Italy Adventures | Itinerary & Travel Guide (2022)

In the fall of 2022, Sean and I took a bucket list trip to Italy! Our trip was a total of 13 days and included visiting Rome, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast during our trip. Sean and I started dating in high school, and neither of us grew up traveling (Sean's first time on an airplane was for our honeymoon!) so this truly was our biggest adventure & trip so far. There were of course some hiccups along the way (we got on the wrong train just once haha) but it is still a trip, even 4 years later, that we daydream about! Take the trip!

Our original itinerary had us in Rome for a total of 2.5 days. We ended up coming back to Rome at the end of our trip for a couple extra days because we loved it so much! However, if you’re planning a trip with limited time (like us) I would give yourself a minimum of 2 days to see Rome! We were able to see all the main attractions in this amount of time, while not feeling super rushed & still being able to enjoy ourselves. Of course if you’re able to spend more time, do it!

You’ll see a theme through most of our Italy adventure that we booked morning guided tours and then had our afternoons free for eating and exploring! It was the perfect mix of "Okay, let's get up and go see this site!" and then we could just explore freely in the afternoon. 

We booked airbnbs for our entire trip to Italy and loved it! We had amazing experiences (always read the reviews!!) and would definitely do it again!

Campo de’ Fiori

Our airbnb was located just a few steps from the square + was the perfect location. Be prepared to climb stairs at this place, but it was perfect for us. Campo de’ Fiori is an adorable outdoor market by day, and a romantic piazza by night – surrounded by cozy eateries + close to all the major sites in Roma! We could walk to all the major sites within 30 minutes from this area – or you can be adventurous and rent scooters!

Trastevere

Second to this area, we fell in love with the Trastevere area! We ended up coming back to Rome at the end of our trip and staying in this area + this luxury apartment. The area has tons of amazing eateries and the most romantic, cozy vibe! Small cobblestone streets and definitely a younger, more authentic Italian feel!

Colosseum + Roman Forum/Palatine Hill

We did a guided tour for this which included all three areas. Included in our specific tour was a tour of the undergrounds portion of the Colosseum – which we loved and definitely think was worth the paying extra to see!

We also loved Palatine Hill + Roman Forum — which are the ruin portion next to the Colosseum. We learned a lot about Rome’s history and loved seeing (what once was) squares filled with palaces, beautiful gardens, + Roman life 2,000 years ago.

Trevi Fountain + Spanish Steps

We visited both of these in the same evening, close to sunset. Yes, prepare for crowds at both locations (unless you go early in the morning), but we thought both were absolutely breathtaking + must sees!

Take a coin to throw in the Trevi Fountain so you’ll be sure to return one day!

Pantheon

Before we visited the Trevi Fountain, we stopped by the Pantheon. We didn’t end up going in (the lines were insane both days we tried), but the view and energy in the piazza surrounding it was amazing in itself!

Vatican City: Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, + Sistine Chapel

We did a guided tour of the Vatican City, which included visiting all three buildings (Vatican, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica). We were absolutely blown away at how breathtaking and awe inspiring these buildings were. Regardless of religion, you need to see these buildings for yourself! The ceilings, windows, art, sculptures.. everything is just amazing.

St. Peter’s Basilica is the largest Christian church in the world and one of our favorite parts of our entire trip. Chills seeing this in person!

The only other (big) thing I would have loved to see in Rome was the Galleria Borghese! Next time, next time!

Make sure to checkout my Rome IG Story Highlight — I documented every moment of our trip there so you can watch back + get inspo!

Tonnarello — Located in the heart of Trastevere! This was easily my favorite pasta dish of the entire trip – you MUST go and get the carbonara. Thank me later! The lines can get long, but we showed up for dinner & lunch early both nights, without reservations, and were able to get seated quickly.

Dar Poeta — Unreal pizza! And a cozy lunch spot in Trastevere!

Forno — Located in one corner of Campo de’ Fiori and had amazing take away pizza by the slice! Super cheap and yummy, traditional Roma pizza.

We loved all the cozy breakfast spots near Campo de’ Fiori! Tons of small mom + pop shops to swing in and snag a pastry and espresso (or cappuccino) in the morning! One of our favs was Il Fornaio – the cutest little shop with amazing pastries!

There's 3 story highlights on my Instagram of our trip -- make sure to check them out! They're titled Rome, Florence, & Amalfi!

After our 2.5 days in Rome, we made our way to Florence – a much quieter, cozy city about 170 miles north of Rome. We stayed in Florence for a total of 5 days, 4 nights. If you are on a tighter schedule, 3.5-4 days in Florence would be sufficient to see a majority of the majority sites and still have some downtime for relaxing/exploring.

As you’ll see in our recap below, Florence is full of charm, history, and art. As two Iowans whom are NOT history buffs, we found ourselves charmed with all the stories we heard, artwork, and beauty around every corner. Unlike Rome, Florence has a slightly more “simple” beauty – there’s not as much grandiose to the buildings, but it’s one of the most romantic and charming places we’ve ever visited!

We traveled in to Florence from Rome – if you missed that blog post, you can read it here! We took the high speed train from the Rome Train Station (Roma Termini) to Firenze Santa Maria Novella Train Station. We booked our train tickets in advance (before our trip) from ItaliaRail. It takes about an hour and a half total & was such a breeze!

Most trains leave Rome Termini station several times per hour for Florence Santa Maria Novella Station — averaging 61 trains per day. The earliest train to Florence leaves Rome Termini station at 5:35 a.m. The last train to Florence leaves Rome Termini at 9:30 p.m – so you can plan a train that works best for your itinerary.

Once we arrived at the Florence Train Station, we decided to just make the 15 min walk with our luggage to our Airbnb. One thing to note about Florence is it is very pedestrian friendly & you will walk virtually everywhere! The historic center is closed to traffic except for residents, taxis and buses. We did end up renting Bird scooters here and there when we were traveling longer distances (or just for fun).

We absolutely splurged on our Florence Airbnb & would do it over again in a heartbeat. It was likely the most magical places we have (and ever will) stay in our entire life. It was one of the “once in a lifetime” places that we will dream of forever. If you have the extra budget & can find an opening – BOOK IT. If it’s not a priority for you, trust me – there are so many wonderful places to stay in Florence!

Duomo Area

Our airbnb was located just a few steps off the Piazza del Duomo, which overlooks not only the stunning Duomo and Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, but also the Baptistery of St. John. It is a very busy piazza, but we didn’t find it to be overwhelming. It was fun to watch the workers & Florentines heading to work in the morning, tourists and photographers come out during the day, and then slowly the night life start with live music and dancing!

Like I mentioned earlier, Florence is a fraction of the size of Rome – you can walk virtually anywhere you want to go within 10-20 minutes! So wherever you end up staying will be wonderful, but we did enjoy the Duomo area and would stay there again! Lots of cozy alleyways & scenic history around every corner. 

Accademia Gallery & The Statue of David

We did a guided tour of the Accademia, which includes the Statue of David. It was crowded and busy (like most museums), but we still enjoyed seeing the artwork we’ve heard about basically our whole life. This is only a 1-2 hour tour, so you could fit it in with other activities for the day too!

Duomo Tour with Climb to the Top

This is a must see & do in our opinion! The Duomo and Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was stunning and captivating. The artwork inside the dome & story behind the construction and renovations was amazing. I personally think the dome climb is a must do – it’s a lot of stairs, very tight quarters, and most of them are spiral (so prepare yourself), but I would do it again because it was such an incredible experience! Duomo Climb & Tour Booking

Uffizi Gallery

The history of this gallery is so incredible and the details in the entire building just took our breath away! From the artwork, to the ceilings, to the family portraits.. it’s a gallery you could spend days in. We did a guided tour of this as well and thought it was super helpful as there is a lot to see and a lot of history/stories behind the gallery and its pieces.

Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens

This was actually something we stumbled upon our last day in Florence and we are SO glad we did! A beautiful palace that was once home to the Medici family. We didn’t end up doing a guided tour, but thought it might have been helpful – we just toured around the beautiful rooms and then went for a long walk around the Boboli Gardens. So surreal to thing of the Medici family living here!

In addition to those guide tours & sites, here were some of our other favorite highlights from our trip:

Piazzale Michelangelo

This was one of our favorite parts of our entire trip to Italy. We took a bottle of wine & walked to the overlook that is the Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset. It’s about a 20 minute walk from the Duomo area, so leave in plenty of time! It’s essentially a lookout over the entire city of Florence and so magical. It also gets very busy before sunset, so we opted for a more secluded spot away from the crowds. It was so intimate and surreal.. a pinch me moment for sure!

Wine Tour / Tasting

We didn’t end up booking a true wine tour in Tuscany, but would probably do that next time! You can find lots on Viator and Get Your Guide.

Buchette del Vino (Wine Window)

Find one of the Wine Windows throughout the city & order a glass of wine! Sip it on the street & just take in the beauty of Florentine life.

Ponte Vecchio

You must take a walk through this bustling outdoor market! We didn’t end up buying anything, but if you like jewelry, gold, watches, etc. you will love it!

Vespa Rental

On our last day, we had some down time and decided spur of the moment – let’s rent a vespa! Italy traffic is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced, so proceed with caution lol! But we had a really wonderful afternoon exploring the Tuscany hills on our own, stumbled upon the cutest town for lunch, and enjoyed getting out of the city for a moment.

Make sure to checkout my Florence IG Story Highlight — I documented every moment of our trip there so you can watch back and get inspiration!

GustaPizza — Likely the best pizza we’ve ever ate! We ended up eating here twice because it was that good!

Gelateria dei Neri — the best gelato we had on our entire trip! And trust me, we tried a lot of different gelato. Such creamy, the vibe of the little store is amazing.. a must go!

Trattoria 13 Gobbi — one of our best meals ever. We heard about this place from one of our cab drivers (always ask them for local recs!) Get reservations in advance, it is always booked up! Prepare your heart for a multiple course meal and the best homemade Italian meal.

Osteria Vini e Vecchi Sapori – we had such a wonderful experience here! Again, you’re going to need reservations for this family-owned, very popular restaurant. The staff were so fun & food was absolutely to die for. We ended up walking in around 6 pm that night to try to get a reservation – they told us to come back at 9:30 pm and we said YOU GOT IT! Worth the wait.

Casual Spots & Wine Tastings

I Peccati Del Mangiarino — a cute wine bar just off the beaten path! We had a wonderful cheese board and wine tasting here for lunch our first day.

Enoteca Alessi — another wine bar we stopped at & had a more traditional wine tasting at. All the wine we tried here was incredible & we ended up buying a bottle to-go (takeaway).

Breakfast & Coffee

Our favorite place for a cappuccino and pastry was Coronas Cafe – we went back several times throughout our stay!

One of the best cups of espresso I’ve ever had in my life was at Eataly Firenze. The vibe is more for locals; and I had a not so pleasant run-in with a local Florentine there.. but I would still go back just for the espresso!

After our 5 days & 4 nights in Florence, we made our way down to the Amalfi Coast! We went back and forth whether we wanted to go up to Venice (we still so badly wish we would've had time to see this city.. next time!) or go down to the Amalfi Coast. Ultimately, we love the beach & water, so we decided we wanted to make the trip down to the Southern part of Italy to see the coast. 

There are a few main towns near/on the Amalfi Coast - Positano, Amalfi, Ravello, Sorrento, and then the island of Capri. We decided to stay in Sorrento and make day trips to Positano and Capri during our visit. Our original itinerary had us staying in Sorrento for the last 4 nights of our trip, but we ended up cutting our stay short and heading back to Rome after just 3 nights (you'll hear more about that below).

The travel from Florence to Sorrento was a bit of a journey ha! We took a train from Florence to Naples, and then hired a private driver through MyDayTrip from the Naples train station to our airbnb in Sorrento. Buckle up, because the roads to Amalfi coast are TINY and winding - it's such an insane experience compared to the US!

The coolest part about MyDayTrip is they let you make stops along the way if you want, so we decided to make a quick pitstop in Pompeii. I'll be honest - this wasn't our most favorite adventure. I think if we would have hired a tour guide, it would have been a better experience. But we didn't want to spend the entire day there, so we decided to just do a self-guided tour around the grounds. Of course, it was very surreal to see in person! It just didn't have the "wow" factor we hoped for -- it was also so hot (zero shade and no breeze). So we were thankful we were only there for an hour or two and then back on the road to Sorrento!

Once we made it to Sorrento, we checked into our airbnb.. here's where things got a little rocky for us. We decided to book an house as close to the water as possible.. looking back, we definitely should have just stayed in town closer to the ferry hub! We had a very winding road down to the small port where our airbnb was located and I'm not kidding when I say our airbnb was a damp, wet, tiny closet haha.. It was SO BAD. We had immediate regrets the second we walked in. The AC unit was dripping onto the ground, you could smell mildew (and probably mold) and you had to go up the tiniest spiral staircase to get up to the bed (our suitcases wouldn't even fit up the stairs so we had to get ready in the kitchen). 10/10 would not recommend and not going to link the place out of sheer terror of you ever staying there. 

Thankfully, we stayed super busy during the day & took day trips to other towns so we weren't at the airbnb very much!

Island of Capri

We jumped on a ferry and headed to the Island of Capri for a day trip. Once there, we headed up from the harbor on the Capri Funicular to the town (Piazza Umberto). It was a 5 minute adventure wayyy up to town. Would highly recommend taking the funicular instead of walking (although many people did walk up!) There are so many stairs throughout this town (it's on a giant hill) so we decided to save our legs on the way up and walk down instead. We explored all over town, the cutest shops, markets, sweet wild cats, and sites to see. We wondered with no plans, shopped around, and had some delicious Limoncello which is what Capri is most famous for. 

Boat Rental in Capri

Absolutely one of the highlights of our entire trip was renting a private boat tour around the island of Capri! It was just magical.. crystal blue waters, the prettiest views, and just the two of us. The water was choppy during the season we went, but our captain was born & raised in Capri and was a wealth of knowledge! He took us through the "Tunnel of Love", we popped champagne, and swam in the very chilly (but beautiful) water!

Day Trip to Positano

We rented beach chairs for the day at Lido L'Incanton. It was pure magic with the prettiest views of Positano and right on the shore. Be warned, Positano is the fancier island and very, very expensive. Drinks were $40 each.. but we enjoyed ourselves so much and wish we would have had more time to explore the town, but were ready to relax at this point in our trip!

I'll be honest again, we didn't have the best food in Sorrento/Amalfi Coast! I think between the fatigue of travel and having to make decisions, and the lack of walkability of Sorrento, we had a super hard time finding great spots to eat at. We had our worst meal in downtown Sorrento and ended up grabbing a pizza the other night we ate out. 

All in all, we are so grateful we were able to see parts of the Amalfi Coast, but would ultimately prefer to stay in a different town in Amalfi next time we go!

After our two day trips to Capri and Positano, our really bad experience with our Airbnb in Sorrento, and a very rainy forecast in Amalfi (so we couldn't spend more time on the beach) we decided to leave Sorrento early and head back to Rome for our last 2 nights! Truly the best decision ever. All in all, we are so grateful we were able to see parts of the Amalfi Coast, but would ultimately prefer to stay in a different town in Amalfi next time we go!

We had the hardest time finding a driver to take us back to Naples from Sorrento - so ideally you should have these booked ahead of time! But since our plans changed, we were scrambling to get out of there. Thankfully, we finally found a driver to take us back and arrived at the train station. Here's were we made our biggest oopsie of the trip. We purchased our train tickets from Naples back to Rome, but instead of getting on the high-speed train back to Rome, we accidentally got on the local train that stops at EVERY SINGLE TRAIN STATION along the way to Rome. This turned our 1-hour long trip into a 3-hour train ride... no bathroom, no snacks, no waters. I cried haha. It was such a defeating thing after a very chaotic morning changing our travel plans and rebooking things. But! We made it through and ended up back in Rome safely which is all that matters.  

On our way back to Rome, we booked the cutest airbnb in Trastevere! Was so thankful we found something and were able to check-in to the cutest place within hours of booking.

We spent 2 more days wandering around Rome, eating the yummiest food, and soaking in the magic of Italy before jumping back on a plane from Rome to Chicago.

Through some of the hiccups and lessons learned, this truly was the most magical trip for us. We think about it and talk about it all the time still, even 4 years later and hope to go back as a family soon!

We hope this helps inspire your own trip to Rome (or anywhere in Italy) in the future! If you have any questions, I’m just a message away.

And if you’re reading this and a trip to Italy feels like a faraway dream – trust me, I get it. That was me for years.. feeling like we’ll never make it happen. But we did, and you will too! I hope our experience will help it make it easier for you to plan your own trip!

xx, Brooklyn