Would appreciate suggestions for how to plan Italy trip . . .

You can easily spend the entire 2 weeks in Italy based on the brief itinerary above. If you can arrange it, fly into Venice (VCE) and fly out of Rome (FCO). You are quite a distance from Paris and London.

We have not gone to Italy yet (going this spring) but we had the same issue! We wanted to go to Paris on the way, but then decided to spend our entire 2 weeks in Italy as it sounds like there is sso much to see & we didn't want to shortchange our visit there. However, if you do find you have time I have heard there are cheap flights you can take between the countries so as not to spend so much time on the train.

My aunt came to Italy last year. She flew into London, stayed for a couple days to see the sites, then took a ryan air flight to Venice (I would use easy jet instead). She spent time with me near Venice then took a train to Florence, then Rome and then another Ryan flight back to London to fly home. That way the international flight was a round trip from London. She saved a lot of $ booking it that way. And they had a great 2 weeks.

Per the itinerary I posted above: we loved Paris, even for the short 2.5 days it was wonderful, so if you decide to add a stop in another country, I'd certainly recommend it. (And stay in Rue Cler!) Flights between Paris and Italy are inexpensive, so Paris could be added to the beginning or end of your Italy vacation. (Check out EasyJet or Vueling).

I think you'd be pushing it to add a 2nd or 3rd country, especially if you want to include the Italian cities AND Tuscany AND the Amalfi coast. This is especially true in the heat and crowds of summer. If you have the option, go in the fall.

Our first European trip was last summer, and we made it a Paris + Italy trip. Our two-week itinerary was as follows:
1. Fly into Paris, arrive A.M., stay 2 nights plus most of a 3rd day.

2. Evening flight to Venice, stay 3 nights
3. Train to Siena, stay 3.5 days. Spent two of those days exploring the Tuscan countryside and hill towns by rental car.
4. Bus to Florence, stay 2 nights
5. Train to Rome, stay 3 nights. Fly home from Rome.

It was a very enjoyable but fairly demanding trip. If we had it to do over again, we'd have added another day in Paris and subtracted a night from Venice. And we certainly shortchanged Rome as well, partly from being tired by that point. Our favorite part of the trip was definitely Siena/Tuscany.

We had 12 days in Italy last summer and it wasn't enough! We flew in Venice and out of Rome and in between was Florence, Sienna, Naples, Pompeii. A couple more days would have made for a more relaxed trip. It's tough not to take the attitude "I'm spending all this money, we're going to see as much as possible." All the extra travelling to London or Paris will eat into the fun time you could have in 1 place.

Thanks for the quick responses--all this advice is very helpful! We need to make our flight reservations by the end of the week, so all of your advice is helping us to narrow down our itinerary so we can decide where to fly in/out of Italy/Europe. We originally thought about trying to cover 2-3 countries, but we are getting more comfortable with the idea of just staying in Italy the entire time. If, however, we were going to go to one other country, do you guys think France (Paris) is the place to go?

I agree that a two-week trip is best spent in Italy, alone, given the tremendous diversity of cultures and sites Italia offers the traveler. Last summer, in two weeks, we flew into Naples, spent three nights in nearby Sorrento (with day trips to Capri and the Amalfi Coast), three nights in Florence (with day trip to Cortona, although Siena could be done easily, too), two nights in Cinque Terre (looking back, we should have stayed for three), and a day trip to Milano (lunch, shopping, duomo, Last Supper) on the way to Stresa on Lago di Maggiore (2 nights), and then, finally, three nights in Venice, flying home from there. Was amazing! More itineraries and other ideas available on my blog. Good luck!

You have to make your own decisions, but the more places you visit the less time you will have to enjoy the places you visit. That's not because each stay is shorter, but because you will be consuming valuable vacation time moving across the continent.

It would make sense to sacrifice the time and money to go to Paris or London if there wasn't enough to do in Italy. But, clearly you have an ambitious wish list for that country alone.

My last trip was 18 days, meaning 15 days on the ground all of which were spent in Tuscany. This allowed us to maximize the time we spent sightseeing and exploring instead of dashing off to train stations. It means thinking about where I will get gelato and climbing up to Piazza Michelangelo instead of worrying about check-out times, storing luggage, flight schedules, catching a cab and sitting at the airport.

You have to choose your own pace and style, clearly I'm pretty opinionated about mine. What you should take away from this is the basic principle that less scurrying around gives you more time for fun.