Itinerary Help

Hi - question? Do your 9-10 days include the necessary travel days to/from Italy?

Days 1 (land in Italy morning) and day 10 will be flying day also

Or should we do Florence, Pisa, Lake Como, Venice? We fly in and out of JFK

I think you really only have time to fly into Venice, spend three or four nights and then go to Florence with a day trip to Pisa. You don’t want to spend such a short trip traveling from place to place, and Puglia is quite a distance from the other places you are interested in.

So in reality, you have 8.5 sightseeing days, and that 1/2 day of arrival might be a jet-lagged fog so it's down to 8 FULL days. That's not enough for 4 changes of location, and you'll need to be in your departure city the night before your flight back to the U.S. What I would do? Fly into Venice and spend 4 nights. Then move to Florence for the remainder of the trip and day-trip Pisa and some other locations in Tuscany, such as Lucca. The kids might enjoy riding bikes around the old city walls of that one. Fly out of Florence.

You could spend 2 nights on Lake Como but I think it's would be easier with young people to settle into just 2 bases and do day trips. I don't know much about beaches there either but someone else might. The CT is short of what you probably think of as a beach; you might look at Venice Lido instead? (Links courtesy of our Lola: borrowed from one of her posts.)

https://www.veneziaunica.it/en/content/beaches?language=en
https://www.italyheaven.co.uk/veneto/venice/lido.html

A suggested itinerary:

Day 1 - arrive Venice: sleep Venice
Day 2 - Venice; explore the old city
Day 3 - Venice: day trip to Lido di Venezia for beach time
Day 4 - Venice: explore some of the islands
Day 5 - Florence: (partial day)
Day 6 - Florence: day trip to Lucca and Pisa
Day 7 - Florence: maybe take a run up to Fiesole for part of the day?
Day 8 - Florence: day trip to Siena
Day 9 - Florence: low-key sightseeing day before the long flight home.
Day 10: fly home

I think 4 destinations is too much for 9-10 days

You are correct.

Ok, how about something like this, I know it's a bit aggressive but thinking we can add a day or two to our trip:

Fly in and out of Milan (1.5 days)
Train to Lake Como (stay 2 nights)
Train to Venice (stay 1 - 2 days)
Train from Venice to Florence (2 nights)
Train back to Milan - Flight home

Flying in to Venice and out of Milan (multi city) will save you time and eleminate that last 1 night stay. You could add that time to another location.

I prefer direct flight to Italy. It seems all flights to Venice connect through CDG, but I'll look again and see what I can find.

Multi-city flights (open jaw) make so much sense when you're wanting to visit several destinations. It saves backtracking to your original city and the recommended night-before stay there. As @gerri mentioned, you'll be able to add 1-2 nights elsewhere doing this.

And, for my $0.02, two nights in Venice is not enough to do anything beyond getting stuck in the St Mark's crowds. It has so much to explore!

Just be reminded I have 2 bratty kids in tow (actually 3 my friends child), I was planning on doing a glass blowing tour and a boat tour. I will look at connecting flights and see about flying into Venice and out of Milan or vice versa.

At first glance, you most recent itinerary would be too rushed for me; you lose too much sightseeing time in the packing up/checking out/transport/checking in/acclimation to new location process. That said, it would be more accurate to count nights as well as days. So, doing it that way, your more recent itinerary would look like this?

Day 1: Fly into Milan Malpensa; sleep Milan (partial day)
Day 2: Milan; sleep Milan
Day 3: Train to Lake Como; sleep Lake Como (partial day)
Day 4: Sleep Lake Como
Day 5: Train to Venice; sleep Venice (partial day)
Day 6: Venice; sleep Venice
Day 7: Train to Florence; sleep Florence (partial day)
Day 8: Florence; sleep Florence
Day 9: Return to Milan; sleep Milan. You don't want to be in Florence the night before your flight
Day 10: Fly home from Milan

If correct, this schedule gives you only 1 FULL day in each of 4 destinations. That's VERY little time for getting acclimated, and almost no time for any day trips. As well, you're killing a bunch of time backtracking to Milan. If you want to fly into-and-out Milan Malpensa, I'd do this:

Day 1: Fly into Milan Malpensa; immediately train to Lake Como; Book a flight that gets you in early morning if possible
Day 2: Lake Como; sleep Lake Como
Day 3: Train to Venice; sleep Venice (partial day).
Day 4: Venice: sleep Venice
Day 5: Venice; sleep Venice
Day 6: Train to Florence; sleep Florence (partial day)
Day 7: Florence; sleep Florence
Day 8: Florence; sleep Florence
Day 9: Train to Milan; sleep Milan (partial day)
Day 10: Fly home from Milan, Malpensa is an hour outside of the city center so figure that in.

If you can find another day for Como, I'd definitely do it. If you can't and are more interested in that one versus Venice, then steal a day from Venice. This schedule still only gives you 1 full day at Lake Como, and only a partial day in Milan - which would likely be the least interesting to your gang but fine for 1/2 a day - but provides 2 full days in Venice and Florence.

(Sorry for edits; had to correct some typos)

Thank you Kathy! Is it going to be impossible to find sleeping accommodations in July in Lake Como region in July 2024? I just had someone tell me good luck with that. Now I'm wondering if Cinque Terre would be a better option.

You'd have the same issue finding accommodations in the CT: it's very late for booking anything there for this summer. People start booking for those villages many months in advance, and it's going to be mobbed in July.

You also don't want a Venice> CT leg anywhere in your itinerary as that's a real time-consuming haul. If you felt you HAD to do it versus Lake Como, you'd likely like want a Milan> CT> Florence> Venice>Milan route. I'd also look at accommodations Levanto versus any of the 5 CT villages themselves; it's just a few minutes by train from the region but you would likely find more available for rooms. There are 5 of you; 3 young people and 2 adults?

Hopefully, some other forum posters might have idea for where to stay on Lake Como. Pretty sure Varenna, which tends to be the forum favorite, is fully booked but never say never; do a search for what you might find?

This is for 2024, it seems hotels book 1 year before?

Doh! Completely forgot about that! (head slap)
I'd start looking to book within the CT a little less than a year in advance or so, and ALWAYS book a refundable rate. Not sure about Varenna - and there are other lake towns posters may recommend - but I know if fills early. Hopefully someone else can chime in here!

Thank you so much!

I would move mountains to add some days to this trip. Your time allotment really isn't aligned with what you want to see. If you are stuck with just eight full days on the ground in Italy, I'd think long and hard before trying to shoehorn the Cinque Terre into the itinerary. It takes considerably more time on the train to get there from Florence than to travel from Milan to Varenna. Itinerary-building sometimes needs to consider what is most practical.

I don't know about taking a boat tour in Venice; you can be out on the water a lot by hopping on a vaporetto (not cheap for you, but not too expensive for the kids). Folks have also mentioned rowing lessons on the forum. That seems like a good activity.

We will have kids 11 & 13. & I have 2 bratty kids in tow (actually 3 my friends child),

So you will be 2 adults and 3 kids, one of which is unrelated? Have you researched what documentation you will need to take an unrelated minor with you?

Everyone's passport will have the needed validity when you travel? Recent posts indicate passport processing of 2+ months is not unusual.

I know it's a bit aggressive but thinking we can add a day or two to our trip:

When you have determined the number of nights you will be there, it will be a lot easier for folks to make useful/practical suggestions for an itinerary.

No 2 families are going. 4 adults and 3 kids total.

I also would consider adding days to this trip. I'd look at 14, though I know you didn't ask. 3 night minimum in each place personally.

Here are my thoughts based on your comments to this point:

In and out flights are direct, all other travel is 3ish hours by train. The museums in Florence deserve attention, as does St Marks and some others in Venice. There are tricks to skip the lines that worked for us in the book.

1: JFK to Genoa
1/2/3/4: Cinque Terre
You could hit Pisa on the way between these depending on what you wanted to do.
5/6/7: Florence
8/9/10: Venice
11/12/13: Lake Como / Milan
14 Milan to JFK

Personal preference but looking at the time it would take by rail from Florence to Bari, I wouldn't even consider that one on a compressed timetable. Same with Bari to Pisa: you'd kill way too many valuable sightseeing hours sitting on trains.

Yes, you could fly into Venice instead of Milan Malpensa, and skip a front-end stay in Milan altogether. Many of us just recommend not flying OUT of Venice as many international flights leave early enough in the morning to cause some transport complexities getting to the airport. Another suggested itinerary? This one drops Lake Como.

Day 1: Fly into Venice; sleep Venice (partial Day)
Day 2: Venice
Day 3: Venice
Day 4: train to Florence; sleep Florence (partial day)
Day 5: Florence - day trip to Pisa and Lucca
Day 6: Florence
Day 7: train to Cinque Terre/Monterosso; sleep CT (partial day)
Day 8: Monterosso/CT
Day 9: Train to Milan; sleep Milan (partial day)
Day 10: Fly home from Milan. Malpensa is an hour outside of the city center so figure that in.

This one gives you 2.5 sightseeing days in Venice, 2.5 days for Florence, 1.5 days for the CT, and .5 day for Milan
If you can do anything to add a day or even two to Florence (good base for day trips) and another one for the CT then I'd sure do so. That extra time for CT would be a good cushion against a rainy day, and an extra for Florence would allow you to book a day tour of the countryside or go to Siena.

To consider: Moving 2 families around could be interesting, especially if you've not traveled together before, so the tighter, less forgiving of an itinerary, the bigger chance of the individual who is a sleep-inner or foot-dragger, or another unexpected snag to throw it off. We once lost most of a day in the CT to a train strike so it was good that we still had 2 full ones left to cover ground. Not, of course, that it would happen to you but an ounce of prevention never hurts, ya know. :O)