Neophyte and her hubby plan a trip to Italy in June! Seasoned travels advise

Train tickets are easy to buy in train stations, or you could reserve a faster train such as Rome-Florence in advance for a ticket discount on www.trenitalia.com. If you will stay overnight in Rome, they you could be pretty confident of booking ahead for departure to Florence. But if your flight arrives by mid-day, it could be just as easy to buy a ticket at the station for the next train departing to Florence, to reduce one-night hotel stays. Most days, you have to leave Roma Fiumincino by 19:25 or 19:55 latest to make the 2.5-hour connection to Florence. Many Florence hotels are within a couple of blocks of the Santa Maria Novella train station and Florence is more compact than Rome. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it, maybe easier to view and print schedules (but not to buy tickets).

You also have more choice of hotels by booking directly than through a travel agent. Any place listed in Rick's book is used to taking reservation online or by email or phone from Americans. Start with the points you know you're ready to reserve and just take it a step at a time.

My first recommendation is to fly into Rome and home from Milan. Commonly called flying open-jaw or multi-cities. I am sure it would be more convenient and cheaper than returning to Rome for your return flight. You are moving north and CT is much closer to Milan than Rome. If you put a third party in the picture for booking rooms and travel you simply add to your costs and reduce some of your flexibility given that you have to use the hotels that the booking services uses. Are asking about June 2015 or June 2016?

Sounds like you're on the right path!

My wife and I are doing a similar tour to yours...first time to Italy, lots to see, similar destinations. (We leave in 2 weeks. squeee!)

Here's what we did:

• Made a list of the cities we wanted to visit, how long to spend at each one, then researched effective ways to get from one to the other. This gave us a rough outline of the itinerary we would follow. (We decided to fly in to Milan...spend a few hours there looking around, then hop a train down to Cinque Terre. We have 3 days there, then train down to Pisa. 1/2 day there, then train in to Florence. 5 days there. Then we pick up a rental car and have 4 days exploring Tuscany, making our way south towards Rome. Finally, 5 days in Rome and then we fly home.)

If you absolutely HAVE to fly in and out of Rome, then you can take a train up to Florence, then out to Pisa and up to Cinque Terre and back again.

• For each city along the way, we've made a list of 'Must See' and 'Nice to See' things and activities. The ideas came from a variety of sources: these forums, the RS videos, other YouTube videos, travel magazines and articles, etc. Anytime we saw something cool, we'd just write it down and add to the list.

• Book lodging in each city as far in advance as possible. We decided to go with B&Bs rather than hotels (we prefer the small, intimate places more.)

• 1-2 months out, book car reservations and tickets to big museums.

Finally...take a deep breath and relax. Be advised that your'e not going to be able to see absolutely everything in one single trip...and that's okay. The less stress you bring with you, the happier you'll be.

To begin with, IMO you don't need europeandestinations.com to plan this trip as it's easily done on your own. The group here will be able to put all the details together for you. It would help to know the time frame of this trip. It appears to be about a week or a bit more?

Here's one suggestion.....

• D1 - Flight to Italy
• D2/N1 - Arrive Rome
• D3/N1 - Train to Florence (high speed train from Rome to Florence takes 90 minutes)
• D4/N2 - Florence
• D5/N3 - Florence
• D6/N1 - Bus to Siena (Bus is an easier method for this trip - using the Corse Rapide Express Buses will take about an hour)
• D7/N2 - Siena
• D8/N3 - Siena
• D9/N1 - Train to Cinque Terre (you'll have to take a Taxi down the hill to reach the train station - there are numerous departures with different travel times and number of changes - one of the easiest will probably be a departure at 09:18, arriving Monterosso at 12:52 with two changes at Empoli and Pisa Centrale - there are a few potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy, and if you need more information on that, post another note here).
• D10/N2 - Cinque Terre
• D11/N3 - Cinque Terre
• D12/N1 - Train to Rome (there are direct trains from La Spezia Centrale to Roma Termini, and that will be the best method to use - there are departures at 08:17, 10:06 and 13:14, among others - the connection from whichever of the towns you're staying in to La Spezia is only a few minutes).
• D13 - Return flight to U.S.

There are many possibilities and this is only one suggestion. I configured this with three nights in each of the places you mentioned, as two nights allows only one full day, once travel times are deducted. Each change of location generally takes at least half a day, when all is considered.

I used Monterosso as the destination in the Cinque Terre, as at this late date it may be difficult getting a hotel booking in the C.T. Monterosso is the largest of the five towns and therefore has the greatest number of hotels, restaurants and other tourist amenities (and also the nicest beaches). There are numerous hotel suggestions in the guidebook, but if you want other ideas, post another note here.

Buon Viaggio!

I have not used info from this website yet but it appears to provide much information regarding train travel and other information regarding Italy. I have visited Italy but we had a car, hope it helps. dj

http://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm#.VUJmhct0wfh

If you must fly round trip and not open jaw then plan to use that first day after arrival getting by train to your most distant destination. YOu probably can't get into a Rome hotel in the morning after arrival anyway and that day is jet lag day; use it to get to another destination. It is only 90 minutes to FLorence and you can get a ticket at the airport for a train you can catch when you arrive. (It is cheaper purchased 3 mos out, but then you have to worry about your plane being on time. We just get them on arrival and don't worry about it) That way you can finish your trip with a few days in Rome and be there for the flight home without wasting the day before rushing back to Rome. Always be in the town of departure the day before a high stakes flight.

You might consider heading for the Cinque Terre that first day and spending 2 or 3 nights there, then head on to Siena for a few days and then to FLorence for a few days and on to Rome to finish. Siena is badly connected to Rome but easily connected by bus or train to Florence.

If you fly open jaw then start in Rome and finish in the Cinque Terre heading for Milan the day before the flight and take a look at the Cathedral there (don't miss walking on the roof.)

By using Booking.com for your hotels it is easy to compare hotels and have your reservations in one place.It is also very easy to cancel if you find someplace better... just read details. I use them often and have found it easy to use. Plus, there is a number to call at all times if you have problems. Often little B&Bs are not listed here, but there are lots of options to make life easy. As far as in and out of Rome, look at above post for what to do first day. When I have to do that I usually try to make a sort of loop out of my trip so I am not doing too much backtracking. Once you know which cities and hotel possibilities others here can help advise you.

agreeing with janettravels. The first day is a wasted day, so you might as well continue traveling to your first destination, and save Rome for the end. Advice: note the time difference and try to get any sleep you can on the plane going over. Some people dont believe in jetlag until they experience it.

Frank,
June 2015 (I know, I know) Need help now. :)

On the two trips we've taken, we've started by booking flights and worked our way in from there. Get the air, then worry about the rest. Don't know when exactly you're flying in June, but it looks like the only non-stop is the 5:05 PM out of Dulles, arriving at Rome Fiumicino at 8:10 the following morning. From there you get over to the Roma Termini train station via the Leonardo Express train right there at the airport. Then you can take the train north to wherever, be it Cinque Terre, Siena or Florence, all doable in a few hours, so you'd in theory be arriving at your destination by late afternoon, or maybe even earlier.

The non-stop flight home (I just plugged in 6/15 & 6/29 for the heck of it) leaves Fiumicino at 10:50 AM (returning to Dulles at 3:05 PM), so you will want to stay in Rome the night before. In fact, it's almost a shame to be in Rome and not see anything, so I would suggest staying 2 or even 3 nights there at the end of your trip. Lot of things you could accomplish, even in that short time. We did that on our initial trip abroad--finished up in Rome, stayed near Campo de' Fiori and utilized the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus to--albeit somewhat quickly--see a few of the sights.

Here's the thing--I know you want non-stop flights--and from what I described above it's certainly doable--but I am sure you're finding out there are very few non-stops to Italy these days from the US & they're much more expensive. You could end up paying as much as $1000 more for the two of you. And United--probably your non-stop carrier--is uh...less than pleasing with their accommodations in flight, and I'm being kind when I say that after a Chicago to Paris flight last month. But maybe you have an upgrade to business class or better, which we looked longingly at as nirvana on our last trip! Lufthansa is a pleasure in comparison, but they don't do non-stops from Italy--we did a non-stop return from Munich after flying in from Naples. And as stated above, the flexibility of open-jaw flights (into one airport, out of another) opens up many more travel possibilities.

Have fun hammering down your plans--we're here to help you, and we'll gladly take your trip for you, but only if you'll pay for it! :)