Hi!! I am looking for itinerary advice. We are planning to vacation with our 2 college age kids while they are home for the holidays. We have a small window we are working with and are looking to begin our trip on 12/25 and depart on 1/2. We originally had planned 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence and 2 in Venice. After looking at flights I think we are going to remove Venice due to the return flights having too many connections. That being said, if you had 7 nights to split between Rome and Florence how many in each would be best? Is Rome or Florence a better bet for New Year's Eve? I have been to Italy but it was many years ago. I'm looking to book the trip myself so any advice you have is welcome! Thank you so much!!!
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7644 posts
Usually it’s easier to fly out of Rome, so I would take the train up to Florence for your first days and end in Rome. You definitely want to be in Rome the night before your flight in case of any train strikes or other issues.
I would give Florence the extra day - both because you will be getting over jet lag there, plus there’s easy day trips from there if you decide you would like to explore some smaller cities, too.
Be sure you book your flights directly with the airline and not with any 3rd party, I.e. Expedia, etc. especially since you’re traveling during the holidays when things could get delayed.
Posted by
Charleston & Birmingham
4553 posts
You could fly to or from Florence but may have the same problem with connections. The Florence airport is one of the easiest I have ever used.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thank you all for the great advice! Unfortunately we are not near a major airport so we have to connect somewhere first before departing the US. It looks like Venice, Florence and Milan all would have two connections while Rome only has one. So we’ll probably round trip out of Rome. We depart on 12/25 but won’t arrive until the 26th so hopefully we’ll only have the one evening of holiday closures. I know that the 1st is a holiday as well.
I appreciate the insight! This gives me some options to look into.
Posted by
Midwest
517 posts
We did a Rome RS tour right before Covid that started on the 30th of Dec. For NYE's we did have a slight issue finding dinner and really wish we had dinner at our hotel only because it was a true Roman NYE dinner with many courses and mostly locals with music. With our tour group we went to the hotel roof top with free Prosecco toasts and got to see the fireworks around town. It was very fun. Before our tour we went to Sorrento and to Pompei. It was nice seeing it without the crowds and heat.
On the 1st of Jan RS had to change our tour plans because of closures so had a very cool cooking class. It is a very big time for locals to travel. There will be closures but just go with an open mind and reservations. The part that is very cool that unlike in the US where Christmas is over on the 25th it goes there till Jan 6th. You can see all the Nativity scenes around town. The Christmas markets are out in full force. It was really magical.
I would secure hotel as soon as you know because it is a busy time to travel.
Enjoy.
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden
896 posts
Hi there, Just some comments on Rome - I think it really depends on your capacity to handle crowds and whether or not you want to see fireworks? If you stay at Hotel Smeraldo, it has a rooftop bar where you could observe the celebrations without actually having to be outside in the crowds. We arrived in Rome Dec 26, 2023 and had no problem finding a place to eat a late lunch and dinner, lots of Italians mixed in with foreigners in restaurants in the historic center. We decided to have a big lunch on NYE to avoid that expensive, large meal and simply had pizza by the slice for dinner. One thing in 2023 in Rome I hadn't expected after visiting in 2019, they barricaded all the major fountains on Dec 29th, which I found so disappointing, as Italian fountains are some of my fav things. I suspect it's to discourage throwing empty bottles in the fountains, sigh. Here's our Rome Trip Report, perhaps useful also for NY day, when a bit of planning will go a long ways to find good places to eat & things to do. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/rome-was-jammed-over-ny-but-still-fun.