Day trips and side trips

Get out of the big city to see nearby sights and add breadth to your trip without adding too many days to your schedule

A side trip from Florence to hike the Cinque Terre coastal fishing villages. (Photo courtesy of Viator.com.)The famous sights and urban charms of Rome, Florence, and Venice are wonderful, but sometimes you just gotta get out of the big city and dip into a slower pace of life for a while in a small town—and what better small towns than the ones right at the doorsteps of Italy's major cities?

Daytripping out to medieval villages, nearby ancient ruins, quiet lakes, and sleepy islands can help add spice and variety to your trip without having to go to all the trouble of packing up and changing hotels. You just zip out for a half day or a full day and can be back in the city by dinnertime.

On a tight schedule, you can also take longer day trips to fit in some other major destinations or sights that lie within two to three hours of town—Pompeii from Rome, Pisa from Florence—places where, had you all the time in the world, you'd ideally spend a few days, but just can't quite carve that much time out of this trip.

Each city section will list and detail some of the best and most rewarding sidetrips you can do in just a day (here are shortcuts right to those pages for Rome, Florence, and Venice).

A side trip from Rome to tour Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. (Photo courtesy of Viator.com.)

Escorted day trips

If you don’t want to hassle with figuring out the logistics of how to get out of the city to see some nearby sights and small towns—or you have limited time in which to do it—a local escorted bus tour can be just the ticket.

It whizzes you out to the sights with a live guide who’ll walk you through everything and returns you to town in time for lunch or dinner (most are either half-day or full-day excursions).

Using public transportation, for example, it’s pretty much impossible to see both Siena and San Gimignano in a single day trip from Florence, but an escorted bus trip can do it no problem (not that you'll see either in depth, but at least you'll get a good taste).

You can choose to book tours of some of the more popular day trip excursions ahead of time via one of our partners:

• Walks, activities, tours, & guides
• Viator.com
• ContextTravel.com
• SelectItaly.com
• City-discovery.com

Side trips and excursions out of major Italian cities:

» More tours in Italy

Related pages

• TK

You can pick up brochures on all sorts of bus tours at local tourism offices in Italy, or book ahead via a site like our partners Viator or City-Discovery.com.

Bus tours in major Italian destinations:

» More tours in Italy

Figuring out your own budget tour

With a map showing bus routes and a bit of imagination, you can put together your own budget tour for the price of a standard public bus ticket. Most major cities have a commuter bus line that, either by design or default, happens to pass by many of the tourist highlights (like Rome's no. 64—and its express cousin no. 40—from the train station straight through the historic center to the Vatican area, or Rome's teensy electric buses no. 116, 117, and 119, each of which trundles a different path around the twisting streets of the historic center).

You have to provide your own commentary, of course, by being quick with a map and cross-referencing it to a guidebook (though if you have Internet access with a cell/palmtop, you can always following along using a ReidsItaly.com map, available in each major city section), and you'll end up missing out on most of the quirky anecdotes and hidden history. On the other hand, it's really, really cheap.

Each city section of this site will point you to the most useful public buses that make the rounds of the major tourist sights.

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