Most Italy itineraries
start with a list of cities.
Mine starts with you.
italy travel design · from phoenix
Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, the Dolomites. Which of them belong on your journey depends on what you want from Italy. The harder part is the order, and giving each place the nights it needs.
Two stops planned well will give you more than three seen in passing.
that a guidebook doesn't.
Three things I know
01 — Designed for what matters
I trained in art history and museum education before I designed travel, and in Italy that background does a lot of the work. So much of what you see there depends on knowing what you're looking at, and when to see it.
More on my background
Art history background
Complimentary first call
Limited clients at a time
Timed entry & private access
03
02
01
When Florence needs four days, and when it doesn't
Where to stay so Venice is yours after five
Which guide to trust at the Brancacci Chapel
I handle the research, secure the timed-entry tickets, and arrange the reservations at places that need more than a website. You arrive ready to experience Italy, not to work out the train schedule to Padua.
Florence is dense. For some travelers, a fourth day there is the high point of the journey. For others, it's a day that belonged to Siena or Bologna.
The day-trippers leave in the late afternoon, and the city changes when they do. Whether you're there to see it depends on where your property is, the season, and how the rest of your day is planned.
Not just that you should go, but who should be standing next to you when you do. In a room that small, the guide decides what you notice and what you walk past.
2-3 nights
typical stay
The art and the shopping are concentrated in a center you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. Two or three focused days suit most first visits. Travelers here for the art often want a fourth, and for everyone else, the extra time usually belongs in Tuscany or on the road north.
Florence
Dense and walkable
2-3 nights
typical stay
in the right order.
These three form the foundation of most first journeys to Italy. Between them they hold much of the country's art and history, and the high-speed rail line connecting them gives the journey its shape.
The order and the number of nights change from one client to the next, and both depend on why you're going. From Phoenix, so does the direction: where you fly in and out shapes which city comes first.
02 — the classic route
3-4 nights
typical stay
Rome
Venice is less about how long than about when. From spring through early fall, crowds shape your day more than the weather does. In late fall and winter, high tides can still reach Piazza San Marco, and the city is quieter for it.
Venice
Its layers run from the Forum to the Sistine Chapel to a trattoria in Testaccio still cooking the offal dishes the neighborhood was built on. Rome doesn't compress well. Shortchange it and you spend the visit in transit between highlights.
Needs your time
Shaped by the calendar
14 nights +
10–13 nights
Under 10 nights
The classic route plus a chapter.
The full Rome, Florence, Venice arc.
Room for the Amalfi Coast or the Dolomites without taking nights from the cities. The journey gets a final chapter that looks nothing like the first three.
Four nights in Rome and three each in Florence and Venice, with the rail connections spaced so you're not packing every other morning. This is the version most people picture when they think of Italy.
Rome and Florence, or Florence and Venice. The pairing depends on whether you're coming for the scale of the ancient city or the density of the Renaissance. Three cities in a week means you've seen the train more than the country.
Two cities, properly.
Under ten nights, the question becomes which two cities, and I'll tell you which pairing fits the journey you're describing.
means choosing.
A week in Italy
03 — How long you actually need
plan for
plan for
Spring
Long evenings, and the coast and mountains in full season. Coming from Phoenix, the heat won't shock you, but Italian cities hold it: highs regularly in the 90s, humidity, and churches and older buildings without air conditioning. In mid-August, many locals leave town and some family-run shops and restaurants close.
June through August
plan for
There's no single right time. There's a right time for what you want from Italy, and for how much crowd you're willing to trade for it.
04 — when to go
plan for
Shorter days, a tighter itinerary, and early booking for the Christmas holidays.
Seasonal closures. Dolomites lifts and mountain huts shut down from mid to late September, and many Amalfi Coast properties close by November.
Early starts, a break in the afternoon heat, and dinner late.
Guides and properties booked well ahead, and Easter week treated as its own decision.
Summer
Outside the holidays, the cities are quiet and the galleries have space in front of the paintings. Carnevale fills Venice in the weeks before Lent, and in the Dolomites, December through March is ski season.
Warm days that cool through October, the grape harvest in Tuscany and Piedmont, and the start of white truffle season. September crowds in the cities stay close to summer levels.
Late Fall & Winter
Early Fall
Mild weather and green countryside, with long days by May. Spring isn't quiet anymore, though. Easter week fills Rome, and Italian holidays in late April and on May 1 bring domestic travelers into the cities.
March through May
November through February
September and October
If the classic route leaves you wanting the sea and the terraces, the coast is the natural extension, a high-speed train south from Rome and a transfer from there.
It's also more complex to plan than it looks. Ferries run on a seasonal schedule, the coast road is narrow and slow, and where your property sits in Positano or Ravello decides how much of each day goes to stairs and transfers. I design the coast as its own chapter, not a day trip.
The art and history don't stop at the water, either. Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Greek temples at Paestum are all within reach.
You want mountain air and a change of register after the cities.
You want water, terraces, and long dinners, with an archaeological site or two between them.
Mid-June through mid-September, or December through March for skiing
season
April through October
right for you if
right for you if
season
The Amalfi Coast
The Dolomites
extend the trip · north
If you want contrast after the cities, the Dolomites trade frescoes for alpine valleys and mountain villages. In South Tyrol, German is the first language for most residents, and the food leans toward the Austrian side of the border. Ötzi the Iceman is there too, at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.
Whether the Dolomites fit depends on how many city nights you've already planned and how you want to get around. A rental car gives you freedom on the passes, and a private driver takes the mountain roads off your hands.
The Amalfi Coast
extend the trip · south
Two chapters worth adding
05 — extend the trip
Each suits some travelers and not others. Working out which one fits you is part of our first conversation.
Rachel Stankovic, Uptown Travel Design
06 · Why work with me
"The details are the difference when working with me. As your travel designer, I work to become an expert in you and what you look for in travel, so I can design the journey that fits you exclusively and creates lasting memories."
They hire me to think about place, context, and the connections that make a journey worth remembering. As a solo designer, I take a limited number of clients at a time, so each journey gets my full attention.
I know where to send you, where you'll want to stay, who should guide you, and how to arrange transfers that show up. What research can't tell you is whether a journey is the right one for you. That's what the conversation is for.
+1 (480) 868-6152
Monday–Friday, 10am–4pm MST
Based in Phoenix, working with clients anywhere.
That's a good place to begin. You don't need the route worked out before we talk, and the first conversation is complimentary.
maybe next spring.”
“Somewhere in Italy,
Takes about three minutes. No obligation.
After we talk, you receive a written proposal with the scope of your journey and your design fee. Nothing begins until you approve it.
You'll get a link to schedule our complimentary call at a time that suits you.
A short inquiry form: roughly when, who's coming, and where in Italy you're thinking. "Not sure yet" is a fine answer to all three.
03
02
01
What happens next