Italy and Southern France Itinerary

• The middle section of your trip is easy enough by train, e.g., Rome-Venice direct in 3h 45m; see www.trenitalia.com.
• Sicily-Naples and Venice-Nice are the longer trips that could be done with cheap flights; try www.skyscanner.com.
• An overnight ferry from Palermo to Naples is also a comfortable option.

Rick's guided tour of Sicily moves pretty quickly to fit all its destinations into 11 days. You can't do it any faster than that and many people would choose Sicily for the whole three weeks. If you need to cut something on your list, then you could reason that the Amalfi coast has the most complicated transport, or that France is the furthest "outlier."

Thank you Laura. Very helpful. So the "bug" in this itinerary seems to be southern France; I can't imagine being that close to the Amalfi coast and not seeing it.

One other option I suppose would be to get to Rome and fly to southern France and skip Venice/Verona (again, ugh).

What is, in your opinion, the absolute minimum amount of time to spend in Sicily and still make it worthwhile to fly there in the first place? I've heard it's wonderful, but I want my kids to see a little more of Europe than that one spot.

Thanks again for your reply.

With what you've outlined, you will spend too much time in transit and not enough time being places. You can easily allot 2 weeks to Sicily (and not see it all). Another week for the other Italian destinations and there's 3. You don't have time for France

jquinta,
I just saw your response to Laura and wanted to tell you that the first time we went to Sicily we had 9 days. That seemed good, though some years later we returned for another week. Even keeping it to 9 days makes it a bit rushed for your other stops in Italy.

Thanks Rosalyn,

See also my question about Sicily ... I don't intend to see all of it and would rather hit some other spots. How would you prioritize 4 or 5 days in Sicily?

Thanks for the advice.

Honestly, if you only have 4-5 days for Sicily, I don't think it's worth going. Save it for when you have at least 9-10 days - and even that means seeing only a small part of what the island has to offer.

I think you have to really choose between Sicily and South of France ...

Fly into Naples
Transfer to Amalfi coast (Positano/Sorrento) - 5 nights
Train to Rome - 3 nights
Train to Verona - 2 nights
Train to Venice - 3 nights
Fly to Marseille (Provence) - 4 nights
Train to Nice (Cote d'Azur) - 4 nights
Fly home from Nice

"I can't imagine being that close to the Amalfi coast and not seeing it."

I understand your thinking, but in that path, madness lies. Every place in Italy is close to some other must see place, which in turn takes you to another wonderful place, and pretty soon you have enough "must see" places for 6 months instead of 3 weeks. So you should be ruthless in cutting destinations, not because they're not worthwhile, but because you want to enjoy the places you do see rather than just checking off a list and having a blur of airports and train stations.

I also agree that if you're going to take the time to go to Sicily and from Sicily, spend at least a week, or use the time somewhere else. If you don't go to Sicily, that frees up time for the rest of your itinerary.

Thanks folks. Really sound advice. I can see now, given my ambitious assumptions about Sicily, that Sicily and southern France are a toggle here. I really like djp_syd's itinerary, and could see modifying it simply by swapping the 8 nights total in southern france for Sicily or, as suggested, drop Sicily and fly home from Nice.

That leaves me with one remaining question: My girls will appreciate being near the ocean and at least at times being able to swim. I like that too, but I am also an antiquities person. Is there a clear winner between Sicily and the south of France in general for either of these variables? I see Sicily has some great ancient Greek (and presumably Roman) sites, and I know parts of southern France do too.

Is one of these notably better than the other on either point? I would expect both have fabulous beach towns.

Thanks again for jumping in everyone. This is very helpful.

David in Brisbane, Australia
06/01/16 07:06 PM
3373 posts

I think you have to really choose between Sicily and South of France ...
Fly into Naples
Transfer to Amalfi coast (Positano/Sorrento) - 5 nights
Train to Rome - 3 nights
Train to Verona - 2 nights
Train to Venice - 3 nights
Fly to Marseille (Provence) - 4 nights
Train to Nice (Cote d'Azur) - 4 nights
Fly home from Nice

Keep in mind, Paestum has some of the best preserved Greek sites anywhere. Easily reached from Salerno.

Naples is built on Greek and Roman sites. It would take weeks to see it all.

Perhaps something like this if you choose Sicily (keeping in mind I am not a Sicily expert)...

Fly in to Palermo
Palermo (possibly for Marsala or Erice) - 2 nights
Cefalù - 1 night
Agrigento (Valley of the Temples) - 2 nights
Syracuse - 1 night
Taormina - 2 nights
Train to Salerno - 1 night
Bus to Amalfi coast (Positano/Sorrento) - 4 nights
Train to Rome - 3 nights
Train to Verona - 2 nights
Train to Venice - 3 nights
Fly home from Venice