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Ten itineraries all over Italy:
The Alps, the lakes, the sea
Cities and Courts in the Po Valley
Adriatic and Venetian Civilization
From the Romanesque to the Renaissance
The Land of the Etruscans
Where the Name of Italy was born
Beaches, abbeys and castles between Rome and Naples
The five civilizations of Magna Graecia
Castles and Cathedrals in Apulia. This is another land of ancient civilizations
Nature and Art in Sardinia
My goal at TangoItalia.com is to introduce my readers to the lesser-known gems that Italy has to offer. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend that first-time visitors concentrate on the well-known places - Rome, Florence, Venice, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast.
I am NOT a travel agent, and I do NOT sell airplane tickets, hotel stays, car rentals or train tickets, my only purpose is to help you to plan your next vacation in the Bel Paese, my country of origin. If you need help with reservations, you can use InItaly.com, a web-based travel agency, they can help you all the way, from deciding the itinerary, to air, hotel and car reservations, to finding a guide for a private tour. Click here to see the unique accommodations they are offering for these itineraries.
If you do not need help with planning your trip or reserving your accommodations and transportation, in my site you will find links to hotels (in fact, I list ALL the hotels in Rome, Florence, Venice, Siena and Milan).
Whenever possible, I will guide you to the special and most unique accommodations, like hotels in historic castles or abbeys, and typical and special restaurants. The small symbols above will guide you to such places.
To help you plan the flow of your travels, it will be useful for you to know how far it is from place to place, how best to get from place to place, and how long (ideally!) to stay in each place once you get there.
The itineraries I suggest for your independent travel are based on round-trip flights into and out of the same city. But many European airlines (and some US carriers as well) will let you fly into one city and out of another for no extra charge, check on this before you start planning your ground arrangements, because although Italy is not that big, it will save you one useless trip and overnight stay if you can avoid having to return to your arrival point.
Those of you who can fly into and out of different cities can use the information below to rearrange a more practical itinerary to suit your personal plans.
If you are driving from an European country, of course you have to add the driving time from your place of residence to Italy and back to your country to the suggested itineraries.
Click on the highlighted numbers for additional information.
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Rome
Rome - 3-4 days 1
Train to Florence (2 hours)
Florence - 2 days 2
Rent a car 3
Tuscany - 3-4 days (or skip Florence, stay a week at a villa or
farm, and visit Florence from there)
Drive to Venice (4 hours) and drop off car
4
Venice - 2 days
Train to Sorrento (6 + 1 hours - change in Naples)
5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 4 days
Train to Rome and overnight in Rome
Taxi or private transfer to the airport
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Milan
Train to Venice (2 hours) 1
Venice - 2 days
Train to Rome (4 hours)
Rome - 3 days
Train to Sorrento (2 + 1 hours - change in Naples)
5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 3 or 4 days
Train to Florence (1 + 4 hours - change in Naples)
Florence - 2 days 2
Rent a car 3
Tuscany - 3 or 4 days (or skip Florence, stay a week at a villa or
farm, and visit Florence from there)
Drive to Milan (3 hours) and overnight in Milan
Drop off car at the airport, or drop it off the day before and take
a taxi or private transfer to the airport
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Pisa
Train to Florence (1 hour) 1
Florence - 2 days 2
Rent a car 3
Tuscany - 3 or 4 days (or skip Florence, stay a week at a villa or
farm, and visit Florence from there)
Drive to Venice (4 hours) and drop off car
4
Venice - 2 days
Train to Rome (4-5 hours)
Rome - 3 days
Train to Sorrento (2 + 1 hours - change in Naples)
5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 3 or 4 days
Train to Pisa (1 + 2 + 4 hours - change in Naples and Rome) and
overnight in Pisa
Return visitors will probably have favorite places they'd like to see again, and they'll know how much time they'd like to dedicate to that. Here are some ideas that you returning visitors can mix and match, assuming that you'll take care of the "repeat locations" on your own.
North and Central Italy
Fly into Genoa
Pick up rental car or use trains/boats and pick up rental car before
going to Piedmont
The Ligurian Coast (Portofino, Rapallo, Cinqueterre) - 3 or 4 days
6
Drive to Piedmont (2-4 hours)
Piedmont, Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta - 3-4 days
Drive to Lake Garda (4 hours)
Lake Garda, Verona and the Veneto or the Dolomites - 3-7 days
Drive to Emilia Romagna (2 hours)
Parma, Modena, Ravenna and Bologna - 3 days
Drive to northern Umbria (2-3 hours)
Umbria, the Marches and San Marino - 3-4 days
Drive to Bologna or Florence for departure flight
Southern Italy
Fly into Rome
Drive to Gaeta (3 hours)
Gaeta and the fishing villages and hill towns of Latium - 3-4 days
Drive to Apulia (4-5 hours)
Apulia - 4-5 days
Drive to Calabria (3-4 hours)
Calabria - 3 days
Ferry to Sicily (25 minutes) 7
Drive to Siracusa (2 hours)
Siracusa and eastern Sicily - 3-4 days
Drive to Palermo (2-3 hours)
Palermo, western Sicily and Agrigento - 3-4 days
Fly to Rome
1-
If you are coming from the USA, consider your first day mostly wasted, as you will at best have half
a day, and you'll probably be pretty tired for most of it too. Also, take travel time into
account as you plan your itinerary: for instance, if you
have to travel from Venice to Sorrento, that is not a day in Venice
or Sorrento - it's a day of sightseeing out the window!
2 - Be sure to make
advance reservations for the museums!
3 - If you rent a
car through In Italy Online, there is no drop-off fee
when you return it to a different location. We strongly urge you to
rent a car for your time in Tuscany. Because of the hills, there are
almost no direct train routes from anywhere to anywhere, forcing you
to waste valuable time waiting for connections, and most of the
stations are in the ugly modern part of town, which means you have
to then take a bus up to the ancient hill town.
Click here for the InItaly.com car rental proposals in Italy.
4 - Of course you
know you can't have a car in Venice! You can drop off your rental
car in Piazzale Roma, across the Grand Canal from the main rail
station. From Piazzale Roma you can take the vaporetto (public water
bus) to any location in Venice.
5 - If you wish to
avoid driving on the Amalfi Coast, you should stay in the town of
Sorrento (make sure your hotel is not on the outskirts of town).
From there you can visit Amalfi, Positano, Ravello and Capri by
boat, and take the commuter train to Naples (well worth the visit!),
Pompeii and Herculaneum.
6 - The coast of
Liguria is one place you do not need a car, because the trains and
boats are so well organized. A great way to include this incredibly
picturesque part of the country in your trip is to fly into Pisa,
because there is a train station inside the airport, and you can be
in the Cinqueterre area within an hour of landing. Or train to
Lucca, only half an hour away and a perfect base for this itinerary.
7 - The ferry
service to Sicily is one of the best organized things in Italy.
There are public ferries and private ferries - the only difference
is that trains literally ride inside the public ferries, which cost
slightly less than the private ferries (but both are inexpensive).
Both take cars or walk-on passengers, are easy to find in Villa San
Giovanni and Messina, and leave every 15-20 minutes, 24 hours a day.
No advance reservations are accepted, but except in August, you will
rarely have to wait in line to get on.
Itineraries and footnotes in part courtesy of InItaly.com
© 1997-2010 Enrico Massetti
TangoItalia - Food, Wine, Travel, and... tango in Italy.
