<p>We did a family trip to Italy last summer while my daughter was studying in Florence. I think that 10 days is enough time for Rome, Florence and Venice. You can go from city to city by train. You might want to consider flying into Rome and out of Venice or Florence. Florence has the best shopping, with the open air markets and lots of trendy stores for the girls. People have given you good advice here. It is really helpful to make museum reservations in advance. The Academia museum in Florence was our favorite museum. The statue of David is breathtaking. It sounds like a wonderful trip.</p>
<p>Wow, this is so timely, as I am planning a high school graduation trip to Italy for my family. Current plan is to do two weeks (14 nights), split like this:
Rome -4
Florence -3
Sienna (or Assisi or Perugia) - 3 (any thoughts on which of these would be better?0
Venice -4.</p>
<p>Do you think it is too much? I wanted to throw in one smaller medieval type town with the “big three”. Also do you rent a car? Seems like you need a car to get between cities but a car is a pain in a city? Thoughts/suggestions apprciated. We will have two other kids with us who are quite a bit younger than our high school graduate (a young teen and an elementary schooler). Thanks!</p>
<p>You do not need to rent a car to travel between most cities. Italy’s train system is great. Their highspeed rail, called Eurostar, travels between Rome and Florence in 1.5 hours. There is a slower local train that will do the same distance in 3. I used the Eurostar and it was great. Be sure to get to the train station early as the high speed trains usually aren’t late.</p>
<p>I have heard that renting a car for say a day trip out into the countryside can be a good idea, but you can also take a bus.</p>
<p>Shopping - Prada and Gucci outlets outside of of Florence.</p>
<p>I am also in the camp of fewer places and more time. We have spent a lot time in Tuscany, Milan (Lake Como area), and Venice. Venice is one place not to be missed. I don´t care how polluted or crowded, it is magical, especially when it´s very early at the St. Mark Square.</p>
<p>I am planning a trip to Italy with our family, it is also a post graduation trip for D1. We are thinking about renting a villa just north of Rome by a seaside town. Since we have never been to Rome, we will spend more time there. Unfortunately, due to D2´s summer program(s), we may not have 2 weeks. </p>
<p>We drive in Italy, and it is not that scary. The challenge is parking. Since we don´t read Italian, we are not good at reading Italian parking rules, so we genrally park in a parking garage. We did get our car towed once at Lucca, that was the highlight of that particular trip. A good way of getting around Italy is via train if you don´t want to drive, but it maybe hard to get to smaller towns.</p>
<p>One thing I want to say about Italy is you could never get a bad meal there. It could be the smallest, inepxensive restaurant, and you could have great pasta, grilled seafood, chicken, and wine.</p>
<p>One small town(maybe not so small) - Lucca. Great walking town, good restaurants.</p>
<p>We have also spent a lot of time on the east coast of Italy, less touristy, less expensive, a lot of shoe manufacturing companies (Todd, Prada and many small mom and pops factories). It´s an Italy most people don´t see.</p>
<p>Depending where you want to fly out of, it maybe cheaper or direct into Milan or Rome. I would just fly into either one, and take a fast train to where you want to go, instead of flying. Domestic flights are often delayed due to weather, and trains are very fast and comfortable.</p>
<p>
We used to joke there are only two churches in Italy Santo Sempre Chiuso and Santo In Restauro.</p>
<p>Regarding your schedule, I’d spend less time in Venice.</p>
<p>mathmom, was the comment on schedule for me?
Rome -4
Florence -3
Sienna (or Assisi or Perugia) - 3 (any thoughts on which of these would be better?0
Venice -4.</p>
<p>What would you suggest?</p>
<p>Aniger, if it were me I’d spend 2 or 3 days in Venice. I think it’s overpriced and too touristy. It’s beautiful of course, but there’s better art in other cities. (Though as an architect - there are a few must see Palladio buildings.)</p>
<p>I’m the opposite type of traveler to many here - I like to get around and would rather not stay in one place for what I’d term ‘too long’. Given that, and given that I usually travel without hotel reservations and usually have a rental car, I usually try to come up with a rough route and then stay as long or as short in a particular place or sometimes skip it altogether and maybe stay somewhere else I didn’t even know existed. </p>
<p>But I also don’t shop when I’m on vacation and don’t enjoy hanging around half the day sipping coffee in a restaurant. I like to maximize my time there by seeing as much as possible since I always have less vacation time there than I’d like.</p>
<p>It all depends on what one wants to see and their style of traveling.</p>
<p>Your schedule would be too much time in some of these places for me but it depends on what you plan to do there as to whether it’s too much time or not enough.</p>
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<p>We managed to get lots of bad meals there. We thought we were avoiding the “touristy” restaurants - we didn’t go to the places with laminitated menus in 5 languages. But we still found lots of bad food…e.g. entrees using canned mushrooms. We stopped at what looked like a charming small place. I ordered a cheese plate and watched as they took the cheese out of the grocery store packaging. In a restaurant on the Campo di Fiori - canned black olives. BUT, I don’t think we found any bad gelato.</p>
<p>Uscd dad, ahhh, I used to travel like that too…before the three kids. If you travel like that with young kids, more power to you. I feel liken pack mule nowadays and just checking in and out of a hotel can be a production. In any case, all suggestions welcome. Any thoughts on Siena vs assisi vs Perugia? If we cut Venice to three nights, which shd we increase?</p>
<p>Aniger - </p>
<p>I’d go to Bologna instead of Perugia, or to Lucca instead of Assisi. Bologna is a beautiful, underrated city and it has the best food in Italy (arguably, of course). Lucca is a very interesting walled city, and its close proximity to Florence, the sea, and other locales make it a good destination.</p>
<p>Regarding the original OP’s itinerary; we always mix in a seaside location along with the cities. To visit Italy without even seeing the Mediterranean is nearly criminal. In the summer, the seaside towns are full of Italians and the cities are full of tourists. Museums and churches can become repetitive, no matter how beautiful, and children especially can become very weary of touring. It is nice to experience the festive summer atmosphere of one of these towns. Most of them have nightly music in the piazza, fireworks and other festivals. It’s also fun to visit a lido and experience a world-class lunch while wearing a swimming suit. Some of my favorite resort towns are Santa Margherita, Positano, and Taormina - and there are many others.</p>
<p>I would go south to Naples - then to Positano, Ravello or Capri, or head north to Rapallo, Santa Margherita and Portofino - from there I would spend a day in the Cinque Terre.</p>
<p>O yes, I vote with gourmetmom! The seaside/smaller towns are wonderful according to my friend who lived there for 2 years.</p>
<p>Another option is to add to your stay in any of the big three and make side trips to smaller towns. In our last stay in Florence we rented an apartment near Fielsole(hills of Florence) for a few weeks, and took trains or buses for day trips to Arezzo, Sienna,Lucca, and Pisa. For example, Arezzo is a 30 to 45 minute train ride to Florence.It’s nice to “settle in” for 5-6 days and get a sense of place. Conversely, to avoid the crowds of Venice, you could stay in Verona , Mantova, or Vicenza and make side trips to Venice and the surrounding Veneto. I lived in Florence and later Venice (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and I love them, but both can be INSANE during tourist season.</p>
<p>If it’s Siena vs Perugia, I’d do Siena. It’s really a day trip. The zebra striped cathedral, the big square, the gorgeous views and walking around. </p>
<p>I think you can definitely get bad food in Italy, it’s worth checking out the food guides.</p>
<p>I tend to ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad methods, but have learned that sometimes the slow days are equally valuable. I try to take my watercolors with me and spend at least a few hours of every vacation just painting. Last time we were in Venice instead of going to Murano we went to Torcello to see the Byzantine cathedral, but then had a lovely afternoon painting and eating the best pignola cookies I’ve ever had.</p>
<p>Verona btw has a very interesting art museum that combines modern architecture with the old ruins. Also if you are there at the right time of year you can see opera in their Colosseum.</p>
<p>Really like some of these suggestions. Considering Verona now for a few days or a beach town for a break from intense touring. Is there a beach town particularly convenient to include as part of Rome Florence Italy trip that would be historic and attractive? Maybe one in cinque terre?</p>