We've been looking at one of Rick's older DVDs on Italy, and find ourselves drawn to Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, and Tuscany.
If we have about 12 days in Italy, are we thinking of doing too much?
These are just the places we were drawn to. We'd like to have at least 4 days near the sea to rest.
Any advice?
The other thing we want to do is leave Italy by train and go through France ending up in Paris, and maybe going back to England via Eurostar.
What's the most logical way to do all this?
With 12 days I would skip Venice for sure this trip as it is NW of where you are most interested. 4 days is alot for CT on the coast but you could consider nearby Sta Margarita Ligure by ferry from CT for another 2 days for rest. That leaves you 8 days for 3 very big cities to cover and travel in between and jey lag on the front side. Why not do Rome or Florence then add Tuscany for the countryside sights? I am not into rushing things once there you will see how important it is to slow down and enjoy.Italy is terrific. the 12 day scenario is more like a bus tour byTrafalgar or Cosmo, rushing. good luck on your decision.
Thank you JS. We're throwing out these ideas now and are very open to comments and suggestions.
Is Cinque Terre very quiet? We're thinking this would be our rest stop after taking in Rome and Florence... We are flying into Rome from England (spending a week there first), and have a total of four weeks.
One week in England, about 12 days in Italy and about a week in France.
Eli -- not sure, but we are leaving on the 12th of this month for basically the same trip. we are spending 3 days in Rome, 2 in Siena, 3 in the CT, 2 in interlaken and 2 in Paris -- flying in to Rome and out of Paris -- this may be a busy trip, but i wanted to hit the highlights, and see where i wanted to return to for a more indepth trip next time. I will let you know how it turns out.
Bit of a heads up on the Rome/Paris part, Eli. We're doing it the other way (Paris to Venice)in early May and because I waited too long (last wk) to book a 2 berth compartment, all that was left on the night train we wanted was 4 or 6 berth couchettes (ie:no sleep). We're now doing Paris/Nice/Venice to get the 2 berth and hopefully 40 winks. No big deal, we'll see Gare Nice Ville (whoopeeeee) on the way through, but if it's Rome to Paris to catch a flight home, you might want to book earlier than I did.
I wish you guys safe trips and hope you'll come back and give a trip report. Do members post reports??
Nothing but our week in England is definite. Right now we want to see the 'highlights' in Italy (whatever we can), and maybe go back to spend more time in a couple years.
We were in Paris before but it was not a planned trip and so we spent more time being lost and confused, so this time I want to be a little more organised. Haven't seen anywhere else in France. Hoping to see a bit of the countryside. Any suggestions?
Another question. In trying to keep our cost down, I was wondering if someone could advise me.
Since most rentals at vrbo.com seem to be by the week, my idea this morning was to maybe spend a week in Rome and travel from there to Florence?
After reading how expensive Florence was, and trying to break up the trip in segments of 5 days Rome, 2 days Florence, would this be better for us?
Then there would be train travel as well, so...
Venice is a truly unique place. It would be a shame to miss it. It's true it's out of the way and adds a lot of travel time to your trip.
Two days in CT is really a good stop. Since you are going to Paris, maybe you could take two days in CT then another two days on France's Southern coast.
Be sure to get reservations for the Academia and Uffizi in Florence. You will waste too much time and may not get in at all if you don't book ahead.
Tuscany is hard because there are a lot of options. We liked Orvietto (in Umbria) and San Gimignano the best. Orvieto because it had a lot more than we expected. San Gimignano because it was the Tuscan medieval hill town we imagined (although touristy). Siena was worth a stop, Lucca IMO was not. There were many other places we would have visited with more time. We had a car, your options get more limited when you work around train times.
We too had 12 days and skipped Cinque Terre but did the rest, Venice, Florence, Siena and Rome. Yes, I think adding Cinque Terre will be a bit much. By our last full day in Italy, we decided to rest up instead of going to Pompeii. As much as we wanted to see the 5 towns it was just going to be too much. I'm glad we skipped it. We'll hit it up next time though. Good luck!
What time of year are you going and what city are you first arriving in? (as the more crowded things are the more time it takes to see the sites. Slower times of year make it more pleasurable, easier to do and cheaper too)
Also are you and your group in good physical shape?
This is a very optimistic goal to see all these in 12 days but it could be done with the right timing and vigor combined with good planning.
The train from italy to france though would be quite long time wise and pricey too. Try looking at aer lingus, british airways etc to consider air between country's instead.
Also you might consider staying in tuscany an hour or so away from Florence near a train station for several days and visiting the hilltowns and florence with the same home base yet cheaper and easier with luggage staying put as you explore etc. Buses and trains run regularly.
I'm like you -so many beautiful places and so little time and so I cram as much in my trips as possible and rest when we get home
ps cinque terra is not at all quite during the tourist season which is like 9 months out of the year. How about Taoromina in Sicily? The sea views & Mt Etna views are spectacular and the ancient town just get 3 hour type day tour visitors but is a small treasure for those who stay there. Just a thought...
Kim, we are going to England around the 22nd May and will be there for about a week (Oxfordshire). A free part of the trip (accommodations), but then I wanted to see Italy and thought of flying from London to Rome.
So Rome probably end of May-early June?
What part of Tuscany would you recommend so that we could do a day trip to Florence? I really appreciate the advice, and we're open to changing our minds on where to stay.
CT looks so unusual and different from all the other seaside places we've been to (Caribbean, Hawaii, Calella, Spain, Greek Isles) that we figured (in spite of tourists) that it would be an interesting place.
We all LOVE hiking and both son and daughter are keen on this as well, hence the CT part of the journey.
I too don't like the idea of a long, overnight train ride into France. We don't want to fly from say Florence to Paris because we want to END the trip in Paris and not begin it, so what other city can we fly to in France?
