My wife and I are planning a trip to Italy at the end of Sept.
We want to fly into Rome spend 4-5 days their, 2-3 days in Florence. Then take train over to Pisa and the Cinque Terre for 2-3 days. then fly out of ? (Nice, Genoa) to Paris for 3 days then fly home......
1. is it possible?
2. should I drop something to do the next time I come to Italy?
3. I do have up 16 days I can use.
Anyone have any thoughts, thanks in advance!!
Have you been to Paris before? If not, you should give it more time.
You actually have a good amount of time; I'd split that up as follows:
4 days - Rome
4 days - Florence (day trip to Pisa)
3 days - Cinque Terre
5 days - Paris
Sure it is possible. The above schedule works. It is decent spreading of time. Did you make it to Paris last August?
Pisa airport also has budget flights to Paris - choose Easy Jet to Orly airport, not Ryan Air to Beauvais airport, which is much farther away from Paris. From Genova, you can take Hop! to Charles de Gaulle airport. There should be no need for a longer train ride to Nice, unless you want to visit Nice.
Rome - 5N
Florence (day trip to Pisa) - 4N
Cinque Terre - 3N
Fly Genoa to Paris direct with Air France
Paris - 4N
Nice trip !!
Look for flights to Paris (be sure not to fly into Beauvais airport) from Pisa, Genoa, Florence or even Bologna. If you get a better flight (time, price), you could go to the CT from Rome, then to Florence (Bologna's airport is close).
You can easily see Pisa on the way between the CT and Florence. There is luggage storage at Pisa Centrale, then a bus or taxi to the church campus.
Take into account that you'll use about 1/2 day each time you move, so for 3 days in Paris, for example, you need 4 nights. If you haven't been to Paris before, 4 nights would be the minimum.
Yes, I have been to Paris, I made it last year. Stayed in a AirBnb on Rue Amile just a few blocks east of Rue Cler. It was perfect, we got to Paris on a Saturday afternoon from London. they had some sort of Flee market going on Saturday and Sunday....My wife was not really interested in going abroad....or Paris for that matter....but know, she cant wait to go to Paris again. Just wants to spend 3-4 days there before heading home.
Thanks everyone
If you have been to Paris before I think the timing is perfect for your 4 locations to stay
Rome 4-5 nights, Florence 3-4 (3 before any day trips. If Pisa/Lucca day trip make it 4 ; if also want to see Siena, make it 5), Cinque Terre allow 3 nights, that is a good amount of time, 2 is too short in my opinion given it is often a bit of a hassle to get there and out of there.
Fly out of either Pisa or Genoa to Paris for last 3 or 4 nights.
Excellent trip.
Since you have been to Paris before the above gives you a good amount of time in each place without being rushed.
I'd give the CT two nights -- that is a full day for the trail and is plenty given your limited time. I would not give Florence less than 4 nights and 5 if you want to do a day trip to Siena which I would definitely do.
vaughn,
You might find it easier to plan on the basis of nights in each location rather than days.
Regarding your proposed Itinerary, it looks good. A few thoughts......
If you haven't been to Italy before, there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit there. If you need more information, post another note here.
This will be my first time in Italy.
My main concern is not wasting a bunch of time on trying to figure out how things work...also I don't want to waste a bunch of money also.
The first time I went to Paris was a long weekend...so I got the basic "lay of the land". Which saved me a huge amount of time when I went back for a longer vacation.
My usual travel style is to get up early, do a major site or so (tourist stuff), and then in the afternoon do something fun or a little different/low key. Because it is a vacation after all, a little R&R ....
I would like to stay in an area that close as possible to many of the sites either by walking or using public transportation. Hopefully I would be able to hit most of the major sites easily without wasting time.
If we can get 70-80% of the main things we want to see...we catch the others when we come back.
I would like to do what I did in Paris and stay In a Airbnb apartment near major site(s) and a market area like Rue Cler in Paris
vaughn,
"My main concern is not wasting a bunch of time on trying to figure out how things work...also I don't want to waste a bunch of money also."
Unfortunately I think the two factors are mutually exclusive. You'll need to have some idea on "how things work" or you will likely be wasting a bunch of money.
I'll send you some information via PM on using transit in Italy. It may help you avoid unnecessary charges.
I provided some Itinerary suggestions in my first reply, and hopefully some of those will work for you. I can't help with Air BnB suggestions as I never use them, but I'm sure the others here can offer some suggestions on that.
For planning sightseeing and the optimum location for accommodations, I would highly recommend having a look at the RS Italy or RS Paris guidebooks. If you have a Library in your community, they may have copies there. As most of your trip is in Italy, you may want to pack along a copy of the Italy book.
Your location appears to be reasonably close to Denver. Should you happen to be in the Denver area on Jan. 21, you may find it helpful to attend the next meeting of the RS travel group there. I'm sure the group there will be able to help you sort out some of the details for your trip. The information on meetings is in this thread.....
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/denver-travel-group-meeting-dec-17
