Itinerary feedback

Ben:
That strikes me as a very fast pace. I'd recommend you stick to three locations. Skip Vernazza this time and go to Rome, Florence and Venice. Your daytrip to Siena sounds fine, although I personally have no experience with that particular tour company. Add your Vernazza nights to Rome and Venice. They are wonderful cities that you will enjoy so much more if you slow down just a bit. As others have said over and over on this board, each time you change cities you lose (at least) half a day. In a 10 day trip, you can't afford to "lose" that much time to changing places. And, your arrival day in Rome is a bit of a loss. With jet lag, all you'll have time for is to check in, shower, take a walk, have dinner and try to stay awake until 2100 so you can get a good night's sleep and be "local" by morning. It seems counterintuitive, but people I have spoken to who did the 10-day whirlwind see everytning trip find is was a blur. Less is more, IMHO.

Yeah, it seems a bit agressive with the moving. I was thinking we would have to choose between Tuscany or CT but still trying to find a way to do both. My wive loves seafood and watched the RS video on CT. When they opened the seafood pasta in foil she was ready to get on the plane right then. :) Anyone one have good seafood pasta recommendations in Rome, Florence, Venice? Thanks Laurel.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with Michael. If you're only spending a few days in a particular city, I think the specific city guidebook is overkill. I'd buy them if I were spending at least a week there. Also, consider seeing Siena on the way from Rome to Florence. It would be a very long day (arriving in Florence in the evening) but it could save you some valuable time by not having to backtrack. I'm sure there are plenty wine tours out of Florence. Train schedules are accurate and it's not too far in advance. In fact, if your trip is in May, I'd say you are way behind if you haven't booked your rooms or museum reservations yet. You may find that you will not get your 1st choice...or 2nd or 3rd.

Another question. We have the RS Italy guidebook. Does anyone think it would be better to have the indepth city guides for Rome, Florence, and/or Venice also? Seems like there would be a lot of cross over and a lot of cost to get all of those, but we really appreciated using his Paris one during our trip there. Since our trip is only a few days in each place I was thinking we could probably get by with what we have and then download some of his free audioguides. Thanks!

Can you "get by" without the RS city books? Of course. Should you? No. Compare the cost of those books to the cost of your entire trip. They're well worth the modest investment. Yes, they overlap the Italy book somewhat, but they have MUCH more information specific to those cities. Have a great time. (Sounds like we'll be in Venice the same time as you. We leave for our third trip to Italy on 5/13 and depart Venice on 5/29.) Consider Pensione Guerrato if you don't have lodging yet for Venice. They're awesome.

I take the Italy book but I photo copy all the walks in the city books. Yes, I buy both but do not bring all. Sometimes the local libraries have the city books, then photo copying would be easy and cheap. Better world books sell cheap used RS books. Look them up to see the most current used book they have. www.betterworldbooks.com Edit: I also feel cutting down on the cities is a good idea. Rome 4, Florence 3, Venice 3 is the perfect amount of time in those cities.

How much are you paying for just one night's lodging? Compare that to the RS Rome 2011 book available thru Amazon at less than $13. This is no place to be penny wise but pound foolish. I still think that especially for your first time to these cities, these books are more than worth the tiny little percentage of your overall travel costs. Will you still have a great time using only the Italy book? Yep. But the city books have the wonderful walks, tours and daytrips in them. And I second the suggestion for Rome 4, Florence 3, and Venice 3. You'll be going back and can see more then. While in Rome, throw in a half day trip to Ostia Antica, if you want a break from the urban centers.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. We are a bit behind, but still seem to be finding availability in several hotels/apts. We haven't cut CT out for sure yet, but it would definitely make our travel a more sustainable pace for 10 days without it. I have a few questions about Rome and public transit. We were considering staying near Tremini in order to use the Metro, but I've read many people that talk about the meto not being as useful in Rome as in some other cities. We are going to be there 3-4 nights. And while we will be up for walking a lot of places, it is nice to have some options to rest tired feet. It seemed like the Metro would be a good way to reach the Vatican or maybe head up to Piazza del Popolo for the Dolce Vita Stroll or even down to the Coloseum. We could also easily use the bus to Piazza Novona area. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me about the frequency of trains and if they are significantly faster than walking. If transferring between lines at Termini relatively easy and quick? Also wondering about using the 64-40 (or other) buses in Rome traffic, would it take longer than walking? I have been to Rome once a long time ago, the traffic seemed ridiculous. The Pantheon neighborhood sounds really lovely and more centrally located for walking to most sites, however it seems like you would likely have to take taxis to get lugguage to and from Termini and for other further out out destinations, like the Vatican or Piazza del Popolo. Am I off base on that? We are going to get the Roma Pass which includes the free mass transit. I was just trying to get a sense of how to maximize that but also understand its limitations, ie when it might be better to just walk. Thanks all.

Ooooh - I'm not liking your 'Siena trip'. You'll leave Florence extremely early in order to find breakfast in Siena, finish eating, then find the meeting point for your 10am tour To Leave Town, then return for dinner (watching the clock! watching the clock! can't miss the bus/train!) and a very late night getting back to Florence. You really won't see Siena, and you could save a lot of time - and get more sleep - by taking a wine tour from Florence (bunches of them; search the Helpline, search with Google). OR, for "a glimpse of the countryside", you could just enjoy your bus ride b/n Florence and Siena, then spend the day exploring Siena...and have your "wine/food tour" IN Siena. (and I don't think you need the city-specific guides, esp. if this is your first visit to these places; unless you've run out of the typical tourist-list places and activities because you've 'been there, done that', OR you're spending a week or so in any one city...but you could compare the two books at your bookstore - have you found enough things to do in the books you already have on hand? My "Italy 2007" still has the city walks (and museum 'tours') included in his city books...Frankly, with such a short trip, you're going to get your 'walks' in just by going from one site to another.) I've forgotten if it's been answered, but you should be getting good and accurate info from Trenitalia; for price info (if it's not given) just put in a date that's the same day of the week that you're searching for, but just a bit sooner than the end of May. The trains skeds don't change all that much, if at all, but you're traveling near that 'transitional phase', so double check your routes a bit before leaving home.

Ben,
If I were you I would follow the advice of some of the others to buy the guidebooks for the cities. There is way more info and are good for preperation. No you don't need the whole thing while there but it helps for prep and is small investment in the grand sceme of things. I am going to throw you a curveball here. I would also recommend downloading Rick's walking tours onto your Ipod Touch/Smartphone. They are fantastic for Rome, Venice, and Florence. We did this trip last February and it was awesome. Rather than having your head stuck in a guidebook reading and not enjoying the sites you are listening to rick describe everything. I would also toss out Vernazzo and maybe do Pompeii or Ostia Antica from Rome but that is only my opinion. We stayed at Nicholas Inn (Fantastic) close to Cavour stop and walked to ancient sites. I also reccomend Roma pass which gives discounts to city sites (2 days), and Free Metro and Bus Transportation (3 days). which we used for long routes (Vatican). Roma pass doesn't cover anything in Vatican City. Have a Great trip.

Thanks all. CT is out for sure. I definitely plan to download the audio guides. 4 days Rome 3 Days Florence with possible trip to Siena **the wine tour also runs out of florence, but we thought Siena might be a fun side trip. We are considering doing an overnight in Siena if we do the wine tour out of there or perhaps stoping in Siena firstday before going to Florence.
3 days Venice Thanks for all the info. Looking at Rome hotels near Termini/Rebulica area and a few in Pantheon area. Termini prices to quality are much more freindly! I will take a look at the Nicholas Inn also Again...Grazie! Thanks again.

Hello everyone, Sorry for all the questions, but we are making progress. We have secured lodging for the beginning and ending stops of our trip but are still trying to work out the middle section. -We start with 4 days in Rome (arriving Fri/leaving Tues) staying near Pantheon at a B&B. Residenza San Pantaleo So we would leave Rome sometime on Tues to head to either Florence . -Sometime Friday we would leave for 3 nights in Venice staying at a B&B near the Rialto Bridge Suggestions for the middle section of the trip? I know we want to see David, the Uffizi, and Duomo in Florence, as well as some wandering about, we might also look at the Gailelo Museum. Beyond that we aren't not sure what we want to do in the City. We would also like to go out into the countryside for a day, likely with a small group wine tour. (probably Wed) What are we missing from the Florence area? We aren't huge art hounds, so we dont' need to hunt down every famous work by a Renassaince painter. I am probably underestimating some of the City or the amount of time it will take to see some things, but it feels a bit sparse after the jauggernaut of possiblities in Rome. Would we be streched to much to stop in Siena for a night on Tues? We could take the bus to Florence early Wed, catch the wine tour, and then have Wed night, all day Thurs, and Friday morning to take in Florence. Thanks for any feedback!

One fun thing to do in Florence is to go up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a sunset view of Florence. Regardless, it sounds like you're setting up a really wonderful trip. Have a great time.

Ben-
After reading everyone else's posts, I see my opinion is opposite everyone else. My husband and I spent a week in Italy. Not knowing when and if we'd ever be able to return, we wanted to see as much of the country as possible. True, we did not have time to really embed ourselves in any one place and truly do the city like a local, but we saw LOTS of the high points of Italy and had plenty of leisurely dinners. Rome has lots to see, but is a "big city". 2 days in Rome was plenty for us to see the main attractions, we spent 2 days in Florence, 1 1/2 days in Venice and wished we had made time for Cinque Terre but couldn't. If you're willing to keep up the pace all day long, you'll get to see lots of Italy in 10 days. I would suggest more than 2 days in Rome is a waste of the simple small town Italy that was the big attraction for US. Just sayin'.