Email From Evan

Hey, so I have been doing some research and this is what I think would be cool to do....

Aug 7 You arrive in frankfurt and train it to my place. We would then have the night to get ready/relax. Then we take a night train to venice from wuerzburg at 8:45 am, arrive in venice at 9:45. This night train is really expensive, about 100 euro!, and if you want a bed I think it is about 10 more.

Aug 8 All day in Venice.

Aug 9 Train from venice to Genova (9:15-14:45, about $66cdn). Once there we take a local train to Cinque terre. See my note at the bottom for info on this place. We would probably be there about 16:00 which is late but I can't find a faster way yet.
Hostel in Cinqu Terre
Pictures Cinque Terre
Pictures Cinque Terre

Aug 10 Spend the day in Cinque Terre area hiking and sitting on the beach.

Aug 11 Train from La Spezia (just south of cinque terre) to Florence. We would most likely stop over at Pisa so it would be cool to see the leaning tower. (about a 2hour train + stop over in pisa time, about $40cdn) Once again arrive in Florence around 1. Rest of the day in Florence.

Aug 12 All day in Florence. Accommodation Hotel Fiorentina

Aug 13 Train from Florence to Rome (about 1:40 long, leaves every hour, could take the 9:50-11:30 train, about $54cdn)

Aug 14 RomeAccommodation Hostel Alessandro Palace

Aug 15 Rome for most of the day and then fly home at 17:00, which means leave rome about 15:00. The flight costs 77 euro with German Wings and would take us to stuttgart. Then a short train to wuerzburg would be only about 15 each. We would probably be in wuerzburg around 20:00 or so.

So there is a week in Italy! Then after that the rest is totally up to you. We could also do it at the end of the month just before you leave for home, that way we could spend the first weekend in wurzburg because there is not a whole lot to do here during the week :(. If we want to go to these places we should book hostels and the flight right away because they are usually booked. So I suppose the end of august is also an option if we can't get the first week. I know it leaves not much time in each city but I have only a week and want to get a lot in. The last week I took to London/Paris we spent a lot of time waiting for the plane. This time if we take trains we would waste less time and it would seem like we saw more too! I am not sure what your experience with Italian trains is but I think they are not too expensive and somewhat reliable (I hear they are 30 min late most of the time).

Peter went to cinque terra when he was over in europe and he said it is one of the nicest places he has been. It is basically 5 towns situated on the cliffs over the sea. I think each town has no cars, and they are all connected my hiking trails through the hills.