Need Itinerary Help for August Italy Trip

The train from Rome to Naples or Salerno is fast, about an hour and a half, so back to Florence is only about 3 hours. Transport from Naples/Salerno to Sorrento or Poisitano is slow but 30 to 60 minutes would do it. The typical travel route to the Amalfi is if you base in Sorrento, head to Naples and train or ferry to Sorrento...If Poisitano, then head to Salerno and bus or ferry to Poisitano. From either of those you can ferry to Capri and bus or Bus+train to Pompeii.

Myself, I would start by looking for lodging to see what is available. August has traditionally been a vacation month for Italians, so Rome may be a bit dead with some smaller shops and restaurants closed, while getting something on the Amalfi coast or an Agritourismo might be a challenge as many Italians would head those places. This is probably less so now than a decade or two ago, but something to consider. You may also find that some smaller hotels in the "vacation" spots may be reluctant to take an early reservation for a couple nights, preferring customers during that time that commit to a week or more. Italy can get hot in August, so AC might be something to look for. If you strike out on rooms, then you might need to adjust your itinerary.

When comparing airfare, Florence vs Venice, also factor in ALL the costs of getting from Florence to Venice and to the Venice airport. If you have an early departure from Venice you may be stuck with an expensive option for a very early trip to VCE from where ever you are in Venice.
After adding up all the costs you may find the Florence departure is competitive, cost wise

If your air travel is already purchased and set in stone, then there are many threads that cover the travel options to from Amalfi. ( I presume you mean the town from how you have used the term in your post) That is the challenging part. Train travel from Rome to Naples and Naples to Florence is rather straightforward

We've had several people mention plans to stay in an agriturismo without a car. The usual response is that it is not a good idea. I believe you'd be incredibly lucky to find an agriturismo close to a bus stop. I'd plan to stay in one of the smaller towns instead, if you feel that you must avoid staying in Florence. But understand that much of the transportation fans out from Florence, so you may find that to make a side trip to another town, you first need to travel into Florence, and of course you'd have the same extra travel leg when you head back to your hotel at the end of the day.

If you decide you want to take some sort of tour--which can be a practical thing to do when you want to see the countryside without a rental car, you'll almost certainly find that you have to travel into Florence (or perhaps Siena) in order to join the tour.

You should figure out what you want to see in Tuscany before deciding on where you want to sleep.

Also consider how many nights you actually have in Italy. In order to have three full (and relatively non-jetlagged) days in Rome, you need to spend 4 nights there. I think you'll decide you want 4 nights down in the Amalfi area as well, to avoid constant stress about meeting an aggressive schedule. I'd hope for 3 nights in Venice because anything less means you're pretty much going to be tromping step-by-step with the day-trippers on the path from the train station to the Rialto Bridge to San Marco. So how many nights do you have left--even if you cut Venice to a painful 2 nights? Four distinct areas is a lot of area to cover.

Thank you both!

Any thoughts on going back to Florence/Tuscany from Amalfi (assuming fast train back to Florence and then bus to town best option) ? Is there a town that is a good base that also has good transport, lively dinner spots that are open after 8?

Erin, unless you don't want to spend time in Florence, I would base there instead of a small town. For day-tripping, your transport options are going to be better from there. An exception might be Lucca: on the train line; 30-40 minutes to Pisa; 1 hour to Florence; well worth spending time in itself; very popular with the RS gang. Take a look at that one?

For all the day-tripping you have planned around the Amalfi region, I probably wouldn't have chosen the town of Amalfi as a base. Pompeii is more convenient from Salerno or Sorrento, and both are on rail lines although Sorrento's is strictly commuter service. There are also few ferries between Amalfi and Capri and they take a long time (1 hour/20 minutes).

http://www.sorrentoinsider.com/en/ferry-schedule?from=amalfi&to=capri

I'm sort of in agreement with acraven that 4 destinations are a lot depending actual number of nights you have on the ground in Italy so as little time as you can spend dealing with transport, the better? Consider that you're going to lose a minimum of 1/2 day or more every time you make a move so 3 moves (Rome> Amalfi>Florence area> Venice) will chew up at least 1.5 days of your holiday.

Does your 2 weeks include travel days? If it does, you have 12 nights on the ground, so think nights instead of days. 3N=2Days. 4N=3D.

It pains me to say this but you are going to need to cut one of your locations. Either Florence/Tuscany or the Amalfi Coast.

You also need to figure you will lose at least a half day changing locations.

Option 1

Arrive Rome, 5 nites.

Train to Florence, 90 min. 3-4 nites.
This would give you 2 for Florence,
And 2day trips into Tuscany.

Train to Venice, 2hr5min. Minimum of 3 nites.

Option 2.

Arrive Rome, taxi to Roma Termini.
Train to Napoli Centrale, 1hr10min.
Circumvesuvian to Sorrento, 1H20m
4 nites Sorrento.

Reverse above to go back to Rome.
4-5 nites Rome.

Train Rome-Venice. 3H45m. 3nites Venice. Vaporetto to dock closest to your lodging. 20-45min.

In most towns in Italy lively dinner spots abound after 8 pm......Italians are usually just thinking about going for dinner then.

Gerri has given great advice. Stick with 3 locations to lay your heads in. It will be a calmer trip, less frustrating, less manic. Glad to hear you are planning to dine after 8:00pm. :-) In summer, we would dine at 9:00 when the evening had become tolerable.

In Rome, look at some evening activity options. In August, the Castel Sant'Angelo usually has a special nighttime tour/concert/event and evening tours in the Forums are wonderful. Lets you take la pausa in the heat of the afternoon and make use of cooler hours.

Wow, these are all great suggestions, thanks!

I will only add to look for accommodation with AC as August will most certainly be hot. It's nice to be able to take a break in the afternoon and get some relief in an air conditioned room/flat.

If you stick with 4 places to lay your head over 13 or 14 night time spent in Italy ; I would opt for Florence over a smaller town for your time in Tuscany.
Fact is after Rome and Amalfi Coast which seem to be your main points of interest ; you will not have many nights remaining
Would want to stay 4 nights Rome and if to do as day trips Capri and Pompeii that requires 3 nights without seeing the Amalfi Coast yet ; so figure you need 5 nights for that stop.

You are now at 9 nights ; I think if you do the above 2 in less than 9 nights in August heat ; you are not going to be happy ; so if you have only 4 nights remaining ; 2 nights in Florence and 2 nights in Venice.
With a 2 night stop at either place you would definitely not want to do any day trips or leave those cities ; you will need all of your time just to see the bigger highlights.
So skip the Tuscany countryside / small town idea for this trip.

If you have 14 nights instead of 13 that would help ; make Florence a 3 night stop and do one of those group tours to see Tuscany. Not really my thing so I cannot recommend any but know there are plenty of them ; while rushed pace and long day on a bus the reviews always seem positive and folks with only 1 day free to spare find it a good way to see parts of Tuscany outside of Florence.

Getting from the Amalfi area to Florence will not be hard ; it will be basically the same as reaching it from Rome in reverse just instead of going back to Rome you go further north to Florence. Same methods and direction of travel.

In terms of bookings ; you need to book the Amalfi Coast location lodging yesterday. In August the cities are not as popular (still popular but I suspect Rome lodging won't be hard to come by right now) but the coastal vacation hot spots and popular lakeside places are as busy as ever in August and I imagine most places are already booked.

Yes, I am finding that lodging in the Amalfi coast in August is not only hard to find but also very expensive!

I think I could add a few days to the trip...if so, do you think it would be worth staying outside of Florence with a car? I just remember Florence being crazy in the summer last time and not enjoying the city since it is so compact. My kids are not really into art/medici history yet so just thinking Sistine Chapel as a must and maybe Statue of David. I was thinking of just seeing it Once we get off the train from Amalfi then pick up a car and head to a small town/Montalcino? Any recommendations? We stayed in Siena last time so looking to stay in another town similar to it (good restaurants for dinner:) My kids love food so was thinking maybe go to a agriturismo with pool and cooking classes, etc. Any suggestions for this?

I think I have also found air fare leaving from Florence so do not have to do Venice. Thanks!

Oh, didn't realize you have been to Florence and maybe some of these other places before.
That makes a big difference since you know the lay of the land and may not need to hit some of the "most sees" if for this trip you are primarily thinking of what the kids will enjoy.

Yes, if you leave Venice off and have 4 or possibly nights without really adding more nights, I would recommend renting a car and staying in one of the smallish towns like: Volterra, Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano ; they would be ideal with a car.
We stayed in Pienza and loved it but it is very small ; with teens and more things to do Montepulciano or Volterra would probably be the 2 I would look at the most ; these towns have bus service but is designed with commuters not tourists in mind so the schedules are not going to be as frequent as you would like ; that is why the car is such a benefit.

If you prefer a more remote Agristristmo the benefits are obvious, the downside is nothing is within walking distance. You know your family better than us to determine if that will work out well or not compared to a town like Siena where you can easily walk about. The same towns I mentioned above are all smaller than Siena and all have Agristristmo's around them.

You could arrive in Florence on the train. Maybe store your bags, see some sights in town then rent the car from Florence center and return the rental car to the airport when flying out.

Of course if you can add a couple of nights ; why not keep Venice in the plan ; I am sure the teens would love to see Venice.
Budget may say otherwise though especially with the budget busting costs of staying in the Amalfi Coast in August.
If you do decide to keep Venice I would drive from whatever town you choose in Tuscany to Venice ; dropping the rental off when arriving rather than trying to navigate back to Florence with the car in order to take a train. Would be a 4 hour drive roughly.

Thanks for the Tuscany town suggestions mreynolds:) I would like to show them Venice (my husband and I went there 20 years ago when we were just dating).

Maybe Arezzo or Cortona for your choice in Tuscany.
https://m.agriturismo.it/en/farmhouse/tuscany/arezzo/

Day
1. ARRIVE Rome (4N)
2. Rome
3. Rome
4. Rome
5. Train to Naples, then Sorrento (4N)
6. Day to Capri by boat
7. Day to Pompeii by train
8. Day to Positano by bus
9. Train to Rome, then Arezzo (4N)
10. Arezzo & Cortona
11. Day to Florence by train
12. Day to Siena by bus
13. Train to Venice (2N)
14. Venice
15. DEPART Venice

Your itinerary seems too congested. Way to much transfer time down south. I would drop Amalfi and concentrate on your other destinations. When we went in 2015 we did this (# of nights in parentheses):

Venice (3)
Florence (3)
Siena (2)
Vernazza (2)
Rome (4)

Seems congested in the middle, but it was actually very nice.

Erin,

If you're adding 2 nites, let's combine my option 1&2 above.

Arrive Rome. Train to Sorrento.
Your first day will pretty much be wasted as far as sightseeing so head to Sorrento first. 4 nites Sorrento. 3 full days.

Train to Rome. You won't be jet lagged so you don't need to adjust to the time. 4 nites Rome. 3 1/2 days

Taxi to Tiburtina station, rent car here. 2 hour drive to Montepulciano.
Or train to Chiusi and pick up car 1hr drive to same. 4 nites Tuscany. 3 1/2 days

Drive to either Florence, drop car at airport, taxi to Florence there's a luggage check at the train station.
See David etc. then early evening train to Venice. 2 days.

Or drive directly to Venice and drop car there. 3 nites Venice. 2 1/2 days.

Using this itinerary allows you to alternate lower key areas with busy city areas.