traveling rome/italy - Itinerary

OK if I understand this correctly, you will be starting in Rome and also flying out of Rome to Vienna. Does your 1 week include flight days?

With only a week, I wouldn't venture too far from Rome. With a group of 5, you might consider renting an apartment in Rome for the full week and do daytrips to other areas.

If it were me, I'd probably spend 3 or 4 days in Rome itself and then pick a couple of the following daytrips for the remaining time.

Good daytrips from Rome are:

*Ostia Antica (about 45 minutes away by metro/train)
*Florence (hour and half away by Eurostar; impossible to see in one day but you can hit the highlights)
*Orvieto (cute little hill town, 1 hour by train)
*Tivoli Gardens/Hadrian's Villa (hour and a half I think? It's either a train and bus combo or two busses, I don't recall)
*Pompeii (2 hours I think?)
*Assisi (2 hours by train)

Do you have to fly from Rome to Vienna? If not, you could consider an openjaw, flying into Rome and then out of, for example, Milan. Then you could work your way north spending 3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence, a night in Milan, or something similiar.

A lot depends on your travel style. If you are determine to dash about and squeeze every drop of Italy that you can, which is generally not recommended on this site, you will have a different approach than someone who wants a more relaxing and enjoyable (in our opinions!) experience.

Sorry I was not clear, our whole stay is from the 14th-29th and our other destination is Vienna but we are flying in and out of Rome. Thanks for your suggestions, very helpful.

OK, so you will be looping from Rome north to Vienna and then back down to Rome to fly home? I am assuming you land in Rome on the 14th and your flight out is sometime on the 29th.

In this case, I would suggest the work your way north plan. Either start in Rome for a few days, or perhaps even better, get out of the city quickly and stay in a small, quiet place like Orvieto.

I am not sure how long you plan to stay in Vienna, but you could do something like:

2 nights in Orvieto, 3-5 nights in Florence or Siena (pick one and then do daytrips. # of nights depends on how many daytrips you want to do to places like Lucca, Pisa, etc.), possibly stop in Milan if you are interested in seeing the Last Supper, go to Vienna for 4 days, then return to Rome for the last 4.

Do you want to be in Vienna, Rome, or somewhere else on Christmas Day?

Yes we leave from Rome. I think we plan on being in Vienna for Christmas! Would you suggest we travel via train?

Lauren - If it were me I'd look into flying from Rome to Vienna. Looks like it would take about 14-15 hours on the train. It appears that airberlin www.airberlin.com has a flight from FCO to VIE for fairly cheap. If I am getting the correct figures, you could probably fly roundtrip for about the same as a one way train ride.

i didn't realize airberlin flew from rome to vienna. it definitely looks like that would be our best bet, thanks

If you want to see more of Italy than just Rome, Air Berlin also flies from Milan to Vienna. You could work your way north through Italy from Rome, short flight over to Vienna, and then fly straight back down to Rome to finish up.

Or, you can stay in Rome the first half, fly up to Vienna, then fly back. I strongly suggest to make sure you return from Vienna at least a day before your flight home, perhaps even 2, in case anything goes wrong.

With a little further thought, if you are set on Vienna, here is my suggestion. Fly into Rome, immediately catch the AirBerlin flight to Vienna. Do your Vienna plans then fly back to Rome for the remainder. Fly out of Rome to home.

Here's my reasoning, doing it this way you'll avoid having to come back to Rome early to have some padding on the timeline with the flights. It will give you the most efficient use of your time overseas. I addition, I think it would be very interesting to be in Rome over Christmas.