Iceman

    > >Day 1 - Venice
    > >Day 2 - Florence (Uffizi + Duomo)
    > >Day 3 - Florence (Palazzo Pitti + gardens)
    > >Day 4 - Florence (Accademia + churches)
    > >Day 5 - Rome (Ancient sights)
    > >Day 6 - Rome (Vatican Museum + St. Peter's)
    > >Day 7 - Rome
    > >Day 8 - Rome

    > I disagree completely, Venics is fascinating, beautiful and the most
    > unusual city in the world. 3 days is a minimum and you MUST see Burano
    > and Murano islands in the lagoon while you are there. Florence is
    > lovely but 2 days is plenty as many of the Uffizi exhibits are
    > fakes...copies of the real things that are elsewhere in Italy now.
    > Rome is a gem and needs the largess of your time no matter where else
    > you go.

I agree that Venice is fascinating, beautiful, and unusual, and that
it played an important role in European history and culture, but I
still wouldn't recommend a lot of time there. It's almost a ghost
town/open-air museum - it's not a living city the way other parts of
Italy are - you don't experience the Italian culture the way you do in
places Italians still live in, and forget about streetlife or
encounters with locals. Florence and Rome have so many artistic and
historical treasures that should be seen - 4-5 days for Florence and 7
for Rome would be ideal, but for someone with limited time you have to
prioritize. Even if some of the Uffizi exhibits are fakes, it's still
the most important single collection of Rennaisance art, bar none.
Murano (for its glassworkers) and Burano (for its lacemakers and
colorful houses) are worth a visit for someone with a lot of time, but
they're very touristy and neither is unmissable.

Mario

Greetings from Italy !

Venice and Rome are fine. If you have 8 nights in total, I suggest 2
nights in Venice, 2 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome.

In Rome you might spend 2 days visiting the town, plus 2 days to make
excursions.
I suggest these daily excursions from Rome:
Sorrento, Positano and the Amalfi Coast
Perugia & Assisi


Mario
Italy
www.idealimousines.com




(Ksu93dlv) wrote in message news:<>...
    > I know it's kind of novel for this newsgroup, but I actually have a question
    > related to European travel. I'm sorry to interrupt all the off-topic debates
    > going on here, but if anyone can help me I'd appreciate it.
    >
    > I'm putting together a trip to Italy for the Spring and it looks like I'll have
    > no more than about ten days total (including 2 for flying to and from the US).
    > I dont' want to cram too much into our trip, but at the same time I don't want
    > to limit myself to just one city. Rome sounds like a must-see (though I know
    > there are a lot of must-sees in Italy). Venice is the other city we would
    > really like to see. Would it be too much if we tried adding a third city,
    > perhaps one between Venice and Rome?

B Vaughan

On 28 Dec 2003 10:50:59 -0800, (Edwin Drood) wrote:

    > ... IF you take a train
    >from Rome airport to the city, take the train to Travestere station
    >instead of the train to Termini. At Termini, you may walk for a
    >quarter mile before you get to a place where you can get a taxi. At
    >Trasterve, it's about 100 feet.

Actually, there are two taxi stands at Termini station and one is
quite near the airport train. As you get off the train, walking
towards the main part of the station, there is a staircase to your
left that goes down to the street level. Just outside that door is a
taxi stand. There is also an elevator if you can't manage the steps
with your luggage. However, the big luggage carts provided by the
station won't go into the elevator. (I found this out when helping my
daughter who had a year's worth of luggage, plus some more stuff she
needed to store at my house.)

The distance from the train to this taxi stand is less that it would
be at Trastevere station. I take the train to Trastevere station when
I'm staying in the Ghetto area of Rome. It is considerably cheaper
than the train to Termini and I can get the number 8 tram just outside
the station. However, Trastevere station is not very luggage-friendly.
There are steps to negotiate and no elevators. I usually don't have
much luggage so this isn't a problem. If I were not staying in a hotel
convenient to Trastevere, I would always take the train to Termini
even if it's more expensive. You often share the Trastevere train with
commuters and students and you may very well have to stand. If it's
very crowded, you may have trouble keeping your bags out of the way of
other passengers. Finally, like many commuter lines, the Trastevere
train may experience delays at rush hour. I recently had a delay of
over half an hour there on my way to the airport. Luckily I had left
plenty of time.


    >You say "we" when you talk of your trip. If this is a spouse,
    >significant other, or romantic interest, Venice is a place to enjoy
    >leisurely - you want to spend several days there. The best part of
    >the day in Venice is the early morning before the day trippers arrive,
    >or the evening, after they have left. Both Rome and Venice are places
    >to wander and eat. A lot of the reason for being there is to sample
    >the cafes, restaurants, and street ambience. It is wise not to plan
    >on too many sights to "see" in a day. As someone said, one could
    >spend months in Rome without seeing everything.

-----------
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup