Travel from Venice to Florence to Assisi to Rome

What do you get for your $500 in Venice? A van won't get far on the flooded roads. For half that you can get 8 people and luggage into Venice from the airport by water taxi.

6 adults? Or any half-fares?

$1,000.00 just for moving between 4 cities in a straight line?

EDIT> my off the cuff calculation for the water taxi in Venice is pessimistic. It is only $160 (or somewhat less) for up to 8 people and their luggage from Marco Polo airport to their hotel by water taxi.<

If your schedule is just one night in each place, you will be spending a lot of your time just commuting and checking in to hotels. Do you really want to do that? The train from Assisi to Rome is quite cheap. There are multiple trains each day. There are trains connecting all these places. You will need to crunch numbers and compare costs. It sounds like you want to travel at night and check in at night time. Select hotels with night time desk clerks. Some smaller Inns are difficult to check-in after 6 pm or so.

I agree your tentative itinerary is over priced as Nigel points out. What is the purpose of zipping through 3 wonderful places?
Relating to Barb's input, consider choosing 1 place besides Rome and allowing yourselves time to enjoy your visit.

How many days is your travel without arrival and departure days?

You said tentative suggesting you have made no reservations yet? Is this correct?

Thank you you all for your valuable advise. This is our family first trip to Europe. We will arrive in Venice at noon and have the total of 8 night in Italy. Our children want to have a taste in Venice and Florence before we want to spend majority time explore Rome and Assisi. So far, I only book and paid the hotel in Venice for the first night. The next 7 night has not confirm yet. We tentative reserve a night in Florence and 7 night in Rome, near Vatican. We wonder if we should take a day tour to Assisi or spending a night at Assisi when we leave Florence traveling down to Rome.

Truly, $500 for a day in Venice and $500 for a day in Florence plus $350 for day tour in Assisi are too much for us. That's the reason we need your help and share your experience.

OPTION ONE:
1night in Venice ......
1 night in Florence............What is the best way to travel from Venice to Florence ????
1 night in Assisi
4 night in Rome

OPTION TWO:
1 night in Venice
1 night in Florence
day trip to Assisi and 5 night in Rome.

You can do all of this by train, and if you book early enough, you can get sharply discounted tickets. However, be aware that you cannot change those tickets. And you need to buy well in advance to get the discounts.

See the Deutsche Bahn website for train schedules. I think it's the most user-friendly website. However, you cannot buy tickets for traveling in Italy at that website, and you won't see prices there. You'll need to buy them from the Italian rail website.

Thank you Sherry. Do you have the Italian website address?

The state rail system is Trenitalia. A new private system is Italo. Google will bring them up. Suggest you spend some time w a guidebook--eg, the RS guidebooks are very good on this type of thing. And Google/Yahoo are your friends. They will answer lots of your questions.

How old are the children? It makes a difference in the train ticket pricing. There are some specials that allow children under 15 to travel free on the Venice-Florence train. On Florence-Assisi leg and the Assisi-Rome leg they travel at half price.
My preference (advice if you will) given you seven days to do all of this, is as follows.
1 night in Venice, you arrive noon, everyone will be tired from the flight. Take a water taxi to your hotel, and tour as you feel fit. The next day give it a full day in Venice and take a late train to Florence at about 6:30 pm. If you can get a water taxi for 50 or 60 euro, do it. It will cost 42 euro on the boat bus.
2 nights in Florence, that will give you one full day in the town. Leave early the next morning. You certainly could stop at Assisi for half a day, but I'm concerned about where you can store your luggage for the day. Maybe someone else will have answer. Otherwise head straight to Rome for 4 nights and do Assisi as a day trip.
It is a lot in 7 days for a family of 6. I forgot to ask, you are staying in Venice proper are you not?

Sam's suggestion is about as fast as you can reasonably do it; I would not spend less than two nights each in Venice and Florence. How to Look Up Train Schedules Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. You can see an overview of standard ticket prices on Rick's Italy rail page, and links and Family fare info further down the page. You don't need a railpass for that trip.

According to the excellent site, seat61.com, there are left luggage facilities at the Assisi train station.

Thank you so much Sam, Laura and Tim for your valuable suggestions.
It's have been a challenge to make a decision of where to go in Italy since we have so many interest in our family.

Our kids ages are 13, 17, 19 and 22. One like to walk, other don't. We probably just have a taste of Italy in each area at this time and spend more time experience Rome.

Does the train very rough? Will it be difficult if we each have the check-in luggage and a backpack?
If we understand correctly from Sam's respond, there is a boat taxi from Venice to Florence, right? Or just the train?

Ok, the 13 year old travels at children's rate (half price), the rest are considered adults.
What is the name of you hotel? Depending on where it is, you may be able to walk to the train station, or you may need to take the vaporetto (boat bus) to the train station. It 7 euro per person per ride and no children's discount. The train to Florence should be quite smooth, it is a very modern high speed (+120 mph) train and only makes 3 other stops between Venice and Florence.
Thanks to the previous post, there is apparently a place to check luggage at Assisi, so you could go from Florence to Assisi in the morning, spend much of the day there, then continue on the train to Rome.
The trains for that trip are regional trains, and not as fast or modern as the Venice-Florence train. Also there is no "checked luggage" on any trains. You bring it with you on the trains and store it in the racks above the seats or in luggage racks at the ends of each car.
Get a good guide book for Italy (Rick Steves is good) and bone up on your destinations, especially Venice, since it is different than anywhere else in the world. There are only 2 ways to get around, walk or ride a boat. It will explain what a vaporetto is, what a water taxi is etc. Good Luck.