Pompeii

I would consider stealing a day or two from Rome and trying to do both Pompeii area and Cinque Terre. If you decide to go to Cinque Terre, you could stop in Pisa on your way from Florence, rather than doing it as a day trip from/to Florence.

If you do Cinque Terre, from what I have heard, 2-3 nights would be good. (We're going for 2 nights in July).

As for the Pompeii area and ideas of what to do, this is what we'll be doing this summer:

Day 1: Travel day from Rome to Sorrento: stop to climb Vesuvius and visit Pompeii. Check into hotel in Sorrento for 3 nights.

Day 2: Enjoy beach at our hotel in morning. Private driver for Amalfi Drive 1PM - 8PM.

Day 3: Hydrofoil from Sorrento to Naples. Visit National Archaeological Museum and Napoli Sotterannea (Subterranean). Hydrofoil back to Sorrento.

Other things that we don't have time or the inclination to do: Isles of Capri and Ischia, Paestum, Herculaneum, and the list goes on ...

Bottom line: Lots to do!

One other comment, about the order. I would do:

Venice

Cinque Terre

Pisa (quickie on the way to Florence)

Florence

Sorrento (or someplace in the area)

Rome

This is the exact opposite of our upcoming 15 day trip.

Thank you Leslie!

Are you flying from Boston to Italy for the 15 days or will you be heading to other areas?

I am asking because... Our sons wanted to see Paris. Our plan is to fly into Paris and then I think take Ryan Air to Venice --- I think it goes there but I could be wrong.. head is spinning with the planning :) As I stated above we then will go to Greece from Italy. And then fly home. I am trying to figure out the most economical way to fly home... from Athens or take flight from Athens to change planes/airline from another spot. ( I have a day or two that I can play with before heading home and the start of phase 2 of our summer trips begins)-- meaning I could sleep over at another airport one night if it meant saving money in the end...

thoughts? ideas?

Viv - We are flying from Boston to Rome, spending 15 days in Italy, ending in Venice. Then, we're taking a train from Venice to Basel, Switzerland, to meet up with my extended family for a 1-week Rhine River Cruise that ends in Amsterdam. So, we're doing an open jaw flight: into Rome and out of Amsterdam (which is great, since it's non-stop from Amsterdam to Boston!).

I don't know about your flights, but, for us, the open jaw flight was no more expensive (or, at least not significantly) than a round trip Rome flight.

Good luck. It sounds like you have an amazing trip planned!

Leslie,
Sounds like you have an amazing trip planned as well.. enjoy!

newbie type questions here.. sorry, but what is an open jawed flight?

Also, how are you getting from Point "a" to point "B" for your trip.

We were thinking of Ryan air from Paris to Venice, then Train from Venice to Florence and then Train from Florence to Rome... now that I have added Pompeii... and "talked" to you I started to look into your reverse itinerary. Are you taking trains?

Open jaw: into one city and out of another, but returning to the same point of origin (if you drew the flight paths, it would look sort of like an open jaw).

As for getting around, we're renting a minivan as we're leaving Rome (if things go according to plan, Sixt will deliver the van to our hotel), then dumping the car when we arrive in Venice. The only train we'll take is to get from Venice to Basel.

We won't use the car that much: driving days are Rome to Sorrento, Sorrento to Florence, Florence to Vernazza (via Pisa), Vernazza to Venice. But, we figure that, given the number of us (5), the car will make things a bit easier. And, we can spend those travel days exploring more than we might with trains, luggage at train stations, etc.

Some say that we're nuts for driving to Cinque Terre (Vernazza), but we're going to live on the wild side! (And, keep our crossables crossed that we'll get a spot in the Vernazza parking lot.)

I hope that helps! (Probably more than you wanted!)

No that is wonderful! thank you for all your help today.

We had similar issues planning our trip. Pompeii was the #1 requested detination by my 14 and 13 year olds. We will be driving south from Florence. We are opting to stay in Caserta (slightly north of Naples) as a base for exploring Pompeii and Naples. On the plus side it saves about an hour drive to Sorrento. But I'm finding transportation connections by train to Pompeii and Naples aren't as convenient. But I found a 80E a night hotel in Caserta. We'll be there in less than a month! I'll let you know how it works out.