Itinerary help: Florence/Tuscany- Cinque Terre-Venice-Rome | Italy - Lonely Planet Forum

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Sun, 25 Mar 2018 21:40:06 +0000

Hi there =) My husband and I (30 years old) will be traveling to Italy and arriving in Rome on September 17th at 12:40pm. We got a great deal for our tickets but they are in and out of Rome (rather than open-jaw). For this reason we plan on leaving directly from Rome airport to Florence. I see there is a train at 15:08 Fiumicino Aeroporto (FCO) TO 17:22 Firenze Santa Maria Novella (2h 14m Direct) for 26 Euro.

Stay in Florence September 17th- September 20th (gives 2 full days- 18/19th to be in Florence). On September 20th we think we will rent a car at the Florence airport as we've read that this is the best option to keep us from having to drive at all in the city center. (Any recommendations of the best car rental agencies to book ahead of time and try to get an automatic with english speaking GPS?)

From here I am trying to figure out where to park ourselves in Tuscany that will be the most central to visit other areas. This is what I'm having the most difficulty with. Ideas for a base so far are: Certaldo, Castellina (palazzo squarcialupi recommended), Montepuliano, Montalcino, Radda, San Donato in Poggio. Places to visit that are recommended and look great to us are: Pienza, Montalcino, Montelpulciano, Monticchiello,, Siena, San Gimignano, Cortona, Castellina, Radda and so much more (eek). I'm having a very hard time making a decision on where to stay and how to plan the itinerary for day trips. There are so many options that it seems like it's rather hard to go wrong, but I'm hoping those of you with more experience can help guide me in the right direction in creating the itinerary (especially those of you who have driven these areas and can give me an example of what you would do after renting your car- where would you choose to stay as a base and then in which order/which places would you visit). We will have 4 days in Tuscany (so we will leave Florence the morning of the 20th after renting a car) and head to our base. We will stay at our base(s) from the 20th-24th and leave on the 24th morning to head to Cinque Terre.

Someone mentioned it might be easiest to drop off our rental car in Pisa and take a train from Pisa to La Spienza/C.T. Is this the best option? I've been to Pisa before and I recall being pretty underwhelmed- my husband has not been there but he'd be happy to see it for a few hours-- but we do not want to sleep or stay long here.

We will be in Cinque Terre from the 24th to the 26th (the 24th will be more like a half day since we take the train that morning to get there). On The 27th we will leave Cinque Terre in the morning to head to Venice. We will stay in Venice the 27th-29th (again, the 27th will be a half day since it includes travel- so really only 2.5 days here but I've heard it's more than enough). We could either leave on the 29th on an evening train to Rome or leave on the 30th on the earliest train to Rome and then we will have until October 3rd (we have an early flight out of Rome- 9:35am) so we'll have the 30th, 1st, and 2nd in Rome.

I would LOVE any recommendations or ideas about how to improve the itinerary. I would also love your recommendations for places you've loved staying in these areas. Mostly, thought, I'm struggling and need guidance for the Tuscany bit. Thank you so much in advance for your time and help!!! =) (I'm putting an easier to read day by day itinerary here at the end since it might be easier than paragraph form)...

I should mention that we do not enjoy spending our time inside of museums or art exhibits or churches. We usually make sure we see the most recommended ones briefly but we never spend too long inside if and when we do. We are big foodies- we love walking food tours, we love people watching and wandering around the city, we enjoy live entertainment- music, dance, etc., we like easy bike tours, culinary experiences like cooking or wine tasting/making, etc. We do like a bit of night life, but not every night and not necessarily clubs- but we do enjoy the occasional night out at cafes/bars and such.

9/17: Arrive FCO 12:40pm. Take 15:08 train from FCO to Firenze.
Sleep Florence
9/18: Florence
9/19: Florence
9/20: Rent car at Firenze airport and drive to base in Tuscany (need help with a base)
9/21: Tuscany
9/22: Tuscany
9/23: Tuscany
9/24: Train to Cinque Terre (need to travel this morning to the best place to drop off rental car where we can also catch a train to C.T.-- Pisa easiest option?)
Sleep C.T.
9/25: C.T.
9/26: C.T.
9/27: Train to Venice from C.T.
Sleep Venice
9/28: Venice
9/29: Venice
(take train tonight and sleep in Rome or take train in morning for Rome?)
9/30: Train from Venice to Rome
Sleep Rome
10/1: Rome
10/2: Rome
10/3: 9:35am flight from FCO to LAX

ONLINE

Mon, 26 Mar 2018 11:55:14 +0000

Assuming you have not yet bought your Airport -Florence tickets on line for 17 Sept, you need to balance buying tickets cheaper in advance and risk missing the train and having to purchase new tickets, as against just buying tickets on arrival. From Rome there are a couple of high speed trains every hour to Florence, so how confident are you about your flight arriving on time. Two and a half hours between touch down and departure isn't overly generous, dependi g in part just how many people are trying to get through immgration. Don't be concerned about trains selling out - one might (unlikely) but there will be seats on the next one. The staff in the booking office at the train station in the Airport all speak adequate english and can sort you out when you get there if necessary. Not trying to complicate things, just making you aware there is an element of a gamble in booking your train to Florence in advance (perhaps if you were flying from LAS rather than LAX I might have made a different assumption about your willingness to take the odds!!)
With only 4 days, you may need to decide which part of Tuscany you want to visit. The "picture book" scenery is around and to the south of Siena ( and I would include Volterra and San Gimignano ). The Chianti area between Florence and Siena is scenic too but perhaps even more visited due to proximity to Florence for day trips. You might like to check out agriturismos - farm stays - they come in all levels from basic to upmarket. The other interesting area of Tuscany is the far north, inland from Cinque Terre (if you want to check a map) in the Carrara mountains (where the marble comes from). Base might be in or north of Lucca, or along the Serchio valley towards Barga. The scenery is verydifferent from southern Tuscany.
Pisa airport is an easy place to drop your car off though you could consider La Spezia too. Pisa airport has a peoplemover into Stazione Centrale for trains to La Spezia, though the peoplemover is the opposite side of the terminal from the car hire drop off.

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Wed, 27 Mar 2019 01:00:36 +0000

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