<p>Florence is one of our favorite cities. It is a small walking city with a lot of sights to see by just walking around. We have been there in the summer and Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our one visit to Rome with the guided tour, but I don’t think I would go back there again. It was too touristy for me. </p>
<p>The one trip we took to Rome, stayed in Rome for a week and then at a Tuscany villa for a week. The villa was so beautiful that we didn’t leave it for few days. We like to do 2 weeks when going to Europe. I don’t like to rush in and out.</p>
<p>If you rent a villa in Tuscany outside of Florence, you could take day trips to Florence, town of Pisa (leaning tower), Lucca (old town), Viareggio (a beach town). It is actually quite easy to drive in Italy.</p>
<p>If you want to go to Amalfi, just go to Rome with that. Plenty to see, experience, do. </p>
<p>Venice is great but you may hate it if you’re there when St. Marks is overwhelmed with tourists. Florence can be that way too; you can feel like it’s all Americans and Germans and motorbikes. (Though nothing is quite like being in a place like Pisa and finding yourself at a massive biker rally. Never saw so many chains worn on people before. Weird setting for weirdness.)</p>
<p>I’ve driven all over Italy. It’s expensive to rent a car, pay for gas, pay tolls, pay for parking. I love Lucca. I love Sienna - one of my favorite places - but you have to make decisions.</p>
<p>Not exactly answering your question, but you might want to check the mini cruises out of Chivitavecchia/Rome as it might offer good values for a visit to the Italian coast plus a couple of destinations. Depending on the season, the prices might be much lower than staying in local hotels and offer a more leisurely filled vacation. Especially, if you had several days of trekking through Venice, Florence, and Rome in 1-2 days bursts. </p>
<p>I found our cruise stops at Venice, near Rome, Pompei region, and Amalfi Coast/Tuscany area just fine. No changing rooms. Many land tours to chose from and no fuss no muss with parking or anything else. Guides were always great too.</p>
<p>OP, my DH & I spent 9 days in Italy this past April. We spent 3 days in Bologna, 3 days in Florence (including Easter), and 3 days in Rome. We flew into Rome, took the fast train to Bologna, which is a beautiful colonnaded medieval city with the world’s oldest university. I didn’t expect to like Bologna as much as I did - it was a pleasant surprise. It is home to some of Italy’s best pasta and the original bolognese sauce. (We had a fantastic dinner at Franco Rossi, a restaurant mentioned in John Grisham’s novel “The Broker” which features a 30 euro prix fixe John Grisham menu.) Then we backtracked by train to Florence and Rome. </p>
<p>Florence is magnificent, regardless of whether you visit the museums or not. It was the home of some of Italy’s greatest writers, philosophers, artists, and of course, the Medicis. If you do plan to visit the museums such the Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, or the Accademia, buy tickets online prior to your trip. You’ll save a lot of time waiting in lines. Also - make sure you go to the official websites: <a href=“http://www.accademia.org”>http://www.accademia.org</a> and <a href=“http://www.uffizi.com”>http://www.uffizi.com</a>. There are plenty of unscrupulous online vendors who will charge you double the admission price. </p>
<p>In Florence, we stayed at the Hotel Pendini (<a href=“http://www.hotelpendini.it/index_eng.html”>http://www.hotelpendini.it/index_eng.html</a>), which was recommended on CC. Hotel Pendini is located right on the Piazza della Repubblica in the center of the city, a 10 minute walk from the Duomo and 15 minutes from the Maria Novella train station. It’s a nice hotel with a fantastic location.</p>
<p>In Rome, we rented an apartment from VRBO which was located in the center of town near the Campo de Fiori. It was also centrally located near a bus line which took us to the Colosseum on one end of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Vatican City on the other. Once again, buy your timed tickets to the Vatican Museums online in advance (<a href=“Vatican Museums – Official Website”>Vatican Museums – Official Website). Timed tickets will save you a lot of time waiting in long lines. (Are you sensing a theme here? ) My pedometer said that we walked 2 miles through the Vatican Museums before we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, so make sure that you wear comfortable walking shoes. If you exit the Sistine Chapel from a door to the RIGHT in the rear, you can take a shortcut across a side alley to St. Peter’s Basilica. If you exit from a door on the LEFT, you must walk back to the entrance and exit the Vatican Museum. Then you must walk back around Vatican City to St. Peter’s and wait in another long line to enter the Basilica. </p>
<p>To purchase train tickets online, go to Trenitalia, the official Italian train site, and click on the English flag in the upper right corner: <a href=“http://www.trenitalia.com”>http://www.trenitalia.com</a></p>
<p>Thank you all. You’ve given me alot of ideas, things to think about (and many tips to cut and paste)! It’s a very hard decision, isn’t? So much to want to see and do: The beauty of Tuscany, Rome, the AC. So hard to pick and choose. I know I can’t do it all, so will try not to dwell on what I’m not doing, but what I can do instead.</p>
<p>It is a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? Italy is such an old and beautiful country that it’s hard to know where to start. </p>
<p>I do most of my own trip planning, and my starting point is to go to the library and clean the shelves of travel books for a particular country or area. From there, I begin to narrow things down. I find Rick Steves’ guides particularly helpful, and the illustrations in the Dorling Kindersley (DK) guides are inspiring. Another starting point is the Rick Steves website: <a href=“http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy”>http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy</a>, which has suggested itineraries and planning guidance. You can download guided podcasts from there. He also vets and recommends personal guides if you prefer not to go the self-guided route.</p>
<p>I have been to many parts of Italy, but feel there is much more to be seen. What time of year are you traveling ? I ask because how I would structure the trip would greatly depend on the crowds in each destination. If it is high season, I would want to plan extra carefully to minimize hassles. Additionally, hotel budget would help with recommendations and certainly expectations of budget vary by season. I am an off-season/shoulder season European city traveler. Like the sites more than crowds and high heat. </p>
<p>I have yet to get to the Amalfi coast. I think the Amalfi Coast would work well as a trip on it’s own or with Rome. Choose a great base of operations and spend a week exploring the peninsula and enjoying the beaches, perhaps with a day trips to Pompeii and Capri. A bit of a different approach.</p>
<p>Then this trip could involve a taste of 2-3 (Florence, Rome, Venice) cities and be very satisfying. I love Florence and find it a perfect size for walking, with more uniform charm and warmth than Rome. We were pleased to see during our second visit last fall that the city’s pedestrian zone was larger than during our previous visit, making walking even more fun. The art is everywhere and though the Uffizi isn’t my personal favorite museum, there are many smaller museums and beautiful gardens to see, including a sculpture museum, Medici mausoleums, with available winery tours just outside the city and great meals. </p>
<p>Rome is Rome. Lots of must sees against a varied and busy background. I wouldn’t want to miss it and have been back 3 times. It is also much larger to navigate and it really helps to be strategic about planning visits to sites if you are there at a busy time. It seems to me lately that one has to work increasingly harder to find the gems of restaurants and neighborhoods, but this will not be primary on a 3 day long first visit. </p>
<p>Venice I know the least well, having spent 4 days there years ago. I think that those who like Venice best seem to be the ones who got off the beaten path a bit. Restaurants near St. Mark’s Square seem to skew towards “tourist”, but outside of those areas, there are more “local” options. It is a unique city and the art, water travel and experience of walking it is compelling. There is also the Lido beach if you need some sand are skipping the Amalfi area. That said, I doubt there is any comparison there!</p>
<p>They are all good choices. Perhaps stirring in the time of the year will help you decide how to structure the trip.
Have fun!</p>
<p>Ldoponce, I have a reservation at Firenze Number Nine (Florence) next week. I like to change cities, so we’re doing 2 nights in Bellagio (Hotel Metropole Bellagio), 2 nights in Venice (Al Bailo di Venezia 2 bedroom apartment), 4 nights in Rome (Albergo del Senato), 2 nights in Florence, and 2 night in Vernazza (Aca da nonna), and last night in Milan. </p>
<p>I got an e-mail from Caitlin Miller (Rome tour guide) yesterday. She probably thinks I’m crazy when I told her “Pizzagirl” referred me.</p>
<p>If you have not been to Italy, do both Florence and Rome. They have different vibes. Florence is more compact has a car-free pedestrian zone so more walkable. Watch A Room with a View to get in the mood and Puccini’s O Mio Babbino Caro in your head. When in Rome, do the Vatican tour with a good guide, save you time and add more understanding to what you see. Make reservation for Galleria Borghese. Beautiful villa, great artwork and they limit the number of visitors per time slot (2 hour?) so you can relax and view at leisure. </p>
<p>Having said that, both places are full of tourists when we were there during the summer. We prefer smaller towns and slightly off the beaten path. We are back soon to drive through Tuscany and hope to hike the Cinque Terre area. Take into account jetlag the first few days and don’t do too much. Slow travel and you get more out of the trip. </p>
<p>I am biased obviously Rome is a wonderful, beautiful chaotic city. </p>
<p>So many places in 10 days is a grueling schedule. If you could bear to cut one place, I would suggest Florence. as Rome/Venice/Positano are all very different.(that is like choosing children though) What time of year are you visiting?</p>
) My pedometer said that we walked 2 miles through the Vatican Museums before we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, so make sure that you wear comfortable walking shoes. If you exit the Sistine Chapel from a door to the RIGHT in the rear, you can take a shortcut across a side alley to St. Peter’s Basilica. If you exit from a door on the LEFT, you must walk back to the entrance and exit the Vatican Museum. Then you must walk back around Vatican City to St. Peter’s and wait in another long line to enter the Basilica. </p>
Rome is a wonderful, beautiful chaotic city. </p>