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1 Week Italy Itinerary: Options & Planning Tips


While a two-week vacation is a popular amount of time to spend on a holiday, not everyone has two weeks to spare – and even if you’ve got plenty of vacation time, you may not want to use it all up in one trip to one place. With that in mind, then, here are a few options for a one-week Italy itinerary.
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Itinerary Assumptions

Here are the things I’ve assumed with these itineraries to make them work. You may need to alter them if your situation doesn’t fit my assumptions, but at least you’ve got a place to start now.

  1. These itineraries are all designed with first-time Italy visitors in mind – so they all include the “holy trinity” of Venice, Florence, and Rome. Their flavors are slightly different based on the various additions beyond those three destinations.
  2. It’s a work week’s worth of vacation time – five business days – but this itinerary is actually more like eight or nine days long. The assumption is that you’ll leave home on a Friday night or a Saturday, and not return home until the Sunday of the following week.
  3. You won’t be able to do all of this if you fly in and out of the same Italian city. A short itinerary means that if you’re trying to cover a lot of ground you need to make sure you’re not wasting your time back-tracking to get to an airport. For this trip, you’ll fly open-jaw – into one city and out of another.

Italy in One Week: Some Itinerary Options

Here’s the short version of each of these itineraries – for more details on each one, click on the link under each list. There, you’ll find thoughts about what kinds of travelers might like each itinerary, tips on what to do during each day, information on how to get from place to place, and more resources to help you plan your trip.

The “Holy Trinity” + Siena

  • 1-2 hotel nights – Venice (with day trip to lagoon islands or Verona)
  • 2 hotel nights – Florence (with Pisa half-day trip)
  • 1 hotel night – Siena
  • 3 hotel nights – Rome

>> Read all the details of this Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome 1-Week Italy Itinerary

The “Holy Trinity” + Ligurian Coast

  • 1-2 hotel nights – Venice
  • 2 hotel nights – Portofino or Cinque Terre
  • 2 hotel nights – Florence (with optional stop in Pisa en route from Liguria)
  • 2 hotel nights – Rome

>> Read all the details of this Venice, Ligurian Coast, Florence, Rome 1-Week Italy Itinerary

The “Holy Trinity” + Pompeii

  • 1-2 hotel nights – Venice (with optional half-day trip to lagoon islands)
  • 2 hotel nights – Florence (with optional Pisa half-day trip)
  • 4 hotel nights – Rome (with Pompeii day trip & optional Ostia day trip)

>> Read all the details of this Venice, Florence, Rome, Pompeii 1-Week Italy Itinerary
photo by Allerina & Glen MacLarty