Trip to Italy and Paris (14-days)

To me this is very rushed. I would cut out Venice unless you can devote more than one day to it but I wouldn't take days from another city. You may want to consider flying into Rome, then on to Florence, then to Venice, fly to Paris and home from there. You can take the 3 days you would spend in Sorrento and give one to Rome and 2 to Venice. This would be a more relaxed trip. Also, you'll want to pack light. If you take the train (suggested) you will have to handle all your own luggage. Make sure you can easily lift your luggage over your head and can climb steps with it.

donna

You've got to chunk Sorrento. It's kind of third-tier anyway, so no great loss. I don't like Venice too much, but you're not going to have a full day there and that's not enough -- rob a day from Florence. You need all of the given-up Sorrento days for Paris and Rome.

I agree with Steve. Venice is very special. Either add more days to Venice (skip Sorrento) or drop it all together.

I agree with the others that skipping Sorrento would be wise and that you need a minimum of two nights in Venice.

To not feel rushed, you need a good balance between travel time and sightseeing time. On the day you arrive in Rome you will use up a good share of that day getting from the airport to your hotel and getting acclimated to the city. Add at least one more day to Rome.

On days you're traveling by train you will have the advantage of going from city center to city center, but it will still take longer than you think to get settled in each new city.

You'll use up a good portion of a day flying from Venice to Paris, getting into the city, and getting acclimated. Your last day in Paris will be cut short by having to get to the airport for your flight home. Add at least one more day to Paris.

Thanks guys!

The issue is that this might perhaps be my first and last travel to Italy and "ideally" dont want to miss the major attractions

BUt then as you said - balance between travel and sight seeing time need to be maintained. To pack and unpack bags 4-5 times in 2 weeks isnt an easy job

Any advise?

By all means skip Sorrento. It's way south and I would add more time to Venice and Paris. Have fun.

Any advice on what? I'm confused. I know Sorrento is lovely but it's really out of the way. If it's something that you really want to see then you will spend most of your time traveling and changing hotels. For a more leisurely pace I would skip Sorrento and add those days to the other cities you have listed.

Donna

I did a 4 week trip in May to Paris and Italy and it was not enough time anywhere. We spent 8 days in Paris, a week in Rome, 3 days in Venice, 3 in Cinque Terre and 4 in Florence. Everytime we moved we lost at least half a day or more in travel time and finding our hotel.

If you are driving in Italy the travel time may be shorter than if you are taking the train (which we did). Also, every single flight I took was late - Paris to Venice was 3 hours late, all flights to the US and back were also late by a few hours which cut into our vacation time so keep that in mind.

Maybe you could save Paris for another time - you could easily spend one week alone there and not see all of it. You could fly into Rome and fly out of Venice to save on travel time.

Have a great time whatever you decide. We wish we were still there!