Italy in March/April 2015

Sanjay - Please understand that people participating in this forum are volunteers and not free travel agents. What works best here is that you plot out an itinerary and run it through the people here for comments. Same goes for hotels - do some research and come up with a short list, asking back here for thoughts. To ask people to plan out your vacation is not the point here.

What are your children's ages?

As Emily mentions, it is helpful to have some more details and for you to give us some idea of what you wnat to do/plant to do/like to do. I will say, though, that you have too many places in your list for only 14 nights. You will spend a great deal of time -- and money -- in transit. Comsider this with 6 locations:
Day 1/Night 1 - Arrive Milan; Transfer to Venezia; Sleep Venezia 2 nights
Day 2 - Venezia
D3 - Transfer to Firenze; Sleep Firenze 3 nights
D4 - Firenze
D5 - Day trip to Siena; Sleep Firenze
D6 - Transfer to Cinque Terre; Sleep CT 2 nights
D7 - CT
D8 - Transfer to Sorrento; Sleep Sorrento 3 nights
D9 - Sorrento environs
D10 - Sorrento environs
D11 - Transfer to Roma; Sleep Roma 3 nights
D12 - Roma
D13 - Roma
D14/N14 - Transfer to Milan; Sleep Milan
D15 - Depart

You will spend 1/2 to 3/4 of a day changing locations 6 times! that is a lot of time you could spend experiencing Italy. I would cut out Sorrento and add those nights to Firenze, Venezia and Roma giving you 3 nights Venezia, 3 nights CT, 4 nights Firenze and 4 nights Rome. Siena is an easy day trip from Firenze. Plan out what you want to see and do in each place. What museums, for example, and how long will it take to tour them? Will you hike in the CT or just look at the sea? Do you want to go to wineries in Tuscany or ???? That will help you decide how many nights to spend and how to structure your days.

Note I am using the Italian spelling of the cities as you need to use them when you make train reservations. Research the travel times at www.Trenitalia.com. Add time for checking out/transferring to the station/finding your way in tne new city/checking in, etc. It really takes at least half a day even if you only have a 1 1/2 hour train trip.

If you are within appropriate driving or telephone distance from our office in Edmonds, WA, then you can schedule a paid consulting appointment to help with some of your detailed questions. Note that these consultants give advice but don't make any bookings, since we are not a travel-booking agency. If you have Rick Steves' Italy 2015 guidebook, then you have most of our hotel recommendations. Having the book in hand provides some shortcuts in your conversation with the consultants, but is not required.

Staying overnight in all those places described would mean a ton of time on the road. Best to have 'home bases', so to speak. We are traveling there in early March. After a few days in Paris & Switzerland, we are staying 5 nights in Florence, then 5 nights in Salerno. In Florence we are staying in an apartment near the Santa Maria Novella train station & can take day trips to Venice (2 hrs each way), Siena (1 hr) or Pisa (1 hr). Cinque Terre is going to be a little tough time-wise so we are skipping it. From Salerno we can visit Naples (30 min), Sorrento (1 hr) or Pompeii (45 min) We are bypassing Rome this time.

For your trip, I would research train travel, buy what advance tickets you need from Trenitalia & buy them cheaply, and use Florence and Rome as home bases. Might have to omit Sorrento and/or Cinque Terre. Or use Sorrento as your last home base for a couple of nights, then fly Naples to Milan then back home.

sanjay,

My suggestions would be much the same as the Itinerary that Laurel posted. I also agree that it would be prudent to skip Sorrento this time, as it adds to the travel times (especially important on such a short trip).

Regarding places to stay, there are lots of good suggestions in the Italy 2015 guidebook. If you're not able to easily buy the guidebook online or at your local book store, you can perhaps download the E-book version, which is available in Kindle, iBooks and other formats. The Kindle version is currently priced at $9.20. If you don't own a Kindle, you can easily download the free Kindle Reader which is available for PC, MAC, iOS and several other platforms. The E-books are a bit more cumbersome to use than the hard copies, but much more convenient to pack around.

All of the places you'll be visiting are well served by public transit (train or bus), so that would be "the best mode of transport". You can plan your journeys using the Trenitalia or bahn.de websites. There are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using public transit in Italy, and if you need more information on that post another note.

You have already had some good suggestions so I'll try not to be redundant. First let me say that I believe you're trying to squeeze too much into a short period of time. You can easily use up two weeks in just Rome, Venice and Florence and still not see everything there is to see there. Another concern would be the ages of your daughters and what they like to see and do. The younger they are the more accommodations you will need to make for them. Consider quality and not quantity and as Rick always says, "assume you will return". Whatever you decide, Do NOT fly in and out of Milan. Too much time wasted backtracking. Also, do not leave Milan without seeing The Last Supper and their cathedral at the very least. If you want to arrive in Milan plan to depart for home from Rome. Or you could reverse that plan. Either way, you will spend a lot of valuable time on the train between these cities and it is hard to avoid having to double back a bit if you try to do it all. We did Rome to Venice, then back to Florence. taking a day trip bus tour from there to San Gimignano and Siena. Afterward there was a 2 1/2 hour train ride to the Cinque Terre and then the train to Milan to fly home. (the attractions of the CT are the hiking trails, the beach in Monterosso (cold in April) and the charm of the villages. If you're children are young they probably won't appreciate that and you might consider leaving that out of your itinerary. I tried to do a similar itinerary with three people over 2 weeks and missed out a lot in the process. The number of days you spend in each place will depend on how much you want to see in each, as well as what you are willing to leave out. Follow Ken's advice on planning...he's the best.

You are considering 6 destinations in 14 nights. That is rushed, especially with 4 people. For each change, you have to pack your bags and check out of the hotel, get to the train station at least a few minutes before departure (much more if you need to wait in line to buy tickets) to find your train and board it, then get to to your next hotel to check in and leave your luggage before beginning any sightseeing. Even a 1-2 hour train ride translates into nearly 1/2 a day of travel time.

Are you departing on April 11? If April 10, then it's 13 nights. When is your departure flight? It is usually best to spend your last night in the departure city. With the last night in Milan, we're up to 7 destinations, or 2 nights per destination, giving you one full day at each. Another question is whether you're going to Italy from somewhere nearby, meaning a short flight and no jetlag, or are you on a long-haul flight with a transfer? Are you going to be sleep-deprived and jetlagged? That is likely to slow you down on your first day or two.

After all that, I recommend you omit at least 2 destinations. Since late March-early April is a poor time to visit the Cinque Terre, and since it takes a long time to get there, it's a good candidate. Another obvious one is Sorrento, since it is so far away from the others and also takes a long time to get there.

Even with 14 nights and no jetlag, Venice > Florence > Rome > Milan is a pretty full itinerary. You can visit Verona or Padua on the trip from Venice to Florence, taking an early train out and checking your luggage at the train station for the day. You can day trip to Siena by bus from Florence.

Sanjay: Depending upon your interests, consider stopping between Milan and Venice at Padua and visit the Scrovegni Chapel for a magnificent display of Giato's artwork in situ.