Three Week Initinerary

You really don't have a lot of time in either Venice or the CT and the amount of time to get to each is a lot. You'll only have 2 full days in Venice by the time you get there and get settled. The train ride to the CT takes all day, 6 hours for the train ride plus 2 hours for before and after the trip. That only gives you 2 days there as well and you'll have already lost almost 2 full days to travel. You're going during high season so both places are going to be packed with tourists.

I would start looking for hotels or rentals now. High season accommodations book up quickly so if this is your plan you should book as soon as possible.

Donna

If you're seeing "We're sold out" on a website like booking.com, be aware that they're talking about the rooms that were made available to them. Those same hotels may still have rooms available if you contact them directly. Most of the time you can find the hotel's own website by Googling. You may save some money, too.

I use booking.com myself, and I hate those subtly threatening messages!

You actually have two full days in Venice. Venice deserves three if not four days. You arrive from Atlanta and travel to Venice on your first day. The second will be recovering from jet lag and Venice is the perfect city to do this. You leave on the third. I would add at least one night to Venice preferably two and one to CT. Start booking in Venice and CT now. They have the least amount of rooms. Finding the right place (good location and maybe on a canal) in Venice makes a world of difference.

I would also consider at least another day in Venice as your first day would not give you much time there. With more time you could see Murano/Burano/Torcello while you are there. Getting to those islands takes time and for all three would be most of a day.

I am not as concerned about the lack of time in Cinque Terre as those are small towns without as much to do.

If you want to take the train to towns around Tuscany I would probably stay in Florence and use it as a rail hub to the other locations. If you plan on having a car for this portion it might not make as much of a difference but might depend on the towns you want to see.

Between Venice and Milan, I remember a few glimpses of the mountains, and between Milan and Monterosso about 1/2 hour of "scenic."

Sorrento is a good base for the Amalfi Coast if you plan on seeing Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri, Naples (the archaeology museum is a Wow) and bus/ferry service to the AC towns. If you want to spend most of your time enjoying the beaches, hiking and scenic views, staying in one of the AC towns may be better.

Thanks everyone,

I have decided to add a day to Venice, just not sure where to take away from. So many things to do and I just can't make up my mind. I wish I had started planning sooner. Maybe take one day from Sorrento since I'm not sure we will go to Capri. I hear it is overpriced and I keep thinking of the article Dave Berry wrote on the Blue Grotto. So funny. You can google it if you haven't already read it.

I do go directly to the hotel web site to see about booking my rooms. I am so through and I don't always trust the reviews on trip advisor. I'll spend some time today looking at Rick's trip reports. I'll try and get our reservations to Venice and Cinque Terre today or tomorrow.

We would like to rent a car for a couple of days when we are in Florence, maybe it's best if we stay in Siena or Arezzo. I hope I still have enough time to research this idea. If we stayed in Florence and rented a car a couple of days where would we be able to park it?

Thanks again,
Gloria

I do go directly to the hotel web site to see about booking my rooms.
I am so through and I don't always trust the reviews on trip advisor.

Gloria, we use booking.com for almost all of our hotels abroad. If you don't trust TA (and there are plenty of ways to weed out the fakes and reviews from unreasonably high maintenance tourists) run through the reviews on that one. We've yet to book a dog accommodation using a variety of review sites. But it's true that hotels which are stating that they're sold out on that site can just be fully booked of their 3rd party listings.

You are late in the game for CT accommodations so getting those nailed those should be first priority! I think 3 nights are fine for that one although I wouldn't count on fabulous scenery on the train from Milan. I don't recall any, anyway.

Capri: I never recommend that one as a day trip as you'll be surrounded by other day-trippers. The island - just like the Cinque Terre villages - is best in the mornings and evenings before they arrive and after they depart. I certainly wouldn't do it JUST for the Blue Grotto...which we skipped altogether and didn't feel as if we'd missed a thing. Yes, it's on the expensive side but we enjoyed hiking around the island on our two shoulder-season (mid-October) nights there. The two towns were plenty busy during the day, and will be even busier in Sept.

I wouldn't waste car rental in Florence as you won't touch it while you're in the city. You can easily day trip to Siena, Arezzo, Lucca, Pisa, etc. via public transport from there without parking and ZTL hassles. It's a good transit hub plus it offers many wonderful things to see.

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