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Please give comment on my itinerary

Hello: Please give comment on my itinerary. This is our first trip to Italy and like others want to do as much as we can. We will be spending 14days in Italy.
1) 6 days in rome: here one day we plan to take the train to Naples, visit Popmei, stay back..next day visit Capri and come back to Rome. We will still have our hotel in rome, do you guys suggest that we come back in the night to Rome and go back again to Naples to see Capri. Also when we stay back if our budget is $75 for overnight stay can we find anything safe in Naples??? We just booked the flight and the hotels, have not booked any guided tours in rome, can you guys recommend any good site for half day guided tours in Rome??? Is it a good idea to get the Rome Pass???

3) We take train and travel to Florence and stay for 4 days: Originally I planned to do 1 day Pissa, another day Tuscany road trips from Florence. But after doing loads of search coming up with the idea that we will do Cinque Terre and skip Pissa? Is that ok for the first timers,

4) We are spending 4 days in venice..please suggest what we can do here, I am cluless here, can we do Lake Como????

Posted by
10344 posts

1) I personally like your choice of destinations and # of days at each destination. Every traveler has different preferences and would do the trip differently, but your # of destinations and # of days at each--these match my own personal preferences, if I were doing a first trip.2) Part of your question is: We are spending 4 days in venice, please suggest what we can do here, I am cluless here, can we do Lake Como???? If you mean, doing Lake Como as a day trip from Venice by train: that's a day trip we rarely see proposed on this forum. From Milan, it's an easy day trip. But from Venice, though it's technically feasible, the total travel time would be roughly 10 hours of your day seeing the inside of trains and train stations, and I guess this is what persuades most people that it's not a day trip from Venice that they want to do (roughly 4.5 hrs, each way, of time on the train from Venice SM station to Varenna, which is the usually recommended town at the scenic mid-lake part of Lake Como, plus an allowance of an hour to get to the train station and wait for the train, on both ends of your trip, makes for about 10 hours).To have the kind of trip you want, it will be best if in your itinerary development and planning you take into account actual and realistic travel times between places of interest: this link gives you access to the websites you need to estimate realistic travel times, so that you can decide if something is feasible as a day trip: go here for help in estimating realistic travel times between places of interest.

Posted by
109 posts

I understand the desire to "do as much as we can" but you also have to understand all that you give up with that approach. You spend a lot of time traveling when you could spend that time enjoying Italy.
If you can clarify what you are already committed to as far as hotels it would help.
Do you have 6 nights in Rome, 4nights in Florence, 4 nights in Venice and you fly home from Venice? It makes a difference.
I think you are planning too much.
Just my opinion.

Posted by
109 posts

Also, how are you traveling? Train, car or combo?

Posted by
16 posts

Thank you guys for all the answers

1) We are flying to Rome and Flying back from Venice.

2) We got a package deal that includes our flights, hotels and train from Rome to Florence, florence to Venice...

We stay 6 days in Rome, 4 days in Florence and 4 days in Venice. I have not booked anything that we want to do when we are staying there, just kept reading and wanted to get done with so many things.

@Kent: Yes I checked the link, boy what was I thinking??? about Lake Como

Can you guys help plan something as an outline during our stay with a mixture of history and nature where we enjoy and also not get too stressed out.

Thanks in advance to you all........

Posted by
125 posts

For your Naples, Pompeii & Capri vists, you've got a few options. Pompeii is about 20-30 mins on the Circumvesuviana train from Naples. From the Pompeii station it's another 30-40 mins to Sorrento where you can spend the rest of the evening. I'd recomend staying the night in Sorrento, much better than Naples, then in the AM you can take the ferry from Sorrento to Capri and spend the day. You can take a Hydrofoil back to Naples from Capri around 7PM, and be back in Naples within the hour, then hop on the fast train back to Termini.

Posted by
10344 posts

You wrote: Yes I checked the link, boy what was I thinking??? about Lake Como Don't worry about it, that's why the link about travel times is here, to help people like you who are willing to do their own research once they get a little help from us in the beginning to get pointed in the right direction. We like helping people like you, who are willing to consider suggestions and are willing to do their own work, but just need a little help getting pointed in the right direction.Now regarding doing Capri as a day trip from Rome: It may be that there is a travel time problem with doing that, I'm not sure--maybe someone else can advise on that. We rarely see that proposed here as a day trip, but I don't have a good idea of total travel time to do that, I mean a realistic estimate that includes waiting for trains, train time, waiting for the boat, time on the boat, etc. Maybe someone else has an opinion about whether it's a good idea to do Capri as a day trip from Rome, given that the OP has already said she's concerned about being stressed by overly long day trips.

Posted by
16 posts

@JEFF: Thank you so much. That is a great idea.

@Kent: Yes , we do have the guide book also the 3 DVDs.

Now our package does not tell us that we have to be back at the hotles at night at any place. Also working around our budget we would not mind staying back at Sorrento as Jeff suggested or any other place and buy overnight stays, just using the room to keep our luggages.at Rome or Florence..does that help???

The train tickets from Rome to Florence and Florence to Venice does not specificy any time, it is valid the entire day.

So we are flexiable....

Posted by
10344 posts

You wrote: Now our package does not tell us that we have to be back at the hotles at night at any place. Also working around our budget we would not mind staying back at Sorrento as Jeff suggested or any other place and buy overnight stays, just using the room to keep our luggages.at Rome or Florence..does that help???Yes, this helps a lot. Because most travelers on this forum do Capri as a day trip from Sorrento.And most do Pompeii as a day trip from Sorrento. Many travelers here consider Sorrento more pleasant a place to sleep than Naples, if the choice is between Sorrento and Naples.Pompeii can also be done as a long day trip from Rome, the average time for that day trip is roughly 14 hours, leave at 7am, back at your Rome hotel at 9 or 10 pm. People who don't want to do that and are sleeping at Sorrento anyway, generally choose to do Pompeii as a day trip from Sorrento--but it can be done from Rome as long as you know it will be a long day.

Posted by
125 posts

I would not recomend Capri as a day trip from Rome, but if you are willing to put in a long travel day, it is possible. Take the fastest train from Termini, that will put in Naples, then take the Hydrofoil to Capri. We actually ran into a couple on Capri, (of course with RS book in hand) waiting for the bus to Anacapri. They had just gotten off the Hydrofoil from Naples and arrived in Capri around 10:30am. Apparently they had taken a fast train from Termini, and took the Hydrofoil to Capri. We ended up touring Capri with them till 6pm, when they took their Hydrofoil back to Naples. So they ended up with about 7+ hours on Capri. That was enough to vist the Blue Grotto, have lunch in Anacapri, walk back to Marina Grande, vist Capri Town, and see the rocks. So it's possible to go Rome-Capri-Rome, but it's much easier and relaxing doing it from Sorrento.