itinerary for first-timers

Rome - 4 nights
Cinque Terra - 3 nights
Siena - 3 nights
(stop in Florence for day trip on way to Venice - you can stow your bags at the train station)
Venice - 3 nights

Public Transportation is almost a necessity. Traffic in Rome is dangerous. Trains are super easy.

Rome, Florence and Venice are easily reached by rail, everybody uses trains to get to those 3 places. However, your challenge will be to find an agriturismo that is reachable by rail, they're usually in rural areas far from train stations.

Instead of an out of the way agriturismo, perhaps you can find a charming B&B, monastery or apartment near Florence to stay at, and save a relaxing week or longer agriturismo stay for another trip. Once you are relaxing in the Italian ountryside it's hard to pack up and leave.

sandy,

It's difficult to make Itinerary suggestions without knowing the time frame of your trip? There are lots of possibilities in addition to the three cities you mentioned.

As usual, I'd recommend open jaw flights for best efficiency. You might consider flying into Rome and flying home from Venice (or vice versa). I don't know what flight options are available from your area, but you may wish to check with a Travel Agent for some ideas.

Italy can be a bit of a "culture shock" for first time travellers, but I always find it helpful to pack the Italy book along for reference during each trip.

I'll try to offer some further suggestions with more information on the length of time you plan on travelling.

Good luck with your planning!

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I am hoping to plan it for 10 days (June 13-23). Will try to find a reasonable open jaw flight. Any advice on if it is better to fly into Rome and out of Venice or vice-versa? Would like to do 3 days in Rome, 1-2 in Florence, and 1-2 in Venice. Would spending a day and night in Orvieto between Florence and Rome be worthwhile, since it is on the train route? We hope to pack light as we will be moving our luggage a lot.

sandy,

Whether it's better to fly into Venice or Rome will depend on what flights are available from your area. Another possibility would be to start in Rome & fly home from Milan.

Given the fact that you want to travel light and that your "DH" gets very stressed driving in a foreign country, you might want to reconsider the Agriturismo this time?

Ten days is a very short visit, so it will be important to travel efficiently. Keep in mind you'll lose the first day in flight times and time zone changes. Depending on which flight you choose you'll probably arrive the day after you depart.

One possible Itinerary might be something like this:

Day 1 - Flight to Rome (Leonardo Express from airport to Termini about €11 each, 30 min.)

Day 2 - Rome [plan your touring carefully, so that you don't waste ANY time - be sure to wear your Money Belts!]

Day 3 - Rome

Day 4 - Rome

Day 5 - Orvieto [train from Roma Termini, departs 09:05/arrives 10:23, Time 1H18M, at Orvieto station buy ticket at Tabachi for Funicular up to town, about €1, good for 70 min.]

Day 6 - Florence [train from Orvieto, departs 10:24/arrives Firenze SMN station 12:47, 2H23M, no changes]

Day 7 - Florence [if you're visiting the Uffizi or Accademia, be sure to get reservations - your Hotel may be willing to arrange those for you]

Day 8 - Venice [train from Firenze SMN, departs 10:37/arrives Venezia SL 13:17, 2H40M, no changes, reservations compulsory - check the Guidebook for best Vaporetto to your Hotel - use the Map in the Guidebook if needed]

Day 9 - Venice

Day 10 - Flight home [usually arrive same day you departed - check Guidebook for options getting from Venice to the airport].

If you could manage extra time, add one day to Orvieto & visit Civita di Bagnoregio while you're in the area. Adding a day each to all your cities would be good too.

There are lots of possibilities, but this may give you some ideas.

Happy travels!

If you only have 10 days and your heart is set on the big 3, the above itinerary is the way to go I think. let us know what you decide.

We recently did a similar trip in August (our first to Europe and Italy). WE were going on a 10 day med. cruise so we added an extra 9 days to travel around italy and this is what we did.

Arrived in Rome at 8:00 am (our plane left at 7:00 PM from Washington, DC and I took something to sleep so when we arrived in Rome there was no jet lag and we were ready to go.) took train to Termini Station and went to hotel (right by station) to drop off bags. Then went out and toured the Colliseum, Forum, Palantine Hill, Pantheon, Nero's House, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and Peter in Chain's church. It was pretty packed day, but it didn't seem to rushed and we didn't have to wait online for anything becuase I prebought tickets.

Day 2 took train (6:50 am) to Venice. We arrived around 11:30. We had lunch and dropped bags off at our hotel. We toured the Jewish ghetto and did the museum and synagogues. Then we did the canal tour getting off at St. Marks. We just walked around Venice the rest of the day and night.

Day 3 - Venice - Secret Itinery tour of doge palace, st. mark's church, rialto market, friari church. Again we didn't have to wait online because I had time entry tickets for tour and we checked bags for church so we were let right in.

At around 5:00 we took a train from Venice to Bologna. arrived in Bologna around 6:30. Went to the hotel. Took a walk around main square and just took a nice stroll around Bologna.

Day 4 - Left Bologna on 7:30 train to Florence. Arrived in Florence around 9:00. Went to hotel to drop off bags. Walked down toward the Palazzo della Signoria, had a nice stroll enjoying the sites. Toured the Uffizi and Accadamia had a nice lunch and went to Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunset. Again I had time entry tickets, so we didn't have to wait in any lines.

Day 5 - Toured the Bargello museum, Duomo, and Duomo Museum. We then took a bus to Siena. Where we took a taxi to our hotel to drop off bags. to continue

Day 5 continued Siena - We toured the Duomo and all the site contained in that ticket, got some great cookies and gelato and sat in pallazo and relaxed and then had a great dinner.

Day 6 - I would not have done this, but we went to lucca. It took way to long to get there (3 hours from start to finish) by train. Once we arrived we had a great time and Lucca is really nice, but it wasn't worth the amount of time it took for this trip. Would have probably been better to go to some other hill town.

Day 7 - took a train to Pisa and went and saw the tower and baptistry. We probably spent about 2 hours here. It was nice and it was on the way back to Rome, so it was worth the stop. Nothing much else to see there. Arrived in Rome around 4:00. We were staying in the trastevere area this time. Once we got to our hotel we visited the Santa Maria Church and just walked around the streets of trastevere. A nice area. I had the best lasagna ever.

Day 8 - walked to St. Peters and went up to the dome and toured the church. Then we just walked around Rome visiting a couple of the Piazzas and churches, visited the Jewish ghetto and just walked basically from St. Peter's back to trastevere, going the long way.

Day 9 - toured the vatican museum and took a train to civitavecchia to catch our boat that was leaving at 6:00.

It seems like a lot, but it wasn't that bad because I had planned very well and we didn't have to wait in line at all and waited very little for trains. I think with all the things we visited and trains and buses etc, we probably waited in lines a total of maybe 90 minutes. As I said, I wouldn't have done Lucca looking back, but it was a great trip.

Great advice, and thank you! Ken, I think your itinerary was closest to what I was thinking, and we'll save the agriturismo for another trip. The guidebook has been really helpful and we'll try to reserve as many things ahead of time as possible, and take our money belts!