Growing up in England meant quick trips to Italy were a dime a dozen for Mark, but Kristen grew up in the US and like many Americans we’ve met on our travels around the world, Italy was near the top of her bucket list.
So when we set off on our 3 month trip through Europe in 2018, we spent more than 2 weeks exploring Pisa, Cinque Terre, Rome, Naples, Lake Como and Venice. Then we returned for another 3 weeks in 2022, slowly traveling around the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Siena and Florence.
Eating authentic Neapolitan pizza, washed down with delicious (and cheap!) red wine in a narrow cobbled street with a buzzy atmosphere on a warm evening is about as good as it gets for us. We love being tourists in Italy, visiting too many museums and eating too much food.
In this Italy travel guide we explain everything you need to know about planning a first trip, including where to go, itinerary, tips and much more.
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Places To Visit
For us, figuring out where to go on our first visit to Italy was the hardest part of planning. Some countries are easy to visit because there’s only one or a few places that are unmissable, but Italy is a different story. We honestly think any one of 15 different places are worthy of being included on a first time itinerary.
That said, after visiting most of the touristy spots and spending more than 5 weeks in the country, here are the three places we recommend the most:
Rome – We love that the top attractions in Rome are centered around history, architecture and ancient ruins. It’s such a cool city to explore, the food is amazing and it always has a buzzing atmosphere. Here’s our 4 days in Rome itinerary.
Amalfi Coast – It’s chaotic to get around, busy and expensive but honestly we couldn’t get enough Amalfi Coast action. Ravello is stunning, Positano is hip and Capri has so much to do. Don’t miss it (here’s our amazing 10 day Amalfi Coast itinerary).
Florence – We’re huge admirers of the city’s stunning and historic old town. There’s so much to see and do in Florence, fantastic places to eat and drink, museums, bridges, cathedrals and sunsets. Oh, and Tuscany is right on the doorstep. Here’s our 3 days in Florence itinerary.
We know that’s leaving out some pretty popular places, but they are the three places we’d prioritize if it were our first visit again and we only had a week or 10 days.
Why? Because despite being some of the most touristy of Italy’s incredibly popular areas, we think they offer the most quintessential Italian experience. Rome is unmissable. Florence is unmissable. And the Amalfi Coast is just so special.
With more time, we’d then add in Siena, Milan, Lake Como and Venice. Both Sicily and Sardinia are lovely but they’re not as easy to reach. Finally, both the Dolomites and Alps are incredible for hiking in summer and skiing in winter but they’re totally different types of vacation.
We have to say we weren’t impressed with Pisa, and although Venice is unique, it’s also horribly overcrowded. Lastly, the pizza in Naples is on another level but we wouldn’t stay there again.
FEATURED
Unmissable Places To Visit In Italy
The amazing Italian destinations we think should be on every first timers bucket list.
Top Experiences
Instead of looking at planning by choosing cities and towns, we like to know what experiences are worth doing when we visit new places. And Italy has an abundance of amazing things to see and do. Here’s what we’d start with:
- Visit the Vatican Museum
- See the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain
- Eat pizza in Naples
- Explore Pompeii
- Spend a few days in Capri
- Hike the Path of the Gods
- Drink cocktails in Positano
- Take this wine tour in Tuscany
- Watch a sunset over Florence
- Walk around the Piazza del Duomo in Milan
- Take this food tour in Bologna
- Lounge around the shores of Lake Como
- Walk the canals of Venice
We’re just scratching the surface here, but that’s a list full of fantastic Italian experiences. It goes without saying that eating tasty food, drinking local wine and ending each evening with a milk-heavy gelato is par for the course.
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Transportation
Italy is easy enough to get around because it has a great train network, cheap bus options and lots of budget airlines serving its many airports scattered around the country.
We’ve flown into or out from Naples, Rome, Pisa, Milan and Venice airports. But once in Italy, we pretty much exclusively travel by train. Even when we spent 10 days on the Amalfi Coast, we moved between each new place by bus or ferry.
We’d consider renting a car if we spent a week or so slowly driving through Tuscany, Sardinia or Sicily. But otherwise, we’d continue to use trains, even with our young daughter.
In Rome, we used the metro once or twice but we tried to walk as much as possible. Florence has trams but we never used them because it’s a very walkable place. Milan has a more extensive metro network and we did use it a few times. And in Venice, it’s all about gondolas!
Itinerary
There are so many ways you can plan a first trip to Italy. It could be 10 days in the north, a week in the center or a month traveling from top to bottom. So there’s no way we could create a one size fits all route for everyone.
But here’s how we’d plan a 4-week trip through Italy if it were our first time again, knowing what we know now:
Naples – Day 1
- Fly into Naples and head into the city
- Visit the archeological museum
- Eat pizza in the centro storico
- Walk along the harbor front
Pompeii – Day 2
- Train to Herculaneum to see the ruins
- Then train to explore Pompeii
- Train to Sorrento for the evening
Sorrento – Day 3
- Relaxing day in the cobbled streets
- Eat, drink and explore the coastal town
Capri – Days 4 to 5
- Ferry to Capri
- Hike the coastal paths
- Go to the blue grotto
- Chairlift to Monte Solaro
- Visit Giardini di Augusto
Positano – Days 6 to 7
- Ferry to Positano
- Relax on the beach
- Eat, drink and enjoy
- Climb the steps and hike Path of the Gods
Amalfi – Days 8 to 9
- Bus to Amalfi
- Visit the paper museum
- Walk through the tunnel to Atrani
- Bus up to Ravello for half a day
Rome – Days 10 to 13
- Bus to Salerno and train to Rome
- See the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps
- Go to the Colosseum and Roman Forum
- Walk around Trastevere
- Go to the Vatican museum
- Visit the Borghese art gallery
Siena – Days 14 to 15
- Bus to Siena
- See the Duomo
- Walk around Piazza del Campo
- Go up the Palazzo Publico
Florence – Days 16 to 18
- Train to Florence
- Go to the Uffizi gallery
- Walk the Ponte Vecchio
- Watch sunset from Piazzale Michaelangelo
- Go up the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore
Cinque Terre – Days 19 to 20
- Train to La Spezia
- Hike or train to the five villages
Bologna – Days 21 to 22
- Train to Bologna
- Walk around the Piazza Maggiore
- Take a food tour
- See the two towers
Milan – Days 23 to 24
- Train to Milan
- See the Duomo
- See the basilica’s and galleries
- Go to Sforzesco Castle
Lake Como – Days 25 to 26
- Train to Como and bus to Bellagio
- Ferry hop to Varenna and Mennagio
Venice – Days 27 to 28
- Train to Venice
- Walk around St Marks Square
- See the Doge’s Palace
- Walk across the Ponte di Rialto
- Explore the canals
This awesome itinerary efficiently stops at most of Italy’s touristy highlights. It’s exactly how we’d do it if we visited for a month. And even though it seems action packed with lots of moving around, it still misses places like Sicily, Sardinia, the Dolomites, Verona, Portofino and Rimini.
Don’t have a month free? No, not many people do! We know that 2 weeks is a more realistic timeframe for a vacation (and even that’s still pushing it), so we created this 14-day Italy itinerary that we think is perfect for first time visitors.
Accommodation
We won’t sugarcoat it, hotels in Italy’s top tourist destinations are expensive. They will be your biggest expense. But they’re no more pricey than most places in the US, many other European cities or places like Singapore and Japan.
If we planned a summer trip with our daughter, we’d book all our hotels well in advance to get better rates and more room availability. In winter we’d probably wing it to keep a flexible itinerary, knowing that hotels will be available and cheap anyway.
In bigger places like Rome, Florence and Milan, we recommend booking a hotel in the center of the touristy areas, not just to be near attractions but also to have a more lively and bustling atmosphere in the evening. Here’s our guide on where to stay as a tourist in Rome.
But in places like Lake Como, Lake Garda, Cinque Terre, Sardinia, Sicily or the Amalfi Coast, we’d consider booking a retreat-style hotel or a beach hotel. Here’s our guide on the top places to stay in Capri if you’ll be heading to the ritzy island anytime soon. And you should read our guide on exactly where to stay on the Amalfi Coast to avoid the wrong areas.
Food
Okay, the food alone is enough to make us crave another trip to Italy. We share a deep love for authentic Neapolitan pizza, so it’s a dangerous country for us to be in for too long. In fact, we trekked the week-long Tour du Mont Blanc Trail immediately after spending 3 weeks gorging on food and wine in Italy, and it was not a pretty first few days!
But it’s not just pizza. The pasta is also in a league of its own and there’s always a ton of bread on the table, which means carb loading every day is standard operating procedure. It’s part of the reason we try to walk over 20,000 steps every single day in Italian cities.
We’re very selective over which tours we book when we travel. In Italy, we absolutely would recommend booking a great food tour, which could be pasta, pizza or even cheese. Then we’d also definitely suggest booking a wine tour, especially in Tuscany. Here are the top rated options across the country.
Quick Tips
Currency: Euro (USD 1 = 0.95 Euro | GBP 1 = 1.19 Euro).
Tipping: Totally optional, most people round up to the nearest Euro. One of our favorite things about visiting places like Rome or Paris is that we don’t have to tip like we do in the US.
Safety: In our experience, Italy is generally a safe place to visit. That said, we strongly recommend avoiding train stations when it’s dark. We had a few near misses in Pisa and Naples around the train stations. Otherwise, like any other place, be sensible and don’t flaunt expensive belongings.
Punctuality: One thing we find frustrating about traveling through Italy is how late everything is, and how little they care about it! Don’t expect buses, trains or ferries to be on time.
Expenses
Good news and bad news. First, the good news is that transportation, attractions and public transport are actually pretty reasonably priced. The bad news is that hotels are expensive and they can quickly crush a travel budget.
Flights into and out of Italy to other European countries can be incredibly low – our flights from Seville to Pisa cost $9 each with Ryanair! Trains in country are surprisingly cheap (especially compared to trains in the UK) and there’s always super cheap buses running between major cities.
Generally speaking, most attractions are fairly priced. But there are one or two rip-offs that cost way more than they should, like gondola rides in Venice.
Food and drinks are what you make of them. If you indulge like we tend to in Italy, expect a hefty whack to your budget for meals. But eating out certainly doesn’t need to break the bank, with cheap wine, pasta and pizza making it easy to keep costs down.
So it’s hotels that will determine how much you spend. Staying in nice hotels close to the action will of course cost more than booking lower quality hotels that require a tram or subway to reach attractions. It’s the same in most major cities.
We recorded all our costs when we spent 3 weeks in Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Siena and Florence in May 2022. Admittedly, we overindulged and could have done it cheaper, but here’s a breakdown from our trip:
- Flights and trains – $671
- Public transport – $190
- Attractions – $679
- Food and drinks – $1,787
- Hotels – $3,367
- Cash withdrawals – $824
- Total expenses – $7,518
When To Visit
One of our least favorite things about visiting anywhere in Italy is how unbearably busy it gets in peak months. Take it from us, July is not the best time to go to Rome or Venice! Both places were hot, expensive and so overcrowded we could barely move.
But we learned our lesson and visited for the last 3 weeks of May when we planned our second trip. And what a difference it made. Don’t get us wrong it was still busy, this is Italy after all! But it was far less overwhelming, we could actually get into restaurants and trains weren’t jam-packed.
Unless we were planning to ski in the Aosta Valley or Cortina, we’d avoid visiting Italy’s famous tourist areas in the depths of winter. It would definitely be cheaper and quieter, but it wouldn’t have the same atmosphere, which is a big part of the overall package.
So for Italy in general, we recommend visiting in April, May, June, September or October. Further south would be fine in March and November too. If you must go in July or August around school holidays, book everything well in advance and prepare for crowds! Read our guide on what it’s like to visit Rome in May if you plan to visit in spring.
Tours
We’re the do-it-yourself type of travelers because we do this for a living. But we do book tours in certain places when there’s something we just can’t miss, we want someone else to do the driving or explaining, and when a tour gives a special perk like early access.
We’ve already mentioned food and wine tours which are quintessential Italy. But another tour we recommend is this pristine sistine early tour of the Vatican Museum. We did it with Take Walks and it got us into the main halls and rooms before anyone else, which was amazing.
Of all the places in Europe, Italy is the place we’d book the most tours – just to make sure we were using our time most efficiently. Here’s a few more of our favorite options:
Keep Exploring
Are you planning a longer trip with stops in more European countries? Once you’re finished reading about Italy, keep exploring nearby areas by heading over to the following pages:
We hope our Italy travel guide helps with planning your trip!
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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