Rome, Florence and venice

You really don't have that much time when you consider the time lost getting from one place to another. Suggest you consider only two places. Rome and either Venice or Florence but not both.

With only a week (7 days) I would agree that you don't have time for all three and should just stick to two places. I think Florence is one of the most beautiful cities anywhere and I like it the best of the three, but I don't think you have enough time and it makes more sense to go to Venice as your second city because of your plan to travel from there to Austria. Getting to Austria from Venice is easier than from Florence.

Depending how fast you want to travel, fly into Rome. Spend 2 nights (3 days) on the third day take an early evening train 90 minutes to Florence. Spend 2 nights. Early afternoon train to Venice 2H05m. 1 night Venice. Hotel near the train station will simplify access to the airport.
Evening flight to Austria.
While this will only give you a taste of these cities, you will return.

Another option would be to base in Florence 3-4 nights and day trip to Tuscany or Rome (not worth IMO) and go to Venice for your last 2-3
nights.
It does use up at least 1/2 day each time you move.

Edit: should read 3 nights Florence.

I would save Venice for another time. Venice is not that nice at that time of year especially if the water level is high. It tends to be cold, damp, and dark. Rome and Florence far better choices. I would hold it to two cities and maybe a day trip to Pompeii. You don't have the time for anything else.

Vagabond19,

I also agree that's a pretty short trip to cram Rome, Naples/Pompei, Venice and possible Florence into. Remember, just because train travel between Rome-Florence-Venice is between 1.5 and 2.5 hours (frecci or fast train), you still burn time packing, checking out, navigating to the train station, navigating to a new hotel or apartment, checking in, unpacking, etc. The better part of the day is shot by changing cities unless a lot of care and attention to detail is used.

The Italian cities you mentioned are in essence gigantic museums. So, I'm a little curious what exactly you want to see and what you are expecting given that you say you aren't "much into museums."

One week in each of the cities listed is about the right amount of time to get to know, at a very basic and simplistic level, that one city. It gives enough time, especially considering short days and short attraction hours of the late autumn/early winter, plus time to do a day trip or two outside the city.

Additionally, given the late autumn/early winter time of year, the weather becomes progressively unsettled the further north, and closer to the Alps foothills you get.

I would recommend sticking to just Rome and doing a day trip or two to the surrounding countryside and/or Naples/Pompei. You could even do a day trip to Florence as it's only a 1.5 hour train ride and most of the major tourist sites are a 10-15 minute walk from the train station.

Staying in Rome the entire time also affords you the opportunity to rent a holiday apartment which would be much more comfortable than a hotel room.

Congratulations on your honeymoon!

I agree with the others that you're trying to fit too much into a very short time frame. With such a short time, fitting in a side trip to Pisa is going to be challenging, even it it is feasible. It's important to consider the travel time in getting from one place to another. Each change of location will usually take at least half a day, when all is considered. The day trips to Naples / Pompeii will be a long day, and the trip from Venice to Austria will likely take the better part of a day.

Where are you flying from, and does your time allotment include your flight days?

As most others have commented - that just seems like cramming too much into your schedule. We just returned from a Venice/Sorrento/Rome trip - and we used 16 days. We spent two full days in Venice (would have been nice to add a third - but it wouldn't have been a necessity as you can get a good feel of Venice in 2 days). We spent a week in Rome - and after doing so we probably could have seen everything we wanted to see in 4 or 5 days. We actually wound up taking a day trip to Orvieto while there. I would strongly advise against spending 3-4 days in Rome and considering using 2 of those days for day trips. That just seems like a huge waste of time - and leaving yourself 1 or 2 days in Rome doesn't make travel sense. And as someone previously posted - a day trip from Rome to Naples/Pompeii will be a long day. You'll be spending far too much of that day just sitting in a bus or train.

I'd suggest just picking two of the three destinations you mentioned and omitting the third one. After visiting all three - I would personally omit Venice (due mainly to the time constraints you have) and focus my energies on Rome and Florence.

And I'd totally just forget about Pisa. It doesn't compare to any of the other three cities.

But whatever you choose - I hope you have a great trip!!

If you can visit Venice in the off-season then by all means DO it. Venice is absolutely packed in the high tourist season. I've been there many times in both of those time frames. There's no other city in the world like Venice. If you can go then go.