5 Italian Cities in 6 Days
- Karishma Patel
- Dec 27, 2018
- 10 min read
I think this has to be the craziest, packed holiday I have planned to date! I decided to book a family holiday but didn't tell my parents where we were going until we reached the airport! I then surprised them each evening with an envelope with our plans for the next day which was a day trip to a new city.
We had dates in mind of going away at the end of October somewhere in Europe. I was trying to find places we could go which would still be relatively warm at this time of year. I settled on Italy.
Next task was choosing where. Originally I was thinking of Florence with its pretty architecture and artwork as well as being close to Pisa which would work as a day trip. I then started looking at more day trips we could make. I then came across the city of Bologna which I had never really heard anything about. It seemed to have the same vibe as Florence with its architecture and history.
I started exploring the map and noticed Bologna was very central to some of the main/famous cities in Italy and my crazy plans began. I decided on day trips to Milan, Venice and Florence and was considering Pisa too. High speed trains in Italy are very accessible and affordable (more on that at the end!) which seemed like the most convenient way to get around. I knew my parents would love to go to Rome as well, and although the furthest away and most expensive on the trains I managed to make it work into the plan with an early start and late train back.
All blue underlined items are hyperlinks to external websites!
Summary of the itinerary
Day 1: Arrive in Bologna
Day 2: Milan
Day 3: Venice
Day 4: Florence
Day 5: Rome
Day 6: Bologna half day then head back home
Bologna
I decided to book an apartment over a hotel as I knew we would have early starts due to train times. An apartment was more convenient for us to get ready and have breakfast all at different times. We stayed at the Astoria Suite Apartments which was a short 10 mins walk to the train station. Very spacious apartment with 1 bedroom and a sofa bed.
First surprise was a Segway tour through the city. We have done Segway tours a few times and its a great way to explore a whole city in a few hours or less. Great if you are on a short break or stopover somewhere! We booked through a company called Bolognaway and they were amazing! The guides Vanessa and Diego are both so knowledgeable about the city and even took us to a great gelato shop. We ended up with a private tour as their policy is groups of 4 or less to ensure everyone enjoys! I will say it was a little difficult to find the location as its nestled in a residential road. When they are out on tour the shutters are down so you would just walk straight past it, there is a plaque on the wall with the company logo so look out for it! You learn so much history about Bologna and highlights places you may want to go back to later.
On our final day we had some more time to explore Bologna. We boarded the San Luca Express tourist train (sometimes minibus) and headed up to the Basilica di San Luca. There is around a 30 minute gap at the top before the next train/bus comes to take you back down, just enough time to explore the basilica. There is an option at the top to take the steps up to the panoramic roof terrace for a view over the area (€5 donation required).
Milan
We caught the 9:18am train which arrived at Milan's Central station at 11:25am. From here we bought day metro tickets for €4.50 each and made our way to the Duomo station.
The view as you come up the escalator to street level and it reveals the Duomo Cathedral is amazing! Its intricate nature and size strike you immediately. We took some photos in the square although it is very packed! Best head to the back of the square to make the photos seem like there are less people!
I pre-bought Duomo tickets from a great website I like to use called Tiqets. They sell a range of attraction tickets for different cities and they can either be printed or presented via their mobile app. The tickets I bought were for the Duomo and Rooftop with an audioguide. We first went to queue for the Duomo, I showed my ticket and the man said there was an hour wait to get inside. We were a bit disappointed as it was so hot outside BUT he then said if we used our lift pass to go up to the rooftop first (where there was no queue), there is a shortcut straight into the cathedral which bypasses the hour queue!! Doing it this way round you need to ensure you take the NORTH lift up, follow the path of people around the rooftop and then you'll end up taking the SOUTH lift down which is the side with direct entrance to the cathedral. Now the only downside of this is that we didn't get the audioguides until we were inside and didn't realise there was also an audioguide for the rooftop! I believe you can collect the audioguides from the ticket office in the Duomo square though.
After visiting the Duomo we headed through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele to find somewhere to eat. With the extra time we had left before our train we headed to Castello metro station. From here we walked through Sforza castle and Parco Sempione to the Porta Sempione arch before heading back to the station for dinner and train back to Bologna.
Venice
Our second day trip was to Venice. We caught the 9:20am train and arrived at Venezia Santa Lucia (main station) at 11:18am. Stepping out of the station you are right there by the canals and feel like you are in a completely different place.
We caught the local Vaporetto water taxi (€7 each one way) to St Marks square, with the help of a local who told us which boat to get on! This is local transport so does get quite busy. If you hang around the boarding area you'll see when people leave from the front seats which provide the best view! It was quite a choppy ride but by water is the only way to get around. I can't remember exactly but the ride was around 30-40 minutes.
We got off the water taxi in the heart of Venice. Walking alongside the Grand Canal you will see all the Gondolas waiting as well as lots of street vendors. En route to St Marks Square we crossed the bridge with a view of the Bridge of Sighs (the below pic on the left shows the Bridge of Sighs and the one on the right shows the view outwards from standing on the Bridge of Sighs inside Doge's Palace).
At St Mark's square we saw the St Marks Basillica. We didn't go inside this time as it was nearing lunchtime and the large queues due to free entry. I didn't try it but saw a website with fast track entry (April-November) for €3 which I kept the link for in case we changed our mind on the day.
After we had our packed lunch we headed into Doge's Palace with our skip the line tickets from Tiqets. The intricate artwork on every surface is incredible. Must visit place in Venice!
We next went on a hunt for a bookshop I had seen on instagram (@taramilktea) of an outdoor staircase made of books. It was only a 15 minute walk from Doge's Palace and allowed us to venture further away from the crowds. The bookshop is called Liberia Acqua Alta and the book staircase is through to the back of the store. Make sure to climb to the top of it and see the unique vantage point over the canals.
After this we started making our way back towards the main station via the Rialto Bridge for the best view over the Grand Canal. The central walkway of the bridge is lined with small shops on both sides with openings for people to admire the view over the canal.
One thing we didn't get to do was take a trip to the islands of Murano (famous for its glass) and Burano (famous for its brightly coloured buildings). I did see adverts for the city bus tour including the island visits, could work out better value if you are staying for a few days!
Florence
Our third day was in Florence. This was the shortest journey time, taking only 35 minutes from Bologna to Florence (a further hour on a regional train to get to Pisa). When we arrived we walked to Piazza Duomo to see Santa Maria del Fiore.
This time we decided to catch one of the hop on hop off buses to get a quick over view of the whole city. The stops are fairly infrequent and not clearly marked so it took us a long time walking around to even find one of the stops! We had to buy the bus tickets from the local shop across the road and then had a 20 or so minute wait as we had just missed a bus.
We rode the bus and listened to the commentary until lunch then got off at the stop nearest to Palazzo Pitti/Palatine gallery. Again due to the narrow roads we had a little walk from the stop to the gallery. We found a nice small Italian restaurant right opposite so we had lunch before our 3pm entry. I had pre-bought tickets from Tiqets again for skip the line entry and we were able to go in before our booking time. This is a must see in Florence for the intricate work throughout, very similar to Doge's Palace in Venice.
Lastly we jumped back onto the bus and headed up to Piazzale Michelangelo for the famous views over Florence before quickly jumping onto the next bus to head down to the station again.
Rome
The final day trip was to Rome! This was the longest journey, we left at 9:10am and arrived at Roma Termini at 11:25am. This day was a little easier for me to plan as I had been to Rome the year before (for 4 days) so I knew roughly how the city worked.
As soon as we arrived we bought one day metro passes (€7) from the self service machines. Be careful as there are beggars at the machine who help you navigate the screens then ask for €1 at the end for their help! After this we headed to Coloseo metro station with our tickets for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill which included an audio guide. I assumed this ticket meant direct entry as soon as you redeem your paper ticket but once we arrived we were allocated the next available entry time which in our case was 2 hours later! It was very hot in the open midday sun so luckily having pre-bought the tickets we got to skip the main ticket line.
With our extra time we headed to the Roman Forum first and then had our packed lunches before heading back to the Colosseum for our visit there. There are some good areas to stand in the Roman Forum for photos with the Colosseum behind. The Colosseum itself only takes around 30-45 minutes to walk around.
However, the first time I went to Rome we didn't pre buy tickets. We headed to the Colosseum and bought guided tour tickets from one of the many sellers around the Colosseum (around €30 in Summer 2017). The guided tour was for the Colosseum and Roman Forum. However this ends up taking up most of the day as there is a gap between the tours (first one around 10/11am and second around 1pm) Inside the Colosseum they give you an overview of the history and then you have free time to explore. At the Roman Forum you get a great amount of information and they take you to all the best areas. The benefit of being part of a tour group is you skip all the security and entry queues. This is especially beneficial if you are visiting during a hot time so avoid waiting under the sun. If you have time, I would recommend the tour, if you are visiting quickly then doing it yourself is better to finish quickly and move on to other sites.
Next we jumped onto the metro and headed over to the Vatican to see St Peter's Basilica. Entry is free if you are willing to wait in the large queues that snake around the square. However, again I pre-bought skip the line tickets with an audio guide from Tiqets. These were the best tickets I bought! You receive a rough map as to where to find the Vox team members but all the other ticket sellers along the way are happy to point you in the right direction. Once we found them, they gave us entry stickers and we were escorted to the front of the security line and headed straight inside!
The first time I went to Rome we didn't pre-buy tickets but again bought a tour from the local sellers. This included the Vatican Museums, Sistene Chapel and St Peter's Basilica (which has direct entry from the Chapel so avoiding the queues). A tour is a great way to explore the museums because the guide will take you to only the best spots and skip through anything less interesting. At the end we also went up to the top of the Basilica for the famous view over St Peter's Square! There are two options for this: option 1 is walking the 551 steps to the top or option 2 which is taking a lift to the first level (bypassing the first 231 steps) but climbing 320 steps to the top. This does get quite claustrophobic as you get closer to the top but well worth the view. Best to visit later in the day so the sun is behind you creating clearer photos. Exploring the Vatican took a whole day from about 10am-4pm when we left. I would advise taking food with you because once you are in, you won't be able to leave unless you go through the security queue again.
We then visited the Spanish Steps (and Piazza di Spagna), Trevi Fountain and Altara Della Patria before heading back to the station to head back to Bologna. With more time you can also visit the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel Sant'Angelo. A lot of Rome isn't accessible by Metro so there's a lot of walking in between places.
Summary for Rome in 1 day:
- Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
- St Peter's Basilica
- Spanish Steps - Altare della Patria
- Trevi Fountain
Italian Trains
I used Trainline EU for all my train tickets as this allowed me to mix and match companies for each journey. Trainline provides both mobile (available for access offline) and printable tickets so I had both just in case the phone failed. Having these tickets means you don't have to worry about validating tickets at the station.
Pre-booking tickets in advance is essential to get the best price. Leaving tickets to the last minute may mean the only option left is the slower regional trains which have no seat reservations. The two companies I used were Italo and Trenitalia. Both of which are high speed train services for the destinations listed above.
When at the station make sure to check then boards properly. The end destination may not be your destination so check the train number! If in doubt there are lots of staff around to ask.
That's all for the quick guides to Italy! Hope you enjoyed!
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