Traveling to Italy 11/ 2010, 10 days,3 adults -based in Florence and Rome

Whoa - Slow down! 7 locations in ten days? You'll spend your entire time traveling rather than "enjoying." I'd strongly suggest getting out a map, a few guidebooks, and just scaling back your expectations. Going to Italy is MOST about the "experience." In Italy, we say "piano, piano," which means slowly, slowly. If it's your first trip, you will be back. Depending on where you go, the weather will be colder, often rainy in November - dress in layers.

I agree with Ron. You're trying to plan too much for too short a time. You'll spend most of your time on the train or in a bus and not much in the cities you wish to see. The fastest trains between Florence and Venice still take 2 hours each way so that's 4 hours out of your day just for travel. Depending on where in the Cinque Terre you go you are looking at 3 hours each way! To get to Lake como is almost 3 hours each way. These are huge chunks of time out of your day. I would plan 4 days in Rome with a day trip to Pompeii and 6 days in Florence with day trips to Venice and either Lake Como or the Cinque Terre. Grab a good guide book and decide what it is you really want to see in each of the cities you have listed and make your decision based on the ones that are the most interesting to you and your friends. Donna

Agree with the others. There is so much to see in Italy and it is about the experience, not so much places to be checked off a list. From Florence, Venice is still kind of far to do a day trip but you can do it with fast trains leaving early and getting back late. A tiring day in any case. I am not sure if November is the best month for either Lake Como or the Cinque Terre - rainy and cold - but both are also about 3 hours away, just one way. I would rather recommend you spend more time doing day trips in Tuscany which is the region where Florence is in. From Florence, you can spend a day in Pisa and Lucca, a day in Siena, a day in San Gimignano, another day in Chianti. The rest of your days seeing Florence itself, then at least 2-3 days in Rome. Rome is huge and you need just one whole day at the Vatican. Maybe 10 days seem like a lot but once you're here, they'll fly by and you'll have full days as it is. The Amalfi coast and Pompeii are doing as day trips out of Naples, not Rome. To go there, it is better to move down and use someplace in the area as a base. On a map everything in Italy seems near compared to our US states but if you're traveling by train or even driving, there is no comparison in the times you need to get from point A to point B. If you like what you do see in Italy, you'll come back and see more. Most of all, remember to have fun and less is more!