Seven days, three cities, no death march. Rome, Florence and Venice, the order that works, the trains that connect them, and where to actually
Seven days, three cities, no death march. Rome, Florence and Venice, the order that works, the trains that connect them, and where to actually eat.
One week in Italy means three cities, not five. Rome, Florence, Venice, in that order, joined by two fast trains. Anyone telling you to bolt Naples and the Amalfi Coast onto the same seven days is selling you bus time, not Italy. I run this exact route for first-timers, and it works for one reason: the three cities sit on a single high-speed line, and each needs about two days to see properly without a forced march.
Fly into Rome, fly out of Venice. Book it open-jaw (into Roma Fiumicino, out of Venezia Marco Polo) so you never double back. That one decision saves you a wasted half-day and a few hundred kilometres of backtracking.
Three days in Rome, two in Florence, a day and a half in Venice, with the travel folded into the mornings so you lose almost nothing. The trains do the heavy lifting:
Buy high-speed tickets on Trenitalia or Italo two to four weeks out in high season and they run around €20–40. Walk up on the day in July and you can pay double. Prices move, so check before you book.
The single most common one-week mistake is the overloaded first day: off a long-haul flight at 07:00 and straight into the Colosseum by 10:00. Don't. Day 1 should be the lightest day of the whole trip, because jet lag plus heat plus crowds is how people burn out by Wednesday.
Drop your bags, then do the thing Romans actually do in the evening: a passeggiata. Cross into Trastevere, get lost in the lanes west of Viale di Trastevere, and aim for the Fontana di Trevi around 20:00 when the daytime crush has thinned. Dinner in Trastevere, early night. That's the whole plan, and it sets up everything after it.
The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill share one ticket (around €18) and sit in a single archaeological block, so you do them as one morning, not three errands. Book a timed entry slot in advance; the walk-up line in summer is the worst queue in the city. Go in at opening, do the Colosseum first while it's cool, then drift uphill through the Forum and Palatine.
My honest take: the add-on that puts you on the reconstructed arena floor is fine, but it is not worth rearranging your day or paying a big premium for. The view from the standard upper tiers tells the same story.
In the afternoon, the Pantheon (free, and the best-preserved building from antiquity anywhere) and Piazza Navona are a ten-minute walk apart. For gelato, walk the extra three minutes to Giolitti near the Pantheon instead of the tourist counters around Trevi. It is not close.
The Vatican Museums end at the Sistine Chapel, and the building funnels every visitor through the same corridors, so the only real variable is when you arrive. Take the first entry of the morning (around 08:00) or a late-afternoon slot; the middle of the day is a slow-moving river of people. A timed ticket or a guided entry is worth it here specifically, because it is the one place where the queue can eat two hours.
St Peter's Basilica next door is free; the dome climb is a separate ticket and a real climb. In the afternoon, Castel Sant'Angelo is the underrated pick, or the Galleria Borghese if you book ahead, since it admits people in timed two-hour waves and sells out days in advance.
Take a mid-morning Frecciarossa and you are checking into a Florence hotel by lunch. Drop your bag and walk straight to the Duomo. The cathedral is free to enter, but the thing worth booking is the climb: either Brunelleschi's dome (the engineering marvel, 463 steps, timed tickets that sell out) or Giotto's bell tower next to it, which has the better view because it's the one with the dome in it.
Florence is small. You can cross the historic centre on foot in twenty minutes, which is exactly why two days is enough and three starts to drag.
Two bookings make or break this day: the Galleria dell'Accademia for Michelangelo's David (around €16) and the Uffizi. Reserve both, with timed entry, or you spend the morning in line instead of in front of the art.
Contrarian take, after a lot of trips through both: the David is worth every minute, and half the Uffizi is not. The Botticellis, the Caravaggios, the Leonardo room are extraordinary; the long middle stretch is a slog. See the rooms that matter and leave with energy in the tank rather than dying of museum legs.
Spend the afternoon in the Oltrarno, the quieter craft-workshop side across the Ponte Vecchio, and climb to Piazzale Michelangelo for sunset. It's a genuine view, it's free, and it's the photo you actually want.
Morning train, about 2h05, and make sure you're going to Venezia Santa Lucia, the station on the islands. If your ticket says Venezia Mestre, that's the mainland; you want the next stop. Step out of Santa Lucia and the Grand Canal is right there.
The best first hour in Venice is to put the map away and walk. You will get lost. That is the point, and the island is small enough that you can never get truly lost. Work your way to Piazza San Marco, then ride the number 1 vaporetto down the Grand Canal as the light drops. Cicchetti and a glass of wine in a bacaro for dinner, standing up, like locals.
St Mark's Basilica is free and stunning and mobbed by 10:00, so be at the door when it opens. The Doge's Palace next door is the one paid interior worth your time. Walk to the Rialto, then out into Cannaregio, which is where Venetians actually live and eat.
Skip the gondola scrum and the €80 ride if you're counting euros: cross the Grand Canal on a traghetto (a standing gondola ferry) for a couple of euros, or just ride the vaporetto. Then to Marco Polo airport, and out.
Three rules that hold in all three cities. One: if there are photos of the food on the menu, or a person outside waving you in, keep walking. Two: a short menu that changes is a good sign; a laminated novel in four languages is not. Three: walk five minutes off the main square. The rent on the piazza is in the price of the carbonara, and it's never the better plate.
Book the two high-speed trains and your museum slots (Colosseum, Vatican, Uffizi, Accademia, and Borghese if you add it) two to four weeks ahead from May to October. Each city charges a small per-night tourist tax, collected at the hotel. Validate regional tickets before boarding; high-speed tickets are tied to a specific train and seat, so there's nothing to stamp.
If this is your first time and you want the icons, the Rome–Florence–Venice line is the right week and I wouldn't change it. If you've seen the big three before, swap Venice for two nights in the Tuscan hills (Siena, then a day in San Gimignano) and let the pace drop. Either way, resist adding a fourth city. The week is good because it's restrained, not in spite of it.