Hello Everyone, Hopefully you will be able to help me Here is our itinerary:

May 8th Arrive Venice in the morning (try to see as much as we can in venice)
May 9th Leave on cruise in the afternoon
May 16th Arrive early in Venice - Leave to Rome and stop in Pisa and/florence and spend the night ?
May 20th Fly back home from Rome

We are trying to plan as best as we can the journey from Venice to Rome by train with the little time we have available (3 1/2 days). We though of maybe going to Florence and Pisa, and we want to have at least 2 whole days in Rome. What would be the best way?

1) VENICE-FLORENCE-PISA-ROME - saturday leave for florence and stay there for the night, the next day go in the morning to Pisa and from there leave for Rome in the afternoon?

2) VENICE-PISA-FLORENCE-ROME - staying in Pisa?

3) VENICE-FLORENCE-ROME same day and have more time in Rome?

4) How long does it take from Florence to Pisa ? how can you get there?

5) Regarding the tickets, if I do this stop could I get a train ticket say from Venice to Rome allowing overnight stop in Florence, transfer to Pisa and go from there to Rome? should I buy separately?

6) Is there any other city on the way you suggest would be better to visit maybe by not going to Pisa?

sorry if its too many questions Thank you so much!!!!

I would go Venice-Florence-Rome. Do a 1/2 day trip to Pisa by train (about an hour and 6 euros each way) to see the Tower, Cathedral, and Baptistry. There really is much else to do in Pisa.

My first recommendation would be to head directly from Venice to Rome on the 16th and have 3 full days in Rome.
Keep in mind that Rome is rich in history and culture - so is Florence of course - but Florence does not have the same 5,000 year history that Rome has.
In an ideal world, you would see Florence in 3 days but in Rome you'd need 2 weeks.
(which most people don't have, of course, but just to give you an idea of the scope of what there is to see.)

Otherwise, I'd recommend 2 nights in Florence and 2 nights in Rome, which means one full day in each city.

Pisa - honestly, I would leave it for a future trip. It is set out of the way, and I'm not sure your time is best spent there.

Always keep in mind how many full days you have in each place. Travel days are tiring and can be stressful. I always try to reduce the number of days changing hotels, because packing/unpacking and checking in/out of hotels takes up a lot of time and effort.

Happy planning!

I'd second ellencraig's suggestion to pass on Pisa this time. All that really happens in Pisa is you look at the tower, and you say "...yup, it really does lean...". Just like in the pictures you've seen 1000s of times.

Your schedule is so tight and there is so much in both Rome and Florence.

Maybe get some guide books and start making lists of what you REALLY want to do in the different places, and then let those lists drive your time split?

Romelle

if you have a lot of luggage. upon arrival at the train station, start looking for a luggage cart. if not at the vaparetto stop, look to your far right to the taxi stand.

you can roller or cart your way into the station from the handicapped entrance. i presume it is still on the right hand side as you face the station.

try not to use porters, as they charge �6 per bag. they will very helpfully toss your carryon and your purse onto the pile. an additional �12.

the trip from venice to florence by train is very slow. i doubt you can avoid it, but if you can, just stay in venice, and fly back from there.

forget pisa. italy is not small. i think from the boat to the tower will take over 8 hours.

i would also skip florence, unless you are a scholar of that period.

consider spending the day in venice and taking a night train, if there is such a thing. then go to rome.

vatican & sant angelo take a day. the forum, collesium and palantine hills take more than a day.

I haven't done it yet and won't until April but I thought the Eurostar from Venice to Rome was 4 and a half hours. That doesn't seem too bad to me.

it's great time. but add about 1 1/2 hrs at each end for checkout, check in, local travel, etc, and we got 7 1/2 hrs.

florence is under 3 hrs best time. i think pisa requires a train transfer( i know the es does not go there). i would think she plans to go to pisa and back to florence for the night.


either place is going to kill the better part of a day. OP only has 4 days.

Don't know where is the best place to put it, so I thought I will start here.

Going to Venice by air soon, the last time I went to Venice was many moons ago, went by ship, in the good old days

I would be grateful for any advice on transport between VCE and St Mark's Square (or there about) my hotel is just off St Mark's.

Thanks

There are a variety of options, it all depends on your budget.

See post #5 in this thread

Thanks for the link, will make good use of the information.