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October 2019 trip to Rome - Florence - Cinque Terre

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We received a bunch of good input from you all when we went to Paris in October 2017 - now we have a trip planned for October 2019 to celebrate our 40th anniversary.

The most anticipated portion of the trip is Cinque Terre closely followed by Florence / Tuscany. We feel like we need to visit Rome or Venice if we are making the trip so we plan to visit Rome (going back in the future to visit Venice and other places). We're trying to piece together an itinerary that's not too rushed.

1. I plan to order Rick's Florence / Tuscany book (2017), pre-order the Rome 2019 book and then the Cinque Terra pocket guide. Any feedback on the individual guides rather than the 2019 Italy book?

  1. We will have up about 17 days in country - not counting travel days, I think.
    Leave CA on a Sunday Arrive Monday evening (like we did it Paris) Tuesday through Saturday in Rome (6 nights / 5 days)

Sunday travel to Cinque Terre 1 travel day
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Cinque Terre (to avoid weekend visitors) (4 nights / 3 full days)

Thursday travel to Florence 1 travel day
Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Florence 3 days (4 nights / 3 full days)

Monday travel to Tuscany (Sienna?) 1 travel day
Tuesday, Wednesday in Sienna area (3 nights / 2 full days)
I understand Florence = Tuscany but what I mean is to get outside of Florence to experience the countryside.

Thursday travel back to Rome 1 night around airport

Fly home on Friday / drag myself back to the office on Monday

I've picked the days of the week based on some things in Florence and Rome being closed on Sunday's and Monday's - that's why those are travel days and, like I said, I tried to plan visiting Cinque Terre during the week.

  1. I read in Rick's Florence book (I think) that Tuscany can look like a 'moonscape' in the fall or winter. Are we going to get the Tuscan countryside experience in mid to late October or should we plan just spend a couple of days in Florence and instead visit Naples / Pompeii then do the countryside when we visit Venice in the future.

  2. Part of this will be a photography trip for me so I want to be in some of these places long enough to get up early or stay out late to get a few less-crowded sunrise and sunset pictures.

  3. We don't plan to rent a car - except perhaps in Florence / Tuscany.

We'll study Rick's books until they are ragged but I'm looking for some feedback from you all as well.

Thank you.

Mark and Lori

Posted by
11834 posts

I think it is a solid plan, not at all rushed.

As to your questions, the countryside will not be a moonscape. Siena is not really countryside, though. I would rent a car leaving Florence nand consider Montalcino as a base. You can day trip along a lovely drive to Pienza and Montepulciano. Naples and Pompeii are rather off the track for the rest of your visit.

No need to spend that last night ina souless airport hotel. Stay in the center and enjoy your last evening wandering around and planning your next trip. Prearrange an airport transfer for the morning.

Posted by
2213 posts

Congrats on your upcoming 40th! It looks like you've planned a wonderful trip.

I agree about staying in an agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside. Something around Siena would work great and would allow you to explore the area. Consider spending one of the days visiting San Gimignano in the morning and Volterra in the evening. I have a gorgeous photo I took of Volterra from outside the city walls. I shot for over 45 minutes as the sun set. Every few minutes the light would change. I shot until after sunset. The only problem was there was a crane outside the basilica and numerous satellite dishes. Thank goodness for Photoshop!

Speaking of photography, I took my DSLR to Italy, but got tired hauling my 22 pound kit around. Since then I've added a mirrorless camera to the mix. The similar kit in mirrorless is 6 1/2 pounds.

Since you will have had some time in Rome, I agree with staying near the airport the last night, especially if you end up with an early flight out. We stayed at the airport Hilton. It offers a free shuttle into town, so we spent our last night just walking around near the Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain.

Posted by
19 posts

Doug,

Thank you - my wife is a patient person....

We'll start researching agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside - that actually sounds exactly what we want. We'll add San Gimignano and Volterra to our list of places to look at.

I've already made the transition to mirrorless and will be taking my Sony A7RIII. I'll probably take my Zeiss Loxia 21mm lens and then decide on a zoom or two since I want to have time to take pictures. Maybe a 16-35 and a 24-70.

We will try to to our hotel early the night before we head home so we have time to soak up a little more of Rome before we leave.

Mark

Posted by
2213 posts

Mark,

The Sony AR7 is a great camera! I went with Fuji. If you want to shoot cathedral interiors, you'll need something wider than the 24-70.

We stayed at the Castillo di Verrazzano winery that's just north of Greve. While I highly recommend them, I'm thinking something further south near Siena would be a better fit for your itinerary.

Look into Fall Harvest festivals when planning your exact days. See here and here.

Tell Lori my wife Deb understands. It was 8:00 in the evening and we were driving a single track road though the moors on the Isle of Skye. I pulled over to take a photo of a cute little lamb and its mother. Deb remarked: "You can't take a picture of every darn sheep in Scotland!"

Posted by
19 posts

Our itinerary has us heading to Florence after we leave Cinque Terre. I'm assuming we'll take a train to Florence - should we stay in Florence itself for our planned 3 days there and then find an agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside? Or should we find an agriturismo outside of Florence and day trip it to Florence for the 3 days we want to explore Florence? My hunch is we should stay in Florence.

Then we would rent a car when we are ready to leave Florence for our stay in the countryside. It probably makes sense to return it in Rome. Or should we return the rental in Florence and then take a train back to Rome?

I can tell you we won't be traveling light. It just doesn't work that way for us, I'm just saying... The reason I bring it up is we will be lugging our bags around between the train stations and where we are staying.

Posted by
2213 posts

should we stay in Florence itself for our planned 3 days there and then find an agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside?
We stayed in the countryside, but we only had one day for Florence ;(. I vote for staying in the city. I'd love to see it in the early morning and in the evening.

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