Dreaming of going to Italy but not sure where to start? Below is my two week itinerary for Northern Italy. These are my recommendations of where to go, how long to stay in each city, and what to do while there. This Northern Italy travel guide can of course be customized to suit your travel style and interests but I feel like its a good starting point! I put this together after months of researching, sorting through forums, blogs, travel sites, hotel sites, etc. and from previous trips there. So think of this as I did most of the leg work for you and now you just need to hand pick what works and start packing your bags! 

Also I highly recommend going to Italy for at least two weeks in order to make the most of it. If you’re only going to one city you may be able to get away with going for only one week but that isn’t enough time for me to fully enjoy and see and do everything I want to do. Especially if you’re coming from the US like I am, it’s a long flight so you want to make your experience worth it!

My two week Northern Italy itinerary:

• 1 Travel Day
• 3 Days in Rome
• 2.5 Days in Cinque Terre (would recommend staying longer if you have the time, maybe at least 4 days)
• 2.5 Days in Florence (I would personally only stay here again maybe 1 day and instead stay longer in Tuscany countryside aka be closer to the wineries).
• 3 Days in Venice
• 1 Travel Day home =13 days

Day 0-Fly to Italy:

We flew out of Columbus in the late afternoon and had a quick layover in Newark then off to Rome overnight. We landed in Rome about 8 am the next day, Friday morning.

Days 1-3 Rome:

I recommend you stay in Rome for at least three full days. I could have probably even stayed there longer if I had more time to spend in Italy. There is so much to do and see in Rome it’s crazy. The history, the romance, the food, the architecture, everywhere is like you’re stepping back in time. 

Things to Do: 

• Day 1- Colosseum and Roman Forum Tour. Book ahead of time! We booked our tour through Viator. Highly recommend this Gladiator Gate and Arena Floor/Roman Forum Tour! This tour allows you to skip the line into the Colosseum and the guide was amazing giving us so much history and context of what we were seeing. This tour also gives you special access to walk through the same entrance the gladiators used to walk onto the arena floor. This was amazing!! I was about to film it but I put my phone down because thats something you have to be fully present for as you walk into the colosseum and see what used to be the massive stands on all sides looking down on you! It almost gave me the chills standing there even in 100 degree heat!
• Day 2-Vatican Tour -Book ahead of time! I cannot stress enough how important it is to prebook your Vatican tickets and especially have a guided tour of the Vatican! If you don’t have a tour you could wait in line for hourrsss like waste all day standing in the sun and not enjoying Rome. It is well worth it to pay a little more for a guided tour that allows you to skip the line and get right in and also provides you with amazing history on the art, religion, and even politics! I highly recommend this tour to the Vatican because the tour guide was so helpful and knowledgable and also because we were able to get in right at 8am without waiting in line and before most of the crowds entered. Though expect it to still be busy, there are millions of people who visit the Vatican every day! And also be sure to wear something that covers your shoulders like a shawl, or dress that covers your shoulders, and knees like light pants or a long maxi dress! You will get turned away if you’re not covered and this goes for both men and women! In addition, there is no air conditioning in most of the Vatican so just be prepared with a small fan and light material clothing if you’re coming in the summer. A nice shawl/large scarf to cover your shoulders if you’re wearing a dress is the best bet for those warm summer days, so you can take it off as soon as you exit!
• Day 3-Roam around Rome – Go sightseeing! Have a long lunch. Enjoy un aperitivo. Other sights we enjoyed visiting: Visit the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, you can go up to the top for a small fee for a 360 degree view of Rome! The views are amazing! Visit the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and Trevi fountain of course!

Where to Stay:

I highly recommend the Aelph Hotel in Rome. It was a gorgeous hotel with a rooftop pool overlooking Rome. The rooms were quaint but comfortable and quiet (exactly what I would expect for a hotel in downtown Rome). They had a Nespresso machine in our room that was marvelous every morning! I want to get one for at home now to make espresso. The service was amazing as well. Since our room wasn’t ready when we arrived they let us use the showers in the spa to get ready and freshen up after our long flight.

They also got us last minute reservations at one of the best restaurants for cacio e pepe in Rome! Not to mention, they are within a ten minute walking distance from the Trevi fountain and within a 16 minute walk from the Pantheon. We were able to walk pretty much everywhere in Rome from the hotel. Just make sure you pack some comfortable walking shoes! 

Where to eat:

• For Cacio e Pepe: Roma Sparita in the cute neighborhood of Trastevere (also featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations back in 2011)
• For drinks overlooking the Spanish Steps: Il Palazzetto Cocktail and Wine Bar
• For Pollo all Romana and the best stuffed pear pasta: Osteria dell Anima

For more information on Rome, check out my other blog post all about things to do and see in Rome!

Days 4-6 Cinque Terre:

We only stayed here for two nights but if we had more time in Italy I would have loved to stay here longer, maybe for at least 4 nights!

We took the train booked through ItaliaRail (make sure you print off your tickets just in case!) from Roma Termini station to La Spezia train station right outside Cinque Terre. The train ride took about 3 hours and was actually really nice. Then from there we had to buy the train ticket from La Spezia to Riomaggiore (takes about 10 minutes to get between these two train stations) and bought the two day unlimited train pass and hiking pass which was about 50 euro for two people. This allowed us to use the train unlimited between the five villages and also allowed us to use the hiking trails between the villages. We never got stopped for the tickets on the train but we did get asked at the beginning of one of the hikes for our passes so we had to show them or else you can get fined. You need to buy the day passes in the La Spezia train station store and can choose how many days you need it for.

Warning! Lessons learned: We made a huge mistake when coming into Riomaggiore with our luggage. We were so tired and made the mistake of trying to follow our GPS walking directions to the room rental instead of following the very obvious “pedestrian walkway” that is this tunnel that we didn’t know cuts to the center of the village! We ended up spending about 45 minutes carrying our heavy luggage through the village up and down millions of stairs on what was probably a hiking path and everyone staring at us! It was so humiliating! But once we got started we weren’t able to turn around and finally found our room! It wasn’t until after when we got ready to explore did we realize if we just walked straight through the tunnel it would have taken us only about ten minutes and a few stairs…. lol we can only laugh about it now but we were ready to fall over from heat exhaustion!!!

Things to do:

• Hiking the paths-hopefully without carrying your heavy luggage through the village =)
• Sightseeing
• Swimming
• Drinking a glass of wine overlooking the water =)

Where to stay:

We stayed in the beautiful Ai Pesci room rental that I found on Booking.com. This location was perfect and it was absolutely amazing with the private balcony and terrace overlooking the village and the water! It was like waking up in a dream. I would sit out on the balcony and just have to keep pinching myself that it was real life. We also spent our two year wedding anniversary here which was such a beautiful place to spend it!

Where to eat:

• Gambero Rosso in Vernazza was so good and had amazing views of the water being right in the marina area. We ate dinner there one night outside during sunset.
• Batti Batti also in Vernazza had the best focaccia that we tried! We got the salami piccante focaccia.
• In Manarola we went to Nessun Dorma. They have the best view in probably all of the five villages and refreshing cocktails! They also have great cheese and meat boards to snack on for an aperitivo while your enjoying your Aperol Spritz. We also got their pesto bruchetta which was so fresh and delicious! They happen to have pesto making classes there but only on certain days. I want to try to do a class whenever I return!

On the Five Villages:

If you bought the unlimited train pass you can take train rides all day between the five villages that make up Cinque Terre. It is a great way to get around (really the only way besides on water or hiking which many of the paths are closed down).

We stayed in the first village Riomaggiore which is what usually appears first when you search in Google Images for picturesque Cinque Terre. Riomaggiore is known for its village situated on high cliffs overlooking the water and has a cute little marina. There’s no beach but you can climb on these rocks and swim in certain areas.

The next village is Manarola which is breathtaking too! This is where the restaurant and bar Nessun Dorma is located. I definitely recommend visiting here!

The next village is Corniglia which honestly was our least favorite. It’s the highest elevation so if you try to take the train in you still need to take a massive staircase to get into or out of town.

Next is the village of Vernazza which was our favorite! It looked straight out of a fairytale! And we found great food here as well. We also did the hiking path between Vernazza and Corniglia which took us about two hours. I highly recommend you start in Corniglia (a higher elevation) and make your way to Vernazza instead of making our mistake of going uphill the whole time! It was certainly an amazing workout and we felt really proud after arriving in Corniglia but man we were dying the whole way there!

The farthest North of the five villages is Monterossa al Mare. This village actually has a beach and also has more hotels so a lot of people stay here. It was pretty nice but we didn’t stay here too long. I would have liked to use the beach but it honestly was so packed in July. We just went swimming in Riomaggiore by our room rental.

A note on the trains: They do not always run on time, like most stuff in Italy and sometimes they break down so always make sure to leave early if you really need to be somewhere like a dinner reservation or something! Also some trains stop at each village and other trains take you straight to the very last village. This happened to us when we were trying to go to dinner in the very next village, we got on the wrong train and we saw each village as we sped past it and finally got off in Monterosso then had to get back on another train to back track. That wasn’t fun! Just make sure you have the train schedule and are careful about where you’re going.

Let me know if you have any travel recommendations for these two cities in Italy! For more travel photos from Italy check out my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniekourcklas/

Read Next: Northern Italy Travel Guide Part Two: Florence and Venice