Italy Two-Week Game Plan

In some sense, quality times quantity is a constant in travel. You can superficially visit a lot of places, or get a bit more sense of the place/area with a longer stay. Since this is an advice forum, my suggestion is to stay a minumum of 3 days in cities (or regions such as Tuscany) and 2 days in smaller places. Even that is a bit quick pace, for me, because it means I don't have as much time for daytrips. There is a way to travel much more efficiently, but it isn't cheap or flexible. Taking a tours, such as the one RS offers, in some sense breaks the rule I gave above. Because your guide has done the trip multiple times you go quickly from site to site within a city or region. Tour companies can make group reservations at museums so you get right in. Instead of walking around reading a description out of a few pages of your tour book, you have a live guide who tells you much more and makes sure you see the important sights. Their buses drop you off right at the hotel, and when you walk in they hand you the key and you're done. An hour here, an hour there, it adds up pretty quick. I'd say it would take the 1st-time traveler on her/his own 3 days to do what a RS tour does in 2. Costing it out that way, figure what a 3 week tour on your own would cost and figure that's what you get on a 15 day tour. Drawbacks is you go where they want to go, and stay the time they've decided. It is not hard to travel independently either, but as you've noticed it can by trying to figure it out! Given you want a fast pace, my advice is to start by figuring out what you want to see in each city or location, put together a rough timeframe for each day, then add up the days. Allow about 1/2 day for travel each time you change hotels. Then discard or trade off destinations until it fits in the time you have.

If you are absolutely certain that you most likely are not going back then we can help develop a whirlwind tour. This means open jaw flight arrangements, traveling very light, and using the high speed trains between cities. Its perfectly doable and I'd suggest Paris, France as your second country. Fly to Paris, stay two days, Fly to Rome. Bus or Train to Sorrento. Day on Capri, Day down the Amalfi Coast, Paestum, Pompeii. Back to Rome, Rome to Florence. High speed train Florence to a stop over in Milan then Venice. Fly out of Venice. The trip direction can be reversed, making for a shorter hop, Paris to Venice, but I like to save Venice as the last.....its like dessert after a fine meal. Three jewels that you will be missing. Lucca, Siena and Cinque Terre. Think hard if you NEED to see these. They can be included but will severely cut in to what you are able to do and see in the main cities. If this makes sense to you, we can fill in the city days.

Morgan, in two weeks, I would stay in Italy. If you want to do the Amalfi Coast, and you can extend that to include Paestum (temple ruins and roses), that might please your history-buff husband (I'm a history buff, too). A few days each in Rome, Venice, and Florence is practically mandatory, but I would try to work in Siena and a few of the hill towns (Orvieto, Assisi, Cortona) that can be reached easily. Another historical and beautiful city is Ravenna, which you could work in on your way to/from Venice. In order to avoid backtracking, you could fly into Venice or Milan and out of Rome, or vice versa.

Fourteen days is a nice amount of time and I suggest you stick to Italy, with four locations as I'll list below. My answer is informed by a trip we just took in June, with a lot of 2-night stands. That was intentional, as we wanted to give our daughters a "sampler" of different towns and regions. But I think for you and the wishes you have expressed, it would be nice to do something like this: Fly into Venice and out of Rome. Venice is a nice soft landing and a relaxing place to rest up from the flight. Spend 3 nights in Venice; take the fast train to Florence (2 hours on the fast FRECCIARGENTO or "silver arrow" train) and spend 5 days exploring Tuscany, either by car or train/bus. Something like 2 nights in Florence and then either train or car rental for a loop over to Lucca/Pisa and down to Siena or elsewhere, depending on what towns appeal to you. Then return the car (if you rented one) and take the fast train from Florence to Naples for your Amalfi Coast time. Spend 3 nights there, and then return to Rome for your final 3 nights. I think this is a nice mix of city, small town, and countryside, and balances your husband's interests and yours. There is, by the way, lots to please a history buff in Tuscany as well as Venice and Rome.

The RS Italy book has an excellent itinerary for fourteen days. Do you have that book?

I would like to play devil's advocate here. Although you CAN do a whirlwind tour in 14 days, that involves a lot of planning, catching trains, hitting museums, and basically turning Italy into some sort of Disneyland. I would suggest instead doing one region of Italy well. No matter where you go in Italy, you will see great art, pretty buildings, and loads of history. If you "rush it" though, you will miss its charm. Regardless of what you decide, the happiest of travels to you.

I wouldn't call a visit to the fairly limited area between Venice and Amalfi coast, with a minimum of 3 nights in any one place, a "whirlwind" tour. Yes, it's nice to slow down, settle in for a week, and really get the feel of a place. But if one believes she is only going to Italy once in the foreseeable future, and has specific interests which are not incomcpatible or too far-afield in terms of travel time, then I think the 4-location itinerary should be fine.

Our family of 4 (two teens)just returned from 17 days in Italy in July. After all the planning and researching I did, I have been telling people it would have been well worth it to sign up for a RS tour (and I actually like researching travel destinations and making plans!). That said, we enjoyed 6 days in Rome (lots of history and charm), 1 day in Assisi (a favorite), 1 day in Siena (also lovely), 3 days in Florence (too long for us), 3 glorious days in Vernazza, Cinque Terre (the hands-down favorite destination for all four of us), then 3 days in Venice. We felt burnt out after too much city touring (hence, not enjoying Florence as much as we might have otherwise), but that was in the heat of July. I agree that spending at least 2 nights in each location is ideal so you don't drive yourselves crazy! We rounded out our trip with 3 days in Barcelona (just in time to watch Spain win the World Cup!). Best to you as you make your plans. Italy is unbelievably beautiful and unique!

14 days? 1st visit? Try flying into Rome, stay 4 nights, then to Sorrento for 3 nights, then Florence for 2 nights, Siena for 2 nights, finally Venice for 3 nights, flying out of Venice.

Thank you all for the wonderful responses– it has helped us zone in on a starting point for booking our trip. The itinerary suggestions are spot on. I haven't checked out the RS Italy 14-day schedule, but I plan to do so. And I'm sure I'll be back with plenty of additional questions as the planning continues. Thanks again!

I am sure I'll get bashed for this, but there are very few cities I'd spend 3 days in. I also agree with those on the thread and think that Florence is overrated (especially if you aren't into early renaissance art). Somehow I've still been there three times, though I won't be going back any time soon. If you watch the TV shows are read the books, Rick does a lot of good scheduling. This makes a huge difference. My wife and I were looking to hit some spots in Italy we both haven't been too, with 13 days on the ground. Our plan looks like this: Naples (1) => Almalfi town (2) => Rome (3) => hilltowns by car (sleep Catrona, Sienna) => Vernazza (2)=> Varenna (2) => Milan (1). It only works out well because we were able to plan ... we will stop @ Pompei on our way to Sorrento and leave our bags at the station, taking the boat back from Amalfi to Sorrento on our way to Rome, leaving the car w/ my brother and sister in law in Pompei on our way to the CT, not in the same place two nights w/ a car (backtracking anyone), flying open jaw, etc. Surely not all of this will work out, but most "should". I understand some like to linger and really see a place, but the difference between 2 and 3 days isn't going to let you in on that much "insider cool local stuff". Peace, Tom

We're doing the same trip and here is what we came up with that seems to be the best of both worlds: Rome - 3 days Sorrento - train or bus - 2-3 days seeing Amalfi coast based out of Sorrento Tuscany - 2 days renting car in Sorrento dropping off in Florence Florence - 2-3 days (if 3 days Amalfi coast then 2 days Florence or vice versa) Venice - 2-3 days by high speed train. Home Christine