Planning a 21 Day trip May-June and Starting in Rome?

Please give us a little more information about the types of places you want to see. Museums? Cities? Small towns? Do you want to travel fast and see a lot or take the leisurely route? Have you and/or niece been to Italy before?

To answer your question, starting in Rome is fine. I assume you booked roundtrip tickets in and out of Rome? If so, I'd make a northern loop that went something like: Rome - Orvieto - Florence - Tuscany (Siena, Lucca, or another hill town) - Cinque Terre - Milan (if you want to go there) - Verona or similiar - Venice - and then either train it straight back to Rome or continue down the eastern side of Italy going to perhaps Ravenna or Assisi before finishing in Rome.

Depending on how much ground you want to cover and how far south you want to go in Italy when it will be summer and hot and humid, you could swing down to Naples/Pompeii/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast before returning to Rome, but that'd be quite a lot for 3 weeks.

Your niece is one lucky girl!!! Before starting to plan your itinerary I would familiarize myself with the areas that interested me and my niece the most.Also decide what kind of a trip you want--fast paced or a little more relaxing. I have not been to Milan so cannot speak to that but I do not think I would go there just to start the trip from that point. Involve your niece in the planning. Does she have any special interests? Do you? Art, food, wine, scenery, history,nightlife, cities, countryside?? Are you also flying home from Rome?
I think the RS tour is a good starting point but you can do just as well tailoring it to your needs and desires.

Don't dismiss the option of a short flight to get you to or from a city a distance away (say Milan or Venice). I found an incredible one-way on RyanAir from Rome to Venice on 3/19, discounted at 75% off. Even with all the fees they tack on, I paid 72E for all four of us! And some of the fees we should get back (airport check-in fee, VAT). Taking the flight saved us a ton of time and was an inexpensive option.

Happy travels!

I completely agree with Liz as your main interests will greatly determine your best itinerary. Last summer I completed a 45 day trip in Italy ~ I started in Milan to Venice to Florence to Rome and it worked perfect. I highly suggest the Amalfi Coast as it is absolutely stunning. The weather in May & mid June shouldn't be to hot nor humid, so I wouldn't let that deter you from heading south.

Melissa...with the cost of the bus trip out to Rome's Ciampino airport, the cost of the bus to get from "Venice-Treviso" airport, plus the pre-boarding time, you won't save any time...or money...over a rail ticket from Rome to Venice. To get your check-in money back, you'll have to pick up a form at the Ryanair desk, fill it out, send it in, and hope. And you won't be getting the VAT back....it's not refundable on services, only goods.

Tamara

You have enough time to do all the biggies, so don't neglect Naples/Sorrento & the Amalfi coast. Start there and work your way back north as the weather warms; you may get lucky and miss most of the heat.

Tamara, you can easily rework RS's trip. However Rick's itinerary is aggressive; Rick can do it, you could do it once you've done it once or twice, but I think a traveller that hasn't been on it before would find it too aggressive. If you use the search function (top right box) you can find comments by other folks echoing this.

The problem is one of efficiency. If you've never been to Rome before you don't know how to get to your hotel from the train station, you don't know how to get around to all the sights by the most direct route, where the entrance is, etc. None of this is overwhelming -- you'll figure it all out, and sometimes getting a little lost leads you past something unplanned that turns out to be a trip highlight. Its just that RS put his itinerary together from what he'd been doing with his tour groups for years, and many people find it difficult to follow his pace.

I'd suggest giving yourself 30 days if you want to follow Ricks 21-day list; or if you have 21 days, try to do about 14-15 days of what he covers.

Hi Tamara ~
I am doing the same with my niece this summer. I have been to Italy twice before and she has not been at all. I tried to balance the must sees for her with places I hadn't been to yet. I tweaked RS's itin to add a night and drop a few stops. The feedback I've been getting is that the itin is still aggressive but doable. If it were just me I would do fewer stops for more nights. We will be traveling by train except for 5 days in Tuscany. The trip consulting that the RS web-site offers was the best $70 bucks I spent!!

Here are highlights of our itin:
1:ARR Rome. 1/2 day free. 2:Ancient Rome tour and Borghese. 3:AM free, afternoon Vatican, etc... 4:Rome to Sorrento via Naples and the RS walk. 5:Amalfi Coast day. 6:Possible Capri or more AC. 7:Sorrento to Orvieto. 8:Orvieto/Civita. 9:P/U car drive to Assisi (stop along way). 10:Assisi to Siena (stop along way). 11:See Siena. 12:Ballooning in Tuscany trip and towns south of Siena. 13:Chianti area, afternoon cooking class. 14:Siena to Lorsica (our family is from there) Drop car in Rapallo. Train to Vernazza. 15:Boat Tour of CT. (This is our relaxing day) 16:Hike CT. 17:Vernazza to Florence Via Pisa (possible Lucca too if not too exhausted :p)18:See Florence. 19:Flo 20:Flo to Venice, 1/2 day to wander. 21:Murano/Burano 22:Venice. 23:home
Feel free to e-mail me if you want more details. I know whatever you do you'll have a wonderful trip!

Paula