Rome, the Grand Tour's Real Finale
Rome was the climactic endpoint of the 18th and 19th-century Grand Tour, reached only after Paris, Switzerland and Florence or Venice. Plenty of modern itineraries treat Rome as an interchangeable first stop instead, missing the point of arriving there last.
The route that still works
Rome 3 nights, Florence 2 nights, Venice 2 nights, connected by high-speed rail: Rome to Florence in 1 hour 32 minutes, fares from roughly €19.90, then Florence to Venice in 3.5-4 hours. trenitalia.com has current schedules for both legs, and search hotels in central Florence covers the middle stop.
The coastal alternative
Naples runs about 70 minutes by high-speed rail, then onward to Pompeii by the Circumvesuviana line or further to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast by regional rail, ferry or bus. This is a genuinely multi-leg journey, not one seamless connection, so plan it as a one-way loop of 3-5 nights rather than a round trip. trenitalia.com covers the Naples leg’s timetable on its own, separate from the Florence-Venice route above.
The road-trip alternative
A rental car, picked up after leaving central Rome and never driven into the ZTL zones, loops through Siena, San Gimignano, Montepulciano and the Montalcino or Chianti wine country. ZTL camera fines run €83-100 per gate, arriving on the rental return weeks later with an extra €40-50 admin fee. Book a Tuscany wine day tour from Rome covers the same region without the driving.
The Sicily exception
Rome to Sicily is realistically a flight, Rome-Catania or Rome-Palermo, roughly 1 hour 15 minutes by air, given the total distance; don’t understate this as an easy train extension the way Florence or Naples work. A one-way fare rarely costs much more than the equivalent long-distance train would anyway, which makes the flight the more honest recommendation here rather than a downgrade from rail.
Logistics that carry across every route above
Roma Termini’s staffed left-luggage office matters most for whichever route starts or ends in Rome itself, since it lets a traveler explore the city car-free on the arrival or departure day without hauling bags between sights. Civita di Bagnoregio and Orvieto share the same rail gateway as the Tuscany road trip’s starting point, so a traveler wanting both without a rushed single day should consider basing one night in Orvieto rather than forcing both into a day trip squeezed between longer legs.
What to book before anything else
Book the first and last high-speed rail legs well ahead; Frecciarossa and Italo fares climb sharply closer to departure, and a sold-out train seat is harder to fix on the day than a hotel room. Roma Termini’s staffed left-luggage office is worth using on arrival or departure day for anyone exploring the city car-free around a rail leg.
Anchor the whole trip on Rome as the finale rather than the start if the schedule allows it; arriving there last is the version the Grand Tour got right. Our romantic getaways guide covers where to spend those final nights if the trip closes as a couple’s stop rather than a family one.