a week in Italy(first time)

[wije]

I know I know, a week isn't enough but that's all we got for spring break in March. My original plan was to spend three days in Rome, two in Florence, and then one each in Venice and Milan. However, my wife wants to carve some time from Florence to see Bologna. We have to return home from Milan because we had gotten a good deal on the plane tickets from there.

We'd welcome any insights for itinerary, where to stay and eat, etc.

[newDDS]

I am sure you will be getting a lot of you are trying to do too much with the amount of areas and timeframe, but you can do it.

Assuming you are flying into Rome, from there you could save time by having a home base at one or two of those other cities and then take day trips to those cities. The Milan train station is large and efficient, last time I was there we stayed at a hotel near the station and then you can get to Venice in about 2 hours and the same for other cities.

Enjoy!

[MJD]

Personal opinion - skip Venice in favor of the other major cities you mention. Beautiful, but we found the food, crowds, and prices to be the least desirable of any of the major cities.

You'll have just enough time to hit all the really high points of the other cities and you'll be hustling...but just being in Italy, even with a packed schedule, probably beats the pants off being at home! Enjoy.

[gtd98765]

I am sure you will be getting a lot of you are trying to do too much with the amount of areas and timeframe, but you can do it.

Assuming you are flying into Rome, from there you could save time by having a home base at one or two of those other cities and then take day trips to those cities. The Milan train station is large and efficient, last time I was there we stayed at a hotel near the station and then you can get to Venice in about 2 hours and the same for other cities.

Enjoy!

Agree in concept with home base, but think Bologna would be better place to stay than Milan since it is on the list anyway, and much closer to Venice. Maybe take the train from Florence to Bologna in the evening to avoid wasting daylight touring time? Good train info here: https://www.seat61.com/

I would travel to Milan the night before your departure. It is a nice enough city but from a tourism standpoint the others are much more interesting.

[BarbBrooklyn]

If you have to be in Milan, book a reservation to see The Last Supper. Do it right now. In your shoes, I would travel then to Florence and do the Uffizi and ACADEMIA (David) Then to Rome to see the Vatican and Roman sights. Can you not fly open jaws?

[Pacific]

Personal opinion - skip Venice in favor of the other major cities you mention. Beautiful, but we found the food, crowds, and prices to be the least desirable of any of the major cities.

You'll have just enough time to hit all the really high points of the other cities and you'll be hustling...but just being in Italy, even with a packed schedule, probably beats the pants off being at home! Enjoy.

+1

Venice is an unusual experience, but if you only have a week, skip it and do it some other time.

Do NOT cut Florence short. You will be seeing two of my favorite CITIES (Rome, Florence) in Italy, but missing out on the most beautiful part -- Tuscany.

[michaeljc70]

I was in Milan once and don't have to go back. If I had a week, I'd spend it in Rome and Florence/Tuscany. How will you be traveling around?

[calmaniac]

Rome and Florence- 7 days. To do more than 2 cities in one week is a waste of your time.

Forget Venice, whatever you can see in one day is more than offset by the Disney-esque grotesquerie. Yes, there are charming parts that Venice lovers will tell you about. However, you will not find those on a first visit. You will also burn up a full day on the round trip flight.

Forget Milan. I like Milan, but it does not compare to Rome or Florence for first time tourists.

I don't see the point in "hitting all the spots". For one, the added travel ends up decreasing your time to actually enjoy being in Italy. Unless you really like Airports, hotels, and train stations, take it slow or at least poco adagio.

[TheDoorMan19]

Please provide some background info on things you are plan to do on the trip. For instance, do you want to spend all day in a museum?

I am not a museum guy, so I was happy just walking around these places. Which means a day (not even a night) in Milan was enough and a day (8 hours) in Venice was enough. Basically enough to get the feel. But rome is where all the action is at if you have never been there - so many neat buildings from thousands of years ago that even if you don’t like history or architecture it’s fascinating. And so I went from Rome (three days) to Florence (one or two days) with a side trip to Sienna (one day) and then to Venice (one day) and Milan (one day). Frankly I don’t remember anything about Milan other than that there were two McDonald’s literally across the street from each other near the train station. If I had to do it over again I’d actually stay in Milan one night but spend the entire day a tour in the mountains or crystal blue streams near lake cuomo (though I don’t remember how far it was). That is just one man’s opinion.

[Bogle7]

Roma
Firenze
Forget the others
See more on your next visit

[jabberwockOG]

Trying to see all those places not a good plan. Trying to cover that much ground especially in Italy will mostly be consumed with logistics, slow as molasses check in clerks, lines everywhere and airport and train stations waiting rooms.

I'd stick with with two spots maximum. And if it has to be big cities, maybe Rome and Florence, or Florence and Venice, then just last night in Milan just to get to the airport to fly out.

We personally do not like big cities so for us the week would be spent touring the smaller towns with a focus on Tuscany region with maybe one day with the tourist hordes in Florence because the museums collections are quite good.

The major tourist sites in the big cities are overrun daily by 60+ tour bus loads of loons hellbent on taking a selfie-stick cell phone pic of every single object, statue, painting, and "view" of Florence (ditto for Rome and Venice). Many folks seem to be able to ignore the hordes and tourist lunacy and enjoy these places (sadly I am not one of them).

[Raybo]

First, give up any idea of actually seeing everything in any of the cities you visit. Pick a list of things you want to see in each place, determine if you can buy tickets on-line, and then create a schedule around those sites. Like others have said, choose 2 cities (my choices would be Florence and Rome) and do as much there as time and your energy allow.

Keep in mind that Florence is a city of day-trippers who come in for the day and cause over-crowding in the main sights (Duomo, Uffize, Accademia). This is why reservations are needed in these places. In the morning and evening, it will be "quieter". Note that day trips to Siena and hiking in the hills around Florence are worthwhile, as well.

As for Rome, there is simply too much to see. Do you want to see Roman sites? The Vatican and other religious sights? Don't miss the Doria Pamphili for some exceptional art, again reservations required. Again, make a list and set a schedule.

Good luck and have a great time. Italy is full of wondrous places and people.

[Watty]

Venice is an unusual experience, but if you only have a week, skip it and do it some other time.

I agree, the way to enjoy Venice is to get away from the prime tourist areas(which are a zoo) and then mostly just wander and get semi-lost. You can't really do that in a rush.

If you are at all interested in science then see the Museo Galileo in Florence. It is basically located on the backside of the Uffizi.

https://www.museogalileo.it/en/

I am sure you will be getting a lot of you are trying to do too much with the amount of areas and timeframe, but you can do it.

Assuming you are flying into Rome, from there you could save time by having a home base at one or two of those other cities and then take day trips to those cities.

A couple of problems to consider.

1) Many flights there are overnight and you may arrive very early in the morning. In addition to being tired there can be flight delays so you would not want to have reservations for things like the Vatican the first day.

2) The second day you are there you may still be somewhat jetlagged. If you get up early and get to some place like the Vatican at 9:00 AM that might mean that you would need to get up at 7:00 AM, which is the same as 1:00 AM on the east coast and you will not be fully used to Rome time. Don't plan on getting out super early the second day.

3) Many of the museums in Rome are closed on Monday which will impact you if you arrive there on a weekend. They will also be busier on Sunday and Tuesday because people will shift when they go there. The other tourist sights will be busier on Monday.

Three days in Rome will feel pretty rushed since the window to do the highlights may not be all that big.

Read the Rick Steves book for suggestions on how to best avoid the lines and which tickets you should buy in advance.

3) When you change cities you need to figure out what to do with your luggage. Even if you are just traveling with a backpack many sites will not allow them. That will involve either leaving it at your hotel before or after the checkin/checkout time or checking it at the train station, if they have a luggage check. Even if that works out it will take valuable time to drop off or pick up your luggage. Having a hotel very near the train station will help. (Also remember that there are multiple train stations in many cities. )

As suggested using a town as a base of operations to do day trips out of will let you leave your luggage in your hotel room

[Ztx]

Depends on what you like doing. We don't do museums , for example, so we just mostly wander and enjoy the atmosphere. With that in mind we had 3 days in Rome and 2 in Florence and it was plenty (do spend few days driving around Tuscany if you have time)

We really enjoyed Venice (and all other cities too) so I personally wouldn't skip it. Agree on the advice to skip Milan though.

[Pacific]

Venice is an unusual experience, but if you only have a week, skip it and do it some other time.

I agree, the way to enjoy Venice is to get away from the prime tourist areas(which are a zoo) and then mostly just wander and get semi-lost. You can't really do that in a rush.

We were never semi-lost in Venice. We were often totally lost.

That Galileo Museum is outstanding.

[fasteddie911]

We spent a week in Italy seeing those exact same cities except Milan and found it to be enough. Of course it depends on what you like to do and how your travel. We're not museum people, we just like to see the popular sites but spend most of the time wandering the streets, eating, etc. Many discourage fast travel but that's how we like to travel and never felt deprived for it, including Italy. I understand the limited time, possibly limited funds, and you don't know when you'll be back again. If your wife really wants to see bologna, I'd carve out time for it. It really depends on how your schedule is setup and what you want to see and do in each city. I could see 2 full days in Rome being enough, or one full day in Florence. I think if I had to choose I'd cut out a day in rome vs florence. Venice I think is some place you should see at least once, we spent only a day there, which was enough and we're glad we saw it but probably won't ever go back.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

If you have to be in Milan, book a reservation to see The Last Supper. Do it right now. In your shoes, I would travel then to Florence and do the Uffizi and ACADEMIA (David) Then to Rome to see the Vatican and Roman sights. Can you not fly open jaws?

Spend 2 days in Rome, spend 3 days in Florence. Book your tickets for Gli Accademia (Statue of David) and Uffizi Museum in advance (look it up online). Recommend in Rome to visit the Borghese gallery of into art (tickets for this must be purchased in advance online, no tix sold on site), located next to National Park in Rome. You could spend a whole day in Vatican City - Sistine chapel (remember, “no fotographia”). Take the express Train from Rome to Florence (about 2.25 hours). It’s a little seedy around Rome train station.

[Hockey10]

That is too many locations for 1 week. Stick to 2 hotel locations, with maybe a day trip to one of the areas you are interested in.

I like to plan trips in terms of nights instead of days. You say "3 days in Rome". Does that mean on day 1 you arrive (no doubt jet lagged), day 2 is a full day and day 3 you leave? If so, that means you have only 1 full quality day in Rome.

I would suggest 3-4 nights in Rome and 3-4 nights in Florence. That gives you 2-3 full days at each location. While in Florence, take a day trip to Tuscany. You can also take the short train trip to Bologna from Florence. Venice is a unique city that is worth a visit, but I would save that for a future trip when you have more time.

In Rome, I have stayed near the Spanish Steps, which is a good central location for walking to most of the sites.

[camden]

Rome, Florence, and Venice are all fascinating, but with such a narrow time frame I would strongly recommend doing two of them rather than trying to squeeze in all three.

[Shallowpockets]

Too many places not enough time.
Travel plans are a process. You have your target and then you get all the peripheral things you want to see and go and then you whittle it down to reality. If you want to see all those things you mention then you should lay out, on paper, a proposed itinerary, with times of transport, arrivals, departures. Times of sights to see, opening hours, tickets, transport to there fom hotel. With this you can see graphically how it will go (or not). Then you make your adjustments.
Whether or not people on this forum concur with so many cities or not in their answers, it is still true that you should plan as above to see if it is possible.
We do this all the time for every trip. And usually we do not make it inclusive of all we thought at the beginning.
You have one week. What do you think you can really and enjoyably do?
So take your original posted desires for this trip and run them through the mill and see if you think it will wotk.
I would not do it. Two cities are enough and perhaps a day trip out of one of them.
Do not adopt a cruise ship expectation of one day in every place.

[wije]

You say "3 days in Rome". Does that mean on day 1 you arrive (no doubt jet lagged), day 2 is a full day and day 3 you leave? If so, that means you have only 1 full quality day in Rome.

3 nights in Rome. We arrive in the evening. The next day is day 1. We leave Rome for Florence on the evening of day 3.

I like your Tuscany day trip idea. Would you recommend renting a car or going on a tour?

[Hockey10]

You say "3 days in Rome". Does that mean on day 1 you arrive (no doubt jet lagged), day 2 is a full day and day 3 you leave? If so, that means you have only 1 full quality day in Rome.

3 nights in Rome. We arrive in the evening. The next day is day 1. We leave Rome for Florence on the evening of day 3.

I like your Tuscany day trip idea. Would you recommend renting a car or going on a tour?

We did not rent a car when in Florence. Instead, we took a winery tour of Tuscany. This was a great tour with a pickup and drop off in Florence:

http://tuscantrails.com/chianti.html

[wije]

Does anyone have recommendations for places or neighborhoods to stay in Rome and Florence?

Also, what are must-see attractions in those two areas that require advance booking? (I was too late to get a ticket for the Last Supper in Milan)

[Caduceus]

Your itinerary sounds like a bad idea, to be honest. You are trying to do too much in a short time, so what is going to happen is you will spend a good portion of your vacation transiting between places, packing and re-repacking, checking in and checking out, waiting for trains and buses and cabs, etc.

Seven days is a good amount of time for a tourist to experience one or two cities. My suggestion is for you and your partner to choose two cities based on your interests, and then really explore it in a relaxed manner.

If you will be able to catch Carnival in Venice (you said you were going in March?), you should totally go. It's become fashionable to hate on Venice because of its "touristy" nature, but there are very, very few cities like it, where you can experience an entire city whose fundamentals - its architecture, waterways, sculptures, soundscapes - bear a striking resemblance to the past. Rome is not like that. Nor Florence. If you go deep into Southern Italy, deep into Sicily, you might experience something like a step into the past. But still nothing like Venice. Venice and Toledo in Spain are among my favorite cities on earth, so I am admittedly biased.

My guess is that for most first-time travelers to Italy, Florence and Venice will approximate most of what "Italy" captures in the popular imagination. Maybe three days in Florence, and three days in Venice. Take your time, explore the side streets, get hopelessly lost. Have leisurely lunches in cafes. Don't rush through five places in seven days.

[HereToLearn]

Does anyone have recommendations for places or neighborhoods to stay in Rome and Florence?

Also, what are must-see attractions in those two areas that require advance booking? (I was too late to get a ticket for the Last Supper in Milan)

We managed to visit Venice, Florence & Rome in eight nights & days, but it was a lot of moving, even with the excellent high speed trains. If you plan to travel by train, book early because the prices run up as you approach your travel date. I really enjoyed Venice to just walk around, but I might sacrifice it unless you are someone who really likes to hustle.

Must-see advance booking would be Borghese Gallery and climbing the Dome (Cupola) in Florence.

We purchased the FirenzeCard and took full advantage of it. We did not wait in line at the Uffizi or the Accademia because there is a separate line for FirenzeCard holders. We visited so many more museums than we would have without the card because the entry fee is waived with the card purchase, and we did not need to book in advance and worry about adhering to a schedule. There are so many gorgeous churches, museums, and gardens in Florence.

http://www.firenzecard.it/index.php?opt ... 05&lang=en

I would consider booking a tour of the Vatican/Sistine Chapel. We did not book any tours, but that is one place where we would have saved time. A friend went on an early morning visit and enjoyed it.

As mentioned above, the Rick Steves book includes helpful suggestions on where to purchase tickets to avoid lines. Huge time saver when purchasing tickets for the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum. The ticket purchase line at the Colosseum itself was outgrageous.

Head over to Trastevere for dinner some evening, and then walk past the Colosseum at night.

[MathWizard]

Roma
Firenze
Forget the others
See more on your next visit

+1

Also, take the bullet train from Rome to Florence (Firenze).

200 kph and smooth as glass. 1 stop.

[letsgobobby]

I know I know, a week isn't enough but that's all we got for spring break in March. My original plan was to spend three days in Rome, two in Florence, and then one each in Venice and Milan. However, my wife wants to carve some time from Florence to see Bologna. We have to return home from Milan because we had gotten a good deal on the plane tickets from there.

We'd welcome any insights for itinerary, where to stay and eat, etc.

we did three days in Florence which was great, and seven days in Rome which barely scratched the surface. with 2500 years of history you could probably spend a lifetime and not get bored. we stayed in a VRBO on campo di fiori and the central location was completely worth it.

would skip the rest for another time unless you hate cities.

[Misciagno]

I lived in Florence for three years and can say truthfully, do not cut it short. Like others have said, skip Venice for now, add that day to Florence, and do a trip from Florence to Bologna. It’s only half an hour on the fast train - easy day trip. Go see Mohamed on the rocks at the Bologna Cathedral for the extra 2 euro entrance fee, and get the risotto scraped out of a Parmesan cheese wheel for lunch, or the Bolognese veal cutlet.

In Florence, do at least half a day in Chianti - I recommend the Verrazano winery - it’s an easy and beautiful drive, and you can do the tour and have a great lunch. The American military cemetery is on the way and worth a visit to the 4400 American soldiers buried there. The Santa Margarita wine shop is right up the road from the winery and sells good wines from all over Italy. Back in Florence, check out the Galileo Museum after the Uffizi and Academia. It’s small and awesome. For a Dan Brown “Inferno” experience, do the Vasari Corridor tour from the Uffizi for a few extra bucks, and go see the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace if the weather is nice. The corridor connects the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace bia a “secret” passage over the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge).

Rome is what you expect, so see the highlights and enjoy - pay extra for a guided tour to avoid some of the ridiculous lines, and check out the Palatine Museum and forum. There’s also an “underground Rome” tour of some excavated city areas that’s interesting. Eat the artichokes in Rome - it’s the specialty.

Florence has nice hotels - St. Regis, Westin - also some boutique hotels like the Portrait, where Tom Hanks stayed when filming Inferno. Lots of 3-4 star accommodations in any case. Above all, drink lots of wine!

[tennisplyr]

If you want a small taste of Italy, what you're doing is fine. It's pretty easy to get good meals...from basic to expensive goes something like this...trattoria, osteria, ristorante, I believe. Enjoy, the weather should be nice.

[renue74]

We went to Italy a few years ago. Did Venice, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, Milan.

First! Figure out what type of tourist you are. I know it sounds weird, but are you a city person? Are you a religious person? Do you like art? Music? History? Are you more of a foodie? Do you enjoy hiking, learning about wine, growing food, etc.?

After you figure out what type of tourist you are....then plan your trip. In our travels, we visited one agriturismo near Florence and had lunch there. The owner and his wife made lunch for a group of 20. He described his day to day life. Answered questions about olive oil, wine, etc. We had wonderful food and wine and the farm views were beautiful. That's my most memorable part of our trip.

So think about long and hard what you want to see. Don't just see something because it's on the list for everybody else to see.

Each city has Citi Pass type cards. For example, "Firenze Card," will get you discounts on museums, etc. Depending on what you choose, purchasing these cards will be helpful.