Traveling

are you just changing transportation in Florence or staying for some time and then moving cities?

Train is easier, cheaper and faster for all of those connections

Train takes you from city center to city center whereas a flight means additional time and money to get to/ from airports
Not to mention time spent checking in, going thru security, etc.

Hi Nigel,
We were planning on staying several days each location to see the sites and move on to next location. Naples will be last main stay before flying out of Rome to come back to the US.

Katsinca

Thank you ChristineH,
I hadn't thought about the check in time
We definitely want what is easiest and less time consuming. Als want to do the easiest as we will be taking luggage on each move. I've never ridden a train with having luggage before

Katsinca

First question -- how much luggage?? Most on this site get by with one carry-on size bag and a day bag. Second, my standard is roughly five to six hours. If the train ride is more than five hours or so, I will consider flying because there is no such thing as a one hour flight. A one hour flight is closer to five or six hours when you add in the time to get to the airport, check-in, security, waiting, packed tight in a crumby seat, getting off, and transit back to the city. Trains are just more comfortable and easier to use.

Thanks Frank,
Hopefully only 1 bag each, but probably a large bag (the checked in kind). Don't want to take much as had a horror show on our last trip with delayed then lost luggage. I'm hoping to get by with a carry on size.
So far trains sound the best way to go.

Katsinca

If you are flying out of Rome then make that your last stay so you avoid a split stay/one less hotel change.

Try to fly into Venice, to avoid backtracking. Florence is halfway between Venice and Rome. Same for flying out of Naples instead of Rome.

Second the vote for trains for travel within Italy. Trains tend to drop you inside the city not outside - sometimes very far outside. Internal transportation are centered around the train stations so the bus, tram, taxi services all branch out from there.
I also find train travel generally relaxing and they have generally have plugs, WiFi (on fast trains) as opposed to planes.
Times:

Florence to Venice: 2.5 hours on the fast train
Venice to Milan: 2.5 hours on the fast train
Milan to Rome: 3-4 hours depending on the train

If you're sure of your travel dates it is cheaper to book the fast trains - you'll get seat assignments - further out than the day before or day of travel. If you book more expensive Base fares you can change trains free of charge while cheaper fares come with more restrictions so don't miss your train.
You generally can't book trains until 60-90 days ahead so if trains don't show up for your dates don't panic - just check a similar day closer to the actual date to check schedules.

https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
I would highly recommend the Trenitalia phone app for use in country. It will let you buy tickets and tracks train progress in real time.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Have you purchased your flight reservations yet? If not I would suggest the following itinerary:

1. Fly into Venice,
2. Train to Florence,
3. Train to Rome,
4. Train to Naples, and
5. Train to FCO.

Your proposed itinerary is doable, but is going to be redundant with you covering the same rail tracks multiple times. Each of the train trips is +/- 2.5 hours. If you follow your itinerary the longest trip between Venice and Rome is +/- 4 hours.

I'd recommend
Fly into Venice
Train to Florence
Train to Naples- this will be your longest trip.
Train to Rome
Fly out of Rome

You will ned to be IN Rome the night before your flight.
Unless you can fly OUT of Naples- in that case end your trip in Naples.

If you've already booked flights into Florence and cannot change :
Fly to Florence
Train to Venice
Train to Naples- I'd still do this- it's a bit long (5' 22") but use it as a rest day take a picnic on board. Avoids one hotel change
Train to Rome
Fly home from Rome

Yes, as others have said, make Venice your first stop --- in addition to the obvious, it's one of the nicest places in the world to recover from jetlag and many hours of travel.

I have only two tiny additional thoughts, having taken both plane and train into and out of Venice. You'll have many more choices of flights (and it's probably cheaper) to fly into Milan and right away take the fast train to Venice, so do check that out. And, to me, it's just more fun to arrive by train because you exit the train in Venice and you are in a few moments and a few steps THERE, there with the Grand Canal smack in front of you. Arriving at the airport, you still have to take other transportation to actually get to Venice --- not a big problem, just not instant gratification.

Read up on how to take trains in Italy, and give yourselves extra time to move from one city to another, especially since it looks like from your previous questions that this may be your first trip to a country where you don't speak the language.

OK, one more thought. If you time it right, you can use the train travel to solve or minimize the problem of what to do between the time one hotel or apartment requires you to check out and the next one wants you to check in.

"Hopefully only 1 bag each, but probably a large bag (the checked in kind). Don't want to take much as had a horror show on our last trip with delayed then lost luggage. I'm hoping to get by with a carry on size."

Later on, if you decide you want to open yourself up to scrutiny, lol, you can start a thread in the packing forum with your packing list and we can pick it apart like vultures on a road kill, lol! To pack in a carry on you'll want clothes that are easy to manage and a capsule wardrobe where everything matches everything else. It takes a mental adjustment to having limited clothing options.

I usually list my clothing in my Trip Reports. I just got back from 22 days, including travel days, in Italy. The ideas might work for you or not.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/best-of-italy-sept-30-october-16-2022

Ok....back to your actual transportation question!

Let me ask you this: you are in the states yes? Would you fly to a city that is 2 hours away?

Yep, Katsinca, rail is very definitely the way to go.
And if you've not yet booked flights, Christine's itinerary is what I'd choose:

Fly into Venice
Train to Florence
Train to Naples- this will be your longest trip.
Train to Rome
Fly out of Rome

As mentioned, you want to spend your last night in the city of departure back to the U.S. so you'd put Rome at the tail end of the trip unless you can find an acceptable flight out of Naples.

Thank you everyone for your information. It is really gonna be helpful when we start finalizing our plans. They haven't looked flights yet so we are thinking about maybe trying to go into Venice and maybe either Rome or Naples for departure and I do believe trains will be the way we go. Thank you all for your help it is greatly appreciated!

Katsinca

Definitely trains between the cities.
Why would you want to get to the airport +/-2 hours before your flight and spend time waiting for your bags to turn up? Bags go astray. Airports aren’t downtown, so add time and costs to get downtown. Trains are probably cheaper also. Travel as light as possible if you’re not carry-on baggage people as you will need to get your bags onto the train (generally a couple of steep steps) and negotiate stairs in stations if you don’t find the elevators or escalators.
Look for trains without transfers if possible. We just finished 3 weeks in Italy and 2 weeks involved significant train travel with 3 nights at each stop. Rome, Orvieto (to start 1 week guided walking tour of Umbria, Marche), Bologna (start of train trips), Varenna (Lake Como), Stresa (Lake Maggiore), Casselrotto (Dolomites), Rome. We had no problems with travelling by train. There was good info at each station on time and platform and directions to the appropriate platform.
We flew into and out of Rome as it was a direct flight from Calgary and was a good price so that resulted in a long day’s trip from Casselrotto to Rome.

Hopefully only 1 bag each, but probably a large bag (the checked in kind). Don't want to take much as had a horror show on our last trip with delayed then lost luggage. I'm hoping to get by with a carry on size.

We have traveled with just a carry-on sized bag and no checked luggage and gone with checked luggage. The times we have taken checked luggage was when we were staying in one place for the entire time, once on a river cruise and once at an agriturismo in Tuscany.

On trips where we change locations, especially when traveling by train, we just take a carry-on. I prefer the freedom of just a carry-on bag. It takes more planning and careful planning packing, but the benefits are well worth it. We once did a 10 day trip to Scotland with just Rick's classic backpack, I think it's called the Classic Back Door Bag. We've had them for 20 years and used them for several trips. Packing small and light turns train travel from a chore to a breeze.

Now that everyone has convinced you to take the train, you need to know more about how to take trains in Italy. We started our research with the website www.seat61.com He has information on the various train lines and how to buy tickets (and the all important "when to buy tickets"). There are two main train lines in Italy, and you should check prices and times on both.

We traveled by train recently in Italy and were glad that our suitcases were carry-on size just for ease of getting on and off and for storing on the train. We also had small backpacks that were easy to put in the overhead.

When you want to look specifically at train travel times, go to www.trenitalia.com

The Italian names for your cities:
Venice is Venezia
Florence is Firenze
Rome is Roma
Naples is Napoli

I ride the trains a lot when traveling in Italy. They’re very easy and handy. It’s cheaper tickets if you purchase them ahead of time on-line or through their app.

Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions they are greatly appreciated! These will help make our trip so much better!!!

Katsinca