Looking for suggested itinerary Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Rome

The 4 destinations you list, including Cinque Terre, can easily be reached by train. Looking at a map will give you their locations relative to each other. The best order in which to see them will depend on where you are starting and ending. You can do big triangles covering Rome - Venice - Florence, without back-tracking.
Edit: Cinque Terre is a bit out of the way, but can be done by train from Florence. However, some travelers would consider that 10 days is insufficient time to do all 4 destinations, once reasonable estimates of travel times are factored into your itinerary.

It would be a good idea to get open-jaw flight tickets that way you won't have to back track.

Fly into Venice then high speed (Freccia) train to Florence.

Florence to CT ( ie. Monterosso) via La Spezia or Pisa by Regional or Intercity train, then high speed train to Rome

from La Spezia. Fly home from Rome.

When is your trip?

How many nights will you be on the ground? ( not counting travel days)

Thank you for this inf. looking to go in mid-May. I am thinking 10 days on the ground plus a day flying on each end. Any other suggestions are welcome. Macaulay been reading Rick Steves' Italy for past week.

Reading travel guidebooks is a good idea as they will help you decide what you want to do & see in each of the cities you plan to visit.

Since you only have 10 days to work with, I'd suggest visiting the 3 big ones, Venice > Florence > Rome.

Keep in mind that the day you arrive, you will be dealing with jet lag & so this first day is not very productive IMO.

Happy planning!

Macy is right: In 10 days, 3 places is maximum to visit. Is it really 10 nights on the ground? I find that planning by number of nights gives me a better view of how many days I actually have to do things.

3 nights in Venezia means 2 full days. The day you land from the U.S. is wasted.

1/2 day to transfer to Firenze, spend 3 nights, 2 1/2 days to tour including arrival day

1/2 day to transfer to Roma, spend 4 nights with 3 1/2 days to tour

Adding the CT is just too much of an outlier unless you can add at least 2 nights to your time on the ground.

For 10 days on the ground just do the Venice-Florence-Roma itinerary and you will find you have time to enjoy your surroundings. The poster that posted counting nights instead of days and indicating the 1/2 day lost transmitting between cities is, IMHO, on-point.

Flying open-jaw or multi-city is an extremely cogent strategy to maximize your time in-country and avoid time consuming backtracking.

Remember, this is a vacation an d not a marathon. The Italians have a saying, "Il dolce far' niente." It means the sweetness of doing nothing. Italy will seduce you and you will want to return. You can visit Le Cinque Terre on the next trip.

Buon viaggio,

aazannini,

I agree with the others that with such a short time frame, you'd be best to limit your trip to three places in Italy. However, I can suggest somewhat of a "compromise". Also, using open-jaw flights is absolutely the best option.

Would something like this work for you (assuming you have 12 days).....

• D1 - Flight to Italy
• D2 - Arrive Venice - use Alilaguna boat for transport to the stop nearest your hotel - you may find it helpful to have a look at THIS short video - brief sightseeing in afternoon (as you'll be dealing with jet lag, you probably won't have the energy for much sightseeing)
• D3 - Venice, touring
• D4 - Venice, touring
• D5 - Train for Florence (time ~2H:05M, departure station Venezia S. Lucia, arrival station Firenze SM Novella)
• D6 - Florence, touring (if you're planning to see Uffizi or Accademia, reservations are normally a good idea - details in Guidebook)
• D7 - Florence - day trip to Cinque Terre (I'd suggest taking an early train and making it a full day - start in Riomaggiore and work north so that you're in Monterosso at supper time - have a nice dinner and then return to Florence in the evening)
• D8 - Florence, touring (OR take a day trip to Siena - use the Bus as it's very easy)
• D9 - Train to Rome (time ~90 minutes, departure station Firenze SM Novella, arrival station Roma Termini)
• D10 - Rome, touring
• D11 - Rome, touring
• D12 - Return flight to U.S. from FCO (you can get from Rome to the airport via the Leonardo Express - it's a Regionale so DON'T forget to validate your tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or you may face hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!)

A few notes on the trains you'll be using......

• On the trip from Venice to Florence, you can use either the Freccia high speed trains (Trenitalia) or the Italo high speed. Stations will be the same. Those trains have compulsory reservations which are specific to train, date and departure time. If you can commit to a specific departure, you can pre-purchase tickets online and save some money.
• On the trip from Florence to the Cinque Terre, you'll be using a combination of Freccia, InterCity and Regionale trains, depending on which departure you choose. As mentioned above, Regionale tickets have to be validated and the other two types of trains have compulsory reservations! There will also be one or two changes each way, so be sure you're up to speed on how to manage those.
• On the trip from Florence to Rome, again you can save money by pre-purchase of tickets for either Freccia or Italo trains. However, you MUST use only the train and departure time specified on your ticket or again, hefty fines may be the result. Note that some Italo trains go to Roma Tiburtina rather than Roma Termini, so be sure to choose the station you prefer when you buy the tickets. Freccia trains always go to Roma Termini.

If you need more information on purchase of tickets online, post another note for some of the ways you can do that.

Thanks Ken, this is all extremely helpful!

I'm planning the exact same trip - Venice, Florence, CT, and Rome - and I have two full weeks in mind for the trip. I've learned from previous trips that at least 3 nights in each spot is ideal (if I did 2 nights, I always wished for more) so your itinerary might be tight with just 10-12 days. My tentative plan is:

Leave US - 7/14 -
Arrive in Venice - 7/15 (stay 7/15, 7/16, 7/17)

Arrive in Florence - 7/18 (stay 7/18, 7/19, 7/20)

Arrive in CT - 7/21 (stay 7/21, 7/22, 7/23)

Arrive in Rome - 7/24 (stay 7/24, 7/25, 7/26, 7/27)

Fly out of Rome - 7/28

I would even like another day or two. :-) Good luck with your plans!!

Thank you Sue and everyone for your great feedback and insights!

Is there a second class pass for the above iternery.
would you please sugest budjet accomadation for 4 (family 2+2)

manthrraviji,

It's best to start your own thread, as your questions are somewhat different from aazannini's.

However, I can tell you that for this itinerary, there's no rail pass that will save you money, or even be more convenient. For the fast sections on Freccia trains, you can buy in advance for a substantial discount, if you can commit to non-exchangeable and non-refundable tickets. Or you can buy in Italy at the station for maximum flexibility. For the regional trains, don't buy in advance, as there's no advantage; buy them in Italy. Don't forget to validate all regional train tickets before boarding.

For accommodation questions in your new thread, it's best if you specify a price range, in euros. "Budget accommodation" means different things to different people. You should also specify if you need an elevator, included breakfast, air conditioning, etc. And do all four of you need to be in one room, or would two rooms be fine? The more details you give, the better the answers can be.

aazannini,
My wife and I did a similar trip in the summer of 2012. Our itinerary went like this: Arrive Rome 4 nights (one day trip, express train to Naples, local train to Pompeii), train to Florence 2 nights (2 museum tours), train to La Spezia 2 nights; on the way to La Spezia we did a 4 hour layover in Pisa to see the leaning tower and the next day was spent local boat to Monterosso then hiked the trails back to Vernazza and worked our way back to La Spezia on the train. Then we took the train from La Spezia to Venice for our final 2 nights.

We stayed in B&B mostly and used all local transportation, no car rentals.