Italy trip - itinerary question - Rome, Florence, Amalfi coast

Does your 8/9 days include flying to and from Italy? If it’s actual time in Italy itself, you’re looking at 2 to 3 days in each locale, which will allow only a very quick visit in each place.

If you want a bit more time to experience particular locations, then decide on Rome plus either Florence or Amalfi/Pompeii. The Vatican Museums can take the better part of a whole day, and 4 or 5 days just in Rome would still be a short visit.

For the remaining 4 or 5 days, Florence would easily fill that time. Or head south from Rome. We actually stayed in Sorrento, which is not on the actual Amalfi coast, but allowed access to Pompeii, Naples (fantastic Archeological Museum with much of the finds at Pompeii), plus Herculaneum (fascinating ancient city buried at the same time as Pompeii), plus an Amalfi Coast drive.

If you fly roundtrip into/out of Rome, save it for last. Fly in to Rome, catch the next train for either Florence or your “Amalfi” destination, spend a few days there, then Return to Rome to complete the final days of your trip. Have lots of gelato, anywhere you go in Italy. Enjoy!

Hi and welcome to the forums, Frank!
A little more information would helpful:

What time of year will you be traveling?
How many of you are there and approx ages?
Would your 8/9 days include your travel days to Italy and flight home?
Any mobility issues we need to be aware of?

The more you can tell us about you and your family, the better we can help. :O)

Thanks! Looking to travel with our 3 high school age children end of July, beginning of August. Hoping to leave on a Thursday night and come back on 10/11 days later. No mobility issues.

Our “problem” is the differing interests of our kids. One loves art, one history and one is just enthralled by the pictures of the Italian coast. Trying to fit enough in so that they all get to see things of interest.

With only 8 days, I would drop the Amalfi Coast area and stick to Rome and Florence. 5 days in Rome and 3 in Florence.

Looking at this from another perspective, if we are looking to stop on the coast is it better to stay north and go from airport to Florence to Livorno/Cinque Terre to Rome?

Hi again and thanks for filling in some blanks!
I'll throw this out and cheerfully take on floggings from the gang should they think it's nuts. Working with 11 days:
1. Fly to Bologna from the US
2 Arrive in Bologna in the AM/transfer to Florence SM Novella station. Fast train can get you there in 37 minutes.
3 Florence. (wonderful art and history location)
4 Florence
5 Transfer to the Cinque Terre (partial Day)
6 Cinque Terre (the coastal location)
7 Transfer to Rome; partial day
8 Rome (another great history and art location)
9 Rome
10 Rome
11 Fly home from Rome Fiumicino

The reason I chose the CT over the Amalfi Coast is that transport to-and-around the Sorrentine/Amalfi region can be time-consuming and frustrating. If pressed for time, which you are, I'd personally choose the CT as it's sort of between Florence and Rome so no backtracking necessary. Unless you can fly into or out of Naples, you're going to have to do some backtracking. As that would mean missing Pompeii, go see Ostia Antica instead: it's much, much closer to Rome. More on that later if interested. :O)

The cautions: July is going to be VERY busy, and finding accommodations for 5 adults (hotels in Italy usually consider teens to be adults) will be interesting at best. Expect prices to be high. With 4 nights in Rome you might want to look at an apartment that provides more room plus a kitchen. Don't expect 5 actual beds; many will call a pull-out couch in the living area a 'bed'. I would expect accommodations for 5 to be especially challenging in the CT, and that region will also be VERY busy. You'd want to make your reservations NOW.

You will need to pre-reserve tickets to the most-visited attractions, and you'll want to be aware of weekly closing days for some of them (Italian State Museums are closed on Mondays; Vatican's on most Sundays). There are the free First Sundays of the Month at the state museums but that's NOT the day to try and do them.

OK, thoughts from all?

Thank you! Will take a look!

We’d be flying out of NYC area and unless I’m not looking closely enough (which is a possibility given that we’re in the early stages of planning) there seems to be more reasonable flights into Bologna then Rome…Will look more closely.

Regarding hotels- thx, heard the same and was looking at apartments in Rome and Florence.

Is it possible to day trip from Florence to CT?

Is it possible to day trip from Florence to CT?

It's possible but I don't recommend it. That puts you squarely into the worst of the day-tripping mob. The golden hours are those before the day-trippers arrive and after they leave so best to be right THERE to take advantage of them. We loved the early mornings and later afternoon/evenings for that reason.

I will throw out one other option, though? Levanto is a VERY short train ride away from the northernmost CT village, is a bit larger, is on the sea, and has seen a number of recommendation on the forums. You might look at that one? If you are using CT Treno passes, the regional trains servicing the CT region (Levanto to La Spezia and the 5 villages in between) are covered under the pass.

Oh, if looking at apartments, pay close attention to their actual location. The property may be "in" Rome or "in" Florence but be far from the historic centers/things you want to see. Take note of extra fees too, such as cleaning.

I'll admit, it was hard for me to only give Florence 2.5 days but I guess you have to bite the bullet somewhere. You could steal a day from Rome but I'm sure there will be some indignant squeaking about THAT suggestion too.

Kathy,
Your proposed itinerary is WAY TOO rushed. Too much time wasted on travel.

I think trying to please each of the kids is fine. Many will say you only have time for one, place, but for a first trip, hitting several places is fine. I think what Kathy proposed is fine, the Cinque Terre fits the bill for dramatic Italian coast and much easier transport wise.

The only thing I will add, is if round trip to Rome is cheaper and easier, the time difference on train and hassle to Florence from Rome is not that great, especially if Rome is a direct flight to/from the US and Bologna, or Florence will require a change; so round trip to Rome is fine.

Your proposed itinerary is WAY TOO rushed. Too much time wasted on
travel.

LOL. We've seen way worse from some truly scary itineraries. 😳
The only long haul would be from Levanto (or elsewhere in the CT) to Rome. That one will eat a good 1/2 day; between 4.5 and 5 + hours. Bologna to Florence is a short haul, and Levanto is a little over 2.5 hours from Florence.

Keeping peace in the family by trying to visit all three places is commendable. However, it will, in my opinion, be very rushed and some points of interest will be short changed due to time constraints.

The last day will be your departure day so that's a "lost" day, Your first day may be "lost" as well due to possible late arrival, getting to the hotel, checking in, and jetlag. Every time you change locations you'll lose at least one half to three quarters of a day. It's not just actual travel time, It's packing up, checking out, getting to the train station, finding the new hotel, and checking in. Trying to cover all you have planned in eight or nine days (at most - and probably less due to relocations) will be way more than we would ever attempt.

If you do try to go to all three locations, however, think about flying into Florence, going to Rome, Amalfi Coast, and returning from Naples. Or the other way around to minimize backtracking. Just our two cents worth.

Our “problem” is the differing interests of our kids. One loves art, one history and one is just enthralled by the pictures of the Italian coast

Rome (especially Vatican Museums and Borghese Gallery) feature exquisite art, and the Amalfi Coast (or, frankly, Sorrento and nearby Mediterranean area) should check all kids’ boxes. I still suggest that Florence would be an epic destination on another trip, based on your available time.

IF you didn’t make it to Pompeii this trip, there is a similar ancient site quite close to Rome, Ostia Antica. It was Rome’s port centuries ago, but it silted up and was abandoned. Now unearthed, the town ruins feature lots of buildings in remarkably good shape, a former bar/restaurant that looks like they would be able to open again without too much renovation needed, lots of fabulous ancient mosaics, and remains of a public toilet that seated something like a dozen or more at once. It’s a recommended sight, even if you did also see Pompeii (and Herculaneum).

We were in the CT in October 2021. While it was magical on the previous trip, in June 2001, this time, it was horrendously overcrowded. This was in the midst of just starting to ease up on some Pandemic restrictions, and it was October. I’d hate to see it at full vacation time of July and August, with fewer Covid concerns than two years ago. Much of the magic was gone then, and that’s probably our last time to visit the CT. I don’t have a comparison with the Amalfi Coast to offer.

frankc, I urge you to go to your public library and look at a copy of our host here's "Rick Steves Italy". If you insist on getting all your information online, start with his free Travel Tips top left. Also use the Search box top center for your key topics. All guidebooks go out of date, but 90% of the information is timeless.

You have allocated very little time, especially considering the local distances and unfamiliar transportation modes for you. Long trips in the US, in an SUV, are poor training for trips in Europe. Europe in July and August is comparable only to Christmas in New York City or Chicago. You cannot imagine how crowded it is, and how expensive the hotel rooms are, and how fast they sell out. AirBnb, which is harmful to local housing economies is not a magic bullet. They know what you need, and price (and cancel, and collect cleaning fees) accordingly. Besides, do you want to go all that way and still have egg sandwiches and instant coffee in your "full kitchen" for breakfast?

Rick Steves specializes in "my first trip to Europe."

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

Thank you everyone for your input- it’s much appreciated!

My wife and I were now thinking about staying in Rome the entire trip and taking one of the ViaTor trips to the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and possibly Florence. Has anyone had any experience on any of those tours?

And… if we stay in Rome, any suggestions as to neighborhoods, apartments or hotels? Someone mentioned a property in the Trevi neighborhood?

Thanks!

Viator doesn't conduct tours. It just sells tours conducted by other companies. Thus there is no such thing as a "Viator tour". Buying through Viator means you are likely to pay more; if you do not, the tour operator gets much less money because of Viator's commission.

There are extremely fast trains from Rome to Florence; most take 96 minutes each way. No tour will get you there faster; quite the contrary. You can easily buy train tickets yourself (much cheaper if purchased well in advance) and take some sort of walking tour in Florence, go to your preferred museum(s), etc. (Uffizi and Accademia need to be prebooked.) Florence is worth a lot more than one day, so I think most here would agree that you should at least spend one night there.

Pompeii is a very long trip from Rome even if you do the smart thing and start off with an express train from Rome to Naples (as fast as 63 minutes); that distance is about 140 miles, so a tour bus would take much, much longer to get to Naples. The challenges with public transportation come after you arrive in Naples, as you shift to the local train (Circumvesuviana) that stops near the excavations at Pompeii. The Circumvesuviana is very cheap but typically very crowded in peak periods, and it is not air conditioned. Mid-summer in Pompeii is likely to be miserably hot itself, of course. Some people opt to throw money at the problem and arrange some sort of car service/taxi from Naples to Pompeii. I have no idea how much that costs, but I wouldn't feel as bad about doing that with five people in the car. Others here can provide more suggestions; I cannot, because I spent a week in Naples so I could see nearby sights more conveniently.

A tour combining Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast is nutso, as far as I'm concerned. The Pompeii stop would be way too short for your history lover, and traffic on the Amalfi Coast is monumentally bad.

Italy is likely to be very, very hot at the time of your trip. Florence can be worse than Rome. There's really nothing to be done about that when you're traveling with school-age children (unless you want to travel over Christmas break instead). Just be sure everyone understands what they're in for so it's not a shock. You'll find that indoor areas (shops, museums and restaurants) may not be well air conditioned. In some cases they won't be air conditioned at all. That puts a premium on centrally-located lodgings that don't have any negative reviews regarding their air conditioning.

I urge you to consider splitting your group up as necessary so the art-lover doesn't get bogged down wandering around the Forum and the history-lover doesn't roll his or her eyes throughout a two-hour visit to the Borghese Gallery. There is no law that says the five of you have to be joined at the hip when the children's interests are so different. (Yeah, I have no kids. Why do you ask?)

Rome (especially Vatican Museums and Borghese Gallery) feature exquisite art

The thought of wrestling with the crowds at the Vatican Museums during peak tourist season is concerning - if you're carried along with the packed throng, you won't get to see much art. Churches and the less popular museums in Rome may offer art just as exquisite without the crowds, as will the Borghese. Ancient history is everywhere - you can't avoid it in Rome.

There’s also the potential heat in the Vatican Museums in mid-summer, which might not be ideal. Stepping out into the courtyard with the big, ancient pinecone sculpture might not bring much relief, if it’s also scorching outside. However, the Museums do offer evening visits, after most of the throngs have left for the day. There are also early entry, get-ahead-of-the-rush tickets, so either of those might be options. Then, taking time and not just following people in lock-step would allow more time to appreciate the massive, phenomenal collection.

Rome also has a church around every corner (yes, as does Florence, Bologna, etc.), and each is full of outstanding paintings, statues, and stone and metalwork. It’s pretty confined to religious subjects, and is really heavy on Madonna and Child elements. After a while, those start to get repetitive.

There are also early entry, get-ahead-of-the-rush tickets ( for the
Vatican Museums) so either of those might be options.

We don't know at this point if early entrance ticket or tours will be available in 2024.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/upcoming-changes-in-hours-and-ticketing-vatican-museums

Please don't book anything with 3rd-party Viator. You want to book directly with the companies operating the tours or the Vatican itself.

.... taking one of the ViaTor trips to the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and
possibly Florence.

In addition to advising against using a 3rd party wholesaler like Viator, another reason not to do one of the bus trips to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast - and that acraven pointed out - is that it involves more than 6 hours sitting on a bus, and high-season traffic on the coast is horrendous. That's a big chunk of a day that could otherwise be used for sightseeing, and a LOT of sitting for active teens. Most of those tours also spend just a scant 2 hours at the scavi. Ostia Antica would take far less time, cost far less, and you could spend as much or as little time there as you wish to.

Florence? Gosh, if you've got 2 young people into art and history, I sure wouldn't cut time in that one down to just a day trip. Heck, I'd cut the coastal stuff before I'd do that but that just me. That also would put you, again, into the middle of the many trying to do the same thing you are: cram the top attractions into a few hours. Consider as well that it's going to be HOT in July; without some breathing-room/rest-up/cool-down spaces in the day, all of you could end up cranky, tired and overheated in a fat hurry.

Although many will recommend against day trips to CT or pompeii/amalfi - I have done both during the peak of july/aug so wanted to share since it sounds like this is important in your priorities to satisfy all interests.

I did a day tour to pompeii, positano and amalfi from Rome and on a separate trip a day tour to CT from Florence.

The tour from Rome was the least favorite of all the tours I’ve done and I found all underwhelming and not sure if that is due in part to there being so little time to spend in each of the stops.

The day tour to CT from Florence however was absolutely amazing. Much more time spent on the ground in CT, and although busy with other day trippers was in my experience a great way to get a taste of CT. Would do this day trip again in a heart beat, whereas the day trip from Rome left me with no desire to return to Pompeii, Positano or Amalfi.

If you are considering splitting your time between Florence and Rome, I wouldn’t rule out a day tour to CT. As much as I love Rome and hesitate to recommend cutting a day from there, it may be worth 4 nights in Florence to allow a day for the CT, assuming you will still have 4 nights in Rome.

I took my teen to Rome (5 days) and Florence (3 days) last March and get to return with my whole family this spring for 13 days. We are both art and history fans, and Florence, by far, was the mecca of art treasures. We really enjoyed our guided tours (Tour Guys) of the Academia & Uffizi in Florence, a docented tour at the Bargello, the Medici Chapel, and a Rocky Ruggiero podcast explaining the outside of Orsanmichele. Every little free church, monastery, and alcove became an opportunity to soak up and understand better the art and architecture that spans hundreds of years. My fav church was Basilica Santo Spirito, and climbing the hill to San Miniato right before sunset to listen to Gregorian chant at evening vespers was worth the trip alone. Take the FrecciaRossa high-speed train at 8:30 am from Roma Termini and spend the entire remainder of the day (from 10:20 on...the first trains of the day are the most likely to arrive on time) in Florence. We did our Cupola and Campanile climb at the Duomo the day our train arrived (3:45pm in case our train was delayed). It sounds like a day trip to CT might be better than Amalfi coast.

The Vatican Museum (we did the Pristine Sistine with Walks of Italy, a tour that may go away come Jan) was like drinking from a firehose: too much history to condense into a meaningful, understandable foundation, too many influences, necessary back stories...my head was swimming and could not contain the least of it. I loved getting to see Laocoon and School of Athens and check St. Peter's off my bucket list, but we're skipping this tour the next trip. My type of tour drinks deeply with a smaller, curated selection of art. In Rome, we much preferred Saint Paul outside the Wall, St. John of Lateran, St. Maria Maggiore, the Santa Scala, the Galleria Borghese (definitely try for a guided experience), or just walking around after dinner and reading a Wiki page on a cool building we liked.

Our friends just returned in August from Florence and Rome (and the Med coast...16 days), and they said the heat was oppressive, tiring them out from doing more. They rented a villa slightly outside of the Florence's city center, and the kids pretty much spent most of their time in the pool.

Amidst all the advice you're receiving, you have to take stock of what type of traveler you are. Are your kids curious, high-energy, blow-and-go, what's-next types? My teen wanted the weekend markets, the shopping, the churches, the art and art's story. She really enjoyed talking to our waiters at small trattorias, telling the waiter to send out HIS favorite menu items and surprise her. We enjoyed the other tourists we met from around the world and the kind shopkeepers who recommended great treasures we could take home (one owner even opened up his back room to show her how he makes paper and then dyes it by hand since she's really into fine stationery). So, even when I felt my feet could not walk a second longer, the thrill of new sights and encounters compelled us forward. We jam packed our trip, and it was perfect for us, but listen to the wisdom here about too much bus travel within country. We never picked side excursions nor wasted more than a morning traveling. We flew home through Paris (with an overnight there) from Florence. Fewer cities will give you more time seeing things.

We’ve done this exact itinerary and did 4 nights in each. Flew to Rome and took a train to Florence. Rented a car in Florence one day to drive a loop to Siena and back up through Greve. I honestly wanted more time in Tuscany. We then did a train to Naples and had a driver take us to Pompei for a tour and then he dropped us off in Positano (this was a long day). 4 nights in Positano was plenty and this was my 13 year old daughter’s favorite part of Italy. Of course it was. Also the most expensive. Back to Rome for 4 nights and then flight home.

I would not do this itinerary in less than 12 nights. There’s just too much travel and things to do.

Thanks everyone. New plan… win lottery, quit my job and then travel…. Just too much to see and we keep changing plans.

Seriously though, a big thank you to everyone for your advice!

Some random notes of encouragement ( and warning).
First the warning. Pompeii is an enormous site, with no shade. You need to figure out how to deal with that.
On our first trip to Italy, we, including daughters aged 19 and 15, limited ourselves to Rome, Florence, and Venice, and we had 17 days. In Rome we stayed at a monastery. Very inexpensive!

As far as children’s differing interests go, your time is short. You might consider splitting up some of the time.
On day trips; I have found guided tours to be very useful. Good guides help you to understand what you are seeing. There are many recommendations on this site for guides. Just avoid tours that cram in too much and include a lot of bus time.
If you do some google exploration, you may find off-the beaten-path experiences to appeal especially to your teens.
Buon viaggio!

People on this forum will scream no, but in 1997 my in-laws and I did a bus tour from Rome that went to Pompeii and drove along the Amalfi Coast. The big problem with bus tours is that they waste some of your time going to some workshop that makes things to sell. It was a very long day-I think 7AM-9PM, but it sounds like it might check some boxes for your family. Sorry I don't remember the name of the tour company. And as limited as your time is, I think your kids would really enjoy the San Clemente Church in Rome-I think you have to get tickets in advance.

No tickets for San Clemente are sold at the site. You have to buy them online. I didn't need to do that in advance last March, but the situation could be different at a busier time of year, and you certainly don't want to assume you'll have a rock-solid data connection standing at the door of the church.