Mother/daughter trip to Italy - ideas?
My daughter is a college student who will be spending a few weeks in Rome this May studying art/classics. We are spend 7-10 days in Italy before the classes start. We will fly into Rome, travel, and then return to Rome for her studies. She really enjoys the classics and art history. Any suggestions for how to spend out time would be appreciated.
If this is your first time to Rome you should definitely spend a few days just touring sites in Rome (at least four of the days). Since she is studying art you should take the Eurostar to Florence and make reservations ahead of time to go to the Uffizi, the Academia (to see "David"), and to the Borgello Museum- along with Santa Croce Church, the Duomo and Baptistry, and other sites in Florence. You can book all of your museum tours in advance (check the Uffizi website and there is phone number you can call to reserve that museum and all of the others, too) and you can book the Eurostar via the internet. I'd leave early morning from Rome so you can have a full day and spend one or two nights, tour the next day and take a later evening train back to Rome. If you want to travel further you could go by train from Rome to Venice first and spend two days in Venice- then take the train to Florence for two days then head back to Rome.
Options also include day trips to Assisi or Orvieto via train .or book an organized tour to the South and tour Pompeii.
Your daughter will have weeks to see Rome. How important is it to you?
You can spend your whole time there and not be bored.
I would fly into Rome and go immediately to Florence for 5 days (daytrip to Siena, daytrip to Bologna), train to Venice for 3 days. Train back to Rome.
If you only have 7 days, drop Siena and Bologna.
You could also fly into Venice and out of Rome for about the same price.
I did something similar with my parents during college and I would definitely recommend going to see Florence. Maybe you could rent a car and drive from Rome to Florence, stopping in different places in Tuscany on the way there.
Thanks, everyone. My daughter has already been to Rome, so Florence sounds like a great idea. How long does it take to get from Rome to Florence by car? train? Also, suggested stops in Tuscany?
One more thing (and, this may change everything. She may actually be going in late July. How bad is the weather at that time of year (i.e., is it unbearably hot?)? Would your suggestions change if we were travelling in late July?
I do hope for your sake that you can be in Italy in May rather than July. Both Rome and Florence are unbearable in July; it seems even worse in Florence because of the narrow streets and the huge stone palazzi that soak up and exude the heat and the sun. Also, because it is smaller, Florence seems much more overrun and overcrowded with tourists than Rome.
The ES train from Rome to Florence takes roughly 1.5 hours. But if you are there in July, I would suggest that you rent a car and visit the smaller Tuscan hill towns, with perhaps a day trip to Florence (with reserved tickets to the Uffizi and the Accademia).
The easiest and cheapest way is to call Florence 011 (U.S. international access code) 39 (Italy's country code) then 055-294-883 8:30-18:30 M-F and 8:30-12:00 Sat. Florence time. You will get an English speaking operator and in 2-3 minutes YOU CAN RESERVE FOR BOTH. This is through the reservation service at the Uffizi and costs beyond the normal entry fee only about 1.60 euro for the service. This is MUCH cheaper than the commercial booking services.
If you put <Tuscan> (without the arrows) in the search box, you will find an endless number of discussions about Tuscan hill towns.