Hello!
My wife and I are very excited to visit Italy in (hot!) late-August/early-September this year and we’re trying to figure out our itinerary. Like most, I know we’re trying to pack a lot of things/places in during our trip, and want to optimize our time. However, we also want some relaxation, and we know we want to visit Cinque Terre for a few days (2 or 3), so we aren’t spending time only in the ‘major towns.’ We’ll be arriving in Rome and leaving from Venice, with the middle of our trip being Cinque Terre and Florence/Tuscany. The tough part is planning travel within Italy to maximize the time. We like the thought of doing Rome, then Florence, then Cinque Terre (because we’ll be busy in Rome and Florence, then more relaxing in Cinque Terre), then Venice, but we’d somewhat be ‘backtracking’ when traveling from Cinque Terre to Venice (and it’s a longish train ride). Or, do we go from Rome to Cinque Terre, then to Florence and then to Venice? Do we save more time by one way or the other? Is one more logical than the other? We’ll be traveling by train between the stops.
We arrive in Rome at 10am, have the rest of that day, then have 11 full days (12 total nights), not including travel to/from Italy. We know our first two nights (Rome) and our last two nights (Venice), but would appreciate thoughts/opinions based on the above and how to figure out the middle two locations.
Day 1 – Arrive in Rome at 10:10am
Day 2 – Rome
Day 3 – TBD, either full day in Rome, or half/most of the day in Rome, then travel to Cinque Terre or Florence in afternoon or night
Day 4 – TBD, if we don’t travel the day before, we’ll definitely be going to either Cinque Terre or Florence
Day 5 – TBD
Day 6 – TBD
Day 7 – TBD
Day 8 – TBD
Day 9 – TBD
Day 10 – TBD
Day 11 – Travel to Venice (from either Cinque Terre or Florence)
Day 12 – Venice
Day 13 – Depart early
Thank you very much!
Kris