Central Italy Highlights Itinerary

Here is an itinerary based off the one I followed for my trip to Italy. It’s very basic, just highlights. If you are interested in reading more about each day in detail, you can find the posts here. I also have posts on how I booked everything in Making of a Memoir, Bookings and Budgets, Air Miles and A Type Personalities, Layovers and Lapses, and Pinterest then Packing. Remember when all my posts were in story form and had alliterated titles? Yeah, that was hard to keep up with. Anyways, here is the itinerary:

Day 1 – Arrive Venice, check in to hotel. Walking tour of Venice, starting from the new bridge and heading into the streets following the signs to St Marks square to see the tower, Doges Palace, the library, and the Bridge of Sighs. Gondola ride from there into smaller canals off of the Grand Canal. Have dinner along the canal and stop for gelato. Visit the Rialto Bridge.

Day 2 – Train to Florence, check into hotel near the station (I recommend the Boscolo Astoria). Dine along side streets near the hotel and enjoy a rooftop view of city.

Day 3 – Visit Santa Maria de Fiori in Piazza di Duomo and the Baptistery, climbing the tower and the baptistery for views of city. Have lunch near Uffizi Gallery, visit the Gallery, the Vecchio Palace, and Vecchio Bridge.

Day 4 – Visit San Lorenzo Market in morning, Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace in afternoon.

Day 5 – Visit Academia Gallery and shop.

Day 6 – Day tour from Florence, visiting Pisa, Siena, and San Gimignano.

Day 7 – Train to Rome. Visit St Peters Basilica and the Vatican Museum (book well in advance).

Day 8 – Best of Rome walking tour: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, etc.

Day 9 – Borghese Gallery and Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major

So that is my Italy Highlights itinerary. It is a place I would go back to for sure, but not to these places. I would love to head north to the lakes and mountains, or maybe relax under the Tuscan sun in the middle, or spend a week south by the water soaking up the Mediterranean. There’s so much more to discover in Italy than the highlights.