Travel/Itinerary Contact

Do you already have plane tickets purchased? if so, it should be fairly easy to make a plan for dates/locations. For example

June 1 - Arrive Rome, taxi or prearranged transportation (romecabs.com) to your lodging
June 2 - Rome
June 3 - Rome/Vatican City
June 4 - Rome
June 5 - Morning train to Florence (trenitalia.com or Italotreno.it for train tickets, buy in advance to save money)
June 6 - Florence
June 7 - Florence
June 8 - Morning train to Naples
June 9 - Naples/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast
June 10 - Naples/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast
June 11 - Fly home

You could reverse Rome and Florence if you want
Other factors that play into your itinerary -
Who is going? How many people?
What are your interests? Museums? Antiquities? Hiking? Churches? Food and Wine?
Budget?

Just as an FYI - June will be here before you know it so I would book lodging as soon as you can. If you want suggestions, get the RS Italy Guidebook and start looking at web sites or e-mailing for availability and reservations.

Hi Stephen, funny I just put this together. And it appears to be similar to yours. Yes, our flights are booked. I just didn't know if this was too optimistic. It's just us no kids and we are from NYC so we are used to trains and hustling!!

Day 1 - arrive into Rome (11am - free day in Rome)

Day 2 - Rome

Day 3 - Rome

Day 4 - Train from Rome to Florence to arrive by noon - free time in Florence

Day 5 - Florence (tour wineries)

Day 6 - Train Florence to Sorrento (10am - arrive 13:02pm) - Stay in Sorrento

Day 7 - Amalfi Coast, Positano, Capri etc.

Day 8 - Amalfi Coast, Positano, Capri etc.

Day 9 - Train from Sorrento to Naples (possibly tour a bit of Naples depending on train times) - Stay in Naples overnight

Day 10 - Depart Naples 6am

Your itinerary looks workable but crowded.

In the age of the internet, you can successfully make your own arrangements. For us, researching and planning is half the fun of traveling.

Be sure not to overstuff your time. Give yourself some unscheduled time to just explore or take advantage of something you didn't plan but discovered. Give yourself plenty of time when moving from one place to another. It will take longer than you expect. Traveling back from Florence will probably take longer than you think.

Good tip Doug, thank you. I think everything can be done in a New York Minute but realize in Europe that's not how it works!!

I seriously don't know where to begin...

You already have: here! Really, building a trip to Italy is not difficult, and the sad fact is that a whole lot of 'agents' out there have never set foot in the country. You'll find that many on the forum here have organized and traveled their trips independently and so you'll get lots of helpful, knowledgeable advice. Booking air and hotels is no more difficult for Italy than for the U.S. (assuming that's where you live) and a good guidebook is your friend when choosing what to see and HOW to do that. Same for getting from place-to-place, although you'll get great help for that here as well.

What are you interested in doing/seeing?

Ah, I see you've posted a tentative itinerary as I was typing. It doesn't look too bad except that I wouldn't use your only FULL day in Florence for wineries. There is a great deal to see in that one that you cannot see anywhere else; you can do wineries in the U.S.. I'd use your 1.5 days JUST for the city unless it doesn't offer anything you're interested in at all, in which case I'd skip it entirely.

Very wise idea to stay in Naples the night before your flight.

With only 2 full days to work with, you've got a couple of challenges for Rome:
June 2nd is a first Sunday of the month, when (currently, anyway) most of the National Museums are free. This is NOT a good thing if wanting to visit the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine but those can be shuffled to Monday. The problem is that the Vatican Museums are closed on Sunday so that only leaves you Monday to try and squeeze ALL of that in. The alternative would be flying into Rome early enough on the Sat. June 1 to get into the city, settled into a hotel, and then doing the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine. As you would need advance tickets - currently sold in specific time slots - you'd have to hope your flight isn't delayed, and that you're not jet-lagged enough not to enjoy the experience.

Thank you Kathy, I love Montepulicano wine so I thought a drunken day at the wineries would be fun for this mom who doesn't get out much. However yes, we live about 45 min from NY's top wineries so I am sure we will do some cultural things in and around Florence too. Question, do I have to have a set plan? Are we able to go and wing it or should we book tours in advance? Thank you for those tips in Rome.

You say you are "are from NYC so we are used to trains", so it should be easy. I suggest you read this webpage to get you up to speed on Italian trains: https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

I love Montepulicano wine so I thought a drunken day at the wineries
would be fun for this mom who doesn't get out much. However yes, we
live about 45 min from NY's top wineries so I am sure we will do some
cultural things in and around Florence too. Question, do I have to
have a set plan? Are we able to go and wing it or should we book tours
in advance?

But all you have is one FULL day for Florence, and you wouldn't be spending it IN Florence. Do you have to have a set plan with just 1.5 days? Yes. You are going during high season when the most-visited attractions are going to be mobbed so advance tickets/tours are really a necessity. Same for Rome. The less time you have in any one place, the less flexibility you have to work with. For example, there is a 3-day pass for Florence that would allow you to visit some of the attractions at any given time (caveat: NO one skips security queues anywhere they're in force) but with only 1/2 day in the city - if you spend most of a day out doing wineries - it wouldn't be of use to you. Even spending ALL of your 1.5 days in Florence, it probably wouldn't be worth the price.

I think you're underestimating the time it actually takes to move from location to location, to spend seeing the bigger attractions, and to get around in general: not unusual for the first-timer!

If not all the interested in Florence itself, I'd skip it an add that time to Rome and Coast. Enjoy some Italian wines in between your sightseeing/at dinner.

No set plans yet in any location, I was just working on days where, next is hotels and then I will narrow down the do/see, visit/tour.

I love Montepulicano wine so I thought a drunken day at the wineries would be fun for this mom who doesn't get out much.

I agree with Kathy. If you had more time, a day's winery tour might be fun. Personally, most of the wines I like including Montepulciano, Chianti, Super Tuscan etc. are not sipping wines, they are made to compliment a meal. A pure tasting does not present them at their best.

When we were in Tuscany, we did a wonderful food and wine tasting at lunch. It was relaxed and took almost three hours. We also explored wines at lunch and dinner, relying on our host to recommend a good local wine. Instead of having a "drunken day", consider having a great evening meal in Florence. Start with prosecco, splurge on a great local wine with dinner and finish with biscotti dipped in vin Santo for desert.

Thank you Doug, that tour sounds lovely do you have the info on that?

It was at Castello di Verrazzano, which was the agritiurismo where we spent our trip.

You'll have to decide if you are willing to take a day away from your time in Florence to do this. If so, you can take a morning bus to Greve and explore the town. It is not a hill town, but the piazza is still charming and there is a great little framing shop were you could buy a small painting of the local landscape. The tour, followed by the food and wine tasting which starts at noon. It will take at least three hours if you take your time and do it right. Have a light breakfast and plan on skipping dinner.

You could then catch the bus back to Florence, getting back in the early evening. The trick will be to get from the bus stop in Greve, to the winery, which is perched on top of a hill. It's a steep climb and a little too far to walk. You'll also need to check the bus schedules for the return trip.

From their website:
“The Wine & Food Experience” From Monday to Saturday Full programme with guided visit to the Castle's gardens and historical ageing cellars followed by a presentation of a selection of our best wines from organic farming accompanied by a menu of Tuscan excellences, served in the Hosteria of the winery.

Wines tasted “Verrazzano Rosso” IGT Toscana or “Verrazzano Ser Chiaro” IGT Toscana Verrazzano Chianti Classico DOCG Verrazzano Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG IGT Toscana Supertuscan RED Verrazzano Vinsanto del Chianti Classico DOC Tasting of Grappa Verrazzano Tasting is accompanied by PDO Tuscan ham, wild boar salami, head cheese with lemon zest, finocchiona (a typical salami flavoured with fennel seeds), crostino with lard from Greve Valley Tasting of Olio Extravergine di Oliva bio“ Castello di Verrazzano” Tasting of “Balsamico Verrazzano” on pecorino (sheep cheese) Pasta with tomato sauce and Chianti herbs Grilled sausages and rosticciana (pork ribs) or roast pork loin with side dishes from our garden Farm cake and Cantuccini (almond cookies) Coffee
[Starts] At 12.00pm Time required: approx 3h Price for this season: Euro 58,00 p.p. (including VAT) Vegetarian and gluten-free option available. The proposal may vary depending on seasonality and availability.

Thank you, I saved the info.

You already have made great progress in planning your trip and with the advice of those folks on this forum have even more information to help in your planning. A couple of things in addition to what has already been mentioned:

• Consider booking your hotels sooner rather than later, especially if you are looking to stay in RS recommended hotels. There are a lot of RS travelers going during this time and I booked my hotels (for a similar time period) this past year a bit late. Now I had 6 people to plan for so it was harder, but many of the hotels I wanted to stay in were booked. I found great options, but none of them were RS recommendations.
• As for wine tasting, I can recommend the Verrazano Winery outside of Greve. We did the tour and lunch there in June and the lunch was an amazing experience. It is about 45 minutes/hour out of Florence by car. You will be drinking Chianti, if you want wines from Montepulciano, you will need to go further south and it is an 1 hour 47 minutes to 2 hour drive from Florence.
• If you would like information on some of the tours we took, happy to help, just PM me.

Have a great trip,
Sandy

Thanks Sandy, working on hotels now. We are Starwood members so have some points we can use at some hotels. Now to figure out a hotel in Positano or AC area that is not $2K a night!

Now to figure out a hotel in Positano or AC area that is not $2K a
night!

I really doubt anyone on this forum has spent $2,000 a night in the area. As you'd mentioned Sorrento in an earlier post, I plugged your dates (June 7, 8 and 9th) into booking.com for a personal fave and came up with $1,678 total for a double comfort room (what I'd choose) or $1,267 for a standard double. A junior suite or full-sized suite is also available for a higher price (but certainly not $2,000 a night!). Oh, and no pre-payment, and free cancellation before May 30th. Nice.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/nessunaantichemura.html

Excellent hotel that's been recommended by others on the Italy forum. No sea views but a great location, pool/pool bar, lovely breakfast room and garden, very good breakfast included in the tariff, easy walk from the train station, terrific staff. It's still expensive but you're looking at high-season rates. Sorrento is not 'on' the Amalfi Coast but close enough, and a better transport hub than Positano or Amalfi, depending on where you want to go.

I'm sure there are decent properties for less if your budget can't manage this one; just play around with the booking.com site.

Try Salerno as a base for the AC. Easy bus/ferry access to Positano and Amalfi. Little bit longer to Capri than from Sorrento or Naples. There is Renaissance hotel in Naples if you want to use points.

Kathy, thoughts on Praiano hotels?

Sorry, no. It's not a location we've stayed at nor would choose because of being limited to SITA buses for getting around (no ferry or train service). I'd only pick that one if not planning on doing much day tripping.

No set plans yet in any location, I was just working on days where,
next is hotels and then I will narrow down the do/see, visit/tour.

You might want to reverse that--on the Amalfi Coast, what you will see/do/etc. very much influences where to stay. I agree with Kathy, Praiano is not good if you want to move around, but it would be good for doing very little.
I like Atrani--it's only a short walk to Amalfi for ferries and buses, but with a tucked-away feel.
If you wish to visit Pompeii, I like the villages at the mainland end of the peninsula, such as Vietri. I only paid about 50 euros per night in Cetara, with sea views! It is absolutely possible to be a budget traveler in this area.

Thank you, I think that crosses off staying in Priano. I'll check your suggestions. You all are so helpful and I've made a lot of headway today!! Thank you for all your suggestions!