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March trip - Rome/Assisi/Florence/Venice

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We are planning our first trip to Italy in March- 10 nights. My son is studying in northern Italy (an hour north of Venice) - he will be meeting us in Rome at the end of his spring break which will be the start of our trip. We plan to end our trip in Venice so we can connect with him the following weekend. Flying into Rome and out of Venice seems to be the best use of our time and maximizes time with our son as well.

At this point, we are planning two full days in Rome - using RS "Rome in two days" as a guide and hopefully get to the big sites. I assume crowds will be lighter in March. Leaving Rome, I was thinking we would take a train to Florence for 2-3 nights. I have not done a great deal of research on Florence yet. One other interest is a night in Assisi before heading to Florence.

My main question is deciding what to do with the other days of the trip. I realize the easy answer is to add a day to Rome, Florence and Venice, but just want to venture a little more I think. Many areas of interests, but not sure the time of year is best for exploring. We are active vacationers - love hiking, nature, beautiful countryside, history. We would really like to see some of the Tuscany countryside even if it's not the prettiest time of year. We would be fine renting a car to either take day trip from Florence or go stay in a hill city and explore other spots such as Sienna, San Gimignano, Volterra - all the hill cities sound great to me. (I'm pretty sure I will need to plan another trip just to Tuscany. )

I realize the dangers of trying to do too much in one trip. As much as I would love to see Cinque Terre, Lake Como, Bellagio, I know we have to make some choices and consider the time of year! I still have plenty of research to do on my own, but we made a recent decision to take this trip so I thought I would seek some guidance early in my planning.

Current travel plans:
March 12 (thurs) - arrive Rome noonish
13 - Rome
14- Rome
15 - morning train to Assisi ? - explore/overnight stay
16- morning train to Florence if overnight in Assisi
17- Florence
18 - Tuscany?
19 - Tuscany? overnight in Bologna to be closer to Venice? or another night in Florence?
20 - morning train to Venice
21 - Venice
22- Depart Venice

Maybe the best idea is to just rent a car for a day in Florence and explore the country side for a day and travel to Venice on the 19th. I'm sure two full days in Venice would be best. Or drop Assisi for more time elsewhere in Tuscany.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Posted by
15798 posts

Orvieto is less travel time than Assisi and probably more direct trains. I like them both. You can day trip to hill towns from Florence by train or bus, depending on which ones. A car is likely to be more of a burden than a blessing because of the ZTLs - you aren't allowed to drive into city centers so you have to find parking and then walk.

Staying overnight in Bologna just to be closer to Venice doesn't save time - it's only about 35 minutes by train from Florence to Bologna and the time to pack/unpack will be more. Instead of day tripping from Florence, you could spend nights in Bologna and day trip by train to different towns - Parma, Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna.

Posted by
28417 posts

I vey much enjoyed a day-trip I made to Assisi a few years ago. Once you are away from the area around the gorgeous basilica (which is full of touristy shops and visitors) the town is lovely (and hilly). I think it would be great to spend the night there. But your trip is short, and including Assisi will significantly increase the time you spend on trains and getting to and from train stations. The train from Rome straight to Florence takes about 1-1/2 hours. Rome to Assisi is at least 2 hr. 9 min. (and that's for a 7:58 AM departure). Assisi to Florence is probably going to be at least 2-1/2 hours. So the diversion to Assisi costs more than 3 extra hours on trains, plus extra getting-to-train-station time.

I haven't taken one, but there are some small-group (van) tours of Tuscany operating from Florence. That would be simpler than going through the car-rental process for just one day, and there would be no parking worries or concern that (like all too many visitors) you will receive expensive traffic tickets months later. I understand the desire to tool around Tuscany, carefree in your own car, but I sort of feel like if you have only one day available for that experience, "carefree" may not be the right word. That said, I have never rented a car in Europe.

Posted by
61 posts

Thank you for the comments. I think we will drop Assisi and add a night in Venice. Still deciding the middle...I know Florence has a lot to see, but we really want an experience the countryside so now looking at staying at an agriturismo for 3 nights after one night in Florence to explore the countryside. Our college age daughters really want to experience small town Italy. Anyone had positive experience with this?

Rome - 3 nights
Florence - 1 night
? outside of Florence - 3 nights
Venice - 3 nights

Posted by
2861 posts

Countryside and small town are not the same thing. We are traveling with young adult children and deliberately have chosen to stay in town to allow everyone the freedom to do things independently. We also like to walk around in the evening and get up early to see towns before day trippers arrive. If you stay in the country side, you also will be dependent on a car and everyone will have yo do everything together.

That may be what you want but just something to think about.

If you don’t want to rent a car, could stay a night or two in Orvieto on way to Florence. Or take bus from Florence and stay in Siena.

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