Cities to visit in Italy

jemmini6

So after much deliberation, my H and I have finally decided to go to Italy only on our upcomming vacation.  Now, the question is how long to stay in each destination.  I think we've decided to do Venice, Florence and Rome, and we will be in Italy for 10 - 12 days.  My question is, how long should we stay in each place?  Should they be equal, or should we stay longer in one place over the other?

For those who have been to any of those places, what would you recommend?  What attractions were your favorites?  What should we absolutely not miss?  Any day trips to other close cities that we should consider?  (we definitely want to do a day trip to the Cinque Terre and Pisa from Florence, but any suggestions from Venice and Rome?)

nwwoodsybride

I highly recommend Cinque Terre (5 cities) It's on the coast and it wasn't in my plan but I used almost an entire week there. Incredible. I had a summer to get through 6 countries and I spent the longest time there.

If I were doing it all again I would arrive in Rome and spend 2/3 nights there seeing the colosium area. Things are pretty close together so I walked the whole area. Then take a taxi/bus to the Vatican for a day. 

I'd stay 2 nights in Venice. You can take a taxi for really cheap out to an island. I went to the beach there and rented a bike for the day.  I would stay 4 nights in Cinque Terre. 

Milan and Florence were ok... the Tower of Piza you could see from the train and get off, get over there and take the next train, but I have no regrets not getting off the train.

I used Rick Steve's guide and enjoyed his recomendtions. When I went I wasn't into wine but there was a small group of wine cities he mentioned that I almost went to. Can't remember what they are called. But he gave excellent advice and since I didn't have much time (1 week for each country) he said what the best things to see were. 

I'd use the remainder of my days in those wine cities or see what other people recommend.

monkeysip

With 10-12 days, I wouldn't cram too much in.  Cinque Terra, Venice, Florence, and Rome would be plenty, especially with traveling time.

I've only been to Rome, Florence, and Assisi, but I loved Rome.  I wouldn't spend more than a couple days in Florence, but I did love the museums there (Uffizi and Academia).  I love art, and seeing the David statue in person was breathtaking. 

As I've said before on these boards, I could live in Rome.  So many areas there where you could spend a whole day.  Must see list is St. Peter's basilica and Colosseum, but there's so much more.  A fun day trip is taking the train down to Ostia and Ostia Antiqua.  Ostia is the beach closest to Rome, and Ostia Antiqua is a cool little town of ruins.

MrsGandthebeag

I would do 2-3 nights in Venice.  It's my favorite city in the world, but very expensive to stay.  I would do 5 nights or more  in Rome.  When dh and I stayed there at the end of our hm, we were there for 4 nights.  We didn't see everything and we were going from morning til night walking the city.  It is beautiful and there's so much to see/do.  I would suggest a private guide for the vatican.  You can do the coloseum on your own.  There's so many churches in the area, each one more beautiful than the next.  I've never seen so many in my life.  There's the spanish steps and trevi fountain of course.  You know, I've been to Italy probably 15 times in my life and have never been to Florence.  So, I'm no help to you there.  

nycrose2013

Make sure to get gelato near the Trevi fountain in Rome, and walk along the area leading to the Spanish steps. Enjoy!

LadyBug78

Def visit Cinque Terre. We stayed in this 3 room Inn in Room Venere...it was INCREDIBLE. It was 100 € a night....direct view onto the ocean, so romantic. Its in Riomaggiore

Lorenza's email is : info@casalorenza.it

Do not miss Cinque Terre....

alithebride

ive been to florence 3x, rome 2x and venice 1x all within the last 4.5 years.

how long you should spend in each place depends on you and your interests. you need to do research.

frankly i would not lose time in florence just to visit the tower of pisa. it's interesting and the church next to it is beautiful but pisa in itself is a great town and you can always go back

here's the 10000000 dollar question though: do the 10 or 12 days include travel days to and from italy from the US?

lets assume you have 12 days. you fly overnight and arrive on day 1. days 1-4 rome. morning of day 4 you take the 90 minute train to florence. Days 5-8 florence. In the morning of day 8 you take the train to venice. days 8-12 venice.
that's only 3 ni ghts in each place. .to put another city in there, imo, is not worth it.
if you have only 10 days i'd cut venice. rome and florence are close and easy to do together.  there is one issue though-no flights from the us go non stop to florence. you either have to get back to rome or have a layover in another city. just keep it in mind.

tiny speck

If you go down to Sicily check out the Valley of Temples near Agrigento. Ancient Greek temples. Pretty awesome.

derksenriley

My mom and I did Rome, Florence, Venice for her 50th birthday, in that order, and we took the train in between.  I think it depends on what your interests are, but I'd say we didn't give ourselves enough time in Rome - I think we were there for 3 nights but the first 48 hours were pretty jetlagged so I didn't enjoy Rome as much as I'd have liked to.  We went in the winter and from what I hear things are much more crowded at other times of year so you have to build in time for waiting to get into museums etc. as well.  My favorite was Venice and my mom loved Florence.  I loved the food in Florence too, it seemed like everyplace we tried was good, whereas in Rome there were so so many restaurants everywhere it was hard to know which ones were good.  I would plan on an extra night in the city you fly into (for us it was Rome) because you may be too jetlagged to do everything you think you can do.  I think 3 nights in Florence was good (are you into art?) and probably 3 in Venice - because it's kind of a long train ride from Florence.

jemmini6

Okay, so questions now on getting around....  Did you find it easy/hard to navigate cities?  Do you need to know a certain amount of Italian?  Did you use cash or credit?  Did you buy an international calling card?  Did you do a lot of guided tours, or just walk around on your own? Etc.