Italy - Venice or Florence

[MDFirst]

Hello All, 

My family Wife and triplets at time of cruising 19 need some advice on pre cruise tour.

Planning on a 9 night greek Island cruise but want to go to Italy for three days before the ship leave. Question with limited time what is the best choice . Rome to Florence for the day or Rome to Venice for the day. Plan on getting a hotel in Rome and spending 1 to 2 day in Rome. Need ideals please , also on a tight budget.

Thanks for all the advice 

Michel 

 

[KristiZ]

Personally I would spend all your time in Rome — there is plenty to see in such a short time and then you will save on transportation costs. 

[mom2mybugs]

I didn't get to Venice but Florence in a day is tough.  You will have a hard time seeing the inside of the duomo, the baptistry, climbing up to see views, going to the uffizi, etc.  Rome has a ton of things!  You could totally, as kristiZ said, spend all your time there.  Jane

[KJones]

So your cruise will be leaving from Civitavecchia, and you'll spend a few days in Rome, travel out for a day, then come back to Rome? If that's the case, then I would stay in Rome for that extra day. Though the freccia trains are fast, you're still spending a good chuck of time in transit. Yes, the scenery will be beautiful out the train windows, but it's still about 1-1.5hrs to Florence each way, and of course, even longer to Venice.

But if you insist on spending a day elsewhere, I would probably choose Florence. Venice might be cheaper overall (depending on train prices) because I don't think there are as many museums/ entry fees for sites. But I would value the shorter travel time, and the fact that Florence is one of my favorite cities

[ellcee]

Would you think of spending a night in Venice or Florence? I know I'm going against the grain here with the previous responses but I didn't love Rome. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things to do there which were worth it. I just think either Venice or Florence overnight may be worth it.

[Zacharius]

Out of those two? Florence, easy. I personally find Venice to be...uh...let's just go with "not enjoyable".

But that wouldn't be my top choice. Another option is to head down to Sorrento, just south of Naples, and combine it with a stop at Pompeii right next door. I personally prefer that area to Rome.

[kittysoul]

@ellcee Florence for sure!   

[kittysoul]

@MDFirst   Rome to Florence definitely.

[ellcee]

4 minutes ago, kittysoul said:

@ellcee Florence for sure!   

I loved Florence with all of my heart. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.

[haf]

We did just that this last july. Rome to Florence on a day trip. However, we visited Rome a couple of years ago so we did not have to spend more days in Rome this time around. I also would suggest an overnight in Florence. There is a review I wrote on cruisecritic (jewel of the seas review july 2019) that gives more details about our day trip.

[Phillo]

While I would just stay in Rome, out of the two choices presented:  Florence.

If you want to go somewhere in florence like the Accademia, look at grabbing a tour from one of the vendors that are around the area. You will not have to line up to get in and can see it quicker.

Also... for a day trip, I always do the Hop-on-Hop-off buses.  The one in florence will take you around past all the key sites.

As much as I love Venice, doing it on a day trip is not a great idea.  I know its sacrilege saying this on this type of forum, but the cruise ships cause a lot of issues in Venice during daylight hours. The amount of people that flood the city is incredible and makes it difficult to walk around.   We stayed for 3 nights there and Venice at night was just beautiful once the massive groups of tourists left.

 

[donalk]

Venice is almost four hours from Rome by train, I would say that rules it out. It's a city that (as you can see above, evokes different reactions). My wife had been in Venice before and hated it. It was smelly, overbearing, crowded, and dirty in her view.

I'd not been there until we spent three days in Venice before a Rhapsody cruise last year, and she loved it!

I think the big difference is we were there together in late October, she was previously there in mid July!

I think Venice needs two days minimum, as do Florence and Rome.

Obviously, living in Ireland, Italy is more accessible to us, and we've been there a few times. My personal view is stay in Rome.

 

 

[amcooper]

I've been to all 3 cities.  Unless you've been to Rome many times I would stay in Rome the entire time.  I have personally found that when traveling it's better to spend more time in one place than to try and hit as many places as I can.  However if you must to do a day trip, I would definitely choose Florence over Venice.  Saying that I actually prefer Venice to Florence but the deal breaker to me is the travel time and only a day.

[KricketB73]

Have you already purchased your plane tickets?  If not fly into one of the two cities of your choice, spend the night then take the train to Rome from there.  Saves you time with a train ride only one way!