Before making any plane or hotel reservations we looked through travel books, talked with our Little Italy friends, and did our homework. My husband and I then made a list of our dream Italy holiday.

Although we had heard both positive and negative reviews of Venice we wanted our own experience. It was amazing!

Florence was a definite destination mostly because of Michelangelo’s statue of David in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Florence is also located in Tuscany, and more important, so are the Tuscan vineyards. Enoteca Italiana, a tasting library in the walled city of Siena, offers tastings from every wine region in Italy, including the vineyards of Chianti, Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano, and Brunello Di Montalcino.

We longed to visit Italy’s coast, and considered many options. Cinque Terre won because of its proximity to Florence. We hoped to experience the essence of Italy without rushing from one destination to the next. Still, we also wanted to make the most of our time and financial investment. Visiting Cinque Terre instead of the Amalfi Coast worked best for us.

Rome had to be included, and the location of our hotel worked perfectly. We stayed 4 blocks from the train station, and just steps from Metro lines A and B. We walked to the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain, and a short Metro ride took us directly to the Colosseum. We did hire a taxi for our visit to the Vatican and Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Since it is often more affordable to purchase round trip airline tickets, consider alternating your arrival and departure destinations. That way you can avoid the extra cost of one way tickets. Fortunately many airlines will allow you to arrive at one Italian city, and depart from another. We arrived at the Venice airport, stayed in Venice for 4 nights before taking the train from Venice to Florence. We stayed in Florence for 6 nights, and then traveled by train from Florence to Rome. We then departed directly from Rome after spending 6 nights. I will share information about our train travel in another posting. Ciao, ciao!

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