 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
How To Plan
|
 Click on the icon to check our status with the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles |
Click here if you need help getting flights to Italy.
Click here for the lowest car rental rates in Italy.
Click here for information about private transfers and airport shuttles.
Click here for information about rail travel in Europe.Our goal at In Italy Online is to introduce our readers to the lesser-known gems that Italy has to offer. Nonetheless, we strongly recommend that first-time visitors concentrate on the well-known places - Rome, Florence, Venice, Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast. Amongst the 4000+ pages on our site, you will find loads of hidden treasures that lurk even in these world-renowned spots, and to go to Italy without seeing them would be a tragedy!
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 we 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. We advise you to 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.
Please note that all rail travel times are based on using high-speed fast trains with mandatory reservations. You will find links to rail resources at the bottom of this page.
Click on the red numbers for additional information.
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Rome
Rome - 3-4 days 1
High-speed 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
High-speed train to Sorrento (6 + 1 hours - change to local train in Naples) 5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 4 days
High-speed train to Rome and overnight in Rome
Taxi or private transfer to the airport
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Milan
High-speed train to Venice (2 hours) 1
Venice - 2 days
High-speed train to Rome (4 hours)
Rome - 3 days
High-speed train to Sorrento (2 + 1 hours - change to local train in Naples) 5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 3 or 4 days
High-speed train to Florence (1 + 4 hours - change to local train 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 downtown the day before and take a taxi or private transfer to the airport
Italy The First Time - Flying Into and Out of Pisa
High-speed 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
High-speed train to Rome (4-5 hours)
Rome - 3 days
High-speed train to Sorrento (2 + 1 hours - change to local train in Naples) 5
Amalfi Coast and Capri - 3 or 4 days
Train to Pisa (1 [local] + 2 + 4 [high-speed] hours - change in Naples and Rome) and overnight in Pisa
Click here to see what's new at In Italy Online.
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
We suggest you print out this page. First-time users of our site, please click here to learn how our services work. Click here to see the unique accommodations you can select using these itineraries.
Footnotes 1- 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. So you might want to add an extra day here. Also, take travel time into account as you plan the rest of 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! Click here for information.
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 lowest car rental rates 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 very near 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.
Click here for the lowest car rental rates in Italy.Click here for information about private transfers and airport shuttles.
Click here for discounted air fares to Italy, as well as information about airports and flights within Europe.
Click here for advance museum reservations.
Click here for information about rail travel in Europe.
Click here for information about Who We Are.
Click here for more ideas about places to see in Italy.