My sister and I just came back from a very hectic 16 days in Europe. We did London, Paris, Rome and Florence and crammed in all the major museums and attractions. It was a fabulous experience but way too much for us, especially my sister. We fell in love with Florence and want to go back in March or April for about 3-4 weeks. Is it possible to see Venice, Cinque Terre, Florence, Pisa, Siena and Lucca and base ourselves in Venice and Florence for a majority of the time?
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32214 posts
abbey,
Yes, that should easily be possible with a time frame of three to four weeks. I'd suggest travelling in April (or later) if possible, as the weather will likely be better.
Regarding each of the locations you mentioned.....
- Venice - three or four days would probably be enough
- Cinque Terre - spending three nights or four nights there will allow you to explore the five towns and also take a few day trips to places like Porto Venere, Portofino, Levanto or Santa Margherita Ligure. The C.T. doesn't usually "open for the season" until April 1st, so keep that in mind.
- Florence - given your desire to return to Florence, you may want to spend the bulk of your time there. There's lots to see and I'm sure the others will have lots of good suggestions (especially Roberto).
- Pisa - you can easily see that as a day trip from Florence.
- Siena - that's also an easy day trip by Bus from Florence (about an hour each way), but you may want to spend a night or two there just to have a chance to explore a bit.
- Lucca - again, possible as a day trip or you can spend a night or two there.
With four weeks you could expand the locations and include places like Assisi, Orvieto or some of the hill towns in the area around Siena. There are LOTS of good possibilities! I'd suggest picking up a copy of the Italy 2015 Guidebook, which will probably be released about Sept. or Oct. 2014 (or you can buy the 2014 version as it likely won't change much). That will be a valuable resource in helping to plan sightseeing.
Good luck with your planning!
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
From Florence it's easy to see Pisa, Siena and Lucca as daytrips. The Cinque Terre are farther away and also get clogged with daytrippers, so you may want an overnight or two.
From Venice, you can easily daytrip to Padova, Verona, Vicenza and other places. With 3-4 weeks, you should look at books besides Rick Steves, to learn about other places you may want to see from you base cities.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
Even though you already fell in love with Florence, assume you'll fall in love with other spots, too, and will want to distribute your time more evenly. Staying overnight in Siena, as well as Cinque Terre and some other stops, reduces the amount of time in transit (backtracking) and allows you see those cities more thoroughly or more relaxedly.