Day one: land in Milan

Next 3 nights: Varenna, Lake Como

3 nights: Vernazza, Cinque Terre

1 night: Florence

2 nights: Rome

3 nights: Atrani, Amalfi Coast

3 nights: Polignano a Mare, A’Pulia

Last day: flight out

Lake Como

Transportation: Milan bus > Milan train station > Fuimelatte train stop ~ 4 hours

Where we stayed: Fuimelatte. We decided to stay in this tiny town outside of Varenna to save some money! We were all definitely traveling on a budget, so we found it definitely saved valuable cash to stay outside of the main tourist towns and just walk to the main areas when you need to. This town was a 20 minute walk from Varenna, and honestly that walk along the water became one of my favorite parts of our days here! It was so quiet and peaceful, and the beauty of the lake and all the blooming wisteria cannot be beat!

What we did: Walked all over Varenna and Bellagio. Rode the ferry. Went for a chilly dip in the lake. Bought admission to tour the Villa Monastero. Drank our favorite wine of the whole trip lakeside, watching the sunset. Private boat to see the main cities by water at sunset with champagne (Bellagio has the iconic wood boats if you’re looking for that picturesque option).

What we loved: Varenna was quieter than Bellagio, so even though its still touristy it felt less touristy. The waterfront area is really small but nice and quaint. With lots of people around there’s plenty of people watching to happen!! On our walk between Fuimelatte and Varenna there was several beaches that we never saw anyone on! Definitely more opportunity for peace and privacy there. Bellagio also had a secluded beach we found that we were totally obsessed with. The weather was also perfect while we were there in April. It was a comfortable low 70s and high 60s which was great for all the walking we did!

What we didn’t love: out of our whole trip, the food was the least impressive from Lake Como in general.

Cinque Terre

Transportation: Fuimelatte train stop > Vernazza ~ 5 hours

Where we stayed: Vernazza. We chose this town after reading tons and tons of travel blogs. We liked the idea of staying in a smaller town and then doing day trips out to the other towns. Monterosso is definitely the main town that most people stay at because it’s the biggest. If I went back again I would stay there because it had the most food and beach options - overall just a lot more spread out and a lot more options. It was hard that Vernazza was so small because during the day the town would completely FILL up with people day-tripping over and it felt soooo crowded.

What we did: We hiked the Blue trail (that you need a Cinque Terre park pass for) to Monterosso (highly recommend hiking at least one of the trails if not all of them! Definitely get an early start. The trail becomes extremely crowded during peak times). Took the train to Corniglia and Riomaggiore. Walked all over those 4 towns. Went in the historic churches. Spent time each day on the beach with yummy food and enjoying the sunshine. In Vernazza, we laid out on the boulders on a sunny day and swam a little. Got gelato at night and skipped rocks as the sun went down. Hiked up to the view of Vernazza which was gorgeous.

What we loved: Really yummy food in these towns! The restaurants at the top of Vernazza (past the train station) were the absolute BEST. I had the BEST salmon and fruit croissant of my life (such a great overall experience with the restaurant owner too) at Il Pirata Delle 5 Terre! Also loved Lunch Box, phenomenal gelato at Gelateria Dal 1968, Pippo a Vernazza had amazing cheap to-go pastas that we enjoyed multiple times!

What we didn’t love: everywhere was super crowded. It didn’t feel local whatsoever.. just tourists. Everywhere (except Monterosso) has odd beach-access. Either a hike to get to, or not so much a beach as boulders, or just super super small. I imagine it wouldn’t be the most comfortable to lay on in the summers or to find a good spot with summer crowds.

Corniglia

Transportation: Vernazza train station > Corniglia

What we did: This was a super quick stop because the town is so small and we didn’t feel like doing the hike down & up from the beach. It was a hike in and of itself to get to the town from the train station! Be prepared for a ton of stairs. We walked around the town and grabbed lemon basil slushies from Alberto’s (10/10 highly recommend! So fresh!) Walked up to the viewpoint and took in the ocean views.

Riomaggiore

Transportation: Corniglia train station > Riomaggiore

What we did: this was my second favorite town (next to Monterosso) because it felt much bigger than the town we stayed in and had a lot more options. We walked to several different viewpoints (like the castle) in the city for pretty water and town views. Got cones of fried fish from Tutti Frutti to enjoy as we walked the town. Went down to the waterfront and brought lunch with us to dip our toes in the water and make friends with strangers enjoying the beautiful day.

Florence

I didn’t really use my camera at all in Florence or Rome for a number of reasons! 1. I’m personally not that drawn to historical architecture like this.. it’s a crime, I know. So I just knew I wouldn’t enjoy editing those photos as much. 2. We took a TON of photos and videos on our phones of all the places we went in each city. 3. We were super crunched for time, it felt like we could hardly catch our breaths while visiting these two cities!!! Then amount we had to walk in such a short span of time.. just wasn’t worth packing an extra 10lbs of camera around haha.

Transportation: Vernazza train stop > Florence ~ 2.5 hours

Where we stayed: Last minute we cancelled our airbnb reservation because we realized it would add a lot of walking time to an already walking-heavy location. Instead, we booked the New Generation Hostel which was a great location.

What we did: Walked a LOT. Booked tickets for touring the Duomo, some of us did the Bell Tower, some of us did the underground area, we all visited the main inside area and the museum together. Got tickets to see the Uffizi Gallery (we went shortly before closing which was nice because we ended up having a lot more space to ourselves toward the end of the night). Got rooftop drinks with the most spectacular 360 view of the city of Florence from Hotel Torre Guelfo. Which was really neat because it felt like a secret to explore the hotel and find the tiny narrow winding staircase up to the roof!

What we loved: All of the booked activities we did were very informative, historical, and beautiful! You could easily spend hours upon hours in each location. There was also SO many incredible food options all throughout the city, you’d never tire of exploring them all.

What we didn’t love: any restaurants close to the Duomo were crazy expensive. Avoid those!

Rome

Transportation: Florence train station > Rome ~ 1.5hours

Where we stayed: near the Vatican. Our airbnb was pretty far away from all the main Rome attractions since we stayed near the Vatican City, so we rented scooters for a 20 minute ride and it was such a blast! Then we paid for a taxi back at the end of the day.

What we did: Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Roman Forum (yes we squeezed a LOT into a short window of time! Really got our steps in!)

What we loved: Every historical site we visited was phenomenal. So much to be said about each of them - definitely could’ve spent way more time at all of them! The food was also so delicious. My favorite meal was from Roma Sparita! There’s obviously a lot you can read online about Rome so I won’t go too into detail. But one thing that saved us was finding a luggage check! That way we could check out of our airbnb on time and store our bags somewhere safe during the day before moving to the next city at night.

Amalfi Coast

Transportation: Rome train station > Sorrento train station > bus ride to Atrani ~ 4.5 hours

Where we stayed: Atrani. This little town is about a 10 minute walk from Amalfi, and saved us so much money to not stay in either of the two most popular towns! I loved how quiet, quaint, and local this town felt. You could tell that everyone who lived there knew each other and helped each other’s business’ out. There’s a few really yummy restaurants in the tiny town square, but the ones along the water were more expensive and not very impressive. This town had a wonderful sandy beach to catch to tan and go swimming! I enjoyed this beach more than Amalfi’s beach areas.

What we did: In this town we explored literally as high as the walking paths would take us. We swam in the ocean. Walked over to Amalfi every day (will talk about Amalfi in next section). Found a few little tiny waterfalls in town to walk to.

What we loved: The peace and quiet of this town and the gorgeous beach. We were totally obsessed with our airbnb which came with a rooftop terrace and we spent a lot of time up there drinking wine, laying in the sun, and playing games.

What we didn’t love: the bus ride - DEFINETLY learn from our mistake and just ferry there from Sorrento. It was only a couple euros more and was a beautiful ride and avoided all the sketchy tight turns and cliffside roadways with a massive bus.

Amalfi

Transportation: walk 10 minutes from Atrani

What we did: lemon sorbet from Il Veliero, try limoncello and pistachio liquors, shop at the farmers produce stands for fresh fruit and vegetables, visit the Duomo di Amalfi where St. Andrew’s skull is.

What we loved: the town was beautiful and easy to explore! Lots of fun little alleyways and a large main piazza. Great food, a few smaller beaches. We were glad we stayed away from the hustle and bustle though and saved some money on accommodations.

Positano

Transportation: Amalfi boat docks > Positano ~ 20 minutes

What we did: grabbed cappuccinos and croissants, laid on the beach in the sun, walked through town, then headed back by boat.

What we loved: The ferry ride was absolutely beautiful and easy to get on from Amalfi! Of course Positano is gorgeous and has the famous beach and blue chairs. This is a famous spot to do a sunset private boat tour, but we didn’t have time or money for that haha.

What we didn’t love: the town was a bit confusing to explore. It didn’t seem like there was a main piazza like the other towns. Everything was insanely overpriced, especially accommodations. We chatted with several people who stayed there for multiple days and they all said the accommodations were overpriced and they wished they just did a day trip here.

Apulia: Polignano a Mare

Transportation: Sorrento car rental > drive to Polignano a Mare ~ 3 hours

Where we stayed: Polignano a Mare

What we did: Spent a good amount of time at the famous beach: Lama Monachile. It’s nestled between two cliff-sides. I definitely recommend going at sunrise because it was empty, whereas the rest of the day it was super crowded! There’s a ton of trash on this beach unfortunately, and we watched so many people get knocked over by the waves and large rocks in the water so be careful! We had lots of great food here! We loved La Locanda Porta Picc and Pescaria for lunch/dinner. We weren’t able to go but heard La Casa del Mojito is the best for drinks! Walking through the white & cream town streets was so fun to explore every alleyway and different restaurants. We used our rental car and did a day trip to Ostuni. On one of our last days we did a boat tour we found on airbnb experiences which took us to several different caves.

What we loved: The food & wine, the warm ocean water, the aesthetic of the town overall, the vegan food options.

What we didn’t love: Harder to get to this region of Italy if you’re relying on public transportation and if you’re on a tight timeline. Wish we had more time to explore this whole southern region because it feels VERY different from the other parts of Italy we went to!