San Marino from Florence?

Hi all,

I am in the beginning stages of making plans for my late May, early June trip to Rome. I have decided on two side trips from Rome, Naples and Florence. While I am sure Florence is beautiful, and I will spend time roaming, I am also using Florence as a base for a few days, to take some bus day trips., to enjoy the countryside of Tuscany, and smaller towns. The one that I really want to go on will include Cortona, and Arezzo.

is this a good tour group to research ? if not, any suggestions, and also is it ok just to wait until I get to Florence to book these, or better plan more ahead.

Thanks for any help....

https://www.viator.com//tours/Florence/Tuscany-in-One-Day-Sightseeing-Tour/d519-5070TUSCANY?mcid=61846

Long story short, I had two other trips in planning that my teen daughter eventually vetoed :)

She has requested a culture/sightseeing/city trip over the 'nature' and 'beach' options. She's had a really tough year and with all the anxiety about heading into high school, I would love to make this happen for her. I have about a month to plan this trip, so here's my first attempt at an itinerary. We will be flying in and out of Rome (only option for a direct flight), which we'll be skipping as we have previously visited:

Day 0: overnight flight into Rome, arrive 7:30 am

Day 1: Rome to Naples via high speed train, Napoli, Overnight in Napoli

Day 2: Pompeii tour, Overnight in Napoli

Day 3: Amalfi coast tour (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Napoli

Day 4: Napoli in the morning, leave for Florence via high speed train, Overnight in Florence

Day 5: Florence, Overnight in Florence

Day 6: Tuscany day trip (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Florence

Day 7: Train to Cinque Terre w/ stopover in Pisa, Overnight in CT

Day 8: Cinque Terre, Overnight in Cinque Terre

Day 9: Train to Milan, Overnight in Milan

Day 10: Milan in the morning, train to Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 11: Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 12: Venice in the morning, Venice to Rome via high speed train or flight, Overnight Rome near airport

Day 13: fly home

Would love to hear your thoughts:

- We like fast paced, but is it too fast paced? Any suggestions?

- I feel like Milan is a bit of a 'detour' and I wonder if it's worth just for one day?

- Should we get TrainItalia passes? Which one?

- I would love to have some flexibility and not prebook hotels in case we want to linger in one area more - is this too much of a risk? (I wouldn't have considered it but i feel like we could 'wing it' this year?)

- Is there anything else I need to pre-book? (ie. tours, transportation, admission tickets, etc).

Thanks all in advance!

Spending a couple weeks in Italy. Have a few days in Florence and I thought I would take the kids out into the countryside one day. Teenage boys and they love cars so thought even a vintage Fiat or some convertible. No destination in mind. Maybe leave about 10 or 11am drive an hour - 90 minutes out of town. Ideally a scenic drive. Not so much highways. Enjoy the scenery along the way. Stop for lunch around 1 or 2. Maybe hit a market or something ideally. Head back.

Any ideas? In addition to the scenery they like architecture. And history. Thought maybe San Gimignano. I know it’s often slagged in guidebooks as “touristy” but the distance is right. And obviously has some architectural appeal. But I don’t know if there is a scenic route there that is doable in half day?

Any other ideas? Thanks in advance

My wife and I had an a trip planned from Oct 17-25, flying into Florence, traveling up through Cinque Terre, and ending in Lake Como, then flying out of Milan.

But due to airline issues we now have to begin our trip in Milan. I thought "who cares, we'll just reverse the trip" and rebooked our lodgings with that in mind, but (silly me), I've just realized flying out of Florence back to our US-based airport will be a significant headache based on the airline we're locked in with (multiple flights with really tight layovers, so any delay along the chain of flights would completely screw us. That's my nightmare!)

That's causing me to re-evaluate the whole trip! We're already locked into our Como stay from Oct 17-20 because we can't get a refund. But I started thinking, instead of going south maybe we head west from Como into the Dolomites and end our trip in Venice/fly out of Venice?

My wife and I love mountains, hiking, historic architecture, and great coffee/wine. The westward trip ticks those boxes but our travel dates might be a really bad time to visit the Dolomite range, as it looks like most things are closed. Anyone have any experience or insight about those areas at that time of year?

We are flying into Florence next week and staying in Florence for 1 night, at a hotel in the middle of town. We are then picking up a rental car at the airport and driving to a village.

It will obviously be a little hectic, and our hotel is in a pedestrian zone, so we're wondering if we could leave our large bags at the Florence airport, then retrieve them the next day before we get our rental car.

Thanks!

We are arriving in Bologna tomorrow and want to do a day trip to Ravenna this week. We have a rental car so can drive there ourselves. I would love your recommendations on who to use for a day tour that covers all the most important sites. Would be great if it covered all admission tickets as well so that we didn’t have to deal with that. Could be a group tour or a private tour. Anybody you recommend?

Landing in Florence, spending the night then heading to San Miniato in the afternoon for truffle hunting. Will spend the night there, see the truffle festival then head back to Florence. Should we rent a car or is there a better form of transportation to get there? Thanks!

Greetings! Our younger 18 year old son will be studying in Florence for the year, and we'd like to visit him following a work trip to Monaco. I have a two part question.

Traveling with my husband and me will be our 21 year old special needs son. We are open to suggestions from experienced travelers as to our transportation and itinerary.

Our 21 year old is hyper-verbal and has an intellecutal disability along with autism, so visiting very quiet museums, churches, etc is something where his vocalizations may not be welcomed and also where the content isn't something that would interest him. He's sweet as can be but a bit loud.

I was thinking of taking a train to the Italian border and then perhaps renting a car. From reading other forum posts, I *think* there are two towns near the border where there are rental car agencis. That said, in the US where we are from, there is a major shortage of rental cars. I don't know whether that is so in Italy or Europe overall, but it seems like smaller cities might be more impacted than say Rome or Milan, etc.

We would enjoy spending a day or two in the Cinque Terre area. Our older boy enjoys easy hikes, walking along the beach, and perhaps a boat or ferry ride. Other than that area, I am entirely clueless as to what might be lovely spots to visit. I'm betting that there are many, but we again need to take into consideration our 21 year old's disabilities.

The conference in Monaco finishes on Thursday, October 21. Our younger boy will be out on a 10 day break through Sunday evening, October24th, so he can meet us.... somewhere.. for a couple of days, depending upon where he might be traveling with his college classmates. Or we can just meet up with him in Florence where we do plan to spend a few days.

Can you tell we are just at the very start of figuring this out?

Is renting a car and driving to Florence adviseable? Or is rail the way to go? My husband and special needs boy will likely fly back to the US from Florence after several days, but I may meet a gal pal there and extend the trip. Thank you for your patience in reading and for any ideas you may have to assist us. Grazie mille!

We are arriving in Venice on the 19 th, 4 nights. Then on the 23 rd transferring to Florence for 5 nights.

We would like to do the Bologna food tour which starts at 7 am. The train schedules now are little help. Is there normally an early morning high speed train from Florence? Would it be better to do the tour on the 23 rd, leaving Venice very early? If so is there somewhere to store our luggage in Bologna?

Thank you.

Training from Trieste to Florence in October. We have a 7 minute transfer in Prato. Has anyone traveled this route and made that short connection time? Traveling with 4 adults and luggage.

Just wondering if Platforms are close so to be able to make that connection? Also if we miss it, are we able to hop on another train to Florence with our same ticket?

Thanks!