7 days in Italy: Rome, Vatican City, Florence, Positano, Naples, & Venice

Hey guys, I'm Keeley and in this video I'll be telling you how me and my boyfriend Jared visited Rome, Vatican City, Florence, Positano, Naples, and Venice all in our seven-day trip to Italy. I'll go over everything you need to know to do this trip yourself, including prices. We flew in the FCO airport in Rome from Tennessee with Delta. Here we took the Leonardo Express train into the city for 14 euros per person. Once we got to Roma Termini train station, we went to the ATAC ticket office right outside and bought a set of 10 BIT tickets for 15 euros per person. These are the tickets that will get you around the whole metro bus system in Rome. From the train station, we took a 13-minute walk to our cute centrally located Airbnb that I'm linking down in the description if you're interested. My only comment is that we had to learn how to use the hot water system here in Europe, but YouTube will help you just like it helped us. We got settled around 1 p.m. and went out to explore Rome. We chose Rome as our base city for the trip because there is so much to see and do here. Our first stop was Campo dei Fiori, which is a cute little market and on the way we passed Palatine Hill. We ate something small at Suffizio, then walked to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. It's free to go inside the Pantheon, you just need to wait in line. We ate pasta at the famous Osteria dei Fortunata. Honestly, we didn't like it, but it's very famous so I guess other people really like it. After that, we walked to Ponte St. Angelo and then went back to the Airbnb for the night. For our second day, we got up early and left at 6 a.m. to visit the Trevi Fountain before it got too crowded. Then we passed the Spanish Steps on the way to Piazza del Popolo. From the Piazza, you take the stairs on the right to Villa Borghese. We rented a rowboat here for 6 euros and they give you about 20 minutes. The structure in the center here is the temple of Asclepius, who is the Greek god of medicine and healing. Afterwards, we took a 45-minute bus to Vatican City. Once you're in this main center area, you have to exit and walk all the way around the back for the entrance to the Vatican Museums. I bought our skip the line timed entry tickets two months in advance for 22 euros per person. We spent about two and a half hours here in total and I highly recommend it. It's a bucket list museum for sure. Keep in mind this is a holy area and your shoulders and knees must be covered. There's also no tripods, flash photography, or professional equipment allowed in the Vatican Museums. Afterwards, we took the subway to the Colosseum where we had a timed entry ticket for 5.30 p.m. I bought the basic entry tickets online one month in advance for 24 euros per person. In my opinion, it wasn't anything too special so if you're on a tight budget, you wouldn't be missing out skipping the inside. We ended the day with some pizza with a view and of course, some gelato. For day three, we're doing a day trip to Florence using Italy's high-speed train system. I booked all of our high-speed train tickets three and a half months in advance using Trinitalia's 10 trips and 30 days pass for about $300 per person. The pass was cheaper than buying the tickets individually even though we only ended up using eight out of the ten trips. After a one hour and 40 minute train to Florence, we arrived and walked 15 minutes to Piazza del Duomo. We burned some time here taking photos in a film photo booth. Each photo strip costs two euros each and takes about four and a half minutes to develop. It's a super cute souvenir and I highly recommend it. Then, we went to Brunelleschi's Dome for our timed entry at 9.45 a.m. I booked the tickets three and a half months in advance for 30 euros per person. It's 463 steps to the top. The steps are pretty steep in some areas. Getting to see the cathedral ceiling art up close and the view up top was so worth it. It is a church so your knees and shoulders must be covered and FYI, at the entrance they have metal detectors and they scan your bags so if you have film, ask for a hand check. Also, this ticket includes entrance to a couple other things that you can do in the area that we didn't have time for. For more information on that, check out the link in the description. Afterwards, we ate some paninis at Panini Toscani. Then, we had planned to go to Gucci Garden which is a store and museum here but they would close due to renovations. So instead, we went to Ponte Vecchio and the little market area here. After trying some wine in Tiramisu and wandering the streets, we headed to La Galleria del Academia for our timed entry ticket at 3 p.m. I bought our tickets online three months in advance for 16 euros per person. We only spent about 30 minutes here because the gallery is pretty small but the Statue of David is here so I think it's worth it. After that, we walked back to the train station and took another pre-booked high-speed train back to Rome. Day four, we left our Airbnb early at 6 a.m. and started the long journey to Positano. We ate some croissants at Roma Termini then took a high-speed train at 7 a.m. to Napoli Centrale in Naples. From here, we walked to Napoli Pi Vadualdi which is under Napoli Centrale and waited for the Campagna Express train to Sorrento at 8.49 a.m. I pre-booked this train three and a half months in advance for 25 euros round trip per person. Once in Sorrento, we got a taxi outside the station with some other tourists for 25 euros per person and took about a 30-minute drive to Positano. The roads here are very, very windy so take some Dramamine if you get carsick easily. Immediately, we saw a very pretty viewpoint of Positano and started walking along the main street. We wandered around and visited some of the famous stores like Cerimica Assunta and got some lemon sorbet at Colina's Bakery. It was so good! Then, we ate at La Zagara. The food wasn't my favorite but the pastries were amazing. From here, we kept walking on the main street until we reached the beach. Overall, we got to spend about four and a half hours in total in Positano before starting the long journey back to Rome. I pre-booked a private shuttle about three months in advance to get us from Positano to Sorrento station because I heard that taxis were hard to get here. I used Mondara car services and it was 100 euros. They picked us up in a designated spot and it was a smooth experience. Once we were in Sorrento, we followed the same path back to Rome. Once back in Rome, we went to this cute place called Trieste Pizza near the Airbnb and it was so good. Day five started out with us visiting the Trevi Fountain again because we realized we forgot to throw a coin in. Then, we took another pre-booked high-speed train to Naples. Once here, we found a taxi outside the station which cost us 180 euros to get to and from Mount Vesuvius. I saw online that this is how other people did it so I knew that this was a relatively normal price. For the 180 euros, he would drive us 40 minutes to get to Mount Vesuvius, wait 90 minutes here while we hike, then take us back another 40 minutes to the station at the end. I bought our timed entry tickets to the hike itself one month in advance for about 12 euros per person. People online said that 90 minutes was more than enough time for the whole hike but we felt a little rushed to make it back on time so we didn't end up going to the very top. The top has the same view as the rest of the hike though so it didn't really matter to us. Once he drove us back, we had some time to kill before our train at 3 pm so we walked around the area outside the station, went in a couple stores, ate at a pizza place and got some pastries. Once we were back in Rome, we decided to visit the Colosseum again and eat at this cute little fried pizza place. Day 6 started with a 6.30 am high speed train to Venice. It took 4 hours and we got there at 10.30 am. Our first stop was Gelatoteca Suso which ended up being my favorite gelato that I had in all of Italy. We climbed Pompeii Rialto then did the bucket list gondola ride which was 80 euros plus a 10 euro tip for 2 people and lasted about 20 minutes. You just have to do it. Who comes to Venice and doesn't ride in a gondola? It's so pretty. Then we walked to Piazza San Marco to see St. Mark's Basilica and the Bridge of Flies. Then we got lost walking through some cute alleyways on our way to Libreria Acqua Alta which is this adorable bookstore. After that, we ran out of things we wanted to do so we just walked around and enjoyed the scenery. We ended up changing our ticket time and leaving an hour earlier than planned back to Rome. Once back at the Airbnb, we cleaned up and got ready for checkout tomorrow. Day 7 was just us checking out, eating breakfast at the station, and flying back to Tennessee. I have more info related to everything that we did down in the description and if you have any questions leave them in the comments below. Thanks for watching!