I will be in Paris with my husband and 14-year-old daughter in beginning of July. My dream is to visit Italy... I was thinking: Rome (3 days?), Tuscany/Naples/Pompei (3 days?), Florence+ Pisa(2 days?), Cinque Terre (2 days?), Milano (2 days?), Maybe 1 day trip in Verona or Bologna...
I am looking for any suggestions... Is that a realistic plan considering the eventual traveling time?
What would be the best itinerary, knowing that my starting and ending point is Paris?
What kind of transportation would be better (car, train, flight, mix)? I am hoping to minimize the expenses... Is EURAIL interesting in this case and how to use it?
What are the must see or do in Italy? Any tips would help.
Thanks in advance for any help and answer!
shanez
2
shanez
July 2017 if it is not too crazy... I have to go to Paris, and I wanted to make the best of the flight tickets from Ottawa to Europe. If it is not realistic, I will try to get more organized to fulfill my dream for 2018. I would still love suggestions even if it is for next year.
I have looked into more possibilities for the moment, and it seems unrealistic to include Naples and Pompei maybe.
I looked into train itineraries and I had this idea... Does it make sense if I try the following:
1) Paris to Rome: stay 3 days- 3 nights in Rome
2) Rome to Florence (1 day/2 nights) + 1-day trip to Pisa,
3) Florence to La Specia- Cinque Terre: 2 - days
4) La Specia to Milan: 2 days in Milan
5 ) Milan to Venice: 2 days in Venice
6) Venice to Paris via night train.
Is that a good itinerary? Are there better itineraries? should I consider more time because of the traveling?
Thanks again for your reply.
3
Jingili
Setting aside your accommodation issues for next month, I have the following comments:
- I would almost certainly fly from Paris to Rome, and from Venice back to Paris ... I can't see fares being significantly more than train travel
- I would visit Pisa on my way Florence to La Spezia - it doesn't warrant a full day-trip or an overnight
- I would not include Milan, and add those two saved nights to (a) Rome and (b) La Spezia CT
- two nights in Florence is one too few, in my view
- end with at least two, but better three, nights in Venice
Something like that.
Trains are excellent, and while there will be fewer big discounts available now for July travel, certainly look around on both www.bahn.de and www.trenitalia.com - prices vary over any day as well.
4
lucapal
Unless you have a railpass,I would also fly to and from Paris..its a lot faster and also cheaper by budget airline.
The days in each place will depend on you and your interests.If you have around 11 nights as above,I'd stick with the Big 3...Rome,Florence and Venice.If you can take more time then you can add some more destinations....
That is easily done by public transport..train.
It will be hot and fairly crowded in the most popular parts of those cities.
5
lucapal
Then...there is no 'best itinerary'..that depends on you.
Why did you choose Italy? What kind of things attract you?
If you are into (say) mountains,or beaches,or the countryside..then your itinerary would be completely different to that above.
6
clementis_fur_cap
I think that once you take a look at the Trenitalia website, you'll decide that the travel times (and costs) required to get to and from some of these destinations aren't worth the limited time you'll spend in them.
I'd focus on quality of time over quantity of destinations.
As for Cinque Terre in July, here are some tips (and warnings) from the website of fellow North American Rick Steves:
http://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2016/05/crowd-beating-tips-for-the-cinque-terre/
Personally, in July I'd avoid it like the plague.
7
lucapal
I don't think the Cinque Terre ticket has actually appeared yet,but it is supposed to happen this summer (in theory).
If it does appear,tourist numbers will be limited to some extent,on a day by day basis (ie there will be a fixed limit for the walking trails etc.)The idea is to reduce the total number of tourists or better,to move as many away from high to low season as possible
8
Jingili
If it does appear,tourist numbers will be limited to some extent,on a day by day basis (ie there will be a fixed limit for the walking trails etc.)
How will they do that ... seems impossible to limit the numbers who catch the HOHO train - and that is where the crush is, rather than out on the trails. We walked from Vernazza to Monterosso and had it almost to ourselves (in April).
9
lucapal
As far as I know,it will be an electronic ticket that you will need to access the walking trails.When the daily limit has been reached,the trail will be closed.
Monterosso to Vernazza had 4000 people a day on the trail around Easter,for example.They want to limit that to 1500 a day.....http://genova.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/05/04/news/cinque_terre_i_sentieri_diventano_a_numero_chiuso-164550472/
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