Itinery help?
Weasel McWeasel
Typical..........I want to visit the United States, and see New York, Washington DC Niagara Falls, Disneyword, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. and then fly home home from Hollywood. I'm only coming for two weeks. Gosh, what's the best itinerary? The best answer, is to tell you, that your plans are wholly unrealistic...or foolhardy at BEST. at that pace, all you'll be doing is RUNNING thru those places, grabbing a few postcards and then running for the trains. Italy, while not as big at America, is still a big country. Venice is not anywhere near the Amalfi coast- and Italy is surrounded by 8,000 miles of coastline............much of it stunning.........whattttttttttttttttttttttt is sooooooooooooooooooo special, about the Amalfi coast, other than tourists liking to say, they saw the "lmalfi coast"? The Liguria coast is twice as stunning. The Italian Riviera , for God sake.........but you never hear a single tourist say-----------Oh My God, I saw the Ligurian coast! it's a coast...........they all pretty much look the same............nice trees, nice walkways sweeping vistas of the sea..........ya seen one coast, ya seen them all. Tuscany.................again........what do you want to see in "Tuscany". Tuscany is a lot of empty space that has vineyards. Vineyards are BORING. Ya want to taste wine? go to a supermarket and buy a bottle of wine. It's a waste of precious time , traipsing thru NOWHERE, to have a glass of wine at some winery.....when you could be having, rare, once in a lifetime experiences........while sipping wine.............elsewhere. Just saying. a cooking class???? You're coming to Italy, to take a COOKING class? yeah, okay, to each their own. Personally, I would spend my time seeing all the endless treasures and wonders that Italy has to offer. I would read up on Venice, so you understand what it is, you're looking at. Same for Rome. The leaning tower of Pisa and the Vatican needs advance time stamped tickets. That means you are given a day and time to show up. It really all depends what you hope to see and accomplish. If you just want to CHILL without doing the tourist rush thing................then go to Tuscany and take cooking classes and go admire the Amalfi coast. If you really want to SEE the treasures Italy has to offer.......skip the time wasters, and focus on the major cities.........Rome, Venice, Florence.
Lili
Well, Rome's a very big place, with much to see, so I'd give the lion's share of your days to it. You don't have a lot of time to do "Tuscany" in general -- take a trip to Siena and one to Pisa, but stay mostly in Florence, because you'll need to in order to visit the important monuments. I'd say 4 days for Rome and at least 3 for Florence. You don't want to be frantically rushing around trying to cram things in. Be leisurely about this. Venice you can really do in a couple of days. It's quite expensive there, and though I love it, I really think a first-time visitor needs to concentrate on Florence and Rome. The Amalfi Coast should come at the end: give yourself a couple of days just to relax and chill out.
Gypsyfish
I spent a week in Florence once and it wasn't enough. I think you're trying to visit too many places. Divide your time among Rome, Florence and Venice. It's easy to take trains from one to the other. It's worth planning time to visit one or two of the smaller towns in Tuscany- I would suggest Arezzo and Siena. Rome is huge- but there's a very nice hop-on, hop-off bus tour that takes you to most of the major sites. I really prefer Florence and Venice. I was in Rome in early May once, and it was already really hot.