Trip Ideas for Italy

1) Fly!
2) how many nights? If you have six nights in London, do you have eight or nine nights left? I would squeeze Venezia into the mix, for three very different Italian cities.

Definitely fly from London to Italy.

It seems you have 8 or 9 nights for Italy, so three locations is rushing it a bit, IMO. Fly into Florence and plan for a day trip into the Tuscan countryside. You can either hire a car for your own driving experience or go on a tour such as with Tours by Roberto.

Then take the train to Rome. If you want to get out of town for a day, try Tivoli (Villa d'Este is marvelous) or Orvieto.

If 8 nights, do four each Florence and Rome. If you have 9 nights, maybe you'd enjoy a one night stay in Orvieto. It's such an easy stop between Florence and Rome.

Fly into Rome spend 4 nights take a day trip somewhere.
Take the train to Florence spend 4 nights take a day trip to Cinque Terre or Venice.
Fly out of Florence there are 4 non stops back to London in summer

If you have 9 nights you can probably squeeze Venice, Florence, and Rome.
Fly to Venice from London then work your way down to Rome.

I would absolutely do as Roberto suggests. Actually, if it were my trip, I'd take a couple of extra days from London and add them to beautiful Italy but that's me, I can never get enough of Italy!

With nine nights, consider just two places in Italy with a day trip or two from each. With three places that's two relocations. And it usually takes a lot more time relocating than one anticipates. Definitely fly from London to Italy.

Thank you to everyone for all the comments! We appreciate the help. We will definitely fly from London to Italy and will probably only stay in Florence and Rome (To Keep from traveling taking up too much time) while doing a day trip or two as well as some sort of tour to give us a better feel of Italy!

Stephen,

My first comment would be to stick to northern Europe if going in August. Italy can be oppressively hot and humid in the late summer. Why do you think the Italians head for the coast that time of year? To top it off, electricity is really expensive in Italy and the air-conditioning isn't always the best.

If you do have your heart set on Italy, then 8 days really isn't enough to see much more than one or two cities. I spent 14 days traveling Venice-Florence-Rome and still feel I just scratched the surface. And it wasn't even my first visits to Venice and Florence. Of course, I've spend a total of over two weeks in London and still have an arm's length list of places I haven't seen.

Not to throw water on your plans, but if this is your first trip to either, or both, location, I would highly recommend you stick to just one and save the other for another time.

I would take a night from London and move it to Italy. Fly into Venice, Florence, then Rome. Venice gives you a different city experience.

Thanks again for the help. We know it will be really hot in August but thats the only time we can go so we will make the best of it... Also, I do think we have to go to Venice so taking a night from London may be a great idea! Thanks

Another vote for taking 2 days from London and adding it to Italy.

And do the suggested day trips - Siena from Florence and Orvieto from Rome. These are easy train rides and gets you out into the countryside without planning a car rental.

On the other hand, I would skip London and enjoy Italy....but I LOVE Italy.....

If you're going in August, I would give serious consideration to how well you tolerate crowds. Rome and Florence will be absolutely overrun with tourists at that time of year--for good reason, because the sites are absolutely unforgettable. But it can be really overwhelming for 15 uninterrupted days. If you have 9 days to work with in Italy and you want to give yourself a bit of a break from the crowds, why not spend a day or two in a smaller town close to Rome or Florence? You could spend a couple of lovely days in Siena or Lucca or Pisa. Or you could plan to fly home from Milan and spend the last couple of days in Italy in Bergamo, which is crammed full of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, or Stresa, which is a lovely lake town on Lake Maggiore a very easy drive from Malpensa airport. You'd experience a lot of what makes Italy so wonderful--authentic food, enjoying a gelato on the town square, soaking up the beautiful architecture, having a glass of wine sitting out on a cobblestone piazza--but in a more relaxing and enjoyable location. Rome, Florence, and Venice are great and well worth a visit, but so many visitors to Italy never travel beyond them, and the country has so much else to offer. In all three cities--at least in their historic centers--it feels like tourists outnumber locals. If you venture out even just a little way, it can make a big difference. Good luck--hope you have a wonderful trip!

A '15 day trip' may be 15 nights in Europe, or only 13 nights if you are including travel time to/from.
Going with 15 nights then ...
Arrive London (5N)
Fly to Venice (3N)
Train to Florence (3N)
Train to Rome (4N)
Depart Rome

I can't recommend enough to include Venice. On my first trip to Italy, I concentrated on seeing Rome and Florence. On my second trip, I got to see Venice. It is a fantastic city, unlike and other city. I hope you won't make the same mistake I did on my first trip to Italy.

Thank you to everyone! I agree that Venice will give us another type of city compared to Florence and Rome. I appreciate the input on that. We will be sure to fit that in by taking a day or 2 from London.

Peg- We were thinking about doing a day trip or two to see more of Italy instead of only seeing tourists and big crowds. Exploring the country is more important to us than seeing every famous landmark so Siena or Pisa are definitely options! :)

Thanks again for the itineraries and great advice!