Originally Posted by PIT_Flyer
My wife and I plan to spend our first anniversary in Italy this summer (July 4th week). I've been looking online and reading various books and have put together two possible itineraries:
...
Please comment in the itineraries and suggest any changes...Ticket prices seem to be near crazy, borderline extortion, for that time of the year, so I want to purchase my US-Italy air tickets as soon as possible.
Pit_Flyer -- I like SFO's itinerary for you. You are trying to pack in too much, spending too much time on trains. "Take your shoes off and set a spell" in these places, as they say.
We were just there a couple of years ago (Florence, Rome, Amalfi) for 11 days, and are heading back to Venice, Lake Como and Verona in June for our 25th anniversary.
Pisa is easily to delete. It's an interesting couple of hours, but that's about it.
Siena is a nicer side trip from Florence, if you have time. But Florence, Rome and Venice can easily fill your time (and then some).
As to those who recommend deleting Florence because of the crowds, don't listen to them. Florence is the heart of the Renaissance, and is incomparable. Read Brunelleschi's Dome before you go, and you will marvel at the Duomo in Florence with a new understanding.
You'll be there during the warm summer, so we enjoyed the rooftop pool at the Kraft Hotel when we were there in August. A few blocks away from the centre, but we didn't mind the walk. (First anniversary, so you are still young?)
I'll recommend a restaurant -- Il Profeta. Ask for the owner, Claudio. Make sure you have his "pici" a regional tuscan pasta dish. I would die to have some right now.
Enjoy your trip.