When we started planning our first trip to Europe several years ago, we wanted to see it all! I had visited Europe once before, in college, but Grant had not (unless you count a 30-minute layover while he was in the Army, which we don’t). We knew we wanted to make the most of the long flight and spend as much time there as we could. Our thoughts wandered to France, Germany, Italy and everywhere in between and near and far!
After much consideration, we decided to just focus on Italy. We knew we would enjoy the trip more if we had time to see some of the smaller towns. We absolutely made the best decision in this regard and that idea has shaped much of our travels since then.
Here is our itinerary for how we spent one month in Italy, complete with our favorite sites and mistakes! We used Rick Steve’s Italy itinerary for inspiration, but definitely made changes to make it work for us and our length of time.
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Rome – Four Nights
Most folks traveling to Italy will fly into Rome because it is the biggest city and a must-see destination. Rome is a good starting place for one month in Italy, but it is very crowded and busy in the summer, so be ready! Our Four Days in Rome gave us enough time to see the major sites plus a few off-the-beaten-path sites.
We decided to spend our first night at the Hilton at the airport (Fiumicino). In hindsight, that probably was not the best idea, especially since we arrived early in the day. We did end up going into the city, which was about a 30-45 minute shuttle bus or train ride. While we enjoyed the hotel and the amenities of the Hilton, I would only suggest staying near the airport if you are arriving later in the day and know that you won’t have time to go into the city.
We booked our next three nights through AirBnB, which was our first experience with that app. Our room was in the apartment of some locals – a woman and her son. The location was great and the price was right. While everything was ok, it just was not the type of experience we were looking for – not enough privacy when staying in someone’s home vs. an actual bed and breakfast.
Two or three days is enough time to see the major sites of Rome, such as the Colosseum, Vatican and the Spanish Steps. If you spend another day or two in Rome, it will give you time to get off the beaten path. We found some of our favorite sites, such as the Catacombs of San Sebastian, Via Appia Antica and the Castel Sant’Angelo off the beaten path.
Salerno – Three Nights
From Rome we went to the Amalfi Coast. We chose to stay in Salerno at the wonderful Alto Mare B&B. The view from our room was amazing and the hosts were very friendly and helpful.
Salerno itself is fairly quiet and there is not a lot to see or do. We enjoyed a big park near the coast, but the real attraction is the other nearby cities. We spent one day visiting Amalfi and Sorrento via ferry and bus. The next day we hiked “Sentiero degli Dei,” which means The Path of the Gods, near Amalfi.
Get more details on our time at the Amalfi Coast, Salerno and Sorrento here.
Naples – One Night
We spent one night in Naples, which was one night too many for us. Seriously, we absolutely HATED Naples. I had read some mixed reviews, so we were hesitant to add it as a stop for our one month in Italy. That said, the Archeological Museum in Naples houses many of the artifacts from Pompei, which we wanted to see. It was also a good base for visiting Pompei, which we really enjoyed.
Naples was dirty, crowded, confusing to navigate and not terribly safe. We definitely walked past a SWAT raid of some sort and are pretty sure we walked past a drug deal on one of the side roads (we were about a block off the main street trying to avoid the congestion). The food was not any different from anywhere else in Italy. I’m sure plenty of people have had wonderful experiences in Naples, but not us.
On the flip side, our hotel in Naples, Hotel Piazza Bellini, was one of the best we stayed at the entire month in Italy. If you feel that you must go to Naples, we strongly suggest this hotel.
We also started using the Booking.com app, rather than AirBnb. We liked Booking better because it brings up not just the Bed & Breakfasts, but also local hotels, hostels, and even chains, such as Best Western or Hilton. Now, we use TripAdvisor, which has pricing from multiple sites. This app became our main method for making hotel reservations, as it is very easy to use and has great listings.
Ferry to Palermo (Sicily) – Two Nights
While we enjoyed the (overnight) ferry, which was basically a small cruise ship, we definitely made some mistakes here. One mistake was not scheduling more time for Sicily in our one month in Italy itinerary. The other was that we took the ferry from Naples to Palermo, but then decided to visit Mt. Etna on the other side of the island.
We had to take a three-hour bus to get there and back. The upside was that we got to see a lot of the interior, which was very pretty. The downside was that we wasted a good part of our time there sitting on a bus.
The Best Western Hotel Mediterraneo in Catania (one night) was very nice. They helped us book a tour of Mt. Etna, which was with a local guide and only four of us total in the group. We also found some great food here. If you want to try exotic meats, Sicily is the place to do it.
Read more about our time in Naples, Pompei and Sicily here.
Venice – Two nights
We flew from Palermo to Venice on Ryan Air, which was a cheap and easy flight. One note about flying into Venice: there are two airports. Somehow, we weren’t paying attention and didn’t realize we were at the one farther outside the city. We kept waiting and waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up and couldn’t figure out why it was taking so long. Once we realized that we were at the “wrong” airport, it took a train and a cab to get us to the right place. I think we finally arrived after midnight…A full day of travel exhausted us!
One full day in Venice was more than enough for us. Other people will tell you to spend two or three days or more. I think we were just tired that day and didn’t have the patience for some of the lines and rules about not taking bags into places. The city is very interesting though, and definitely worth a day or two.
Make sure you take the time and spend the money on a gondola ride. On our second trip, we took one and LOVED it! We also recommend going out to the islands and seeing glass blowing… Amazing!
Our hotel for this stay was the Hilton Garden Inn in Mestre, just outside of Venice. A note on Venice: you cannot drive in Venice, so don’t bother renting a car here. Honestly, though, I wouldn’t want to drive anywhere near any of the big cities we visited in our one month in Italy.
Trento – One Night
Trento is northwest of Venice and is a good base for visiting the Dolomite mountains in northern Italy. There is definitely a German/Austrian influence here and not nearly as touristy, which was a nice change of pace!
We took a “hike” that offered some nice views, but we must have missed some signs because a lot of it was along a road.
This was a great place to rest and relax, but maybe not necessarily a “must-see” stop, unless you are just looking for something different.
We stayed at the Hotel America, which was definitely more European than American!
Milan – One Night
We were going to go from Trento to Bolzano, another mountain town farther north, but we discovered at the last-minute the museum we wanted to visit was closed the day we would be there. So, change of plans and directly to Milan we went.
Milan was the perfect example of “don’t go somewhere just because everyone says you should go.” Yes, the cathedral in Milan was amazing. That was it. We aren’t big shoppers and didn’t care about going to any of the malls for the latest fashions. So, basically, we spent the night in Milan for a 30-minute visit to one cathedral.
If I had it to do over, I would skip Milan on our one month in Italy itinerary. It just wasn’t where our interests are.
We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton, which was a nice hotel, out of the main part of town, but near a metro station. Locals obviously frequented the restaurant and bar.
Varenna – Two Nights
Thankfully, our next stop, Varenna, made up for the wasted time in Milan! Located on Lake Como, Varenna became one of our favorite cities in Italy. We visited an old castle that is now home to several owls and hawks. They do a falconry show each day, but it was short due to the heat. The hike there was still worth it, as there were great views from the top.
We also took the ferry across the river and did a short hike in one of the neighboring towns. We loved this area and would definitely spend more time here if we could get a do-over!
The Hotel Monte Codeno provided a comfortable room, though it did have a very small shower.
Turin – One Night
The big attraction in Turin is the Museum of the Shroud. We enjoyed
Turin was not overly touristy or crowded, which was a nice change. If either of these attractions interests you, or anything else you read about in Turin, then it’s worth a day. Otherwise, you could probably skip it on your one month in Italy.
We stayed at the Best Quality Hotel Gran Mogol, a nice, comfortable hotel, despite the fact they were in the middle of some renovations.
Read more about our time in Northern Italy here.
Riomaggiore – Three Nights
Riomaggiore is one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre. These towns are quintessential Italian coastal hillside towns and there is a hiking trail that connects all of them, which makes the area even more interesting.
There are a couple of different trails. The Blue Path is the lower and more popular path. The Red Path is higher up the mountain and more difficult to get to. In fact, we were not able to hike the Red Trail, as we waited too late to plan it and couldn’t make it work with the bus schedule.
Parts of The Blue Trail were closed, due to poor conditions, which is not unusual after a lot of rain. There have even been some mudslides in the past that have completely washed out parts of the trail.
We took a train to Monterosso al Mare, then hiked to Vernazza and on to Corniglia. Having train service to all the towns makes it easy to start and stop hiking wherever you want or need to.
We stayed in Riomaggiore at the Hotel La Zorza, which provided a large one-bedroom apartment above a nice bar/restaurant at a very reasonable price.
Read more about Hiking the Coast of the Cinque Terre here.
Florence – Four Nights
We made a quick stop in Pisa on our way to Florence to see the Leaning Tower. As we walked through town, it was obvious that we really weren’t missing anything else. Thus, we did not feel bad about not spending more time there. I’m sure Pisa is a lovely town, but we had other towns that we were more interested in seeing.
Florence is by far our favorite “big” city in Italy. The art and beauty of the entire town are just magical. We found what ended up being our favorite restaurant, Trattoria Antica di Tito, not far from our Bed & Breakfast. Grant REALLY enjoyed the Beef Florentine!
There are tons of interesting sights in Florence, so I would suggest giving yourself at least two or three days. I am sure that it would be easy to fill up a week, especially if you decide to use Florence as a base to travel out to Pisa or any of the smaller towns in Tuscany.
We stayed at the B&B La Notte Blu. The hotel was about a 10-minute walk from the main part of town – close enough to be convenient, but far enough to not be too loud or crowded.
Read more here: Let Florence Capture Your Heart in Three Days
Cortona – One Night
While one night is plenty of time to “see” Cortona, we could easily have spent several days here. It is absolutely beautiful and very quaint and interesting, as most of the small hill towns are.
It was VERY easy to see why Frances Mayes was inspired to buy and renovate a house here, which ultimately became the book (and movie), Under the Tuscan Sun.
Spend as much time here as you can. The Hotel San Luca was right at the entrance to the town with great views and a good restaurant.
Siena – Four Nights
We spent “extra” time in Siena because we were here for The Palio. If you haven’t heard of The Palio, be sure to check out our article here. If you can time your visit so you are in town for The Palio, we highly suggest it.
There are probably one or two days worth of sites any other time of the year. Siena is a smaller town, but not too small. It too would be a good town to use as a base to take day trips to some of the other small towns in Tuscany.
The Hotel Albergo Chiusarelli was amazing! Great location, great food, and managed to accommodate us when we decided to add an extra night at the last-minute… Not easy to do on the day of The Palio!
Read about Planning Your Trip to See Il Palio – Italy’s Craziest Horse Race
Assisi – One Night
I am convinced that most visitors love Assisi because it is the only small town they visit. And I understand that. If you have limited time and/or money, I understand choosing Assisi as your one small town so that you can see the church of San Francesco.
Don’t get me wrong, it is an interesting town, and the church is nice. But, we enjoyed Cortona and Siena more.
By this point in the trip, it was “just another interesting church” to us. Seriously, there are SO MANY interesting and pretty churches and paintings in Italy that eventually they all run together.
The Hotel Sorella Luna was very comfortable and conveniently located.
Exploring Tuscany: Side Trips from Florence
Rome – One Night
Our last night in Italy was at the Hilton Garden Inn at
Final Thoughts on Our One Month in Italy
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Italy, though we would certainly make changes if we were doing this trip again. Spending one month in Italy, rather than splitting it up between two or three, or more, countries, was definitely the right decision for us. You can get more details on each of our stops in the links above or below.
- Four Days in Rome
- The Amalfi Coast, Salerno
and Sorrento - Naples, Pompei
and Sicily - A Taste of Northern Italy – Venice and Lake Como
- Hiking the Coast of the Cinque Terre
- Let Florence Capture Your Heart in Three Days
- Exploring Tuscany: Side Trips from Florence
- Transportation in Italy: Getting Around the Country
- Tips for Your First Visit to Italy
- Planning Your Trip to See Il Palio – Italy’s Craziest Horse Race
I know there are still some amazing sights that we missed. Hopefully, we will get to go back one day and revisit some of our favorites and enjoy some new places.
In the meantime, we will stay busy visiting the hundreds of countries that we haven’t been to yet!
If one month in Italy is too much for you, check out our itinerary for One Week in Italy (Venice, Florence
Travel Resources
We use Skyscanner to find deals on flights. Skyscanner has a great interface and compares tons of airlines for the best pricing and routing. That said, it does not always have every airline and some airlines will have better deals on their website. Still, Skyscanner is a great place to start.
Click here to search for a flight.
We typically stay at Hilton properties, so we use the Hilton website. You can find good Hilton Honors discounts or AAA discounts for a hotel there. We make great use of our free night certificates from our Hilton Honors American Express.
Click here to book a Hilton property.
If there are no Hilton properties available, we use TripAdvisor to read reviews and book the hotel. We find we can get the best price that way.
Click here to search for a hotel.
We recently partnered with Stay22 to add interactive maps to each of our destination posts. This will allow you to see a plethora of hotels and vacation rentals all in one responsive map of the area.
We use Vrbo for the times when we have rented a cabin for a weekend getaway, like this cabin in Townsend, TN, or needed to rent a house for a large family vacation. We had a great experience with them in terms of refunding deposits when COVID hit and will continue to use them.
Click here to search for a vacation rental.
As a general rule, we book with Hertz for rental cars. We have had nothing but good experiences with them. Plus, we really like unlimited mileage and not worrying about crossing state lines. We have even rented from Hertz overseas in both Slovenia and Croatia.
Click here to book a rental car.
We have found some amazing prices booking a cruise through Cruise Direct. We have saved a lot of money on our cruises compared to what we found elsewhere, making a last-minute Bahamas cruise even cheaper.
Click here to book a cruise.
We highly recommend Outdoorsy for RV rentals. We rented a camper van for a week to visit Rocky Mountain National Park for the elk rut and Custer State Park for the Buffalo Round-Up and had a blast. The program was easy to use and we really enjoyed the freedom of having a camper van for that trip.
Click here to rent an RV.
We don’t often book tours. Typically, we like to do stuff on our own. That said, there are some experiences you just can’t have any other way. So, when we do want to book a tour, we always check Viatour first.
Click here to book a tour.
We make extensive use of both Good Sam and AAA on the road. Good Sam is normally regarded as a discount card for RVers at campgrounds and Camping World but anyone can use the 5 cents off a gallon at the pump at both Pilot and Flying J.
Click here to get a Good Sam membership.
We have had AAA as long as we have been married and it has more than paid for itself in discounts at hotels, aside from the peace of mind of having roadside assistance. Add in paper maps and the ability to get an international driver’s license and it is more than worth it for any traveler out there.
Click here to get a AAA membership.
Can never go anywhere staying only a day or two. prefer to stay long term in a single region and day trip to towns nearby. For me Florence is a 5 day trip alone. Venice a minimum of 4 days. Having 45 to 60 days helps. Salerno or Sorento is a must for 5 days or more. the ferry takes you to so many beautiful sights. As Americans we tend to equate a great trip with how many “things” we can see in a day. I look for memorable moments and they rarely happen at the pace we set for ourselves. See less enjoy more is my motto. Rushing around destroys the attempted infiltration of life overseas.
We 100% agree but also know that most folks simply do not have that much time to dedicate to visiting just one city. We could only afford the month we spent by saving for quite a while.
I agree with you Gary, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. I find that I need at least a day or two in each city or town (depending on the size) to get a “feel” for the place. The first couple of days all I do is “walk” the town, to get my bearings, and see the daily lives of people throughout the town and try to experience the vibe. I do a lot of people watching from street cafés. It’s only then, after a few days, that I try to start to see the sites and go only when the day trippers and tour groups aren’t there. I’ve been going to Italy annually for four weeks for the last ten years. The best trips have been when I visit the least amount of cities and towns. The average time in a city is about one week for me. I’ve also learned that one wants to repeat visits and patronize those establishments you enjoy being at, like restaurants, and bars (coffee) several times. The reason: the first time you go, your just another customer. the second time you go, they recognize you with better service, and the third time you go, you’re family!
That is a wonderful way to travel. We wholeheartedly agree. The only difficulty we have is time restrictions. As teachers, we only have so much time we can travel. We are lucky that we can spend a month or more on the road. Most folks can’t.
Grant
I was wondering, do you have a written budget of your daily expenses? Like for accommodations, meals, transportation, tours/museums/city passes, entertainment, and souvenirs/purchases? That would be a an incredible insight. I understand that everything depends on one’s choices like luxury hotels vs AirBnB, or Michelin rated restaurants vs humble family trattorias. As for me, I don’t ever plan to stay or eat in hotels, I prefer the “real-life” experience of renting a strategically located apartment (a la AirBnB) half way between the main train station and the historical center, and I total avoid ridiculously priced Michelin starred restaurants and try to eat only in simple trattorias that service the locals not tourists.
Charles,
I actually have a breakdown of how much we spent and how much we budgeted. Please bear in mind that this was in 2013, so you will have to factor for inflation and the difference in exchange rates.
We budgeted $300 per day. We spent about $265 per day.
In terms of accommodations, we spent $3,581 or about 44% of our total. We spent $2,553 on food or about 31% of our total. We spent about $1,236 on transportation or about 15% of our total. We spent $733 on tours/museums/entertainment or 9% of our total.
We stayed in moderate hotels, no hostels and only one AirBnB. We ate in mostly reasonable restaurants but did splurge from time to time.
I hope that helps!
What an exciting and cool trip! I was thinking of taking our family (3 of us) to Italy this coming summer, and renting an AirBNB as a ‘central point’ and doing day trips from there (what city, I’m not exactly sure). We could stay an overnight or two, but feel like it would be better if we have one jumping off point and don’t have to keep packing and unpacking. In your experience, do you think this is a feasible idea? Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the question!
I think you could (and should) do one location if you are planning on exploring a particular region. If we were planning on spending a lot of time exploring Tuscany, this is exactly what we would do.
That said, if you are planning on seeing a lot of the highlights of Italy, you are gonna see travel times are really burning up how long you can spend in these cities. Let’s assume you are planning on renting a car. If you use Florence as your home base, you are looking at a 6-hour round trip to visit Venice, a 6-hour round trip to visit Rome, a 5-hour round trip to visit Monterosso al Mare, etc.
While I would rent a car to explore Tuscany and the island of Sicily, I would not want a rental car for most of my trip. I would much rather just ride the train, which is far more convenient.
We saw all these places on your list but it took us about three months. We made Lucca as our base ( not on your list).
We live like locals and we have made lots of local friends at Lucca.
We go every year to Italy and rent apt thru VRBO.We love to cook, buy local produce and invite friends.
We stay inside Lucca’s walled city.
Each town as its own characteristics. As somebody says it is quality and not quantity.
Due to the pandemic we have not been back since 2019.
We are looking into buying an apartment but in Abruzzo region close to the Adriatic coast.
Lucca’s real estate has gotten very high like here in California since we visited last.
We plan to discover this region perhaps this summer 2022 and stay about 8-10 weeks or more.
We are both retired and love to travel.
That’s outstanding! We have not been to Lucca, yet, but hope to when we return to Italy in the future.
Being retired sure makes longer travel a lot easier!
This sounds fabulous. My wife and I are planning a 2 month trip next spring and looking to stay for 4 2-week stays split between Italy and Spain. We have done a few trips and covered lots of ground so looking for something more like what you did. Any suggestions for base camps?
Thanks!
A two-month trip to Europe sounds wonderful! We personally love Tuscany and would highly recommend spending some of your time there. Florence is our favorite big city anywhere. But, the small cities offer a lot more charm and opportunity to really feel like a local. Cortona is one of our favorites and we would definitely recommend it. Sienna was a great mid-size town. That said, there are still MANY cities in Italy that we haven’t been to and I really don’t think you can go wrong anywhere in that region.
From there, it really just depends on where all you want to visit and how far you are willing to spend for day trips. We loved Salerno, Sorrento and Positano. Any of those would make a good base. Or, you could go north towards Venice, Verona or Milan.
We haven’t been to Spain, yet, so really can’t offer any advice there.
Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great trip!
if you’re going to stay in American chain hotels and rush from one place to the other, really why bother? The whole tone of your article was pretty negative- Naples is dirty and unsafe, ‘nothing to see here’, little to do! Why bother writing about it at all? Why bother going? It’s easy to see where the term Ugly American really comes from. You didn’t do any one a service and I’m sure that the locals in those ‘small towns with nothing to do’ we’re glad when you left. The whole point of travel is to see other cultures with different food and architecture and art and look with childlike-wonder and appreciation. it’s an opportunity to meet other people with other perspectives and share a moment when we appreciate our similarities and celebrate our differences. If you can’t do that why go at all?
Hi Kasey,
First, thanks for your comment. I will say this is a first, being called an “ugly American.”
If you read our article, you would see we did not stay exclusively at American chain hotels, but did enjoy various local hotels and B&Bs, including the Hotel Piazza Bellini in Naples, which remains one of our favorite hotels in Europe to this day.
We did enjoy several small towns, including Cortona and Ravenna, and, if we could afford it, we would move to Tuscany. We love it that much.
We made some mistakes on planning out this trip. We wrote the article in the hopes our readers would see our mistakes and make up their own minds.
That said, our trip to Italy was a month long. Most folks in the US get a week or two for a vacation and the cost of flying across the Atlantic is prohibitive. I would hardly argue we did not do our best to enjoy Italian culture and learn from it. We spent a month doing just that.
You seem mostly concerned about our coverage of Naples. We did not enjoy Naples at all. We found the city to be dirty and devoid of charm, in contrast to every other city we visited in Italy. While we did not really enjoy Milan all that much, it was mainly due to the nature of the city’s attractions, not the city itself.
We stand by our observations with this caveat: we visited in 2013. That said, a quick search of the internet confirms that Naples has not improved. While we get your concerns, if you want Naples to be better, clean up the city, eliminate the graffiti and crack down on street crime. Until then, we simply cannot recommend the city to our readers and would remiss in not warning them to steer clear.
Well said..
Enjoyed your month in Italy. I would live there given a choice. Loved Lucca n the Tuscany. Was interested in the prices which I expect would be double now in 2023.
Thanks so much, Ginny! We agree! There are several towns we visited in Italy we would gladly live in!
In terms of prices, I was surprised. I did a quick search for prices for the Hotel San Luca in Cortona (which I am guessing is what you are referring to?) and the prices came in at less than $100 USD/night in the summer. I think this partly is due to the decline in tourism over the past few years due to COVID. I would also attribute that to a favorable exchange rate for euros vs dollars. When we were there, it was not favorable to folks with dollars and that made the trip a bit more expensive for us.
I loved reading this! Thanks so much for sharing your story. What time of year did you do this trip? Thanks!
Thank you! We were there from early June to early July.