Comfort rules on the plane!
These are my go to travel pants. I have them in 3 colors and wear them everywhere. They aren’t cheap but my black pair are 5 years old and look brand new still. All 3 pair are in my rotation, travel and daily wear at home
3 Likes
I adore Rome, and it deserves more than 1 or 2 days to capture its magic. If you go there after Florence, just for a day, will just seem crazy and chaotic. You need at least 4 nights to see some of the major attractions and then stroll through the day and definitely the evenings. I personally love it more than Florence, which surprised me because everyone it seemed loved Florence more. Leave it for your next Italy trip…because I promise you, you will go back! Then I’d do Rome and the Amalfi Coast.
I would do 2 nights Venice, 1 night Cinque Terra and a day Tuscany tour. I wouldn’t just do day trips. These places have such an incredible feel when the day trippers leave. That gives you 5 Florence.
Is your daughter traveling with you at all? If so, I’d stay 3 nights Florence, fast train to Venice 2 nights, fast train to Cinque Terra 2 nights, back to Florence 2 nights. But it sounds like you may not want to leave Florence in the evenings at all?
3 Likes
My new go to travel pants are Sketchers Go-walk pants. They have a boot cut (less leggings look) and four pockets.
THE sneakers in France last May was old school white low top Converse. Don’t ask me why but they were paired with business suits.
Honestly I wouldn’t worry about wearing athletic shoes and trying to “blend in”. Wear whatever keeps your feet happy. The advice about shoes is a decade old. Get a pair of “happy feet” shoes to walk in all day and a pair of sandals you can pair with a dress or anything else to upgrade a bit for evening wear.
2 Likes
I just love Italy, I could talk about it on this thread constantly.
As far as shoes, i love to wear walking sandals. But I was there both time in warm weather. I did wear my silver sneakers on the plane, though, just in case I needed them. I’m just not a white sneaker person, I like a little bling.
I’m also a heel wearer, I just feel more dressed up in them. But for evenings, I left at home due to the cobblestones. You’ll look out of place in them, no one wears them. But I have these that I love and dresses up dresses nicely!
They are a few years old, but I think Amazon sells them, you’d just have to google. Poshmark May have them, too.
2 Likes
I am heading to Sicily for a food and wine tour in March. I will have cashmeres, leggings with low boots and loafer/ballet shoes.
I probably will pack mostly dresses for my France and Spain trips this summer. Ballet shoes for walking and sandals for evenings.
For social medias, you need different outfits. 
1 Like
This is such great advice!! Thank you!
I’m going to have to think long and hard about Rome now. My daughter I’m sure will have some opinions! I definitely don’t want to do the ‘rush around and see a bunch of things quickly’ thing. From what I can gather the vibe/experience is a big part of if. On my brother’s last trip he spent the whole weeklong trip in Rome!
So maybe (as suggested) we can go back to either Rome or Venice. My son’s native Italian friend did encourage a Venice visit this time because it’s sinking and may not be a future option! 
The style info makes me feel better. My daughter spent the first week in Florence trying to find comfortable shoes as the ones she brought didn’t cut the 5-7 miles a day walks on cobblestones!
I need some new, comfortable walking shoes anyway, so weill look around. If I wear flare/boot cut pants I assume they won’t be that noticeable lol!
Leave in the hotel safe and carry a copy on you.
1 Like
I would do Venice for sure. It’s so unique and beautiful.
1 Like
I have been to Italy, but never was interested in Sicily until I watched the second season of White Lotus! What an incredibly beautiful spot; it is now at the top of my list of places I want to visit in the next year.
1 Like
I hope that you enjoy Sicily! We spent 2 weeks driving around the island and did not see everything we wanted to see. The food was delicious. We loved Palermo for street food. Luckily, it was years ago when our girls were young so we were forced to really go slowly and just enjoy ourselves.
I’d love to go back:)
When the kids were little, we had one day at Disneyland. Now, some people will spend a week at Disney parks and the tourism is a cottage industry. I told the boys that we would each pick one thing we HAD to do, and I would ensure we each got to do our thing and that after that it’s all icing, baby. Fun, fun, fun!
If you are going to Rome for only a day or two, I would adopt that philosophy. What one or two things do you feel like you MUST do? Do those, and then sit back and have one of those wonderful, long Italian dinners and relax and soak up the scene on a piazza. Stroll and relish the city. And then make plans to come back.
2 Likes
Just back from a work week in Florence.
I love my Bagallini — it holds my cash, credit cards, passport and cellphone close to my body. It’s easy to wear under a jacket. I’ve also worn it without a cover up.
I like the Lululemon travel pants for flying and less-business days. I have black in two length (depending on the season) plus gray. In Florence, I really didn’t see leggings on anyone other than college students.
Like others I pack everything around black and it is always fine. Definitely a good pair of black jeans. For my trip, I added two pairs of black dress paints (really only needed 1) and also one sweater dress. Hey. It was February!
I packed in a carry-on and still came home with clothes I hadn’t worn. I also left behind (on purpose) 2 pair of shoes and a nightgown. They all needed to be replaced and I planned to leave them behind when I packed.
If I’m there a few sequential nights, I pack less underwear than I need. I just wash it while i am in the shower, and then take advantage of the heated towel rod to dry.
Train tickets are easy to book on a phone or ipad. I tend to search/buy on Trenitalia.
Hope something here helps!
2 Likes
Do you have any experience traveling on the Trenitalia trains with luggage and without reserved seats? I have read to always have a reserved seat if you have luggage, but the train we are considering between cities seems to have no seats classified as reservable seats.
1 Like
I hope you had a good trip! Do you have a Florence hotel rec since you were just there? Thank you.
1 Like
Thanks for those thoughts!!
Mom22039 - I am actually psyched about getting my minimalist packing down to the essentials that I will definitely use. Trying to find a nice/good pair of shoes that I can walk in but also wear with a dress. Ha, the majority of my wardrobe is already black so I’m almost there on some fronts, lol.
Youdon_tsay - my D just came back from a super-rushed day trip to Rome so I will be adopting the ‘see less/feel more’ philosophy if/when we go!!
1 Like
The Regionale doesn’t have reserved seat. So there will be times when you might have to stand.
I actually did take Regionale from Venezia to Verona - train was full but we were able to get seats with our luggage. It was about 30-40 mins ride so it wasn’t an issue if we had to stand during the trip.
So it is possible that the train you are considering is either intercity or regionale. Can I ask you which route you’re considering?
How fun - we got to visit our daughter last December when she studied in Rome. As much as I love Rome, it was even better being able to see it from her perspective and have her confidently walking us all over the city. She grew so much from that experience! I like Rome so much and could easily spend more than a week and not see all I’d like to see but I would take a day or two visit for sure if that was my only option.
We had previously done a longer trip to Florence and Rome and did day trips to Cinque Terre and Montelpuciano and Motalcino. If you want to splurge a little we did a private tour guide who drove us on the day trips and she was great - I could probably get her number from my brother (he planned that trip) or at least get the name of the company she worked for if you are interested. The nice thing about having your own driver is that she was able to adjust as we went. For example we had some time to spare one day and she was able to suggest a town she thought we would love that was not in the original plan and we headed there for a few hours.
4 Likes
Private guide can be totally worth it, we’ve never regretted the times we’ve done that and the price is usually much more reasonable than you think it will be.
2 Likes
For some reason we got confused walking around Rome looking for the Spanish steps on our first day there many, MANY years ago. A lady asked where we wanted to go and not only pointed us in the right direction but led us there directly and pointed out all the things to do and see on the way. She just lived locally and on her way home from work and took pity on us. So sweet! She refused payment and said she had moved there years ago and was paying back for all the people who had helped her. But we learned immediately that a guide can save a LOT of time and aggravation!
4 Likes
Epcy thank you for the train info.
The train we are looking at is Venice to Trieste. We thought we would be able to get a high speed train with reserved seats but have learned reserved seats are not available on that route. There will be four of us with large suitcases. We are starting to look into other options like bus or van, too
1 Like