Hello travel people!
I could really use some help with a trip to Italy I am planning for my girlfriend and myself.
Here is what I was thinking, please let me know if this would work and also if there is anywhere we need to go in these places. We are more into food and sightseeing. We were planning on hitting up lots of churches and cafes, not so much museums and that kind of stuff.
Friday: arrive rome 830am, hit up a cafe and just explore on our own for the day. Get on a late night train to Venice that we can also sleep on and arrive in the morning.
Saturday-Sunday: we are planning on checking out some churches, the campanilo tower, the boat ride, gelato and cafes. Leave Sunday evening for Florence on another night train we can sleep through.
Monday-Wednesday: still haven't gotten this far in terms of specifics on what to do. I found a bunch of excursions on airbnb I wasted to check out and obviously try to take in the natural beauty. Probably a lot of the same stuff here as well. Wednesday evening take the train to Rome again where we will stay the rest of our trip.
Thursday-Monday: explore Rome, pizza making class, wine tasting and tour, maybe rent some bikes and explore, Easter Sunday mass!!! And relax. Our flight leaves at 1:25pm on Monday which should give us a good amount of time to get really to leave.
Fights are booked but from what I found it is easier to just get train tickets when I am there. Hotels will be booked after I hear some feedback on this trip.
In total we will end up with
4.5 days in Rome
2 days in Venice
3 days in Florence
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Maybe one day after this trip I can help someone else out too

Doug
Do not underestimate the time you will need to see Florence and area. It is, in my opinion, the finest Italian city. Also, no matter which Italian city you visit, be very mindful of which days you’re there. Sunday’s may not work for many cathedrals because they are closed to all but their congregations. We also found many places kept “variable” hours on Wednesdays.

Sorry. A couple more things. The major cathedrals (Domo in Florence,for example) are hugely popular and attract huge crowds. It can use up a full day taking line-ups into account. Climbing to the top of the dome at Domo is an experience you won’t forget. Also, be mindful about what you’re wearing in Cathedrals. I doubt they would turn you away if you were not in your Sunday bests, but some of the devout will not hesitate to let you know that shorts and flip flops aren’t appropriate.

Stayed at the Hotel Golden in Rome - near the US Embassy and Westin, great family owned with THE BEST BREAKFAST buffet (and Italians are not known for breakfast.) A block away from a main street makes it easy to bus to the Coliseum or metro to the Vatican for a prebooked half day tour of the Museum, grounds and Basilica. Suggest a walking tour from the Colliseum ala Rick Steeves. A terrific restaurant close by: Girarrosto Fiorentino (where Italians celebrate their anniversaries or special dates). Giolitti for the best gelato in Roma.
In Florence stayed at the Hotel Athenaeum, Via Corso - just up the street from L'Accademie and David. Great cafe on that street: Il Desco (traditional Tuscan done contemporary, farm to fork.) Lunch: ZaZa Trattoria outside the Mercante Centrale - seafood and huge bistecca (best to share - the classic 4 fingers deep.) My favourite for lunch and the locals too: Trattoria Lo Stracotto. Suggest prebooking the Uffizi and David to avoid lines.
Given you're close, heaven on earth is Frances' Lodge in Siena. A glorious bed and breakfast with views onto the Siena skyline. Easy to bus from Florence and then bust (not train) to Rome. Franco will book wine tours - Chianti, Brunello - easy to walk from their place to the bus stop into the old town, the car rental and the bus to Rome. Their "picnic" supper either in your room or in the outdoor windproof gazebo overlooking Siena, is superb - fresh pasta and sauce, salad, antipasti, olives and bruscetta, wine from their cellar, vin santo and cantucci. Fantastico!

Thinking you may need to account for jet-lag the first day...train schedules/prices might not fit your plan either...make sure you do your research. Transportation to and from your accommodations and train/plane might be expensive depending on type you choose. Rome will be VERY busy around Easter...congested to see the sites like the Coliseum, Vatican etc. (We ended up there Easter Monday via a cruise and it was crazy busy!) Headed to Venice ourselves sounds like about the same time as you...but we've booked everything before we leave hoping to ensure things run 'smoothly'.

This sounds exhausting. I would either transit directly to Venice and stay there for your first night or overnight in Rome. It sounds pretty rushed but I think your sightseeing plans are doable. Like others have said don't underestimate jet lag. Also leave time to relax. Be aware of what you plan to do with your luggage too.

Get Rick Steves app and download all walking tours. They are AMAZING. I have been to Italy twice, the first time I used his guide books and just raved about them, this last time they had an app all is free with the app, just need wifi or data to download the tours.

the walking tours around ROMA are worth it! I was there for 7 weeks the first time and renting a car was cheaper by 100% for 2 people. And do not forget, EVERYTHING is closed from 2-4pm

Sienna is gorgeous and well worth it. It’s also a quick stop on the way from Rome to Florence.

I agree with previous people, our first day in Italy we landed at 2pm and I fell asleep at the dinner table before 8pm, even though I slept on the plane.
Venice: when you go to st Marco church, bring a backpack and go to a building on the left (when you're facing the main door) they will give you a bag check ticket good for an hour and its free!. then you can skip the line completely: walk past the people in line to the door and they let you in. (This saved us over 2 hours of line waiting)
Florence: definitely do the wine tour from here. We used www.italyonabudgettours.com and it was one of our best days by far! And inexpensive! If you want to do the big sights like the David statue and uffizi we used the firenze card to skip those lines. Expensive but again saved us hours! Gelato is everywhere but definitely go to the higher rated places if you're using your phone. We found the ones recommended In our guide book to be the best ones.
Rome: spend the 5$ to get an assigned colosseum tour instead of waiting in line. You show up at your time and get in. Tour is knowledgeable. Our best day in rome was our walking food tour. Pricey but got to taste foods from all regions of Italy, learned a ton, and left stuffed! So much good food!!!! I'd recommend doing this tour earlier in your days to learn where to go. Our guide gave us a bunch of restaurant suggestions that were all gold!
Hope this helps! Enjoy Italy! It's my favourite place!!

I used the “ check the backpack trick too” recommended byRick Steves

When booking trains, book Italo! Way better than TrenItalia. Also, my husband and I spent 6 weeks in Italy last spring and I lived there for a few months when I was in university. I have a tip sheet I put together for a few friends who ended up traveling there after us. If you'd like it just DM me and I'll send it your way.

Gelato is everywhere in those cities. You won’t have to search for it.
If you like history, sign up for the Doge's Palace secret itinerary tour in Venice (can be done directly with them for cheaper than a tour group). St Mark’s is gorgeous although no photos inside allowed. The gondalas are VERY expensive for what you get in my opinion.
I would do a wine tasting tour in Florence rather than in Rome. There’s some combined cooking class ones. Or if you want a really good partial day cooking class, I took one in Florence at a cooking school that I can highly recommend: http://www.gigliocooking.com/en/
Some train tickets will be cheaper if you prepurchase online.

Strongly recommend the walks of Italy day tours, especially to Pompeii! My husband and I just did 10 days in Italy this summer, feel free to ask any questions!!! I cannot WAIT to go back

Thanks for all the help everyone, we have basically figured everything out. The overnight trains were on a different site I saw but ended up using italo to book. Plus I remembered the luggage thing. Itinerary changed a bit but everything looks like it will be really smooth with a good amount of time to rest. No rushing! If I learn anything there or even before I will gladly share with anyone else looking to go.
Grazie!!!

Been to Italy a couple times. In Rome - st peter in chains church. Nearish to coloseum. Coolest church i have ever been in . Has the chains from when Peter was in prison. Also three Michelangellos. Not touristy so not crowded.

I enjoyed Murano and Burano in the Venice islands. Get an air bnb with kitchen facilities. Will save you a lot.we got a pass to ride the water taxis. Lots of stairs in Venice. The walking isn’t bad the stairs get to you. Florence was easy to get around walking as well. Lots of walking tours there. Remember that ladies must have covered shoulders in the churches.

Venice has St Mark's Basilica (if you go in during morning Mass, you won't have to wait in the hour long queue to get in), and just a train ride away on the mainland is Padua, where St Luke's tomb and St Anthony of Padua's tomb churches are. Florence, there's the Duomo of course, but do check out the Cathedral which is a separate place. The world's first public museum is in Florence (FYI as I know you don't want to go to a museum).
Rome, every corner is a church, and are open to walk in without any security, unless you're going to one of the 7 Papal Basilicas. There's only 2 Papal Basilicas outside of Rome, and they're both in Assisi, which I'd also highly recommend if you can make it there. All of Assisi is also one big UNESCO World Heritage Site with several notable churches.
There's only one Cathedral in Rome and it's the Archbasilica of St John Lateran (not St Peter's Basilica). Be prepared to add 20 min of your journey for security checks as Europe is on high alert.
Of the Papal Basilicas, I'd recommend St Paul Outside the Walls, St John Lateran, St Mary Major, and St Lawrence Outside the Walls. St Peter's Basilica, I'd recommend paying extra to go on a guided cupola tour, which will allow you to skip the line and take the elevator up to the top.
If you want to go to the Wednesday Audience with the Pope, you have to reserve tickets online, and show up a couple hours early. There's no in-out privileges so go to the bathroom and limit liquid intake.
In Rome, if you can time it right, get up to the monument of the unknown soldier before it closes. The sunset is beautiful from up there. Forget the museum part of it lol.
And you definitely need to arrive at Rome Airport 3 hours before departure for international travel!!! The Italians take their sweet time for passport control and won't add more workers even when it's busy. I made it to my gate 10 min after boarding my first time in Rome, thank goodness the flight was delayed. The last time to Rome, it was still a very long time, but I learned to push my way through the non-queue set up. Of all the airports I've been in Europe, Rome is the absolute worst.
I've been to many churches in Italy as I've been on pilgrimages where all we do is visit churches. Many churches have no foto signs which only apply when Mass is happening. And there is a dress code, keep shoulders and knees covered. If you have more questions ask.

In Rome check out the Santa maria maggiore church if you're into churches. Rome traffic is very busy on regular days.. you might want to stick to walking. We walked everywhere with no problems. In Venice, if you're looking for an activity to do during the week check out the Prosecco wine tours. We thoroughly enjoyed our small group tour that also made a stop at a church and mill. Try to stay away from the canal-side restaurants in Venice. Food is not great and it tends to be very pricey. Hope you have a blast! Enjoy your trip!!

If you can, stay an extra day in Venice and check out the surrounding islands. We Island hopped through the local water taxis there to Burano, Murano, and Lido islands. Murano is known for it's Murano glass: we got a chance to watch how they shaped this glass into art and jewelry. Burano is known for its gorgeous colourful houses as well as for its lace (my favourite island). We stayed in Lido (cheaper and less crowded) and took the water taxis to Venice. Lido is a gorgeous island of bicycles and we took an afternoon in a 6 passenger bike to explore the island. The beach in Lido is really nice too if you want to experience a beach day on the Adriatic sea. Happy Travels!!
https://www.ottsworld.com/.../burano-murano-islands-venice/

Venice to Florence is just over an hour on the high speed train. And only about an hour more on the regular train (can't remember the exact times) so it's not an overnight sleep on the train kind of trip.
We went from Venice to Paris on an overnight train and that still was only about 10 hours.
You'll need a little downtime when you first get there to sleep a little and to figure things out. But the rest sounds fun. You'll never see it all so just hit the main spots you want to see and enjoy the rest as it comes.

Hey Brandon, I am currently on vacation so i can’t write anything long but I wanted to quickly mention something — train tickets are significantly cheaper if you are booking online and in advanced. I’m talking $10-20 instead of $30-80 on the day, especially for the fast trains.
When are you planning on going?

Wine tour from Florence. When we booked ours we also got a free walking tour. Also the Il Duomo di Firenze, is a must in my opinion.

In Venice we found a cafe along a small canal where we watched people go by in the gondolas. It was also a place where gondoliers cleaned their vehicles between rides. Most of the men on the gondolas didn't look happy. It is very expensive!

There are tons of gelato places everywhere and unfortunately a lot of them now are mass produced and not very good. You can tell the good places by the color of their pistachio gelato. If it's mass produced, artificial, etc it will be a more vibrant green. If it's the good stuff it will be closer to a brown in color.

The train from Rome to Venice is about 3 hours, so not an "overnight" train. I would also advise against sleeping on trains, especially when you have large luggage with you, are jetlagged and don't speak the language. Venice is amazing. Have a great time.

Also, the train from Florence to Rome is less than 2 hours.

I second the Segway in Rome, we just booked when we got there, that way if the weather Is bad you can go another day. You get to see lots.

Whatever you do don’t skip Venice. A lot of people hate it. If you are into the cafes and walking around it’s perfect. The restaurant caravella is ideal.

A really fun thing to do in Rome is a Segway tour that takes in the Coliseum and surrounding sights (we booked thru viator). Bring gloves - it’ll be chilly!

There are some churches which charge admission (for upkeep and such), but if you tell them you're only going in to pray or to Mass, then they'll let you in.

When in Rome, if you’re planning to check out the coliseum, try to be there around dusk. So beautiful and pictures look fantastic.

What are you going to do with you bags between when you arrive in Rome and when you depart on the train for Venice?

Venice is very overrated. I would skip it and go somewhere quieter and nicer like Sienna in Tuscany or Fondi or Sperlonga.

Oh and the Vatican and Coliseum has skip the lines tickets you can buy online directly from them. They’re worth it.

Have you considered a tour? Something like this one for instance: https://www.contiki.com/.../europe/tours/simply-italy-152
https://www.contiki.com/.../tours/italian-espresso-132

Following. I am also looking for recommendation for airbnb in Rome. Thanks!

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Thanks everyone.

If you are into food, THIS: https://www.doeatbetterexperience.com/ It's an experience you are not likely to ever forget! When in Rome, eat!

Jenna Dushenski
Elayna Dushenski