Itinerary Too Ambitious??

Given your time frame, Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre are an unnecessary 'duplication', and Amalfi is so far out of the way it makes sense to eliminate it from this trip.

Have you been to Italy before?

Sun Florence
Mon Tuscany

Does that mean a day trip or a change of lodging?

Have you looked at what time your flight from Venice would be? Flights from Venice quite often are at very early hours ( 6-7AM) creating some logistical challenge to get to the airport. From a logistical standpoint it probably would be easier to start in Venice, end in Rome and skip Amalfi on this trip.

Welcome to the forum!

Need a bit more info- what time of year, mode of transportation, who is traveling?
Have you traveled to Italy/ Europe before?

At first glance it would be too fast paced/ too many hotel changes for me
Not near enough time in Rome, Florence, Venice

Sorrento is more like 3 hours from Rome

Yes, this is much too ambitious in two weeks! Stick to Rome and north for this trip. You have shortchanged so many important places. Venice needs more time..and one day for the whole large province of Tuscany?? You are giving Capri and Tuscany the same amount of time??
Do another trip focused on Southern Italy some other time. We didn’t even head south of Rome until our 8th trip to Italy.

Agree with everyone else. Waaay too aggressive, and are shortchanging the cities and Tuscany. Personally I'd drop both CT and the AC, spreading those days over the remaining areas.

Just for reference- we had 17 nights our first trip
Venice 3
Florence 3
Siena 2
Montepulciano 2
Assisi 2
Rome 5

We felt it was about right for a first visit but would have loved another night in both Florence and Venice
We have since returned to Rome and Venice and will return again to Rome and Florence next spring for another 4 nights each

You have just 13 nights

I don't think it's too much as long as you know you will just be getting a "taste" of each place, not sure what your travel style is or your purpose for going to each place. I am going to be thinking you have 14 physical days on the ground not 12 (with two in the air). Here is what we did and our travel style is to do BIG city, then slower pace in a small city, Then BIG city, then slower pace smaller city, we also plan ONE big thing to do a day, so only the Vatican would be "planned" that day then if we have time/energy we may go to the Trevi fountain, etc.:
5 nights in Rome
2 Nights Cinque Terre
4 nights Florence
If you want to do Sorrento remove Cinque Terre and stay 4 nights- Between the two I would choose Sorrento due to the whole of the Amalfi Coast to explore and just make your base in Sorrento with day trips to Capri etc. You Could remove a day from Rome and Florence and add that to any time you have left for Venice. Will you be traveling by Train between cities?

Honestly, for two weeks, I would pick two cities. My choice would be Rome and Florence. Fly into Florence to get your “Italian legs” and out of Rome, and do day trips to smaller cities. I’d always rather spend extra time actually exploring a city than packing/unpacking, sitting on a train, and navigating to new hotels. Changing cities will eat up more time than you may be anticipating.

Welcome to the forum! Again, answers to some questions would help us. Have you traveled in Europe before? what is you method of transportation?

You are dedicating one day to Tuscany. For reference sake, Tuscany is the size of New Hampshire. Do you feel you could adequately see New Hampshire in one day? We spent 10 days in Tuscany a few years back and barely scratched the surface.

Your travel times are unrealistic. You are forgetting all that is involved in moving from one location to a another. Packing, checking out, getting to the train station early, actually traveling, then getting to your hotel and checking in can make your 2 hour travel time be actually more than 1/2 a day.

In an attempt to see everything, you'll end up seeing nothing. Take everything south of Rome off your itinerary for this trip. Alternately, take everything north of Rome off. Then take what's left and whittle it down even more.

Finally for a 2 week trip I'd build in at least 2 "down" days with nothing on your schedule. That will allow you a chance to be flexible. You'll discover something you want to do and will have time. For instance, when we spent a week in Loches, France, we found out about a tiny village name Chedigny, which is famous for the roses throughout the town. Since we had built in a down day, it was easy for us to use it to visit Chedigny and the gorgeous countryside nearby.

For our first trip to Italy many years ago we took a tour called “The Taste of Tuscany.” It was a culinary tour. The tour was 2.5 weeks and we added a few extra nights in Florence & Rome. It included Tuscany & Umbria. We Started in Florence & ended in Rome. It included Cinque Terre, Civita de Bagnoregio, Lucca, hill towns of Tuscany (San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena, Cortona, Montepulciano.) Umbria: Gubbio, Assisi, Spoleto, Orvieto, Todi. The pace was great. 2-3 nights & day trips along the way. We didn’t schedule a trip to southern Italy, Sicily or Venice until years later. We felt our 1st tour as “less is more.” We were very pleased with our decision to tour these two regions.

Thank you so much for all of the information and advice. This is our first time in Italy and it is just my husband and I. We celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2020 but of course the trip was cancelled so we are now rescheduling for next April. I need to mull over the advice tonight but will most likely remove anything south of Rome from the trip. Thanks so much!

Think about changing the path of your itinerary if you cancel the southern location. This will flow much better.

Arrive Venice. Softer arrival into Italy.
3 N Venice.

Train-to: Florence. 2H15min.
4-5 N Florence (2-3 for Florence, 2 for day trips)

Train-to Cinque Terre. 2H49min.
2-3 N village of choice. (Monterosso)?

Train-to Rome. 4H19m.
4 N Rome.

Edit for train times.

My head is reeling! I agree that your itinerary is far too ambitious. Getting to and back on the road from your accommodations, packing and unpacking, plus just trying to orient yourselves once you’ve arrived= BREATHE. I’ve had the luxury of taking extended trips, but it’s never quite enough time and all of this in 2 weeks? You will need your first day after arrival just to wander because jet lag is real. Some general sightseeing, but I sure wouldn’t plan anything I really want to remember. From past experience, because I’ve not traveled extensively in Italy, I would recommend you concentrate on Rome, Florence and maybe Venice. I’m currently planning a 9 week trip and have had to pare it down a couple of times as it was and probably still is a bit ambitious even in that amount of time! Continuing to research each of your destinations will assist you with time frame. You want to enjoy your destination, not blow in and right back out. Good luck. You will enjoy the trip no matter your travel decisions!

I like Gerri's itinerary. You may not realize how tiring and time consuming it is to pack up and move to a different hotel. Florence is so compact and easy to navigate on foot that it could be the easiest part of your trip.

When finalizing your itenerary, consider the time lost relocating. It almost always takes longer to change locations than anticipated even when everything goes well. It's not just the actual travel time, its the packing up, checking out, getting to the train station, finding the track and waiting for the train. Then, upon arrival, you have to clear the terminal, get a taxi, get to your hotel, check in (if your room is ready), and unpack to some degree. Even a two night stay only gives you one full day and part of the arrival day.

You want good memories of unique sights, good food, good wine, and people you'll meet. If your try to do too much, I'm afraid you'll only have blurred memories of taxi rides, train stations, and riding the rails.

Don't mean to sound like Debbie Downer, just offering food for thought.

Accept that you cannot see all of Italy in two weeks. Which destinations are most important to you? Choose half of these destinations. You will see them better and enjoy them more. Rome, Florence & Tuscany, and Venice would be a good first trip to northern Italy, but that's just my idea. On paper you could do all of your itinerary, but it would be exhausting.

Too much! Just tell yourself you’ll be coming back and don’t try to do it all in one trip. You’ll probably be planning the next one on the flight home!

Great advices above. I agree the Almalfi is your geographic outlier so consider dropping that and spreading that time out more in Tuscany, perhaps Sienna or Lucca. But If Almalfi, Sorrento, Capri are a priority you might look at a trip including Rome and points south to include Naples, Pompei, Herculaneum, Almalfi, Salerno, etc. My last trip we cut the Dolomites / Venezia for this reason. Two to Four night stays help cut the stress and increase your enjoyment.

Great tips posted, + gerri's itinerary is great... if you do start w/Venice (which is a good idea), consider using a private water taxi from the airport to your hotel... great way to enter Venice for the first time!

OP- Barbara-
You have received a lot of great advice- I hope you don't take it as criticism of your planning skills. I assume you are excited about your trip and already spent some time planning. A lot of us had to cancel trips last year too so we feel the same excitement about finally being able to GO!

I do wonder if you have used the RS suggested itineraries/tours for your plan or as a starting point?

IMO and many others here as well- his suggested itineraries are simply too fast paced, we have all made the same mistakes as beginners- I know I did. The helpful folks here steered me in the right direction. I really didn't want to give up some places bu t in the end we did and as I said above our first trip was a success and just right. You will return.
Once you realize how much time things take you realize that moving around too much is just not as enjoyable or satisfying as limiting yourself to fewer locations with longer stays.
We like 3 and 4 night stays. We will do a 2 night stay when warranted as some places are suited to shorter stays. Even a 1 night stay is sometimes also OK (1 night in Milan pre-departure for example) But if you are moving every other day half of your time is spent in transiting al that entails as described in so many posts above.

How do you determine how many nights you need in each location
Make lists of all the things you want to see/do- allow enough time for each thing- (Colosseum/Forum should have its own day, Vatican should have its own day, etc)
Plan 1 major sight- 2 at most each day then rest of day for wandering, cafe sitting, popping into churches, eating gelato, shopping, whatever. Rushing from sight to sight turns into a Bataan Death March- not fun.
Be very realistic about how long it takes to get from 1 town to the other.

Anyway- Happy Anniversary! and do come back to share what you come up with. We might still pick it apart a bit (we are nosy like that) but please know we are well-intentioned. ;)

hey hey barbara
happy anniversary. I like the itinerary that gerri has planned. also what tod says about private water taxi: venicelink.com under shared shuttle. so so worth it. we have done it 4 times but there were 4 of us so we had on to ourselves. plus the taxi gets you as close to your place as can be. save for it. going to Venice is so much better, then leaving from Venice. been there done that. we had to get up 3:30am get ready pack up rest and be out by 4:30 to airport by 5:30am, that hurt!!
slow down and enjoy what you can see during your 2 weeks, you will be planning next trip while sitting in Rome airport on way home LOL
you can’t see it all, spending mote time moving from place to place, spending more time in trains and stations, confusion of where’s my hotel and how to get there. taxis are cheap if need one, but go pick one up at stand, not flagging down, validate train tickets before getting on trains at ticket machine.
we are here to help you not put you down, run your plans by here and those here will give you ideas, up to you to decide. research is hard work, drives us nuts but when all complete and you’re happy, drink a glass of wine, have some lemoncello and enjoy the pasta and gelato.
aloha