Italy 15 Days (Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, Amalfi Coast)

You have a lot of places with desired day trips in a short period of time. With your agenda I personally would drop the CT. Right now you have 2 full days in Florence and you want to do 2 daytrips that are in opposite directions. I would add a night to Florence. I don't know what your plans are in Rome, but I would add a least a night there. From what location do you plan to see Pompeii and Ravello? Your schedule has you in Sorrento for one full day and Positano for 2 full days. Add the 3rd day you saved from dropping the CT to the location on the Amalfi coast that makes the most sense for your day trips.

Le Cinque terre and the Coastiera Amalfitano offer the same type of experience. IMHO, I would drop Le Cinque Terre and add those days to other locations. You might want to be flexible on the side trips, as well because you have planned for a lot of movement.

Delta flys from JFK to Pisa non-stop and then you could fly home from Roma utilizing the open-jaws, or multi-cities, strategy. This eliminates time consuming backtracking and maximizes your time in-country. From Pisa you could train straight to Florence and begin your touring. You can take the train for most of your transit needs and maybe rent a car when you want to explore the Amalfi or go to Pompeii. However, we've driven the Amalfi three times and the first time I had a white knuckle death grip on the steering wheel. The other two times were only really intense. You do not want to drive in Napoli.

Buon viaggio,

I was thinking Cinque Terre (3) > (Lucca side-trip on way to Florence) > Florence (4) > (Siena side-trip on way to Rome) > Rome (3) > (Naples side-trip on way to Sorrento) > Sorrento (2) with Day trip to Pompeii > Positano (3)

So the preference would be to get rid of Cinque Terre versus The Almalfi if the above is "too much"?

Instead of stopping on the way to Florence, get to Florence and take a daytrip to Lucca. Siena is in the other direction, so you may want to keep that as a stop (check luggage at the train station).

You can go to Naples, Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii from Sorrento and daytrip to Ravello from Positano (take the bus from Positano to Amalfi and change to the bus for Ravello).

I would also drop Cinque Terre in the amount of time you have, or make it 2 nights instead of 3. Put that night in Florence (to accommodate a daytrip to Siena and thereby not having to stop on the way to Rome), or add it to Rome or Sorrento.

If we add some days to Florence, do you think it could be possible to do a day trip (with a group) to Cinque Terre?

Michelle,

Yes, it's possible to go to the CT on a day trip from Florence.

You can go by train & will need to transfer either at La Spezia or Pisa.

Once you reach whichever village you want to visit, it's easy to get to the other villages
via train as it only takes around 5 mins. from one village to the next.

I'd suggest traveling to Monterosso, then work your way south from there.

You can also take the ferry boat from one village to the next (except to Corniglia)

Check ferry boat schedules: http://www.navigazionegolfodeipoeti.it/orario.asp?lang=eng

Check train schedules here: http://www.trenitalia.com

I will be a long day, but if you leave early (Florence) & leave late (CT), it's doable.

Thanks everyone! All great advice!

Biggest take-away is to have just a few "hubs" that we stay at, and if we want to do day-trips, just branch out instead of trying to hit spots on the way to other spots.

Michelle,

Florence - 4 nights, Cinque Terre - 3 nights, Rome - 3 nights,
Sorrento - 2 nights, Positano - 3 nights

You do realize that 4 nights = 3 full days; 3 nights = 2 full days; 2 nights = 1 full day.

So as Andrea pointed out above, you only have one full day in Sorrento.*

Andrea's advice to drop the CT and add these days to other locations makes good sense.

Miche77e
We are doing a day trip from Florence to Cinque Terre and using Florence as our home base. I also considered doing a day tour but after doing some extensive research I think we will have a more enjoyable time by ourselves. There is actually a really good You-Tube video that someone made on how to get the trains from Florence to Cinque Terre that conviced me we will be fine on our own. Yes it will be a long day, but not a concern for us. We will be going in October, hopefully the weather and Trails will be great.

In 2013 we flew into Pisa and spent four nights there. We made a day trip to Le Cinque Terre with a train connection in La Spezia onto Vernazza. From Vernazza we used the ferry roundtrip to Monterossa al Mare. It was a long day, but we saw the place. I had been there in 1994 when they were sleepy little towns. In 2013 we were there in July and it was CROWDED, CROWDED with American and Italian tourists. The streets in Vernazza are more narrow and we were shoulder to shoulder with fellow travelers. In fact, we had train reservations from La Spezia to Vernazza and every car on our train was jammed forcing us to take a later train.

Buon viaggio,

Would your recommendation in general be to skip Cinque Terre if we keep Positano on our agenda?

Revised Agenda:
Fly into Pisa...
Lucca (1) > Florence (4) > Rome (4) > Positano (5) > Naples (1)
(Side-trips to Sienna from Florence, Pompeii from Positano, Ravello from Positano)
Fly out of Naples

Thoughts? Thanks everyone!

Cinque Terre and Positano/Amalfi are NOT the same experience. CT is in a national park. You can hike, take a 5 minute train ride, or, in summer, take a ferry between the 5 villages. The Amalfi coast is primarily bus or taxi travel. Day 1, flight into Rome, morning arrival. Train to La Spezia. Local train to either Vernazza or Monterosso. Dinner on the harbor, or the beach, depending on destination. Next morning, train to Riomaggiore (5 minutes), then walk to Manarolo. Train to Corniglia (5 minutes), hike the trail to Vernazza, train to Monterosso. A nice seafood risotto at one of the beach restaurants. Day 3, train from La Spezia to Florence. Dinner in the shadow of the Duomo. Morning, Accademia. Afternoon, Uffizi. Evening Steak Balsamico at Aqua al Due. Rent a car here for drive to Volterra, then to stay in Siena. Next day, drive from Siena to Montepulciano, Montalcino, San Gimignano and whatever else you have time for. Stay in Siena. Drive car south to drop off at FCO Rome. 4 nights in Rome (you could stay 10 nights and not see it all). From Rome, train to Sorrento, for 3 nights. Day trips to Positano and the Amalfi Coast (primarily bus or taxi). Train to Naples for last two nights. Pick your favorite Roman site. Fly home from Naples.
2 nights CT, 2 nights Florence, 2 nights Siena, 4 nights Rome, 3 nights Sorrento, 2 nights Naples.

Would your recommendation in general be to skip Cinque Terre if we keep Positano on our agenda?
Revised Agenda:
Fly into Pisa...
Lucca (1) > Florence (4) > Rome (4) > Positano (5) > Naples (1)
(Side-trips to Sienna from Florence, Pompeii from Positano, Ravello from Positano)
Fly out of Naples

Yes, drop the CT entirely if the Amalfi Coast is important to you. I love the CT (have been 4 times, total of 16 nights), but all you would do with a day trip is "see" it and be one of the masses of people who descend on these tiny towns, spend 37 minutes and move on. The CT like most of Italy is best done slowly. Stop and stay awhile. So put it on your list for the inevitable next trip. I actually overheard a woman at the Riomaggiore train station say to her husband "We have 37 minutes until the next train. That should be enough time to see this place." Really?

Your arrival day is a bit of a disaster wherever you land unless you are one of the few who do not suffer jetlag. You won't see much of Lucca as a one night first stop. Fly to Firenze (get to know your Italian place names as they arr crucial for bus and train schedules), then day trip to Lucca. Pompeii is a trek from Positano but it can be done. (Bus to Sorrento and Circumvesuviana to Pompeii or private transfer.) You could also see Pompeii on your way to Naples the last day. Check your luggage at the site. Ravello is gorgeous, by the way! Paestum is within range from Positano so you might look at that possibility.

I am not fond of e2dbg's itinerary. Too many 2 night stays. Slow it down, use "base camps" and enjoy getting to know the places you stay. 4 or 5 nights in a place make you feel a little more like you experienced it.

Arrive Pisa. People mover bus to Pisa Centrale 8 min. Train: Pisa>Lucca 27min.

Alt: Train: Pisa>La Spezia 55min. 8-28 min to village of your choice.

3 nites at either location.

Day 4. Train: La Spezia Centrale>Firenze SMN. 1H54m.

4 nites Florence. Bus to Siena 1 day. 1H15m. bus drops you in town.

Day 7. Train: Firenze SMN>Roma Termini. 1H31m

3 nites Rome

Day 10. Train: Roma Termini>Napoli Centrale. 1H10m. Check bags @ station See Napoli

.Retrieve bags. Take Circumveauvian >Sorrento. 1H29m. Bus to Positano.1H10m

.http://www.theamalficoast.net/orari_sita_bus_timetables.html

.Sorrento makes a better base as there are more transportation options.

4nites Amalfi Coast.

1 nite Naples. If you don't have an early flight out of Naples, you could stay an extra nite Sorrento.

.and take this bus from Sorrento>Napoli Capodichino airport.

.http://www.curreriviaggi.it/inglese/E_index.html

.

When we were booking our trip a couple of years ago, we had to make the choice between the CT and Amalfi Coast and everyone that I'd talked to that had visited both recommended the CT -- and we loved it. however, I agree with the other comment that it really does deserve more than just a day trip and I'd save it for another time if that's all you can give it. We had three nights there and thought that was the right amount to start with (we didn't hike in between the towns), but it's definitely on our list to get back to again.

We had four nights in Florence and thought we could get away with three, esp. if you need to find time to put elsewhere. We had four nights in Rome and we would've been okay with three, but we also didn't explore it nearly as much as other areas (our favorites were Tuscany, CT and Venice).

Our updated plan is: Florence (5 nights) > Rome (4 nights) > Positano (5 nights) > Naples (1 night)

With a bike tour of Tuscany one day in Florence, and day-trips in Positano to Amalfi, Ravello, Pompeii, and Capri.

Do you think we have our days allocated correctly? =)

Thanks everyone!

p.s. Next trip to Italy will be Venice and Cinque Terre!

Sounds great! Enjoy Italy.