Thoughts on Our Itinerary for an Italian Honeymoon in February?

I would drop the Cinque Terre. I've never been to Sorrento, so I can't opine on it, but why bother if you're leaving the next day?

I love the coastline myself. But at that time of year, I would just do Rome, Florence and Venice, and maybe not Venice. You could take some great day trips from Florence into the wine country.

I agree that this will not be a good time for Cinque Terre. The big draw there, other than jaw-dropping scenic views, is outdoor activities like hiking, boating and swimming, , and there won’t be much opportunity for those. And, if it is raining, which is likely, you won’t catch many views either. I’d skip it. Also, be aware that Sorrento won’t offer much in February either. I’d stick with the cities, Rome, Venice and Florence. And do be prepared for rain.

You are traveling every other day or every day. You will be in Italy for 12 days. I would pick 3 places. You have Rome for 3 nights, but consider making it 4 nights. Florence for 3-4 nights, Venice for 3-4 nights. At this time of year, Venice is probably less crazy overrun with tourists. As others have suggested, drop the Cinque Terre.

I envy you. Having a honeymoon in Italy would be lots of fun. Enjoy yourselves!!

I also recommend dropping the CT. Personally, I would fly open jaw to Venice and out of Rome so you save time and €€€ on your honeymoon. With the extra days from eliminating the CT, you would have some nice options. You could add time to Venice to visit some of the towns in the Veneto such as Pisa Vicenza and Verona or even Bolzano. Then go to Florence and then to Sorrento. I wouldn’t spend just one night in Sorrento. With some extra time there, you could also take in the Amalfi Coast. Finish your trip in Rome and fly home.

Thanks for all of the input. There seems to be a resounding consensus that we should drop Cinque Terre. We are now leaning toward staying in Rome, Florence, and Venice, with day trips to other towns. We might also try to stay in Sorrento for a night or two, if we find enough things of interest to do. If we do Cinque Terre, it will be a day trip from Florence for the hiking--we have friends who did a day trip in November and enjoyed it.

We took this small-group wine tour back in 2014 and it was awesome.

http://www.tuscantrails.com/chianti.html

Okay, we are now considering the following. We welcome any feedback, as we are not intimately familiar with what there is to do in/around each city.

3 Nights in Rome

5 Nights in Florence (with day trips)

3 Nights in Venice

2 Nights in Rome

Note you only have 12 nights, not 13.
Are your hotel bookings moveable ??
What time is your departure flight ??
Orvieto is just over an hour from Rome and would make a nice final stop.

4 Nights in Rome
4 Nights in Florence (with day trips)
3 Nights in Venice
1 Night in Orvieto

You would eliminate back tracking and better utilize your time if you could start in Venice and end in Roma,or the reverse route

If you must arrive/depart via Rome, I would go to Venice first and end in Rome

I suggest staying in your departure city (e.g. Rome) the night before your flight home, especially since it's your first time in Italy. If you decide to fly open-jaws, I think flying into Venice and out of Rome works better logistically than the reverse.

A good guidebook will help you plan your time at each location. You might even decide to purchase city or regional guidebooks instead of just one Italy guidebook. City and regional guidebooks usually have more details about the location than a guidebook covering the entire country. Thumb through the city, regional and Italy guidebooks at your local Barnes & Noble before deciding.

As stated, flights are already booked and I'm guessing may not be changeable without a price, although I'd certainly see about that possibility? You'd save some time if you could fly into Venice and out of Rome or the other way around. According to a previous post, it sounds like you live in the United States? Flights from Venice to the U.S. often leave early enough in the morning to cause some transportation challenges so flying out of Rome is usually the recommendation.

If you cannot change your flights, you might consider going directly to Florence on arrival day versus breaking up your stays in Rome? It's not all that far away and would eliminate a travel day later, thus saving time/money. According to your original post, you have the nights of 2/25 - 3/8 in Italy, correct? That's 12 nights and 11 full sightseeing days to work with, and your itinerary could look like this:

2/25: arrival at Fiumicino (Rome), train to Florence
2/26: Florence
2/27: Florence (day trip)
2/28: Florence
3/1: Florence (day trip)
3/2: Train to Venice
3/3: Venice
3/4: Venice
3/5: Train to Rome
3/6: Rome
3/7: Rome
3/8: Rome
3/9: Fly home from Fiumicino

The above gives you 5 nights/4 full days in Florence, 3 nights/2 full days in Venice, and 4 nights/3 full days in Rome, and only 2 hotel moves versus your proposed 3. You could shuffle a day from Florence and add it to Rome but it looked like you had some days trips in the plan from that one so I kept it at 5 nights. You would have to change your current hotel reservation for Florence.

We welcome any feedback, as we are not intimately familiar with what
there is to do in/around each city.

This is where you'll benefit from some quality time with a few guidebooks: go see what's available at your public library and bookshops. We all have different interests so you should choose what to see/do based on yours versus someone else's! The top 10 tourist attractions Rome, Venice and Florence head up every list published for the "Holy Trinity" but you might decide that not all of those appeal and so opt for a few different choices. You'd benefit from advance tickets/reservations to skip long ticket lines at a few very popular, very busy attractions, although they'll be a bit less so during the winter.

What were you thinking for your day trips from Florence? I'd probably do no more than 2 so that there's time to explore Florence itself.

Congratulations!

I agree that putting all your Roma nights last will be more efficient. There is a fast train to Venezia (4 hours, more or less), and you may be able to take it directly from FCO (Roma airport). Then just work your way south back to Roma.

I would try to sneak in an overnight or two in a smaller city, like Ravenna, on your way to Roma.

Sorrento will be open in February, but I would spend that time in a smaller city instead.

Wow, thanks for the continued thoughtful feedback, everyone. To clarify a few things,

• We live in the United States
• The round trip to Rome is non-refundable. We got a great deal (less than $1500 for both of us), otherwise we would have flown into Venice.
• The hotel for the first 3 nights in Rome is non-refundable.

Your suggestion about moving Rome to the end of the trip is great, but it's sadly too late to change for us and we'll have to make due with these constraints! I think the last itinerary I posted will work well enough for us (with only 4 nights in Florence, since djp_syd pointed out we don't have that many nights lol).

For day trips from Florence, we wanted to visit Pisa and Volterra, though we can finalize later.

Thanks again for all the input. We will certainly be perusing various guidebooks over the next few months :)

The hotel for the first 3 nights in Rome is non-refundable

I'll grasp at a straw here... :O)
I don't know how you made your reservation but while it might not be refundable, it may be changeable, especially if the property may benefit from adding an additional night. It may be worth checking into, anyway?