Travel Itinerary: Two Weeks in Italy

I loved visiting Italy so much...which you can probably tell from my recent Italy recap posts. We only had two weeks and while we made the best of it to see a wide variety of the country we were really only able to hit the highlights. I could easily spend months or years exploring Italy. If you have an upcoming trip to Italy and you are interested in an easy to follow itinerary that hits the highlights, look no further than right here! 

First up, where to go? If it's your first trip to Italy I definitely recommend the big three: Rome, Venice, and Florence. But we also added in Naples and Milan for a little extra. Start in Rome and make a big circle.

We began and ended in Rome, and there is a TON to do and see there.

We split Rome into three days of exploring. First we tackle the touristy things: Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc. It's all walkable and it allowed us to focus our other days on more specific things. We then spent a day exploring historic Rome (the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum). And our third day we spent in Vatican City.

If you wan to add on a quick day or two in Naples I would recommend it. Not so much because I liked Naples (I didn't) but because it was the easiest jumping off point for a day trip to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius.

After Naples we took the train to Venice. Yes, it was a long train but it was totally worth it. We spent a few days seeing all the sights: Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Square. We also did some island hopping and stopped at Murano and Burano. Venice is made of over 100 islands so there are so many to go. We also enjoyed so many finger foods, which is known as cicchetti. We made our own DIY cicchetti tour where we stopped at a bunch of pubs throughout the area.

From Venice we moved on to Milan. If you are into it I highly suggest you take in an opera at Teatra alla Scala. I had never seen an opera but we figured when in Milan and booked some tickets. 

One of my favorite things about our trip to Milan was not even in Milan. It was our day trip to explore the Lake Como area. It is stunningly beautiful there and we had a beautiful day.

In Florence you can do another day trip to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There's not a lot to do there -- we just walked around, took pictures, had some lunch sandwiches and gelato, and then returned to Florence. You can stop by The Duomo (or climb if you want!) and enjoy some free air souvenir shopping. You also have to explore the Ponte Vecchio (don't buy gelato in that area--it's WAY overpriced). And walk up to the hill so you can overlook Florence! We did it because there was a Gelato Festival going on but that was a random special thing we found.

That's part of the fun of traveling isn't it? You can plan everything out but you have to leave room to enjoy the spur-of-the-moment things!

1. Have you been to Italy?

2. What is your favorite spur-of-the-moment vacation memory?

3. Are you more a planner or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants traveler?