Hello! I'm so stressed in trying to plan this trip to Italy in mid July. First - any ideas/suggestions on the cheapest airfare from Los Angeles? Thinking about flying into Rome or Venice or Naples or Milan - anyplace that's cheapest really.
schedule is something like this:
Rome 2 days
Down to Amalfi Coast 1 or 2 days
up to Venice 2 days
over to Cinque Terre 2 days
Up and over to Milan (more like Lake Como) area - 2 days
Then on/up to Switzerland(that I'll post in Switzerland forum). Thinking about flying in to Rome and out of Zurich.
Does this sound do-able? I feel overwhelmed in getting flights, hotels and rail passes everywhere...
When it gets closer I'm sure I'll be asking for which hotels to stay at in the above cities as well.. :-)
Love this forum and website!
Thanks everyone!
Pam
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10235 posts
July? This July? A month from now? I think you are behind the curve for planning. Have you checked what's available from LAX? If not, that's what you should do first. How long will your trip be? You seem to be trying to cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. Where you fly into and out of should then dictate how you spend the time while you are there.
Posted by
Chicago, Illinois, USA
586 posts
I agree with Andrea...you've got some reading/planning to do! But it's never too late, in my mind. As for your itinerary, I'd recommend:
-Fly to Naples
-Amalfi Coast (Sorrento as base) for 3 nights
-Train to Rome; Rome 3 nights
-Train to Florence; Florence 2 or 3 nights
-Train to Venice; Venice 2 nights
-Train to Cinque Terre (via Milan; one or two nights in or near Milan?); Cinque Terre 3 nights
-Fly home from Genoa (near Cinque Terre) to a connecting airport, and then to CA
Would save SZ for its own trip. Just my two cents. Ciao!
Posted by
OP
Burbank, CA, USA
28 posts
Yeah.. I know it's a month away. Was planning 10 or 11 days in Italy at the cities mentioned (Rome/Amalfi/Venice/Cinque Terre/Milan/Lake Como) and 5 or 6 days in Switzerland (Interlaken/Geneva/Zurich). Yes LAX is my hometown airport and flying into Rome and out of Zurich sounds best maybe. Maybe going to push it to August for more time to plan.. :)
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
Since it is 5 weeks away, that is a lot of planning to do in a short time.
As for your itinerary, its too much IMHO unless you goal is to see 1 or 2 highlights of each place. Even if you're just moving 30 miles away when you change locations, it takes up about 1/2 the day. Eat breakfast, check out, get to the train or bus, find the new hotel, etc. -- this can get you to about lunch time. And since you're going much farther (or on places served by slower regional transport) each time you change places the pure transit time of riding trains, waiting for connecting trains, etc. is going to take up most of a day. Your real schedule is a day of traveling with a day of sightseeing, repeat. Which is great if you have a strong interest in the Italian train system, not so great otherwise.
Posted by
OP
Burbank, CA, USA
28 posts
Thanks everyone! yeah.. starting to rethink things since I'd love to just relax at some points along the way and enjoy Italy, rather than running around.
We've covered Florence pretty well on a past trip - so that is why I'm not going back there this time.
Maybe save Switzerland for another time..
Just one of those people who want to see everything while I'm over there and keep adding on more and more places but my vacation time isn't expanding along with it! :)
Thanks!
Pam
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
From your last post:
1) "I'd love to just relax at some points along the way and enjoy Italy, rather than running around."
2) "Just one of those people who want to see everything while I'm over there and keep adding on more and more places but my vacation time isn't expanding along with it."
I think you've already figured this out: For most travelers (but not all, at least we've got a few who've convinced themselves they can have both), statement #1 and statement #2 are mutually inconsistent. You get to have one or the other, but not both. Yeah, I know, bummer....
:)
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1003 posts
from LAX, check SwissAir, especially since you want to include Zurich, which is their hub. I booked LAX to Florence through Zurich with them for $579 this october, what a steal! BTW, with what you have proposed in the first post, you will definitely not have time to do much of any relaxing at all. I was in Rome for FIVE days and barely had time to breathe. If you plan with the philosophy, "I WILL be going back" you can help relieve a little of that "I have to see everything" mentality. That's how I planned two years ago....and guess what.... going back this fall!!!! :)
Posted by
Toronto, Canada
28 posts
I'm doing exactly this in two weeks...how long are you going for in total? I'm doing the Toronto - Rome-Zurich-Toronto flights. Ff you haven't booked flights yet they may be PRICEY..esp from LAX.
But I would look around for some of the summer Europe seat sales that some airlines have.
I'm also finding it confusing about the train travel.. but found that just looking on the Italy train systems' website:
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ad1ce14114bc9110VgnVCM10000080a3e90aRCRD
and the Switzerland train systems' website- http://www.sbb.ch/en/
are helpful for frequency of trains, routes and scheduling. As well there's train route maps on the Eurorail pass site that I found helpful.
I'm going to Geneva, Berne and Zurich so I'll let post if I find great hotels there!