Is this "Classic" itinerary the best one?

I would give the entire week to Rome with day trips. Rome is lovely in October (favorite month when we lived there) and you can escape humanity by planning your time to include some lesser sites (Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Galleria Colonna If you are there on a Saturday, Villa Torlonia) and do day trips places like to Villa d’Este in Tivoli, Castel Gandolfo, Ostia Antica, or Orvieto. Get an apartment and enjoy some extra space, save a couple of Euros by cooking a couple of nights.

Hi there, Sarah -

Starting with this.....

Should I save Florence for another trip and go somewhere like Bologna
or another city with good day-tripping options?

Florence itself is a great base for day trips! Many posters have easily done Siena, Lucca, Fiesole, Pisa and other locations from there. You might consider making just that one and Rome your two "homes" for this trip? Consider flying into Florence or Pisa and then to Rome for the back end of the trip + flight home. You could split your time 50-50 (which is what I'd do as Rome pretty much demands 3 full days to scratch the surface) or give Florence one extra night if those day trips hold bigger appeal.

Mid/late fall could be sketchy, weatherwise, in the north so I'd save it for a different trip, maybe earlier in the fall or late spring, and plan to spend a night in Bergamo itself as its medieval Città Alta section is well worth exploring. That next trip you could do a more northernly circle such as, say, Bergamo> Lake Garda>Verona>Bologna>Milan or something like that.

Editing to add: agree 100% with Laurel that Oct. weather in Rome can be glorious; been there, done that! :O)

I loved Tuscany in October so I would say go ahead and base in Florence for 3 days with a day trip to Sienna or a couple of the smaller hill towns - San Gimignano or another. And then finish in Rome for 3 days. I think that's a great itinerary.

If it were me - and obviously you're not! - I'd leave Florence for a separate long weekend break. But then I'm not greatly excited by renaissance art and to me it's an one or two day place and the interest is as a base for day trips elsewhere in Tuscany rather than the city itself.

So for a two-stop visit, I'd extend the Milan stop by a day or two. There's more to see than some suggest, or you could include a day trip to Bergamo or Como. Then go to Rome for the rest of your trip.

Rome is Europe's greatest city (and thus also the world's), and whilst it certainly is busy, there are options to relax away from the crowds. With only two or so days, you are rather forced to stick to the touristy centre to see the main sights. But with an whole week or more you can also visit the less visited parts. Personally, I'd spend all your time in Rome.

Loving these opinions. I like the idea of flying into Florence or somewhere else in Tuscany, but alas, my local airport only has direct flights on the mainland to Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, and Catania. So if we were to use Florence as our first base, Milan (or possibly Venice) is still my best bet, and Milan is a little cheaper.

One option would be to take the train same day from Milan to Florence. Our flight arrives at Bergamo at 11:10, so it would be doable.

On the other hand, I've been finding some great apartments in Rome for a week and the idea of just hanging our hat in one place is increasingly appealing.

I've definitely eliminated Milan for this trip, mostly because I don't really want to "do it twice" and I still want to give the lakes a try when the weather will be more appealing. Thanks for the insight and feel free to continue to chime in if you have a suggestion or recommendation!

My first thought was, "Can one be sure of better-than-German weather in northern Italy during the month of October?". I'm doubtful about that, though I assume the odds are good.

Do plan to see Bergamo at some point.

I'd be inclined to hold off on Milan till a later trip when the calendar wasn't against me. If I have a destination I think requires only a few days, I like to take care of all its key sights on a single trip. Thst's how much I dislike checking in and out of hotels.

Orvieto has quite a lot of sights. It's worth at least two nights. I imagine it would be less busy during the week; I have a feeling it's a popular weekend getaway for locals. If you want a lively environment, I suppose you might prefer a weekend in October.

For future reference, Padua has more than a day's worth of sights itself as well as being a great base for visits to Vicenza, Verona and Ferrara. It's a very quick train ride over to Venice if there are one or two things you missed on your earlier visit. I'm sure there's easy transportation between the Venice airport and Padua.

And though Sicily is a 2-to-3-week destination, as a resident of Europe you could simply fly to Palermo for 5 or so nights and simply wallow in churches and chapels (among other things). Not recommended in the summer, though.

We visited Bologna. It is OK, but nothing spectacular. We loved Ravenna.

Florence is awesome as is Rome.

OK to skip Milan, but whenever you DO go there, be sure to visit the Cimitero Monumentale --- the giant sculptures and tombs are melodramatic and creepy and amazing. Probably our favorite thing in Milan besides the roof of the Duomo and the Brera.

Rome for a week, absolutely. I spent 8 nights there on my last trip to Italy and was surprised how much I loved it. I wasn’t nearly done and intend to do another week soon. I had avoided Rome for several prior trips because I was sure it would be too big, crowded, dirty, unfriendly. Wrong, wrong, wrong. But I did prefer staying “across the Tiber” in Prati. The little apartment I stayed in first near Campo de' Fiori was hot and very noisy all night. The gorgeous, spacious one with a view of St. Peter’s and interesting neighbourhood walks suited me much better

OK, while I offered up the 50-50 split of Rome and Florence, we've spent as long as a week in Rome (3rd time there for me) without even coming CLOSE to running out of things to do. We didn't leave town, either. Soooo, just staying put is definitely an option. But I'm an art geek so pretty much tumbled end-over-teakettle for Florence; next time we're staying put THERE for a week + doing some of those suggested daytrips. In the end I love BOTH cities for their individual charms so IMHO it's win-win no matter what you decide. :O)

Sure, you could train all the way from Bergamo to Florence on arrival day; some folks do the same to Florence from Rome.

If you want to visit Florence, then flying into Rome may be a better choice than Bergamo. It is just a little over two hours from the airport to Florence. I’d probably fly into Rome and take the train to Florence on arrival. Spend the first part of the trip in Tuscany then head back to Rome to finish.

I’d be inclined to either spend the whole time in Rome or split time between Rome and a second place.

After a couple nights of discussing, speed-reading guidebooks, and watching pretty much all of the RS episodes relevant to the areas we're considering, and of course the great advice given here, we still can't decide! We're definitely either going to split 4 nights Florence/4 nights Rome or 7 nights Rome.

It did occur to me that it is faster to get to Florence from Rome than Bergamo. The issue is that the flight to Bergamo from where I live is a mere $17 one-way. My flight back out of Rome is $77 one way. Meanwhile a round-trip into Rome is $186. I'm going to have to crunch the numbers with the cost of train rides but it sounds like it will all end up being roughly the same no matter which route we choose, which just leaves factors like 7 nights versus 8 (in theory more time is always better; in reality giving my husband a day off of his grueling work schedule on one side of the trip might be nice and saves us the cost of an extra hotel night and travel day). I suppose our autumn trip last year, to Basque country, Cantabria, Asturias, and Madrid was exhausting and we really want time to relax and have less stress while still getting the best of what these areas have to offer. Either way, I think splitting it between two bases isn't going to be too hectic if we decide to go that route.

I imagine we'll keep going back and forth a bit, but I really appreciate everyone's quick input! I'll let y'all know what we decide shortly.

I figured you'd decided to skip Israel, since you've been silent on that thread.

Have you looked for flights to Bologna? (I don't know where you are in Germany.) It's a bigger airport than Florence and much closer than Bergamo. Right now on trenitalia, the super economy fare Frecciarossa (fast train) on Oct 13/14/15 from Milan to Florence is €30 or more, depending on the train. That's not too bad if you're okay with the risk. Economy fare adds at least €10, and if you have to buy full fare, it's €56. If you figure out what to do with luggage in Milan, you could spend the afternoon there and see the Duomo and adjacent Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, maybe tour La Scala and/or visit the Sforza Castle with its museums and still get a late prepurchased train to Florence.

Many people who didn't think they like art had their minds changed in Florence. As others have said, there's a lot more to Florence than art and churches and day trips by bus or regional train (cheap). The best day trips from Rome mean fast (expensive) trains (Naples, Orvieto). Or maybe choose Bologna instead of Florence. It is a university town, you can tour the oldest university in Europe (the world?), it doesn't attract many tourists, rooms are cheaper, great food, and some lovely portico -lined streets (good to keep out of sun or rain). From Milan you go through Bologna to Rome so you won't add travel time or expense in choosing one over the other.

I like the 4 nights each or 5 in Florence 3 in Rome because of all the nearby day trips from Florence. If you want to do a day trip to Pompeii from Rome(long but I've done it twice and it's worth it) and/or Naples, 4 in Rome.

I figured you'd decided to skip Israel, since you've been silent on that thread.

Hi Chaini! Not skip but postpone. I'm determined to get there, but I'm looking at spring as per your suggestion. I hadn't realized that this year between High Holy Days and Sukkot public days falling on weekdays that it would be especially crazy, and flights are more expensive than I'd seen in years. I could fly back home to the west coast for cheaper than going to Israel in this timeframe.

Appreciate the advice, and I really am an art lover and am very excited about seeing Florence and all of central Italy in the future, but we've decided on this trip to focus on Rome entirely. We've had a busy travel year in general, and I feel we'd get more out of renting a car in Tuscany/Umbria and we're just not up for it on this trip - seems like it would merit it own trip (although I'm dying at missing both the art and some of the Gothic churches). On the plus side Chabad does a 3 course sukkah meal in Rome and I think we'll do that so I won't be missing out on Sukkot entirely! It's not Jerusalem but Rome doesn't lack for Jewish culture and history.

One home base for 6 or 7 nights on this trip will take a lot of hassle and stress out of the trip and I'm getting increasingly excited about Rome. I've already booked tickets to see Nero's palace on a whim even.

I really do appreciate everyone's advice and helpfulness, you've helped us narrow down our focus and given us invaluable advice for further trips.

Hey Sarah, I really meant skip . . . at this moment. You wouldn't see me anyway, I'll be in the Greek Isles then. In 2020, looks like March and May will be best - March cheaper, fewer tourists, not as warm, possibly a little rain. And yes, flights are super expensive because half the Israelis (the ones who aren't flooding the local sights) are escaping to Europe. I'm paying more than twice for airfare to Greece than I would in May.

Rome for a week is fabulous. Look at visiting Domus Aurea, it's only open on weekends and with guides (who are part of the excavation team). You can download Rick's audio walk of the Ghetto and another of Trastevere right across the bridge.

In the sukkah with Chabad sounds good, just don't expect great food, though you may be lucky. You can get out of the city for a day, spend the morning in Ostia Antica (Rome's ancient port - ruins similar to Pompeii) and then spend the afternoon at the nearby beach. Rick has a audio tour for that too.

Art lover's delights:

San Luigi Church (near the Pantheon) has several Caravaggios. The City of Rome Museums are in 4 locations. One is near San Luigi, my fave is the Massimo near Termini with beautiful frescoes and mosaics from around the 1st century. The Vatican Museums are extensive with tons of treasures, book tickets in advance. The Capitoline is excellent for early Roman. You can get good views overlooking the Forum from some of the balconies of Vittorio Emanuele II Monument across the piazza from the Capitoline.