Venice, Florence, Rome for first timers

Use the itinerary here as a blueprint--https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/venice-florence-rome

Browse the RS store ( and other sources) for guide books to help organize your trip

it will be a very busy and fast schedule!

Very True!

First suggestion: Buy open jaw plane tickets. Fly into Venice and out of Rome. With only 9 days, time is short so you really need to figure out what you want to do in each city and plan your number of nights in each city. Get an Italy guide book and study up!

Places to stay: Recommend Dorsoduro, San Polo areas of Venice. They are across the Grand Canal from San Marco so you will be able to get away from the masses and still be a 10-15 minute walk to San Marco. For Florence, I recommend somewhere in the center of town. Florence is easy to walk and the train station is only 10 minutes from the Duomo. For Rome, check into the Monti area or keep in the historic center - near the Pantheon or Campo de Fiore. Another option is Trastavere.

Transportation between cities: Book trains between Venice- Florence (2.5 hours) and Florence-Rome (1.5 hours) on either Trenitalia.com or Italotreno.it. Compare prices and schedules and get the one that suits you best. You can buy up to 120 days in advance to get the best prices.

Passes: Depending on how long you are in Venice, look into a vaporetto pass (water bus). You may save some money by getting a pass but you can really walk just about everywhere. in Rome, consider the Roma Pass.

I'm going to assume that you're arriving in Venice from Paris. By plane?

Just about anywhere on the island of Venice will work. Being close to a vaporetto stop is a big plus. Don't stay in Mestre- it's cheaper, but you DONT want to have to take the train back and forth. Since you're both young, do your research on the Rolling Venice card. It could save you a lot of €€€ on transportation in Venice.

Try to stay in the historic center of Florence. It's all easily walkable, and as mentioned, is only minutes walking from the train station.

For Rome, try to find something in the historic center, preferably close to a metro line or bus stop. Have a look at where Rick's recommended hotels are and find something nearby.

The most important thing is to get a good Italian guidebook and start planning. Use TripAdvisor for reviews. The guidebook likely won't have recommended Airbnbs. But I've seen some on Booking.com. I also use them to look at hotels (but usually book directly with the hotel when possible).

If you aren't used to train travel in Europe, spend some time with The Man in Seat 61 https://www.seat61.com This is an excellent learning tool and guide. Remember, when planning your days, that you will lose almost a day between your place in Paris and your place in Venice. You'll lose a half day each when you move to Florence and Rome.

9 days (actually much less due to travel times) isn't nearly enough time to see all 3 of these cities. You might want to consider adding a couple more days or dropping Florence.

I agree that 9 days is not enough to enjoy all three cities, let alone do the kinds of activities you've listed.

Get a good guidebook like the Rick Steves one, read up, and set your priorities. For example, you could leave Venice on an early morning train, stop in Florence and get a brief taste of that city for part of the day, then take a late afternoon train the rest of the way to Rome.

Why do you want to limit yourselves to AirBnb? You'll be staying in each place for such a short time, so it's not like you'd want an apartment where you'd do your own cooking and live as "temporary locals" for a couple of weeks.

You only have nine days. Consider going to just two places because you will lose most of a day each time you change locations. That will leave you with only seven full days. It's not just the travel time, it's also the time lost checking out, getting to the trains station, the actual point to point travel time, getting to the new hotel, checking in, unpacking, and etc. This may be one of those cases where less is more. Don't mean to sound like Debbie Downer, just offering food for thought.

For such short stays, 2 or 3 nights in each city, you might want to consider B&Bs or small hotels where your breakfast is supplied and you can take advantage of the local knowledge the owner/host can give you.

We liked B&B http://www.aitagliapietra.com/ in Venice very much, for example, on our first trip there. Or try hotel http://www.caangeli.it/.

Over the last 17 years, we have stayed in many B&B's, agriturismi, hotels, booking.com, and airbnb's in Italy. We now almost always stay in airbnb apartments, even for one night. Here's why. The photos and reviews are the most helpful, you are not locked into having breakfast on an establishment's schedule (important if you want to get up early and be on your way quickly), you do not have to vacate your room so they can clean it, it's easy to do laundry, the airbnb hosts are usually very helpful, you usually have more space to live in and more privacy, and it is just fun and interesting to stay in neighborhoods that are slightly out of the main tourist areas even if you plan to spend most of your time doing tourist things. I can't recall any problems using airbnb in Italy and I can recall several staying in hotels, etc.

Have a great time with your nine days and be sure to return!

P.S. We loved staying in Castello in Venice, Testaccio in Rome, and San Frediano in Florence. To answer your actual questions.

nancyscherer8 for old hands with many years of travel, I agree. But when you are on your first trip with very few days, a B&B or small hotel can be helpful, especially with transportation, reservations, language, etc.

Consider doing this order Rome, Florence, Venice. Venice is so magical and beautiful it's a lovely way to cap off your trip.

The main problem with ending your trip in Venice is one that may arise if you have a really early morning flight back to the states. It might be somewhat difficult to get to the airport in the early morning hours. It can be done, but perhaps not as easily as in other cities.

Just my two cents (and I haven't even made it to Italy yet), but my boyfriend and I are essentially doing the same itinerary but slightly shorter (3 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence and 2 in Venice) . We're going in late October/November and this will be our first time in Italy as well. As I'm planning I definitely feel like every visit is a bit truncated but not terribly so. I feel like with the time we have we'll be able to fit in what we want to see, but also allow for meandering and exploring (so we have a list of things for a future return trip).

We're only staying in one AirBnB during the trip, but it looks really nice and is a 4 minute walk to the Trevi Fountain (which is one of my huge draws!!!) https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/16228856?location=Rome%2C%20Metropolitan%20City%20of%20Rome%2C%20Italy&s=GrxedbcW I can follow up and let you know how it is :)

We're slightly older (26/27), but still "young" so we figured we should just do it because who knows when we will make it back!

Sounds like you will have an amazing trip regardless.

A guide book will be really valuable--choosing a list of your must-sees is how to allot your days. I can't say I would do all three in 9 days, but I think the advice to stay in a small hotel or b&b is solid. You don't want to waste time on check ins, etc.--I just think locating an apartment and planning the arrival is more time consuming and limiting. And the help and support a hotel can provide may be useful.