Italy in 5 Days
Our Italy trip was short and sweet. But, we did spend a lot of time on trains brainstorming when we could come back to this beautiful country. Though we recommended planning one city per trip or being in Italy longer, here’s our itinerary for seeing Italy in 5 days.
Day 0
Today was our flight to Milan, Italy from Madrid, Spain. Note that both airports in Milan are kinda far outside of the city, but have public transportation to get into city center. We landed at the airport in Bergamo (BGY) because we flew RyanAir from Madrid, but if you are coming from the states you will likely fly into Milan-Malpensa (MXP).
Day 1: Milan
The Duomo day! This was an exciting day for Brittany, because part of the reason we visited Italy in the first place was because Brian had read Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan and really wanted to visit the Duomo. The fact that Brian wanted to visit a site based off a book was enough for Brittany to say of course we can go there! We arrived early to avoid the crowds, around 9:30am. We did a tour on our own and bought a guidebook in the visitors center to learn more about the historic church, which is centuries old and was heavily damaged during the WWII bombings of Milan. After the tour, we had a ~touristy~ lunch in the shopping mall next to the church. Then we walked around Parco Sempione and Cimitero Monumentale. Once we were sufficiently walked, we hopped on a train to La Spezia, where we had an amazing dinner of pizza and then promptly crashed. 😴
Day 2: Cinque Terre
The crown jewel of our trip to Italy was hiking Cinque Terre. This picturesque hike began in Monterosso and ended in Riomaggiore. The hike took us about 7 hours total including stops for sight seeing in the towns. We started around noon and were sitting down for dinner in Riomaggiore at about 7:30. I should note that we hike regularly and this hike was fairly easy for us. There are some spots with stairs and inclines, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are able to handle those.
Each town was so cute and I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone looking for a bit of adventure. Please feel free to reach out with any questions about Cinque Terre, we’d be happy to help!
Day 3: La Spezia to Rome with a quick stop in Pisa
Today was mainly riding trains. We decided to break up the almost 5 hour train ride from La Spezia to Rome with a stop in Pisa. In our opinion (and a lot of other people), you really only need a couple hours in Pisa to see everything you want.
In Pisa, we learned that the Leaning Tower is not the only landmark on the site and there is actually a cathedral and baptistery in addition to the famous bell tower. Due to time constraints, we did not get to go up in the tower but we did walk around the cathedral and baptistery before heading back to the train station to get to Rome.
Day 4: Rome!
Today was a lot of walking. Our AirBnB was in the Rione VI Parione section of Rome, which we thought was central enough to walk to the sights we wanted to see. We started the day with Vatican City, which by the time we got there was too crowded to actually go in and visit. Instead, we walked to the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain, where I wished for my own Italian popstar (Brian was not amused by this and I also had to explain to him the plot of The Lizzie McGuire Movie like 6 times).
Afterwards, we walked to the Colosseum, where we witnessed two dudes from the Ukraine try to convince the ticket taker that they were in fact EU citizens. The ticket taker was having none of that. (Side Note here: Ukraine is considered a “priority partner” to the EU which means that Ukraine gets government assistance and citizens can enjoy free movement in the Schengen zone, but are not EU passport holders and therefore do not receive discounted admission to tourist attractions. Europe in 2018 was much different than the Europe of this writing (Jan 2022)).
Day 5: Naples
Naples, a port city in the shadow of Vesuvius. We didn’t do much here other than walk around the port and eat. This was a quick stop before our flight back to Madrid for our study abroad program.
Final Thoughts
And that’s it! That was our retrospectively very quick trip to Italy. If you have 5 days, I think our itinerary is a great overview of the country and it’s sights. However, if you have longer, I would definitely recommend taking more time in Rome and Cinque Terre, there was so much to explore and we didn’t even scratch the surface of the possibilities. I would love to go back and experience Florence, Venice, Arezzo, and Pompei. Have you been to Italy? Where would you suggest we visit next? Drop us a line and let us know!