Please sign in to post.

Itinerary advice: Nice, Rome, Venice, + TBD beach destination

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Italy in September and would love some itinerary advice. We fly into Nice and depart from Venice, and we will have 16 nights total. This will be my second time to Italy and my boyfriend‘s first time to Europe. We’re trying to do a mix of bigger cities and off the beaten path areas, but we don’t want to spend all of our time traveling. I would really like to see the Dolomites while we’re in Venice since we’ll be so close, but it doesn’t look quite close enough for a day trip. We both also want to hit an Italian beach destination. I’ve read about Ponza and would love for that to be our beach destination, but I’m concerned about travel time since it’s quite remote. Our current potential itinerary is below. Please let me know if you think this is too much to fit in, or if you have any recommendations. We’re open to any/all itinerary and destination advice. Thanks in advance!

Arrive in Nice the morning of August 31st
Aug 31 - Sept 3: Nice
Fly from Nice to Rome
Sept 3-8: Rome
Travel to Ponza via train and ferry (roughly 3 hours I think)
Sept 8-11: Ponza
Travel to Venice/dolomites via ferry and train
Sept 11-16: Venice and Dolomites/South Tyrol
Depart from Venice the afternoon of September 16th

Posted by
5 posts

@miuccia thanks for your response! Yes, we’re considering an Italian riviera town instead for more efficient travel. Elba looks amazing too! We were originally planning to keep it to northern Italy, but my boyfriend really wants to go to Rome. We’re trying to make it work even though it’s quite out of the way, but I’ll see how he feels about skipping Rome this trip. Another option I was considering if we keep Rome is flying from Nice > Naples and spending a few days in Ischia, then going to Rome from there.

I believe we probably would rent a car for Dolomites, it doesn’t seem like the area would be easy to get around without one. Is there a smaller town around Bolzano that you recommend?