Italy's Greatest Hits in One Week

A perfect itinerary for squeezing the most out of one week in Italy

Rome—Siena—Florence—Venice

It's folly to try and cram Italy into a single week. Doesn't mean we can't try! Here is an itinerary that takes in Rome, Florence, Venice, and the Tuscan hilltown of Siena.

There are two tricks to fitting all you can into such a short time here.

A week lasts nine days (figuring you leave on Friday night for your overnight flight, and you don’t return until the following Sunday).
You're going to fly "open-jaws" into Rome and out of Venice (well, most likely Venice-Milan-home). This'll save you a full day of traveling back to where you started to pick up the return flight.

Here's the basic itinerary. It's pretty packed—a lot of early morning wake-ups, a lot of churches and museums—because there's simply so much to see and do in Italy.

Don't forget to pay attention to the "Before you Leave Home " box at the end of the itinerary covering all the details you need to take care of before leaving home. Have fun!

Day 1

Most transatlantic flights land in Rome in the early morning (around 8am), and by the time you get you bags, get downtown, and check into your hotel, it'll by 11am—plenty of time to check in, splash your face, and head out see the ancient Pantheon and the nearby church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, with its Michelangelo Risen Christ statue and Filippo Lippi frescoes, before lunch around 12:30pm.

After a quick bite, head to Rome's prettiest square, Piazza Navona. Station yourself at Tre Scalini's outdoor cafe tables to enjoy their famous tartufo dessert while watching children play soccer under the shadow of Bernini's fountains.

Don't linger too long, so that by 2:20pm you'll have already swung by San Luigi dei Francesi (just off the piazza's east side) for its Caravaggio paintings and are waiting for the bus on Corso del Rinascimento. Grab the 116 minibus to the Porta Pinciana (you'll see a park across the street; it's called the Villa Borghese).

Enter the park and take the first path on your right (Viale di Museo Borghese) to get to the Galleria Borghese by 3pm (TIP: you will need to purchase tickets in advance for this; see the "Before You Leave" sidebar at the end of this itinerary). Tour its collections of amazing early Bernini sculptures and Raphael and Caravaggio paintings until the museum closes at 5pm.

Make your way through the park to the top of the lively Spanish Steps. Mingle for a while, then window shop down fashionable Via dei Condotti and the surrounding streets. By the time you get to the Corso, one of Rome' main drags, the evening passeggiata stroll will be in full swing and you can strut your stuff with the Romans until it's time for a hearty and well-deserved dinner.

Day 2

Rome's all about Caesars, right? Start off day two in Rome by crawling around the ruins of the Roman Forum, where orators once held forth, senators debated, and Julius Casear strode the streets.

Unfortunately, little is left to see, but so much the better so you can be out by 11:30 and on your way to see Michelangelo's Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli before it closes at 12:30pm.

After lunch, pay a visit to the Colosseum (you just kind of look at it, take a peek inside at the floor plan, and you're done) then walk several long block further to tour the church of San Clemente, with medieval mosaics glittering in the apse, Renaissance frescoes in the chapels, and a door leading to the first of several basements that lead you through Rome' layer cake of history: below the current church is a 4th century church, and below that a pagan temple to Mithras and the remains of several ancient Roman buildings and streets.

Catch a bus to head back to Piazza Venezia, at the north end of the Forum. Nearby is the elevated square Piazza del Campidoglio, where the Capitoline Museums will entertain you with ancient sculpture and Renaissance and baroque painting until 7pm.

Make sure that before sunset you nip around the back of the right side of the central building on Piazza del Campidoglio where you're treated to a surprise panorama of the Forum from above, with the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum as a backdrop. Have dinner in the Old City tonight.

Day 3

Today we spend on the other side of the river from the bulk of old Rome. Be up bright and early (I know, you never seem to get to sleep in) so that you beat the legions of tour buses to the Vatican Museums. Spend all morning in there, drinking in such artistic wonders as Raphael's Transfiguration, Caravaggio's Deposition, the Raphael Rooms, and Michelangelo's incomparable Sistine Chapel ceiling.

They shoo you out in early afternoon, so grab a snack on your way around the Vatican walls to visit the grandiose church of St. Peter's. See Michelangelo's Pietà and tour the tombs of popes under the basilica before climbing its dome for a panoramic sweep of the city across the river.

If you finish with St. Peter's quickly, you may want to head to the pope's nearby Renaissance fortress, the Castle Sant'Angelo on the river, which has a nifty museum of arms and armor.

Either way, spend the evening in the medieval neighborhood of Trastevere, where you can find lots of excellent Roman restaurants. Afterwards make your way back across the Tiber River to the famous Trevi Fountain, into which it's tradition to toss a few coins in order to ensure that, one day, you'll return to the Eternal City.

Day 4

Grab an early train (might I suggest the 7:52am train from Rome's Tiburtina station?) so you can be in the hilltown of Siena by 10:30am or so. That'll give you time to wander through the wondrously frescoed rooms of the Palazzo Pubblico town hall on the main square, the gorgeous sloping scallop-shell of Il Campo.

After lunch, walk through the medieval streets to the zebra-striped 12th century Duomo (cathedral), with its medieval carved pulpit inside and a library frescoed in bright, Fujifilm colors by Umbrian master Pinturicchio (helped by his young apprentice Raphael).

As huge as it is, Siena's Duomo was actually meant to be much larger (turning the present church into merely the transept of what would have been the largest church in the world). The Black Death of 1348 put an end to those plans, but two mighty walls of the would-be expanded cathedral survive, and are now installed with the Museo del Opera Metropolitana, a magnificent collections of art from Duccio's seminal Maestà to sculpture by Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia (and a great city panorama from the top of the wall).

Take the rest of the afternoon off to wander the nearly-car-free streets, pop into the shops (Siena does good ceramics) and cafes (mmm, cappuccino), and join the locals in their passeggiata evening stroll along Via Banchi di Sopra and Via di Città.

Day 5

Take the earliest morning bus you can manage (between Siena and Florence, buses are faster and easier than trains, arriving in about 75 minutes) to Florence and drop your bags by the hotel.

Head directly to the Duomo (cathedral) to climb Brunelleschi's ingenious and noble dome for a panorama across the city, then duck into the adjacent baptistery to marvel at the mosaics inside and the massive bronze doors outside—the ones facing the Duomo are so beautiful they became known as the Gates of Paradise.

Be sure you extricate yourself from the cathedral group by 1pm so that you can wander a few blocks south for a lunch on-the-go at I Fratellini, a traditional fiaschetteria, a hole-in-the-wall joint with no seats, just a counter selling wine by the glass and scrumptious sandwiches to patrons who stand in a crowd on the flagstones of the sidewalk and pedestrianized street.

Then continue a few more blocks to the stage set of Piazza della Signoria, filled with statues and lined by buildings the Medici would still recognize.

Opening off the south side of the square is world's premier gallery of the Renaissance, the Uffizi (TIP: another museums for which you'll want to purchase tickets before leaving home). Spend the rest of the afternoon communing with Giotto, Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rapahel, Caravaggio, and Titian until they boot you out the doors at 7:30pm. Have a Tuscan feast at Il Latini before bed.

Day 6

Florence rule #1: Be in line at the Accademia when it opens to see Michelangelo's David before the crowds arrive. (Avoid the hour-long wait altogether by reserving your tickets)

Don't linger since before lunch you need to swing by Santa Maria Novella church for a look at the first Renaissance painting to use perfect perspective and a Ghirlandaio fresco cycle on which a young apprentice named Michelangelo helped out.

After a quick lunch, and while the city is shut down for the mid-day riposo, make your way over to the Giotto frescoes in Santa Croce church (it stays open all day), Florence's version of Westminster Abbey and the final resting place of Michelangelo, Galileo, Rossini, and Machiavelli with an excellent leather school in the back.

On your way back over to the heart of town, stop by Vivoli for the best gelato (ice cream) the world has ever known. Licking your cone, head back toward the center of town to cross the jewelry shop–lined medieval bridge Ponte Vecchio over to the artisans' quarter known as the Oltrarno.

Here you'll find the Medici's grand Pitti Palace, whose painting galleries will keep you occupied until closing time at 7pm. The Oltrarno is full of good, homey restaurants where you can kick back, toast your 36 hours in Florence, and avow a return.

Day 7

There's an 8:37am train from Florence that pulls into Venice around 11:30am so you can dive into the city of canals (not literally). Have a snack on your way to check into your hotel in the early afternoon, then spend the mid-afternoon perusing the masterpieces of Venice's Accademia Gallery.

Take a gondola ride before dinner (yeah, it's a bit cheesy—and expensive—but you wouldn't want to have come all this way and not done it, either), and wander the quiet, romantic streets a while after your meal.

Day 8

In the morning, head straight to one of Europe's prettiest squares, the canalside Piazza San Marco. Wander the glittering mosaicked wonderland of its Byzantine San Marco cathedral and ride the elevator up the belltower for a sweeping view across the city and its canals.

Before you leave home:
Book plane tickets
Book hotels
Check train times
Book entry tickets:
    Rome: Galleria Borghese
    Florence: Uffizi, Accademia (David)
    Venice: "Secret Itineraries" tour
Learn more about Italy
Practice your Italian

Take the "Secret Itineraries" tour of the Doge's Palace at 10:45am for a behind-the-scenes look at Venetian history and intrigue from its Renaissance days as the world's trading and shipping powerhouse.

(It’s wisest to book this tour ahead of time, but not necessarily from home before you leave. Dropping by the afternoon before or even first thing in the morning before touring San Marco, should be sufficient. Still, just in case you want to be sure you get a ticket by booking in advance, I've spelled out the process here.)

Spend the afternoon however you’d like: shopping for Venice's famous glass trinkets, popping into more museums (my votes: the Peggy Guggenheim of 20th century art and the Ca' d'Oro, the grandest of the Renaissance palazzi along the Grand Canal) and churches, or simply have fun getting lost in the twisting, confounding, unspeakably beautiful back streets of Venice.

Another option (and a personal favorite): take off on a ferry for the outlying islands of Murano, where the glass industry started and a bit like a Venice in miniature, and Burano, a fishing village of riotously colored houses along miniature canals. It’s about an hour's ride out and back, and you should spend about an hour on each island.

Day 9

Most flights back to the U.S. leave either in the morning or early afternoon. Either way, the day's largely a wash. You'll spend the morning getting to the airport and the day in the air.

(Remember: if you have a 3pm flight, you have to check in by 1pm, which means you have to head to the airport by noon, which means you have to leave your hotel by 10:30... The day's pretty much shot by the time you wake up.)