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Italy Tour (itenary opinions)

Posted by (North Carolina, US) on

I'm debating between touring Iceland or Italy this year. It will be late September though so I know the weather in Iceland will be unpredictable.

For Italy, we would want to see Dolomites and do some hiking, perhaps pass through Lake Como, see Florence and maybe stay in Val d'Orcia, pass through Pisa and stay in Rome and see Pompeii and Amalfi coast. (We have already done Venice and not interested in doing that again, but open to suggestions of other regions!)

First of all, I'm thinking we may need at least 10 days? Typically when traveling like this we will do 14 days and 9 different cities/countries with just 1-3 days max in each area.

Secondly, I was considering traveling by train but it seems quite expensive. Just Rome to Pompeii was more than $150 for 3. I could get a rental car for way cheaper than trains. Even the pass seems expensive. Am I missing something? Last time we traveled by train in Italy it was so much less!

I'm looking for any suggestions for this trip! Give me all your thoughts 😊 it will be my husband and I and our then 2 year old son. We love nature, history and hiking. Not big on cities but loved the history and architecture of Rome! Didn't care for Venice as we felt it was just for shopping and dining.

Posted by
7229 posts

10 days for 8 locations is very rushed

Your 2 yo travels for free on train
Not sure where you’ve got your pricing. Tickets purchased in advance can be a real savings

Use official train site
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.htmlR

I see fast train tix Rome to Naples random day in April 29.30 euros for 2
The Circumvesuviana to Pompeii is just a few euros

Rail passes are almost never useful or cost effective in Italy

The only place you would need or want a car would be Tuscany

With 10 nights see Dolomites 3, Florence 3 or 4 with day Day trip to Pisa then Rome 3 or 4
Or skip Rome and spend those days in Tuscany with a car

Save AC and Pompeii for another trip

Posted by
4625 posts

I won't comment on your itinerary because it's significantly different than my travel style, but a word of warning about Pompeii with a 2 year old. Pompeii is not stroller friendly in the least, you'll need to be prepared to carry him. We were on a group tour with a family with 2 babies and 2 strollers and the dads carried the kids and the moms and Grandma took turns carrying the strollers. They left the 2 hour tour early.

Posted by
92 posts

Allan, yes - we will definitely have a carrier! I may not even take a stroller as I expect many streets within towns/cities would be like Rome or worse where a stroller wouldn't be usable due to the old stone. Plus my son prefers the carrier over the stroller and we do plan to hike a bit.

ChristineH, I was using that site...I must have put something in wrong because it was coming up ad $55 euros per person and $23 for my son. (If I wanted him to have a seat). I'll have to recheck it.

I really hate to skip Pompeii as we skipped it last time and I don't know when we'll plan another trip to Italy. My husband has tons of time off to use. Maybe we'll plan for 14 days. That's usually what we do when we go to Europe anyway. We don't like all that time in each place though. We had 2 full days in Rome last time and that was perfect for us. Saw exactly everything we wanted to see...but we didn't go outside of Rome at all. I'll have to plan it all out with transfer times and see how it looks and adjust accordingly

Thank you!!

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