Travel Planning service

Hi Melissa -
I see that you've used the forum in the past for trip-planning questions? Stays in ALL of the locations you list are easily managed on one's own so I'm curious what (if any) questions are not being answered and in general what's overwhelming you the most?

A couple of comments about your itinerary? You really don't have much if any time for side trips. In fact, your time in the Florence area is just two FULL days: not much at all for a region with a lot to offer. I'm also curious how you are going to be getting to/from your farm stay? Most of those involve having a rental car to get around. Honestly, with limited time I would have stayed in Florence itself and used public transport to, say, Lucca or Siena if you felt that you MUST take a day trip: 1.5 days for Florence itself + one day trip.

3 nights in Venice is, again, only two full days and a (I suspect) one partial, jet-lagged arrival day: all of this easily eaten up with Venice itself.

Rome? I consider 4 nights/3.5 days the minimum just to scratch the surface of that one - there is a LOT of ground to cover! - so again, not really enough time for day trips unless you don't care for enough of what the city itself has to offer. That said, a day trip to Orvieto or 1/2 day at Ostia Antica might be possibilities.

As well I believe you might have children along (How many and how old?) and you said in a previous post that your family enjoys history and exploring but that you were also concerned with having some down/relax time? While this itinerary is better than one you'd posted previously, I think this one still leaves mostly just the evenings for that. What can you tell us about this trip itinerary that might help us to help you? Italian trains are not difficult to manage on one's own. Believe me, I sweat bullets over sorting public transit so if I can do them, anyone can! :O)

Thanks, and yes I have posted here before. We had a trip booked back in 2020 but it was cancelled due to covid. So my kids are a few years older now (will be 17 and 14 when we go) and I am just feeling overwhelmed with finding the right balance of activities. The farm stay is just outside of Florence in Impruneta and is on a bus line or we can opt to use a car service with the hotel, so I am not worried about that and feel for our family that will give us a little downtime between cities, in the summer. My husband and I have been to both Florence and Venice and TBH we know our kids limits on museums, and cathedrals which is why we felt we could squeeze in some half day trips (like Murano/Burano when in Venice, half day private drive around Tuscany, and possibly a day trip to Pompeii from Rome). I do think this is all doable but was really looking for an extra pair of eyes on our current plans and some help with the rest.

Perhaps your family would like having rowing lessons on the back canals with Row Venice? It's 90 minutes , and about 100 euros total for your family. Lots of fun and harder than it looks!

Pompeii is a very, very long day trip from Rome; the distance is about 150 miles. There are the steps involved:

• Travel from your lodgings to Roma Termini station (how far away is your hotel?).
• Find platform at station and wait for train departure (maybe 15 minutes).
• Take Frecciarossa train from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale (minimum travel time of 70 minutes).
• Go downstairs to Garibaldi Station, buy Circumvesuviana tickets, find platform and wait for train (10 to 45 minutes, depending on how long you have to wait for train; or longer if train is late).
• Take Circumvesuviana from Napoli-Garibaldi to Pompeii Scavi (at least 33 minutes).
• Buy entry tickets. (There may be a line during peak season.)

The entire trip can take about 3 hours in each direction; it could be a bit longer.

Pompeii is huge. You can't see it all in one day, but a decent visit will take 2 to 4 hours. You'll be more efficient if you have a guide. There's essentially no shade at Pompeii, so it can be brutal to spend a lot of time there during the hot part of the day. Then you have another three hours or so, traveling back to your hotel in Rome. (The Circumvesuviana isn't air conditioned.) So six hours of travel time, approximately, plus the time spent at the site. And somewhere along the way you'll need to get some food.

You only have 3 full days in Rome; I would definitely not spend one of them on such an exhausting side trip. Better to have a full day in Rome than 2 to 4 hours at Pompeii, right?

The Frecciarossa from Rome to Naples will probably cost about $53 each way for adults if you buy the train tickets the day before travel. Buying early could save you about half the cost. But be aware of an additional weather issue (beyond the heat): The streets in Pompeii are paved with large, rounded cobblestones that would be hazardous when wet; they're very tiring to walk on even when dry. While there are elevated sidewalks flanking the streets, you'll sometimes need to walk in the street. So there's some risk involved in choosing a date in advance for a trip to Pompeii.

I agree with Kathy in that you barely have time for the 3 locations you already have- not much left over for day trips or relaxation.

Could you fill in your itinerary with more details?
Which Walks of Italy tours and when?
How will you get from Florence train station to your stay in Impruneta- then back to station to head to Rome?
Where are you staying in Venice and Rome?
Have you sorted out how you will get from airport to your lodging in Venice? (lots and lots of threads here on forum that address that)

As far as planning you have the major components already done- flights, hotels and tours.

You’ll only need to book 2 fast trains-
Venice to Florence
Florence to Rome

Have you familiarized yourself with Trenitalia website?
Have you downloaded their easy to use app?

If you tell us your dates we can point you to which train to take. Very easy.

Be very honest and specific when you write out your itinerary.
You need to account for the time it takes to get to/from station, to/from your lodging. Allow a half day each time you change location.

Arrive Venice- what time?- this day is jet lagged so don’t plan anything major.
You now have 2 full days in Venice-
1 day for sights in Venice
1 day for Murano/Burano or the rowing lesson mentioned above

Train to Florence- if you get going early you could conceivably be in Impruneta by noon- the rest of that day is your relaxation day.
Now you have 2 full days left here-
1 day for Florence
1 day for relaxation or day trip Tuscany on a guided tour. A half day drive won’t cover much.

Do you need references for drivers? Tours? Guided tours will leave from Florence so you’d need to get there first.
Have you asked your hosts in Impruneta for help with this?
There are many recommendation on this forum. If you want to plan your own day take a look at mydaytrip.com

Back to Florence to catch train to Rome- probably arriving Rome by noon if you get an early start.

Now you have 3.5 days- which is just barely enough for Rome itself.
Do you plan to visit the major sites? Make a list of the sights that are priority to you.

Colosseum, Vatican? Do you have tours booked of these places already?
Each of those needs a good half day or more and I would not do either on the day you arrive and I would split them up.

1 day Colosseum
1 day Vatican
1 day for whatever is left- just exploring Rome.

A day trip to Pompeii would be brutally long as acraven has outlined above (and it looks like this is a summer trip?)- consider Ostia Antica instead.

Have you sorted out how you will get to FCO for your departure?

I don't know if a "travel planning servic " really exists for what you have left to plan.
Plenty of free help here though!

You might try https://italybeyondtheobvious.com/. She has several levels of assistance available. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone do it for you. She has connections.

Thanks for the feedback, its such a long awaited trip. I guess I am just anxious to get it right. As you can see we have some plans but need some help filling in the gaps.

Monday:
Arrive in Venice, water taxi to Hotel Flora (3 nights)
When we arrive, we plan to check-in, and just explore on our own.

5pm food/walking tour that we'll likely do.

Tuesday
Welcome to Venice: Walking Tour, St Mark's Basilica & Gondola Ride 10 am to 1pm
Rest of day is open

Wednesday
Murano/Burano half day?
Rest of day is open

Thursday
Train to Florence, picked up by hotel and taken to Relais Villa Olmo- Impruenta
Relax at hotel, possible cooking class and nice dinner in town

Friday
Bus to Florence early.
Best of Florence Walking Tour with David & the Duomo 9-12pm
Explore more of Florence on own
Dinner in Florence
Bus or driver back to hotel

Saturday
Private driver San Gimignano, Chianti, Siena (don't have this locked in yet)

Sunday
Hotel will drive us to Train station in Florence, train to Rome
Hotel Smeraldo Address 4 nights

Monday
Walks of Italy Premium Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill 10:30 to 1:30pm
Rest of day is open

Tuesday
Vatican or some kind of 1/2 day trip

Wednesday
Vatican or some kind of 1/2 day trip
Evening food tour

Thursday
2:30 pm flight out of Rome

I do think a day trip to Pompeii is possible, but you are cutting Rome too short. Unless, it's a big request, I'd find more in Rome.
However, this is how I'd do it balancing time and money: take Italo high-speed train to Naples. One hour. Have a driver pick you up to drive you directly to the Archaeological Parc. Have a guide lined up, private for 150€ or Mondo Shared Tours at 20€ per person, typically 2-hour tours. Have a driver meet you at a set time for a ride back to the Naples station. Plan which exit in advance. Train back to Rome.
Note: Pompeii is interesting but exhausting.

Honestly Melissa-I think you have done a great job with your plans. There are really only a few things to firm up.

Venice- have you already booked your water taxi?
Here is the official site:
https://www.motoscafivenezia.it/en/

Will you purchase vaporetto passes?
You can do that at the airport when you arrive.
Be sure to validate each pass each and every time you board.

Train tickets here:
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/tcom/en.html
If trip is after June 11 it's too early to book those.

tousbyroberto.com might be able to help you with your Tuscany day trip

Rome-
I would do the food tour on Sunday if possible. Doesn't really make sense to leave til last day.
Eating Europe.com- use EATWELL10 for a discount

Any of your afternoons/evenings can be RS Heart of Rome walk that takes you past all the fountains and piazzas. Your hotel is near Campo de' Fiori so you can start or end the walk there.

Visiting the Vatican is not a requirement- if it's not a priority- but if you do want to enjoy some art and fabulous Bernini sculptures consider the Borghese Gallery- prebooked 2 hour limited entry so it's not a huge time suck. Enjoy the Borghese park afterwards- maybe rent bikes there?
Tickets here:
https://www.tosc.it/artist/galleria-borghese/galleria-borghese-2253937/

Other sights that might interest your kids:
Capuchin Crypt
Castel Sant'Angelo
Explore Jewish Ghetto
Explore Trastevere (can combine with Ghetto)

A private water taxi from the airport to Venice will cost well over 100 euros.

Seeing Murano and Burano may take more than a half day. Burano is pretty far out in the lagoon. The vaporetto will probably take 45 minutes each way without stopping off at Murano. You may need to make a connection to get to the Line 12 departure point, and that vaporetto runs only twice an hour. You could end up spending a lot of time waiting at vaporetto stops in Venice, Murano and Burano.

Edited to add: I've just checked Google Maps, and it estimates 66 minutes from your hotel to Burano, and that includes a 25-minute walk over to the Fondamente Nove vaporetto stop. Solutions involving less walking take longer--87 to 94 minutes--because you need either two (or more) vaporetti or a vaporetto departing from near your hotel that takes a more convoluted route.

I'm not trying to discourage you from going to Burano and Murano, just warning about the time commitment involved.

Some thoughts…
Consider a trip out to The Venice Lido on your Vaporetto pass,a 20 minute walk will take you to the sandy beach. This where the Italians go for a break from the crowds in Venice. Sandy beach, swimming what’s not to like.

Rome - I consider Ostia Antica one of the gems of Roman Italy, a complete port city that was abandoned when the river silted up. It has everything that Pompeii does except for the dramatic story of its demise. Bonus is that it is about an hour from your hotel, the site has trees (shade) and better visitor facilities than Pompeii. Hopefully these are now reopened after the pandemic. Just be sure to get off the train at Ostia Antica, the next stop is the small resort town of Ostia. Have a look at the sites website to see what is there.

So many great ideas above, and I'll agree that you really don't have many gaps for a service to fill! But, as Laurel said, sometimes it's just nice to have help taking care of any loose ends so look into the resource she recommended, and tousbyroberto.com as recommended by Christine for the Tuscany piece. I believe Laurel has used him as well?

Murano/Burano: Sure. I guess I sort of consider them as "Venice" even though they're not. :O)

Florence: for your "Explore on our own" time, hike your tribe up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a terrific view of the city, and up even further to the church of San Miniato (free) and a browse through the attached (and interesting) cemetery. There are some outdoor cafes near the piazzale too for kicking back with a beverage.

https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-churches/san-miniato.html
https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-monuments/piazzale-michelangelo.html

Rome:
Pompeii is a slog from Rome, although people do it. I'll agree with the others with doing Ostia Antica instead as it's so much closer and won't chew up as much of your day with transport time.

Another idea? Bike (or hike, as we did) a section of the Appia Antica. We did it on our own but as you're already sort of overwhelmed, I'll recommend booking a tour. There is a lot of interesting stuff to be seen along this ancient - and still used! - road, and your young people might enjoy the adventure on wheels. One resource:

Top Bike E-Bike tour (Top Bike is endorsed by Mr. Steves himself):

https://www.topbikerental.com/nuovosito/eng/tour-rome/ancient-appian-way-catacombs-and-roman-aqueducts-in-rome-italy?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsvSamIqL_gIVmubjBx3stAw1EAAYASAAEgIt1fD_BwE

Laurel and I chatted about that one for a poster a few years ago, and that thread contains a link to a youtube video of their longer tour:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/topbike-rental-rome-appian-way-tour-long-or-short

The park's website:
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it
(click the "SMART INFO EN" text in the menu for English) or use your device's translation function.

Helpful map of the sites along the way:
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AppiaAntica_eng_2015.pdf

LOL, more than you wanted to know but it's a really interesting piece of Rome that most visitors don't allow time for. :O)

As suggested above, Galleria Borghese is a much easier museum for non-museum lovers to digest as it's smaller, on a 2-hour time limit so it doesn't chew up the amount of time the Vatican takes, and (best of all) has excellent crowd control: the mob at the Vatican Museums has become pretty horrible. The Bernini sculptures alone - Sorry, Michelangelo, but my favorite "David" is here - are well worth the visit. Along with the art, take note of the trompe l'oeil decoration of the various rooms. It's pretty wild!

If you DO decide to do the Vatican, book an early entrance tour through Walks of Italy, the Roman Guy, the Vatican itself, etc. But the other plus about the Borghese is exploring the many corners of the very large park it is located in (Villa Borghese). Bike and pedal-surrey rentals are available (google Bici Pinico, Villa Borghese)

Advance booking is mandatory for Galleria Borghese:

https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/

Lastly, yes, I'd do the food tour on a different night than your last one in Rome.

Now that forum vets Kathy, Christine and acraven have chimed in--lot of experience & travel brain power there, Melissa--you should definitely have a better perspective.

Your problem is the total length of stay. 10 nights, you're in the no-man's land between 2 or 3 destinations in my opinion. We did 11 nights in March 2017--6 nights Rome, 5 nights Sorrento, which I felt was just about right, even though Sorrento turned into a monsoon--can't depend on the weather that time of year, or any time for that matter! Only 3-4 nights in one destination gets you a sense of where you are, but probably not enough time to get into a real routine. I get it--your timeframe is your timeframe, but most on this forum would agree that more time abroad is better if you can swing it.

For our 3 trips to Italy over the last decade plus, I have totally embraced the planning stage while constantly debating with myself (& wife) whether I was orchestrating our time too much. I finally found my personal sweet spot when planning this last Rome trip. Because we were arriving there in late February, tourists were few so no reservations required for almost anything, locals were doing their thing, and I felt totally at home.

We luxuriated by waking up at our walk-up apartment overlooking Campo de' Fiori, sipping coffee & eating pastries, meat, cheese & fruit gotten at the market below. While doing that, we would check our Excel research spreadsheet of potential 'stuff to do' that day, depending on distance, weather, and energy level, that we had compiled in advance. It was--and I want to stress this--not a checklist of attractions we had to see--that would be work. It really was just a list of suggestions where we could call an audible at any moment. I remember one day we just decided to head towards San Pietro di Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) and decide what to do after that. After making our way over there, we found they were closed for lunch for another hour, so we had fantastic gelato from a street truck, and dozed in the sun until they opened back up. A sublime afternoon!

Your situation is somewhat different in that 3 other people--your husband & two teenagers--are depending on you to 'make plans', and you can't very well go to them and say, 'wellll, let's just fly by the seat of our pants, be spontaneous, and do what strikes us as fun at that time.' It would be great if you could incorporate a little of that into your trip, however. It's the very best part of the Italian adage 'il dolce far niente', loosely translated as 'the art of doing nothing'. Have fun & embrace it!

A couple of thoughts beyond the great advice you've gotten so far:
Besides Trenitalia also look at Italo Train - they also operate fast trains between Rome, Florence and Venice. We compared prices and ended up using Italo trains for our trips this month. If you sign up for their account, you'll get weekly email with discount codes , our tickets were very inexpensive.
In Rome, I also vote for Castel Sant'angelo, especially for your kids. If you want a non museum experience, and great views from the top. There are lots of stairs to climb but it's kind of cool.

Definitely consider the RS audio tours, have everyone in your family download the app and the tours before leaving and bring headphones/earbuds. That way you can do them at your leisure. If it's really hot during the day you could easily do them as evening walks. We did three and really enjoyed them (Heart of Rome, Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere). Remember they are free and you go at your own pace.

Definitely consider the RS audio tours, have everyone in your family
download the app and the tours before leaving and bring
headphones/earbuds. That way you can do them at your leisure.

Good idea. My wife & I actually did that at Pompei. Walking around, with Rick in your ear talking about what you're seeing. Free, at your own pace--pretty cool!

Have the kids given you their ideas on what they want to do? Assign them each an afternoon/morning that is theirs to design.

Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions, very helpful!