13 days in Italy. Review our itinerary.

For Amalfi,you have basically 3 options..all have their pros and cons.

You can stay in Naples itself...a big city,quite chaotic and not very near to Amalfi.But it has a lot to see,a lot of character,excellent food and is near to Pompeii.

You can stay in Sorrento.Its a decent base,in between Pompeii,Amalfi etc.Good transport connections and lots of mid range accommodation.On the other hand its not very exciting.....its mostly a place for middle-aged package tourists.

You can stay on the AC itself.Very picturesque,but more expensive (though in October prices should be lower).Good if you want to walk on the trails or take boat trips(if weather permits)..Not so good for connections to Pompeii or to Naples.Positano is one option here,though there are others...

Your Capri trip might be pleasant,or not..depends on the weather.Difficult to predict that time of year.If it is very windy the boat will be moving around a lot,whichever one you take....

If you are going all that way I would stay on the Amalfi Coast itself. In October you may get good value accom in Amalfi town but otherwise there are other towns near by such as Priano. There is the local bus which I have used on my trips to the region including heading to Pompei. I would not stay in Sorrento as it is too big for me.

I am unaware of the time table for October but you can ferry from Naples to Capri, have a day there and then ferry to Amalfi. This allows you to avoid the windy road. I never saw any sickness or wild journeys in the boats. I would perhaps consider a single night in Naples so that you can have a lovely meal in the city. It is unlike anywhere else in Italy. Oh and a good place to buy some chocolates and sweets.

Buy your railway tickets in advance from trenitalia to get the best fares. It will be a long travel day from Amalfi to Florence.

If you are interested in modernist EUR buildings of Rome go just before lunch and eat in one of the local restaurants there. It is a very untouristic area and as such the lunches are very good value and perhaps the most authentic Roman food you can access.

I would also have to say I think Italian hotels are unique in the world for their hospitality. I appreciate airbnb or whoever can seem like a bargain and for sure use that but definitely consider at least a few nights in a hotel for all the charm and ambience and the over flowing breakfast table.

For me this itinerary would be far too rushed. Typical advice here on the forum is two weeks for the 'holy trinity' of Rome, Venice and Florence. In slightly less time than this, you also want to add on the Amalfi and Gardaland. IMHO you'll spend too a high proportion of your time travelling rather than seeing/doing anything. Personally I would drop everything based round Naples and save this for another occasion - there's more than a week's worth of stuff to do down there - and allocate more time to what's left.

Three days for Florence is fine if you don't try to add on day trips, but there are several great options for those (besides wine tours). Rome really needs four days, Venice three days not including day trips to other places (I've been to Venice on six occasions and still wouldn't return for less time than this). Gardaland looks like an odd choice compared with the rest of what you want to experience, but I see this is a priority to you. Venice is a bad starting point for this, however, as not only does it cut down your time in Venice itself (why pay Venice accommodation prices plus extra travelling costs on top?), but by public transport it will take you at least a couple of hours each way, which is a big chunk of travelling time out of one day.

Accommodation is best researched via the Internet. "Great location" will come with a price tag. Specific recommendations for eating places are pointless since you're not likely to organise a day's sightseeing round them - you will find somewhere convenient when you get tired and hungry.

Open jaw (into one airport, out of another) is good.

I appreciate all the feedback so far. We've looked at google trips and the '3 day in x city tours sound great' We plan to narrow those down to 2 days and see what sights we really want to see, and spend one day just wandering about. While I do enjoy famous museums there's only so much time you can spend on a trip visiting them. After awhile they all begin to blend together. We are cautions of the travel time between each place, but we will use the time to transfer photo's from the camera to a computer, watch the countryside etc.

From the research we've done so far the Amalfi coast looks amazing so we really don't want to cut it. Could we cut Florence?

I get what you are saying about Gardaland but I'm unsure how to do it any better. It's only open Saturdays and Sundays (10AM-6PM) while we are there. If it were open on a Thursday or Friday I'd go directly there and then to the next destination but unfortunately it isn't. Anyone have suggestions on this? I do love theme parks and it looks like a pretty good one, but we've done Disneyworld twice, all three seaworlds in the US, A couple six flags, and Busch Gardens. How does it compare to those parks? I could skip it if it's not a fantastic park.

I'm not an expert on these places,but people that like them told me that Gardaland is pretty good..it's less of a theme park and more a place for serious rides.

More like 6flags than Disneyland. ...

Well that's good. I should have said I'm more into the rides then anything else. It does complicate the trip some yes, but for great rides I'm game.

3 Full days in Rome (Plan to do a 'full' tour of the Colosseum and visit all the major landmarks

All?
If you spend one day using the Colosseum combo ticket, another day at Vatican Museums/St. Pete's, you'll have one day left to see everything else in Rome.

Could we cut Florence?

Sure. You really do have to follow your own personal interests and priorities. If Renaissance art and Romanesque architecture aren't high on your list of priorities, there's no good reason to spend time there. Doubtless you'll have friends who have previously visited Italy and whatever you decide they'll say, "Oh! You went to Italy and you didn't visit X?" The correct response is, "No, instead we did precisely what we wanted to in our limited time."

On the other hand: can someone tell me if south/central Italy is as rainy in October as it is here in northern Italy--where, when it rains, it tends to rain for days on end? If so, any destination without a lot of indoor attractions (such as the Amalfi coast) may be problematic. However amazing it seems, it's going to be less amazing in the rain.

While I do enjoy famous museums there's only so much time you can spend on a trip visiting them. After awhile they all begin to blend together

For me, it's not the museums per se, but individual artworks within those museums that really strike me and stay in my memory.

So without Florence, you've got some extra days. I'd add one each to the other cities--the Archeology Museum in Naples is a great warm-up for Pompeii. If it's rainy, add the Capodimonte Museum. And somewhere, anywhere, take the money you'd spend on a wine tasting tour and buy that much worth of 10-euro bottles of wine from the supermarket (bring your own corkscrew).

Arguably, because it's relatively low season, you could play the Naples/Amalfi portion by ear, depending on the weather forecast.

consider at least a few nights in a hotel for all the charm and ambience and the over flowing breakfast table

Woah, I think we have different hotel budgets, Wayback, because the over flowing breakfasts I've encountered in Italian hotels have been few and far between. Hey, breakfast in Italy is more of a wake-up snack (cappuccino and croissant) than a full meal.

But I do agree that you can be certain that a hotel won't cancel your reservation at the last minute. I'm not sure the same can always be said of an Airbnb rental.

My experience is that the less prestigious and more "low rent" a hotel is, the more friendly the staff tends to be.

Bump Bump! Skip Florence? Opinions? Thanks!