Itinerary for a 12-day Trip in Italy and Greece

My boyfriend is working and this is my penultimate year and we wished to get to some of the must-go places in Italy and Greece before I finish my studies. So we tried fitting into as many places as we can in 12 days, while making sure that we would be able to enjoy the trip and savour the best things that each city has got to offer us.

Where should we head to?
We placed our focus on Italy and Greece because of their geographical proximity and it would be reasonable to get to this part of Europe and possibly we would go to Eastern Europe in another trip. We both haven't been to Italy and we have heard so much about Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and definitely the Vatican City where the movie Angels and Demons took place. So Rome is definitely on the must-go place for us!

Picture of us at Trevi Fountain, a magnificent piece of art, even better without the crowd (look at the next picture)

Venice is also another place on the list because of its fame as one of the most romantic cities on earth. We didn't have a good time in Paris and we thought that Paris is totally unromantic...(probably because that was our first time travelling in Paris and it was during one of the coldest winters of the past decade)

St Mark square, where merchants from all over the world used to gather

I am not quite an artsy person but we thought we should spend some time in Florence as it is where renaissance begins and where the famous sculpture David is placed at. Link to page is here!

One of the copies of David around Florence

We have also heard so much about the Leaning Tower of Pisa in our primary school science and I have always been really puzzled about it (or I wasn't able to fully comprehend the principle behind at the age of 10).

Athens is also another must-go place where the foundations of Western civilization was laid and it was where philosophy flourished, where people like Socrates, Aristotles and Pluto used to go around and ask for the meaning of life!

Santorini is also another place to go for us. Both of us love blue sea and Santorini is THE MOST ROMANCTIC PLACE on EARTH.

So, this is how we got to decide on our destinations--- Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Athens and Santorini.

Planning
Bearing in mind that our trip is somewhere around Easter holiday, it could be quite chilly hence we placed Santorini at the end of our trip. We also thought that as it might get really hectic and tiring while visiting cities like Rome where we would have really limited time to get to all the must-go places, it would be great to have Santorini as the last stop where we finally recharge and gain the momentum to adjust back to our lives after holidays. It's like telling yourself, well you have got the best scenery, best sunset and best holiday room and it is time to get back to reality and start giving your best!

After coming back from the trip, I think it kind of worked for us and we quickly adjusted back to our normal routines.

Rough Itinerary
Many might want to know the rough itinerary of my trip, so here it is:

Venice
Depart from London via Easyjet. After a 3-hour flight, you would reach the airport of Venice and you then take a bus or a waterboat to get to your hotel. Our hotel, Hotel Lisbona was somewhere near St Mark square so we opted for the ACTV. Thinking back, we should have taken the bus which is a cheaper option and we could better utilize our 72-hour ACTV pass. But we thought we might be less familiar with the place so we went on with ACTV transfer from airport directly.

The places of attractions which are of interest to us are St Mark's Basilica, St Mark's square, Grand Canal, Torre del Orologio (Clock Tower), Bridge of Sighs, Murano and Burano. You could easily plan your time to your liking and Venice is a walkable place. Provided a good map and a good sense of direction, you would be fine. An iPhone with a Google Map would be really useful to point out where you are in particular. Bearing in mind that getting lost (but not too overly lost) can be a blessing too as you would get to see the many hidden sides of Venice. The link to the post in Chinese can be found here.

Florence
We took a train from Venice to Florence and the train journey was superb. You get clean toilets, comfortable seats and even free wifi onboard. Our hotel was Hotel Santa Croce and it is really centrally located. We went to the Uffizi Gallery but we thought the Galileo Museum would be something more interesting for us two engineers. We were in there for only an hour plus and we left... More to be continued on another post about Florence. Also Ponte Vechio is another attraction to visit. We also climbed up to Piazza Michelangelo where you get the best view of Florence from a hill.

Pisa
We stayed at B&B called Window to the Tower, where you get to see the tip of the leaning tower when you just open the window! (and lean out slightly!) Pisa is pretty much only about the Leaning Tower but we had quite a satisfying meal there. More on another post as well!

Rome
Rome was extremely vibrant. Getting out from Termini might not be the most welcoming moment but the people in the city gave me a nice feel of the city. We stayed at Merulina Suite, another B&B particularly for the price because most of the hotels in Rome are much more expensive...(The hotel in Venice was 65 euro, with a view of the canal while a hotel in Rome can easily get to 100 euro). But it wasn't a great stay though.

Places to go in Rome can be a never-ending list, Colosseum, Vatican City, St Peter's Basilica, Piazza Santa Maria Nova or Trastervere, you name it.

Athens
We stayed at Hotel Metropolis which is so-so given the price. Its location is pretty good but this city feels more deserted, especially as we are coming from Rome which was bustling with people...
Places to visit are definitely the Parthenon, the Ancient Agora, The Zeus temple etc. Details to follow on another post!

Santorini
This place is definitely the highlight of our trip. We rented a car right at the airport and we drove to our hotel. We stayed at Asteras Villa, which is simply the best suite that we have both stayed in so far. The chalet at Sipadan Water Village might be huge, but it is that as luxurious as what we got in Asteras Villa, link is here.
The service at this hotel is almost flawless and you even get a local cell phone just in case you need to get in touch with the hotel--really sweet service. More details to follow as well!

To get to Santorini, we took Olympic Air which cost us around 100 euro for a return flight per person from Athens (note that we booked almost half a year in advance). We rented our car with Romani Car Rental-- our car condition wasn't fantastic but I think the service is still passable.