Italy vacation

Are you aware that you can fly into Venice or Florence from London and Paris? The easiest possibility is to fly into Venice, take train from there to Tuscany/Florence, then train from there to Rome and fly home from Rome.

It depends on what you enjoy but I have easily spent 8 nights in Florence/Tuscany on numerous occasions and will happily go back for more! Great art, scenery, food, wine. Many small towns to explore. If you use Florence as a base, you can take many different day trips, either on your own or organized tours (especially wine tours where you leave the driving up someone else.)

I totally forgot to say where I was based from lol. I would be flying out of Boston USA

So it sounds like we would have to fly into Rome..then take a 5 hour train to Tuscany...then a 5 hour train back to fly home. Only thing we need to think about with that is that basically kills a bunch of time...plus not sure the day we leave i would be able to take a 5 hour train to catch a flight. ( nor would I probably want to rely on a perfect running train schedule ) Would probably have to come back to Rome for a night to go to the airport the next morning etc

Fast train from Rome to Florence takes 1 hr37 min
Not sure where you see 5 hr journeys

For most small hilltowns in Tuscany you will need a car

And yes you will need to stay in your departure city night before flight home

Use Google flights
You can fly in and out of Florence from Boston if you like
Change in London, Munich, Zurich etc -lots of options

Or fly in to Venice, out of Florence

8 days -how many nights is that?
Venice should get minimum of 3 nights
Train from Venice to Florence takes just over 2 hours
The remainder in Florence as a base works
Day trip from Florence then no heed for a car

This one got confused cause I ORIGINALLY wanted to do Rome / Venice but am being told/seeing with the Jubilee it might not be a great idea I wanted to get a Venice/Tuscany vacation recommendation as a second option but wasn't sure which one to visit fist and where to fly in/out. It appears if we did Tuscany we would fly into/out of Florence. So if Venice was first we would need to get from the States there ( which I think isn't that hard ) then take the 5 hour train to Tuscany and then fly out of Florence. I was just trying to figure out if staying in venice for 8 nights with day trips or Tuscany with days trips was a better idea than a split stay. I would love to show the wife Rome but something tells me that with 20 million more people coming this year it could be a hot or miss for a good time

just noticed your whole post. It's only 2 hours from Venice to Florence?

Yes
Use the official train site
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Station names
Venezia S Lucia
Firenze SM Novella
Roma Termini

Sept schedule not complete yet so just use same day of week on earlier day to see you options
There are multiple fast trains every hour between Venice and Florence

Day trips from Venice to Tuscany? No

I think you just need to do more research
Determine where exactly you want to visit in Tuscany -it’s a very large area and most hilltowns will require a car
Florence makes a good base for day trips by train to Siena, Lucca, Pisa. Florence is IN Tuscany but it’s a crowded city maybe not the “ Tuscan” vacation you are envisioning
A countryside stay will require a car

RS Tuscany guidebook is very useful
Or here
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/tuscan-hill-towns

If you would be ok to just do a day trip to Venice from Florence, I would spend the entire time in Florence. Hotels are less expensive in Florence and it is a good location for day trips to Siena and Pisa, you could even do a day trip to Rome from Florence.

Thank you for the great info ( everyone ). For some reason i was thinking it was a longer time to the two spots. Yes, it does look like maybe staying in florence with some day trips , plus renting a car to see the countryside would be a good idea with a day trip to Venice and to Rome. I worry about too much running around though so need to make sure it can be done in a "vacation" type of pace vs a rush around to not miss things one. We just got back from Maui so this next rip will be a bit of the opposite lol. I am sure there are some sites showing crowds in spots of Rome so we can see if it's too much. The jubilee is going to attract many people but it clearly will be undetermined as to when people go and when "regular Rome crowds" turn into " get me the heck away from here" ones

JMO
Save Venice and Rome til you can give them both the time they need and deserve
Most who day trip to either come away hating it
You will be there mid day when it is most crowded and miss the lovely mornings and evenings

Rome should have a bare minimum of 3-4 nights
Venice should have minimum of 3 nights

If you stick to Florence and Tuscany you can split your time -maybe 3 nights Florence then choose 2 small towns for the remainder
Lucca and Siena can work without a car
Arrive FLR
Train to Lucca 2 nights-nice place to get over jet lag
Train to Siena-3 nights- the quintessential hill town also good base for guided tours of the region (see toursbyroberto.com)
Bus to Florence (better than train)
End in Florence for 2 or 3 nights since you will need to be there night before departure

makes sense. Like I mentioned prior, the original plan was rome/venice but i don't want it to be at a time where the crowds take away from the experience ( more than usual etc ). I am all for a 4 night Florence and 4 night Venice or whatever. I just feel for some reason 8 nights in just one of the spots might be too much so we need to see about day trips or doing a split stay. Which bring us right back to where we started not knowing what to really do lol

Also going to Italy later this year and have gleaned that Rome is just crazy crowded this year with the Jubilee on top of Italy already receiving record-breaking numbers of visitors in the last few years.
I definitely would not stay in Rome or fly into/out of Rome this summer. Venice and Florence are the other two cities that are the “Holy Trinity” on the Italian travel circuit and ones Italians are saying are seeing huge crowds.
So, a car rental in Tuscany that will get you out of Florence will be welcome if the Big 3 are deluged with travelers. There’s lots to enjoy including Lucca, Siena, Pienza, Volterra, Arezzo, Montalcino to name just a few….. www.AutoEurope.com is a good place to check out car rentals. You may want to pick up the car once you’re outside of Florence so you’re not driving through ZTL’s that are in Florence.
Have a great trip!

ok! I am not well versed in the Jubilee and all it is etc but from what i am reading here is that no matter where we choose ( in Italy ) we should expect a larger crowd gathering ( even in September )

I would fly into Venice and stay 3 nights. Train to Florence (or somewhere else in Tuscany) for 5 nights to stay/do day trips. Fly out of Florence.