Our family of 3 will be travelling to Italy on Oct. 15-24. Minus the overnight flight, we are doing Venice for 3 nights, then Rome for 5 nights. Should we add another city (Florence or Orvieto/Cortona for 1-2 nights--hence it would be Venice-2 nights, Rome-4 nights, Florence or Orvieto/Cortona-2 nights?) or just stick to original plan and maybe do a day trip of Orvieto? Thank you!
Posted by
The Hague, NL (AMS)
2207 posts
Expect plenty of differing viewpoints on this post... I guess I believe MORE is LESS... so I would stick with what you have and do day trips outside of Rome or Venice as you have planned. You can easily fill 3 days in Venice. And in Rome, a few days and a day trip would be a very full plate! Just depends on what you want to see and HOW MUCH of that "what" you want to see!
Me, I'm more slow and easy and enjoy the ride. Spending your vacation running from site to site to "check 'em off" the "I've been there list" does not appeal to me... But again, you'll get probably get many replies as everyone has a special "place" in Italy - that's why we all come, and some of us stay!
Good luck in your choices, but whatever they may be, can I suggest, "piano, piano!" (Slowly, slowly)
Ciao,
Ron
Posted by
Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
606 posts
Ron's right...about the differing views. With 5 nights in Rome you'd likely see things most tourists miss, but you'll also miss another great part of Italy.
It depends on the person, but if it were me, I'd take a night off Rome add a day and NIGHT in a smaller town like Orvieto, or even Civita di Bagnoregio. Otherwise all your nights are in busy cities. Everybody agrees that the smaller hill towns are wonderful after all the day-tourists leave in the evening. That's when you get the feel of seeing the locals going about their everyday life.
Posted by
Los Angeles, CA, USA
1449 posts
My suggestion would be to subtract 2 days from Rome and spend them in either Florence or the hill towns. You can't exhaust Rome in 5 days or 5 weeks, and I find something new to explore every time I go back as well as visiting old favorites. But 3 days is enough to give you a good sense of the city, and the extra 2 days you can use to see something new. Its less than 2 hours between Rome and Florence by most trains, so it won't consume a lot of your time on travelling. Florence is fun to visit and has some of the best art in Europe (the Uffizi).
If you prefer hilltowns, instead of Cortona I'd suggest basing in Perugia which is a somewhat bigger hilltown but still lots of charm. Perugia is the regional capital and you can visit other nearby hilltowns such as Assisi. If choosing this, I'd suggest Rome -> Orvieto, then leave afternoon/nite to Perugia.
Posted by
Danville, California, USA
139 posts
I can't imagine that many nights in Rome. We just returned a couple weeks ago and found three full days plenty for seeing everything in Rome. To us the best part of Italy was the hill towns. So I would recommend a night or two in Cortona. I wasn't impressed with Orvieto or Florence. Not sure if you have a car. But you could rent one and stay a couple nights in Cortona area. I would recommend staying at Casa Portagioia's between Cortona and Castiglion Florentino. Great place to stay, peaceful and close to Cortona. Great hosts, Terry and Marcello. Wonderful accomidations and you will love it.
Posted by
Carbondale, IL, USA
1201 posts
Don't add another city. you'll be fine. you have a very good balance for the time you will be in Italy. Resist the temptation to kick the pace up, in ythe end you'll enjoy it more.
Truth be told there are some people that would have you visit seven cities in your eight night trip. We just spent seven nights in Venice last year on a two week trip. slow down and enjoy.
Posted by
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
705 posts
Leave it as you are. I think if you add another city you will feel like you haven't seen anything properly, you'll almost spend more time travelling. I stayed in Venice 3 nights last year and was happy with that. I did almost everything I wanted to and have a few things to do on another trip. I have had 3 trips to Rome all around 4 nights and am only 1/2 way down my list of things I want to do. Just relax as Ron suggests and leave time to just wander the streets, explore and sit people watching with a coffee.
Posted by
Marin, CA
530 posts
I find that when I move to another city I have to allow for organization time as well as travel time. Time to pack, find the new hotel, etc. However if this may be your one time in Italy I would add Florence. It is beautiful. Also it seems that people love or hate Rome- it's big & brassy. Is that your style? My daughter's Italian teacher hates it. We love it. Our first trip to Venice was magic & on our next trip we left early as the magic turned into a commercial money grabbing experience. If you don't add Florence I think you'll enjoy Orvieto for a different experience. Have fun
Posted by
Hendersonvlle, NC
486 posts
In order of priority:
Don't decrease your days in each city. Make your trip longer.
Be flexible for those intermediate days (last one in Venice and first in Rome). If you get bored in Venice or, when you get there, think you might like more of the same, then cut a day from each end and stop in Florence for a few days. We found flexibility was our biggest asset on European trips. We heavily planned the arrival and departure, planned the rest of the days and adjusted those "rest of the days" as we felt like. We have changed cities, modes of transportation, numbers of days, etc. on the fly when we felt it would work out better.