Rome
March 26 - Rome Day sleep Rome
March 27 - Rome Day sleep Rome
March 28 - Rome Day sleep Rome
March 29 - Rome Day sleep Rome
March 30 - Rome in the am and then Fly home

what are y'alls thoughts?

We are now hunting for places to stay on a reasonable budget. Any key words? We have found that different countries have different terms for hotel vs. hostel vs. B&B ... also thoughts on Air B&B's

Please keep the advise coming, we are so grateful for the Rick Steves travel Community!
Thank you
Elizabeth

If the 2 nights in Naples is to go to Pompeii, I would suggest you use those 2 nights to add at least one more to Florence and the other as you see fit. As an alternative to Pompeii would suggest you go to Ostia Antica, which is an easy trip from Rome. It does an excellent job of seeing an ancient Roman city. Have been to and enjoyed both. ( on different trips)

Do Pompeii on the next trip when you can devote more time to the southern area of Italy. Makes for a good reason to go back!

If you’re going to Naples and going to spend a night, you won’t have to do it as a day trip from Rome. As someone who spent only 2 nights in Florence, (we had an evening, one full day and a morning) we didn’t get the chance to see much. If you don’t want to do Tuscan towns (March may not be the best time for them) I’d prob just take one night from Rome and give it to Florence. Otherwise, I think it looks good...

...and what is a reasonable budget for you? I’m more of a cheapskate and for me reasonable is about 70-75 euro a night, but for others 100+ is reasonable. And people have diff comfort levels. I’m fine staying at an Airbnb with the host home, others want a place to themselves.

I will just tell you the place we stayed in Venice for 4 of our 5 stays. The price is good for Venice, location is great, nice breakfast...it’s not the Ritz, doesn’t have a canal view, but is a nice bnb.

http://alcampaniel.tripod.com/

Looks pretty good.
Stay near Termini on arrival night.

First night in Rome really doesn't count- not sure I would do 6 nights Rome on a first trip.
Our first trip was 5- that was about right- had to go back but that's a given.

I agree with Nicole P- take 1 night from Rome and give to Florence. Or to Naples.
Both Naples and Florence have easy day trip options.

You could take a night from Venice. I assumed you would be arriving there dinner time jet lagged. But you will arrive noon so 3 nights does give you a good 2.5 days. That's still a decent amount for Venice. And I do love Venice.

You indicated that you love smaller towns- Venice, Florence, Naples, Rome are not really small- so incorporating a day trip or 2 would help break the cities up.

If Tuscany doesn't interest you now you might prefer 3 nights in Naples. I think ferry to Capri runs in March- that's a nice easy day trip. And as I mentioned above Sorrento is as well- it's lovely, just a walk around kind of town with fabulous views.

Get your first 5 and last 5 nights booked at least- then figure out the middle of your itinerary before you book the rest- or only book refundable.
Booking.com.
Use the filters

Could do this:
Rome 1
Venice 3
Florence 3
Naples 3 or Sorrento 3
Rome 5