Travelling to Italy with my adult daughter -we are planning to see Florence, Rome and Tuscany - would love to see the Amalfi coast but afraid that might be too much for 12 days? Flying into Rome on 10/1 - not sure if we should do Rome first then Florence, or go right to Florence, Tuscany and finish up in Rome (flying home from Rome also) Also, any suggestions for reasonable B&B's ?
Thank you!!
Posted by
Chicago
8129 posts
Go straight to Florence and then finish in Rome.
You can take the train
Posted by
2708 posts
You really ought to be in the city you depart from the night before so preferable to go to Florence first. So if you take a train to Florence the day of arrival, you can save yourself backtracking to Rome at the end.
Posted by
Fort Myers, FL
1849 posts
Agreed. I always end my trips in the departing city.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15900 posts
Definitely go to Florence by train upon landing.
Lots of trains (3 per hour on average), a few originate from the airport and require no change in Rome.
www.trenitalia.com
Enter Italian names of stations:
From FIUMICINO AEROPORTO
To: FIRENZE SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
Date: enter a date in this week if your trip is next year. They won’t change much when the new timetable is published.
Hour: enter the time of landing in a 24 hour format.
Don’t prepurchase tickets online. Buy tickets at the Fiumicino Airport train station. If you prepurchase and your plane is delayed and you miss the train you get no refunds.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15773 posts
If you have 12 days, does that mean 11 nights? Then you really only have 10 days - your first is mostly getting to your Florence hotel with jetlag and trying to stay awake until dark. Your last is packing and going to the airport, so I think you're right that the Amalfi Coast is too much.
For a change of pace, you could spend a couple nights in Orvieto after Florence. Use Florence as a base to visit other Tuscan towns, some by bus, others by train.
It's likely that with only a month to go, most of the lodgings in the RS guide will be booked up. I use booking.com a lot. Their reviews are only from verified guests . . . the only way to give a review is after your stay when booking.com sends you a link. I would look at anything with an overall rating of 8.0 or more. Take into account that the most people base their ratings on expectations, so a cheap 2-star may get a pretty high rating, while a decent 4-star may get the same or lower rating. BTW "reasonable" doesn't tell me what your budget or basic requirements are.
You'll save money if you buy high-speed train tickets in advance. It's not a good idea for the train from Rome to Florence, since you can't be certain how long it will take you to get from the plane to the train platform. But you can buy the Florence-Rome (or Florence-Orvieto and Orvieto-Rome etc) now.