Itinerary thoughts, 17 full days in Italy

I think with only one or two days in each city you're really short changing yourself. You won't get to see much in the major cities with such a small amount of time. I would do Siena as a day trip from Florence and cut out Sorrento, positano, amalfi and capri as 3 days is not enough time to see any of them let alone all of them. I would combine the cinque terre/hill towns into 3-4 days and add more to Florence and Rome. Two days in either of these cities will only allow you the briefest glimpse of them. You must also take into consideration that you'll be changing hotels every other day. This will eat up a lot of your time. From Venice to Florence on the fast train is 2 hours, add that to the hour it takes to check out of the hotel and get to the train station, the half hour to wait for the train, the hour to get off the train and check into your hotel and you're losing 4.5 to 5 hours of your day. This is everytime you change hotels.

My best advice would be to pare down the number of cities you visit.

For the car, I would use it only for cinque terre/hill towns. You won't need it in any of the other cities.

Donna

Changing hotels every other day is rough and you will come back exhausted, thrilled with what you saw and irritated you missed many other things--mostly the time to actually enjoy the places you visited.

I totally agree with 1st post to eliminate Amalfi coast. That is worthy of 4 days all by itself, and it is a time-consuming region--and not a place you would want to have a car in peak season. Rome to Naples is 2 hours by train, then coordinate that with the Circumvesuviana regional train to Sorrento and you have another hour or more...Capri is nearly an hour by jetfoil form Sorrento's harbor, and Amalfi is only a short distance, but a long drive with traffic, and no train connection...only local buses or boats. This region is mildly difficult logistically, so save it for another trip when you can slow down an go with the flow.

I also disagree about Assisi--it is a very compelling, true-to-itself medieval town worth every minute you can spend there. Maybe your preferences are different, but I would make the effort to include it with the hilltowns.

I would suggest: 2nts. Venice; 3nts. Florence; 3nts. Cinque Terre; 5nts. Tuscany/Umbria hilltowns to include Siena, Assisi, others plus and chianti region (you won't be sorry); 3 or 4nts. Rome. Pick up your car in La Spezia after CT for your countryside drive, and drop it off before you officially get to Rome in Orte (then take short train) or at Villa Borghese near the "perimeter" of Rome to avoid downtown driving. Cars are unnecessary everywhere else, completely useless at CT and Venice.

Hi Andrew~ I agree that you are not staying long enough in each place to enjoy. My husband and I are doing 3 weeks in the fall ~ 2 nights Varenna/Lake Como, 4 nights Venice, 2 nights Florence, 7 nights Tuscany (staying in San Gimignano), 3 nights Cinque Terre (Manarola) and 1 night in Milan on each end as that is where we are flying in and out of. We are only getting a car in Tuscany ~ taking train everywhere else as it is easier and less expensive. Let me know if you want to compare notes further!
Enjoy!

Thanks for the responses! We're going to re-work this plan based on your feedback. I had yanked Amalfi once, then put it back in thinking we'd have time; so no worries on yanking it back out! We do like to get rooted a bit and get a real sense of the place (spent 10 days in Prague, loved it).

Thanks for the guidance on the car, specifics like the early-drop spot helps a ton :)

Slow down, and enjoy what is really the essence of Italy which is Slow travel. Most areas need 3 days/nights, some will need a week or more. It sounds like you are a seasoned traveler, save some of your trip for the next time, and I can tell you, you will want a next time. Depending on your ability to go back, I would either concentrate on the north or south. Venice/Florence/northern Tucany are a trip to themselves, southern tuscany/Rome, and south are a trip as well. Northern Italy deserves it's own time too! I would try to locate myself more centrally, and daytrip from there. Packing and unpacking can suck the life out of a trip, 3 home bases for a trip of that length will dfo wonders for your time spent on what you are really there for. I am jealous! Enjoy! Jeff
P.S. I could spend a month in one hill town, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Enjoy!

I'd suggest adding a day to Venice. It is a great place to start your trip, but you will be tired and jetlagged after the longhaul flight. Unless you are in Germany first? 2 full days is just enough time to see the main sights, without relaxing and enjoying the ambience.

As for hot, yes Phoenix is a lot hotter, but there you aren't outside all day sightseeing, and everything is air-conditioned. Italy is the opposite.

I've read thru the responses to your posting. It would be reasonable to consider your trip 2 weeks and not 3. To make it more leisurely, and probably more enjoyable, I suggest dropping at least 2 of your destinations. From Florence or Rome you can take daytrips by bus or train to nearby hill towns. So if you pick Venice, Florence, CT, and Rome as home bases, you can have an enjoyable Italian vacation without moving around excessively. I assume you are flying into Venice and out of Rome.

I see that you also live in a landlocked state. Because of that, I suggest you cut your time to Florence, add a day to Venice and Cinque Terre, and keep Sorrento. Just my two cents.

If I had 17 full days and it was my first trip to Italy I would divide them like this:

3 days Venice,

4 days Florence

5 days cinque terre/hill towns

5 days Rome.

This will allow you to take your time and really explore these cities. It will also limit the amount of hotels and train trips you'll need. You may want to pick the hill towns that are easily reached from Rome and Florence and do them as day trips to make it easier. Siena is easily reached from Florence and Orvieto is easily reached from Rome. Both could be done as day trips to avoid changing hotels. Just take a day away from the cinque terre/hill towns time and add to the appropriate big city.

Donna