My husband & I will be in Italy for 15 days in May flying in/ out of Rome. We would like to spend time in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre and Tuscan towns such as Sienna, San Gimignano, Radda etc. We are willing to use trains and a rental car. I'd like suggestions on how to divide up this itinerary. And ideas of which towns in Tuscany we should see. Should we do 3-4 days in Rome at the beginning or end?
Any help would be really appreciated.
Posted by
Carbondale, IL, USA
1201 posts
since you are flying out of Rome, put your Rome time at the end of your trip. That way you won't have to return to Rome the last night for the flight out.
Posted by
Portland, Oregon, USA
306 posts
Have you already bought your plane tickets? If not I would suggest flying open jaw. For your itinerary it would make the most sense to me to fly into Milan and out of Rome, or vice versa. If you started in Milan you could immediately go to CT, then over to tuscany, and then down to Rome. If you have already purchased your tickets, I would suggest taking one day in Rome to work off the jet lag and then take the long train ride to CT and work your way back down to rome through Tuscany.
Posted by
Honolulu/Seattle, HI/WA, USA
2788 posts
Do you have any of Rick Steves' Italy Guide Books yet? They can give you LOTS of information about Italy that we found very useful when we traveled there.
Posted by
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
508 posts
Shosh - If you can't change your arrival to Milan or other city such as Pisa, take a train out of Rome upon arrival and work your way back. We would probably opt to take the long train ride to Cinque Terre first. Then work our way back through Florence, then Sienna, on to Tuscany and end in Rome. If you don't want such a long train ride upon arrival another option is to take the train to Florence and then head to the Cinque Terre. From there, you can go to Sienna and Tuscany before going back to Rome. The only place that a car makes sense is Tuscany... You can easily use the train everywhere else. We have rented a car in the outskirts of Florence drove through Tuscany and dropped it off before heading to Rome. Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
OP
Toronto, on, Canada
2 posts
Thanks for the good suggestions. We have already booked our flights in/out of Rome. We could go straight to CT but where do we stay.? I was thinking La Spezia might be a good spot since we could also go to Pisa & Lucca by train from there. Maybe Portofino too. Any other suggestions? From there we can go to Florence for 3 -4 days. Then get the car for Tuscany.
Has anyone done a day trip to Bologna from Florence?
Posted by
Carbondale, IL, USA
1201 posts
If you want to go the CT try to stay in one of the 5 villages or someplace slightly north of the CT on the local train line. La Spezia is mostly just a large port town, not particualarly charming. The train ride from the CT to La Spezia is just a few minutes even from the farthest spot.
Posted by
Brentwood, TN, US
6 posts
Shosh, what's worked for me is to fly into Pisa, stash most of your luggage in the "left luggage" office at the train station and take the train to La Spezia and catch the "milk run" train (as they call it) to CT. If you stay in CT, a lot of the places require climbing quit a few steps and it's better to take only what you need for a night or two. Then take the train back to Pisa, get your luggage and continue on to Florence. You won't need a car at all until then and you can work your way through Tuscany and wind up in Rome.