Itinerary help for September travel

I count 7 changes in 21 days. We all have our preferences, but I think your instincts are good, that is a bit rushed. It made me think of the 1969 movie "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium".

You are planning to see the Lake district, CT and Amalfi. I'd choose one to delete. Are you factoring in the amount of time to change from one location to another? To me, I think you'll be eating up a lot of your time just getting from one place to another.

If I had 21 days and wanted to see some of the areas you mentioned, I'd do Venice, Tuscany, Amalfi.

I think you definitely need more than 1 day in Rome.

I would cut at least two destinations. If you like to travel this way, you need to state that upfront--I am not overstating it that this pace would be absolute misery to me. At the very least you need time to do laundry at some point.
If your departure time is early, you may need to shift a night to Naples at the end (for a 20 minute cab ride to airport versus an hours- long transfer).

At least one too many locations, IMO. Our first trip we stayed in 6 locations in 21 nights, one being a one-night pre-flight stay in Milano, so essentially 5 locations in 20 nights. It was still a little fast.

I suggest dropping the Amalfi Coast as an outlier, if you have not already purchased a return flight from Naples. You could redistribute those 4 nights with 3 more to Rome and 1 more to Tuscany. If it is a fait accompli to fly out of Naples, drop either the Cinque Terre or the Lakes district and add those nights to Rome. Either of these changes will really enhance your trip and allow you to be less rushed, more appreciative.

I travel similar to the way you have it, until you hit Rome. Even just enjoying food and the ambiance of different neighborhoods deserve at the very least one more night. Also, the Amalfi coast requires more time. If you already have your plane tickets, you could maybe just visit Sorrento. However if not, I would stay to Rome and north, so fly out Rome. Do Almalfi Coast, Naples and Capri on another.

I really don't think you want to be travelling all the way from Amalfi to Naples on the day you fly home. Plan to stay in Naples the night before.

Unless your flight out of Naples is late in the day I would want to stay in Naples the night before. Definitely if you are planning on staying in either Amalfi or Positanto. Sorrento is marginally more doable, but still I'd stay there the night before only if the flight was in the afternoon.

I'm not sure of the wisdom of one night in Rome. Probably you are thinking you just want to sample it because you are not sure you will like it. But only one day in a place usually assures that you WON'T like it. So I suggest either drop another location and plan to spend at least 3 nights (or even 4) or else skip it for this trip and put the night elsewhere.

As others have suggested you are moving pretty fast and will be skipping lots of stuff in the areas you are going to. But I take it this is a 'taste of ' type trip and for that it's not bad. You could certainly skip both Rome and Amalfi Coast (two of my favorite places in Italy) this trip and concentrate on the north. But even if you did that, in 21 days you are going to still just get a 'taste' so you might as well do as you planned.

Here's my photos of Italy - almost everything is labeled so might help in deciding places to go.
https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f739967755

I am in the camp, assuming flights are bought, of skipping Rome this time and allot one of those nights to Naples before your flight and the other night in one of your other destinations. Maybe Amalfi, since you are going to be tired by the time you get there. Rome is wonderful but you really won’t even get a “taste” in one day.

When you say the lakes area, which lake are you specifically thinking about?

Have you accounted for travel time between
Garda, Como or Maggiore to Cinque Terre?

All locations will have train travel at about 5-61/2 hours. Using almost a full day of valuable vacation time.

For this reason only, I personally would drop the Cinque Terre.

Do Venice 3 N. then Venice-Lake Garda train 1:30m 3-4 Nights.

Verona-Tuscany/Florence. Either picking up a car in Verona or taking the train to Florence and picking up there. Dropping in either Chiusi or (Hertz only) in Orvieto. 3 nights Tuscany.

On by train to Rome. 3 nights

Rome-Salerno train 1 1/2 hours. Ferry (which I prefer) to Amalfi/Positano 1- 1 1/2 hours or this service from Naples Centrale. Though they'll both take the same amount of time.
4 nights AC.

https://www.positanoshuttle.com

1 night Naples before flight home.

Thanks to everyone.
just a note : No flights to and from Italy had been booked yet.. We are flying in to Amsterdam and then we are undecided on the itinerary. So the plan is still very flexible. either start in Naples , Rome or Venice.

My gut feel is to either start from Venice or Naples and work north or south depending on the entry point.
Naples , Amalfi , Rome . Tuscany , Venice - I really want to see CT , but as everyone mentioned , might be to much for this trip.
Dropping the lakes districts for now. Will be back for that.

Amalfi or CT? Which would you suggest if I had to pick 1.

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been to Cinque Terre twice and Amalfi once (all in Sept). The nice thing about Cinque Terre is the little villages are close together and you can get to them via train fairly quickly. On Amalfi Coast, you'd either have to rent a car (which I wouldn't recommend - it was bad enough on the bus) or wait for a bus or there are ferries (which we didn't use).

Now, with the villages of CT being so close together, they get pretty crowded - our first trip in '08 was lovely. Second visit in '12 was overcrowded and had our first visit been like that, we wouldn't have returned. The trains/platform crowding was too much for me. You may find a difference between weekday vs weekend but not sure now with the popularity of the place.

Amalfi being way more spread out, I found it not quite so crowded, but you don't have the advantage of quick train rides between villages. The buses can be pretty full though. We didn't use the bus much - one day to go to Ravello, and arriving and departing. One day we hired a private car/tour (which was my mom's fav day of our vacation).

We spent 3 nights in Atrani, walking distance to Amalfi - and it was pretty rushed and much we didn't see - I think 5 nights would have been perfect. Three nights was enough (for us) to see CT.

It would probably be a coin toss for me to pick my fav, but because of the bad crowding now in CT...I def lean more towards Amalfi now.

This may help in your decision making. CT crowds are expected to double this year.

I stayed in Sorrento the night before my outgoing flight from Naples and it was a very early flight, we had a cab arrive at around 4am. I do NOT recommend this. In hindsight, I’d have stayed in Naples the night before. It was really stressful being that far from the airport in what felt like the middle of the night hoping the cab wouldn’t forget us.

For choosing between CT and AC:
Both are scenic seaside villages with excellent hiking opportunities. If you get the Naples flight, then that should help you decide--CT is very time-consuming to get to from your other destinations (look at trenitalia for schedules).
I found it much easier to escape the crowds on the Amalfi Coast, since it is a larger area. I found CT extremely unpleasant. The big draw should be the hiking trails linking the villages. Instead, the tiny villages and train station are clogged with cruise passengers and day trippers. If you are a hiker and want to make use of the upper trails, I still think it is worth a trip. Otherwise, there are several alternatives in Liguria for seaside villages that are just as pretty.
For the Amalfi Coast, you also have world class attractions like Pompeii, Naples, Paestum. I'd return to the AC, but the CT is not on my return list. I think the area can easily fill five days if you include Naples.
There are places of interest near CT also--some visit Genoa, Carrara for marble tour, etc.

Frankie,

I think before you decide whether to fly into Naples or Venice I'd check to see which airport has the best exit path for your flight home. Logic would say Naples, but after a quick look, Venice seems to have shorter flights with little or no backtracking