venice, rome and then naples?

I just flew out of Naples Airport 3 days ago. I found it to be very clean and modern and had no concerns about it. In my opinion, flying out of Rome v. Naples is a matter of price and which city you end your vacation on. Depending which train you catch Rome and Naples are approximately 1:10 to 1:30 hours apart.

As far as what order to visit, it makes most sense to me to do either Venice, Rome, Naples or Naples, Rome, Venice as that is the geographical order. If you put Venice in between the two you will just be spending extra time on a train backtracking North/South or South/North through the country.

If you can, try to fly into either Venice or Naples and out of the other. This way there is no backtracking involved.

Donna

If you fly home (your profile gives no clue about where in the USA) from Venice your connecting flight is likely to leave Venice VERY early in the morning, a frequent problem addressed here on the Helpline.

I second the idea of NOT flying out of Venice. At least a few years ago, the airport pretty much shut down overnight and the flights to the USA seem to leave very early.

Well, I am flying on United Miles next spring, and I was surprised to find a US Air flight leaving Venice at a little after 11:00 AM for Philadelphia, then connecting to the west coast. Certainly worth the effort to check it out.

There are very very few flights that depart either Venice or Naples that go directly to the USA. Same with Pisa. If you fly other international carriers such as Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France or their USA travel partners such as United, American, Delta, etc. you can easily fly into and out of Venice or Naples from their home country airports. Yes, flights leave as early as 6:30am in Venice. It is very difficult to get from a hotel on or near the Grand Canal at 4:30am to get to the airport by 5:30am. Check carefully. Naples also has early flights. The whole point of these early flights is to get you to the EU hub airport where you will transfer planes to come home. It's no different here in Sacramento. Super Shuttle picks us up about 3:30-3:45 so that we can make one of the four flights to Denver, Chicago, Houston or Dulles that all depart before 6:10am here at SMF.

Just make sure to fly into one airport (such as Venice) and fly out of another (such as Naples). You don't need to fly out of Rome.

bdv

regarding your question on the order of doing this. I would consider it this way: Naples and Rome are big exciting, overwhelming cities. Venice is a relaxing and serene. So either start big and end up mellow, or the other way around, depending on your idea of a vacation.

Stan's point is great. You'll be getting over jetlag so decide which sounds better - Do you want to slowly wade into the pool, adjusting to the new conditions? If so, start in Venice. Would you rather be thrown into the deep end and get it over with more quickly? Then start in Rome or Naples.

We've been to Italy four times. One of those times we started in Rome and ended in Venice. Most recently we did the reverse. We found we preferred Venice at the start, as a way to more easily adjust to jetlag. But it was only marginally better.

I flew out of Venice along with thousands (it seemed) cruise ship passengers. Bear in mind that many cruises finish in Venice and the relatively small airport is overwhelmed for a few hours.

I'd start in Venice and work my way south. Italy becomes much more culturally intense the further south you get. This gives you a little time to get used to things before you get to rough and tumble Naples.

I have not flown out of Naples so can't comment on that.

Here is another option.

Fly into Venice for many of the reason listed before. Then go directly to Naples and finish in Rome. Yes this is back tracking a bit. However it is so much easier and less stressful to catch a late morning (11AM) flight direct to the USA from Rome than to have to catch an early morning connection (6:30 AM) to someplace to catch the transatlantic flight.
Enjoy that last breakfast at a normal time in Rome at your Hotel then the Taxi to the airport around 8 AM. Plus you had a great last night in Rome where you were not worried about going to bed early and then having to get up at 4AM to get to the airport. It is a great low stress way to finish a trip to Italy. IMO.

Did a similar trip this past fall. Flew out of Naples but had to change in Amsterdam and then Seattle. Naples airport was fine. We trained from Rome to Naples. I would give more days to Rome and Venice than Naples. Two days in Naples was enough. Rome and Venice can take weeks each to see it all. Great cities. You'll have an awesome vacation.