Italy and Greece Itinerary: 8 Routes, Costed and Timed for 2026

The first time I built an Italy and Greece itinerary, I built a bad one. Eleven days, five cities, two countries, and a 6am flight out of Fiumicino that I booked because it was forty euros cheaper than the sensible one. I remember standing on the Acropolis at midday in July, sunburnt, holding a bottle of water I had paid four euros for, thinking that I had spent a fortnight and seen almost nothing properly. I have since planned this trip for readers perhaps two hundred times, and I have made every mistake available.

So this is the Italy and Greece itinerary guide I wish I had then. Eight routes, all costed. Every ferry crossing with its real duration and its actual fare. Every museum ticket with its 2026 price. The three fees that did not exist two years ago and are now charged at the gate. And an honest answer to the question underneath the question, which is usually not “what should I see” but “am I trying to do too much.”

An Italy and Greece itinerary works best over fourteen days, split roughly a week per country, with one flight between them rather than a ferry. Ten days is the practical minimum and only if you fly. Rome, Athens and one island is a real trip. Rome, Florence, Venice, Athens and three islands in ten days is a series of airports. If Greece is the half you want to get right, our Greece itinerary guide breaks the Greek leg down day by day.

All eight Italy and Greece itinerary routes at a glance

Read the table, pick the row that matches your leave allowance and your tolerance for packing, then jump to that section. Everything below the table is detail you can act on: fares, durations, booking windows, and the specific days on which the price of walking into Venice doubles.

Itinerary	Days	Nights split	Route	Transfers	Best for	My verdict
1. The 10-Day Minimum	10	4 Italy / 6 Greece	Rome → Athens → Santorini	1 flight, 1 ferry	First-timers with fixed leave	Tight but workable if you fly, not sail
2. The 14-Day Classic	14	7 Italy / 7 Greece	Rome → Florence → Venice → Athens → Naxos → Santorini	2 trains, 1 flight, 2 ferries	The default, and rightly so	The best balance of the eight
3. The 14-Day Slow Version	14	7 Italy / 7 Greece	Rome → Naples and the Amalfi Coast → Athens → Naxos	1 train, 1 flight, 2 ferries	People who hate packing	Four bases in two weeks, and the food is better
4. The Overland and Ferry Route	15	9 Italy / 5 Greece, plus a night at sea	Venice → Florence → Rome → Bari → Corfu → Athens	3 trains, 1 overnight ferry, 1 flight	No-fly and slow travellers	The only version where you sail into Greece
5. The 21-Day Full Version	21	12 Italy / 9 Greece	Venice → Florence → Rome → Naples → Athens → Naxos → Santorini	3 trains, 1 flight, 2 ferries	Sabbaticals and long summers	Where the trip finally stops feeling rushed
6. The 10-Day Honeymoon	10	6 Italy / 4 Greece	Venice → Rome → Santorini	1 train, 1 flight	Couples who want two bases and a view	Fewest moving parts of any route here
7. The 12-Day Family Route	12	7 Italy / 5 Greece	Rome → Sorrento → Athens → Naxos	1 train, 1 flight, 2 ferries	Families with children under 12	Beaches at both ends, one museum a day
8. The Shoulder-Season History Route	14	7 Italy / 7 Greece	Rome → Naples and Pompeii → Athens → Crete	1 train, 2 flights	May and October travellers	The ruins without the 34°C

Two things about that table worth saying out loud before you commit to a row.

First, the “transfers” column is the one that decides how the trip feels. Every train, flight or ferry costs you a half-day once you count packing, checkout, getting to the station and finding the new place. A fourteen-day trip with six transfers is really a nine-day trip with five travel days attached. Route 6, the honeymoon one, has two transfers total, and that is the whole reason it works.

Second, the splits are deliberate. Greece takes longer than it looks because the islands are ferry-dependent and ferry days are not travel days you can compress. Italy is forgiving in a way Greece is not, which is one reason our wider Europe itinerary planner treats the two halves differently: a Frecciarossa leaves Rome for Florence every half hour and takes 1 hour 23 minutes at its fastest. A ferry to Santorini leaves when it leaves, takes between five and nine hours depending on the boat, and if the wind is up it might not leave at all.

How many days do you need in Italy and Greece?

Fourteen. If you want the short answer, it is fourteen days, split about evenly, and three of the better-researched guides I read while planning this piece land on the same number.

The longer answer is more useful. Here is what each duration actually buys you.

Trip length	Realistic scope	Travel days	Honest verdict
7 days	One country only	2	Do not attempt both. Pick one.
8 to 9 days	Rome plus Athens, no islands	3	Possible, but you will spend a third of it in transit for a city pairing you could split into two better trips.
10 days	Rome, Athens, one island	3	The real minimum. Fly between countries. No ferry from Italy.
12 days	Two Italian cities, Athens, one island	4	The first length where nothing feels clipped.
14 days	Three Italian stops, Athens, two islands	5	The sweet spot. Enough slack to lose a day to weather.
17 to 18 days	Add the Amalfi Coast or a third island	6	Where the trip stops being a highlights reel.
21 days	Northern Italy through to the Cyclades, unhurried	7	The version people write home about.

One dissenting view worth quoting, because it comes from someone who lives in Greece and has no incentive to sell you a two-country package: Santorini Dave’s position is that seven to ten days is not enough time to visit both Greece and Italy, and that you should pick one and stick to it. I think he is right about seven and wrong about ten, but only because a ten-day trip with a flight in the middle and exactly three bases works. Stretch it to four bases and he is right again.

If you have ten days and you are reading this hoping I will tell you that you can fit in Venice, I cannot. Venice is a magnificent detour and it will cost you a full travel day plus, depending on the date, a fee to walk in. Save it. Our two weeks in Europe itinerary has a version that includes it properly, and things to do in Venice will tell you whether it is worth restructuring the trip for.

Should you do Italy first or Greece first?

Italy first is the common recommendation and it is what I do, for reasons that have nothing to do with the countries themselves.

Cities first, islands second is a better emotional arc. You arrive with energy, spend it on the Vatican and the Forum and the Uffizi, and then decompress on a boat. Reverse it and you arrive on Naxos jetlagged, sleep through the beach days, then hit Rome in the last four days when your legs have gone. The other reason is logistical: Greek island departures run into a single long-haul connection more awkwardly than Italian city departures do, because you are adding a domestic hop or a ferry to your flight home. Missing that is a genuinely bad day.

The counter-argument, which is honest, is that both capitals are well served by long-haul flights and the order does not matter much. Let flight prices decide. If an open-jaw Athens-in, Rome-out saves you three hundred euros, take it and reverse everything below.

What matters far more than the order is flying open-jaw: into one city, out of another, never retracing. Every route in this guide assumes it. A worked example that works beautifully from the UK or Ireland: London to Venice, train to Florence, train to Rome, fly to Mykonos, ferry to Naxos, ferry to Santorini, fly Santorini home. You never see the same station twice.

1. The 10-Day Minimum: Rome, Athens, Santorini

This is the shortest version I will defend. Three bases, two moves, no ferry from Italy. It works because Rome to Athens is a two-hour flight served by ITA Airways, Aegean and Ryanair between them more than fifty times a week, with advance one-way fares I found from about twenty-five euros.

• Days 1 to 4, Rome (4 nights). Arrive, do nothing on day one. Colosseum, Forum and Palatine on a single €18 ticket. Vatican Museums on a separate morning: €20, or €25 with the €5 online booking fee that buys you the skip-the-line slot. Trastevere for dinner both times you cannot decide, and European food by country if you want to eat with a plan. Our guide to things to do in Rome covers the fourth day, which is the one people waste.
• Day 5, fly to Athens. Book the midday flight, not the 6am one. You lose the morning either way and one of them costs you a night’s sleep.
• Days 5 to 7, Athens (3 nights). Acropolis first thing on day 6 with a pre-booked 08:00 slot. Acropolis Museum the same afternoon, which is a separate organisation and a separate ticket. Day 7 is the Ancient Agora, the Kerameikos and eating your way through Psyrri.
• Day 8, ferry to Santorini. The early Blue Star conventional ferry takes between 6 hr 10 min and 9 hr 10 min. SeaJets does it in 5 hours to 6 hr 10 min for more money. Fares run from about €46.50 up to roughly €186 depending on boat, season and seat class.
• Days 8 to 10, Santorini (3 nights). One caldera sunset, one boat trip to the volcano, one day doing nothing at all in Oia or Imerovigli. Fly home from Santorini.

Where this breaks. If your flight home leaves from Athens rather than Santorini, add a day. Sailing back to Piraeus on the morning of your departure is the most common way people miss flights on this route, and that Cyclades-to-Athens leg is the one the wind is most likely to cancel.

2. The 14-Day Classic: Rome, Florence, Venice, Athens, Naxos, Santorini

If you only read one section, read this one. It is the route most people should book and the one I have planned for readers more than any other. Seven nights in each country, five transfers.

• Days 1 to 3, Rome (3 nights). Colosseum on day two, Vatican on day three, Trastevere in between.
• Day 4, train to Florence. Frecciarossa from 1 hr 23 min, Italo about 1 hr 25 min. Italo fares start at €14.90 if you book roughly ninety days ahead. Arrive by lunch, walk the Oltrarno in the afternoon.
• Days 4 to 5, Florence (2 nights). Uffizi is €25 bought on the day and €29 in advance, which is the rare case where booking early costs more, not less. You are buying a slot, not a discount. From 1 January 2026 there is a discounted afternoon ticket for entries from 16:00, worth checking on the day. Our Florence guide and the wider Tuscany travel guide both have day-trip options if you want a Chianti afternoon.
• Day 6, train to Venice. Fastest services around 1 hr 51 min, typical Frecciarossa about 2 hr 5 min, with over thirty departures a day from Firenze Santa Maria Novella. Advance Super Economy fares typically €15 to €25.
• Days 6 to 7, Venice (2 nights). Two nights is right. Check the access fee calendar before you book, because if you are staying overnight you are exempt from paying but not from registering.
• Day 8, fly Venice to Athens. Or fly Venice to Mykonos in season and reverse the island order.
• Days 8 to 10, Athens (3 nights). Acropolis, Acropolis Museum, the Agora, and one long dinner in Psyrri or Koukaki. Our Greece travel guide has the case for a fourth.
• Day 11, ferry to Naxos. High-speed from Rafina takes roughly three to four hours; from Piraeus about three and a half by fast boat, five to six on a conventional ferry.
• Days 11 to 12, Naxos (2 nights). The island that makes the trip work. Plaka beach, the Portara at sunset, mountain villages, and food that costs a good deal less than Santorini charges.
• Day 13, ferry to Santorini, about two hours, several sailings daily year-round.
• Days 13 to 14, Santorini (2 nights). Fly home on the morning of day 15.

The one change I would make. Drop Venice, add a night to Naxos and a night to Athens. I know that is heresy. Venice here is two nights for one long travel day either side, and in high season you are paying to enter a city you have ninety minutes of daylight left to see. If Venice is the reason you are going, keep it and cut Florence instead.

3. The 14-Day Slow Version: Rome, Naples and the Amalfi Coast, Athens, Naxos

Four bases in fourteen days. This is the version I recommend to people who have done a fast European trip before and came home tired.

• Days 1 to 4, Rome (4 nights).
• Day 5, train to Naples. Frecciarossa around 1 hr 10 min, with the fastest services doing the run in about 52 minutes. Super Economy fares booked ahead land in the €9 to €15 range, which is one of the best value train journeys in Europe.
• Days 5 to 7, Naples and the coast (3 nights). Base in Sorrento or Naples itself. Pompeii is the anchor: tickets are €20 for Pompeii Express and €25 for Pompeii+ as of 12 January 2026, with a 20,000-a-day cap and mandatory timed slots from 16 March to 14 October. The morning slot from 09:00 to 13:00 takes 15,000 people and the afternoon slot from 13:00 to 17:30 takes 5,000, so the afternoon is quieter by design. The Amalfi Coast guide covers the sixty kilometres from behind Sorrento through Positano, Praiano, Amalfi, Ravello, Minori and Cetara.
• Day 8, fly Naples to Athens, or Naples direct to Santorini in summer, which takes about 1 hr 50 min with easyJet, Ryanair or Volotea and starts around €95.
• Days 8 to 10, Athens (3 nights). Add Cape Sounion at sunset on the spare afternoon.
• Days 11 to 13, Naxos (3 nights). Ferry out from Piraeus or Rafina.
• Day 14, ferry back to Athens (1 night). This is the buffer night, and it is the single most useful night in this whole guide. Fly home from Athens on day 15.

Why this beats route 2 for a lot of people. You eat better, you spend less, and you are never in a place for under three nights. The trade is that you skip Florence and Venice entirely, which is a real loss if it is your first time in Italy.

4. The Overland and Ferry Route: Venice, Florence, Rome, Bari, Corfu, Athens

The only route here where you sail from Italy to Greece rather than fly. It sounds romantic and it is widely assumed to be the cheap option. It is not: it costs you a day and it is dearer than a budget flight. It is, however, one of the best travel days in Europe, and if you are travelling with a car or you do not fly, it is your route.

• Days 1 to 3, Venice (3 nights).
• Days 4 to 6, Florence (3 nights).
• Days 7 to 9, Rome (3 nights).
• Day 10, train to Bari, then the overnight ferry to Corfu. Bari to Corfu runs up to seven times a week from July to September and takes 9 to 11 hours, from around €60. Sleep on board.
• Days 11 to 13, Corfu (3 nights).
• Days 14 to 15, Athens (2 nights). Fly down from Corfu, then home.

If you are driving, take Bari or Brindisi to Igoumenitsa instead: Bari to Igoumenitsa is 8.5 to 13 hours from €65 with departures late evening or around midnight, and Brindisi to Igoumenitsa is the cheapest crossing of the lot at eight hours from €45. From Igoumenitsa the Ionia Odos motorway runs south down the west coast toward Patras and the Peloponnese, while the Egnatia Odos runs east across the top of the country toward Meteora and Thessaloniki. Meteora sits roughly four hours by car from Athens and is worth building a day around whichever way you approach it.

Book early either way. These routes are popular enough that tickets often sell out by spring, and early-booking discounts of 20% to 40% typically run from December to March.

5. The 21-Day Full Version: Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Athens, Naxos, Santorini

Three weeks is where this trip stops being a schedule and starts being a holiday. Seven bases in twenty-one nights averages three nights each, which is the number at which a place starts to feel like somewhere you stayed rather than somewhere you visited.

• Days 1 to 3, Venice (3 nights). Including a day for Murano and Burano, which sit outside the access-fee zone.
• Days 4 to 6, Florence (3 nights), with a day in Siena or the Val d’Orcia.
• Days 7 to 10, Rome (4 nights). Rome rewards the fourth day more than any other city in Italy.
• Days 11 to 12, Naples and Pompeii (2 nights).
• Day 13, fly Naples to Athens.
• Days 13 to 15, Athens (3 nights), with a day trip to Delphi.
• Days 16 to 19, Naxos (4 nights), with Paros as a day trip, thirty minutes away by ferry.
• Days 20 to 21, Santorini (2 nights). Two hours from Naxos. Fly home.

If you want to go further, our three weeks in Europe itinerary and the one month Europe itinerary both build out from here.

6. The 10-Day Honeymoon: Venice, Rome, Santorini

Two transfers in ten nights. That is the entire design brief, and it is the right one for a honeymoon.

• Days 1 to 3, Venice (3 nights). Arrive into Marco Polo, take the water bus in. Stay on the Zattere or in Cannaregio, not near San Marco.
• Day 4, train to Rome, direct Frecciarossa in about 3 hr 25 min to 3 hr 45 min, with ten to twelve direct services a day and advance fares from around €19.
• Days 4 to 6, Rome (3 nights).
• Day 7, fly Rome to Santorini. Fastest direct is 2 hr 10 min, roughly sixteen flights a week in season with Ryanair and Wizz Air Malta. Lead-in fares run about €82 to €138 one way. Aegean will sell you the route too, but via Athens.
• Days 7 to 10, Santorini (4 nights). A caldera-view room in Imerovigli or Firostefani rather than Oia, which is where everybody else goes at sunset.

Our Europe honeymoon guide has the alternative pairings if Santorini feels too obvious. And it is obvious. It is also, on a clear evening in late September, worth every euro.

7. The 12-Day Family Route: Rome, Sorrento, Athens, Naxos

Designed around one rule: one museum a day, maximum, and water in the afternoon.

• Days 1 to 4, Rome (4 nights). Gelato as a scheduled activity, not a treat.
• Day 5, train to Sorrento via Naples.
• Days 5 to 7, Sorrento (3 nights). Pompeii with an afternoon slot, which is the quieter half of the day by design. Beach or pool otherwise.
• Day 8, fly to Athens.
• Days 8 to 9, Athens (2 nights). Acropolis at 08:00 before the heat. The Acropolis Museum has the best air conditioning in the city and a glass floor over an excavated neighbourhood that children stare at for longer than you expect.
• Days 10 to 11, Naxos (2 nights). Shallow, sheltered beaches at Agios Prokopios and Plaka, which matter more than you think with small children.
• Day 12, ferry back to Athens (1 night), then fly home.

The money detail that changes family budgets. Greece charges its accommodation levy per room per night. Italy charges its city tax per person per night. A family of four in one apartment pays one levy in Greece and four in Italy. Over a fortnight that is a real number, and I have worked it out below. Our Europe with kids guide has more on this.

8. The Shoulder-Season History Route: Rome, Naples and Pompeii, Athens, Crete

Built for May or October, when the ruins are walkable and the light is better anyway.

• Days 1 to 4, Rome (4 nights). Colosseum, Forum, Palatine, Ostia Antica, Capitoline Museums.
• Day 5, train to Naples.
• Days 5 to 7, Naples and Pompeii (3 nights), with Herculaneum on the spare afternoon. It is smaller, better preserved and far quieter.
• Day 8, fly to Athens.
• Days 8 to 10, Athens (3 nights), with a full day at Delphi by coach or hire car. The ticket there was €20 as of spring 2025, so budget a little above that.
• Day 11, short domestic flight to Heraklion.
• Days 11 to 14, Crete (4 nights). Knossos and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum sell a combined ticket at roughly €30 valid over three consecutive days. Heraklion in May averages a high of 23.5°C with a 19.5°C sea and nearly ten hours of sunshine, and in October the rain returns to 69 mm, so May is the better half of the shoulder for this one.

One caution on Knossos prices: I found two sources quoting €20 full and €15 full respectively, so check on the day rather than trusting either figure.

Getting from Italy to Greece: flights versus ferries

This is the hinge of the whole trip. There are exactly two ways across, they suit completely different trips, and the choice determines how many days you get on the ground.

	Flying	Ferry
Time door to door	Roughly half a day including airports	A full day, or an overnight
Typical cost	From about €25 one way, Rome to Athens	€45 to €130 one way
Where it lands you	Athens, or a Greek island directly in season	Igoumenitsa, Patras, Corfu or Kefalonia
Carries a car	No	Yes, every Italy to Greece ferry has a car deck
Runs year-round	To Athens yes, to the islands May to October only	Mainland routes yes, Ionian islands summer only
Best for	Trips under 16 days, and anyone island-bound	Road trips, no-fly travel, the Ionian islands
Worst for	Nothing, honestly, on a short trip	Tight schedules and anyone heading to the Cyclades

The single most important fact in this section: there are no ferries from Italy to Santorini, Mykonos, Crete or Athens. Not slow ones, not seasonal ones, none. The ferries go to the Ionian side, which is the opposite end of the country from the Cyclades. If Santorini is on your list and you sail from Italy, you have signed up for a crossing plus a long drive plus another ferry. Fly.

Every Italy to Greece ferry route, with duration and fare

Three companies run the crossings: Grimaldi Lines, Superfast Ferries and Ventouris Ferries. All are conventional ferries, no high-speed boats on these routes, and crossing times run from seven hours to thirty-three.

Route	Duration	Frequency	From	Notes
Brindisi to Igoumenitsa	8 hr at its fastest	At least 1 daily	€45	The cheapest crossing. 169 nautical miles. Grimaldi Lines.
Brindisi to Corfu	About 7 hr	Up to 3 weekly, June to September	~€60	The shortest crossing of any kind.
Bari to Igoumenitsa	8.5 to 13 hr	1 to 3 daily	€65	Departures late evening or midnight. Superfast year-round, Ventouris July to September.
Bari to Patras	About 16.5 hr	Year-round, at least 1 daily	~€76	295 nautical miles. The workhorse route to the Peloponnese.
Bari to Corfu	9 to 11 hr	Up to 7 weekly July to September, 2 weekly in April and June	~€60	Seasonal swing is dramatic. Check the month.
Bari to Kefalonia (Sami)	About 18 hr	1 weekly, July to September	~€85	The only direct route to Kefalonia.
Ancona to Igoumenitsa	16.5 to 21.5 hr	1 to 3 daily	€89	390 nautical miles. Grimaldi and Superfast.
Ancona to Patras	21 to 27 hr	Up to 6 weekly	~€117	491 nautical miles. Superfast.
Ancona to Corfu	About 20 hr	2 to 3 weekly, June to August	~€70 to €80	Short season.
Venice to Igoumenitsa	From about 25 hr	Up to 3 weekly	~€117	Superfast.
Venice to Patras	32 to 33 hr	Up to 3 weekly	~€129	The longest crossing. Usually calls at Igoumenitsa en route.
Venice to Corfu	Just under 26 hr	About 2 weekly in June and September	~€120	Very limited season.

Two routes that no longer run: there is no direct Brindisi to Patras crossing (go via Igoumenitsa, then about three hours by road), and Ravenna to Igoumenitsa has stopped running, with the nearest working port now Ancona, 176 km away. There is also no direct ferry from Italy to Zakynthos; you get there from Kefalonia, which has up to ten crossings a week in summer.

The ferry discounts worth claiming

• Early booking: seasonal discounts of 20% to 40%, typically running December to March.
• Under 26: up to 20% off with a European Youth Card or an ISIC card.
• Children: infants and toddlers up to 3 get 95% off; children up to 11 typically get 50%.
• Return tickets: some operators give 20% to 30% off when you book both legs together.

Stack the early-booking discount with a return fare and a family of four crossing Bari to Igoumenitsa can pay less than two adults booking in July. Tickets on these routes often sell out by spring, so the discount and the availability point the same way.

Flying between Italy and Greece

Athens is served from Italy year-round. The Greek islands are not, and if you are still choosing which one to fly to, our guide to the 43 best Greek islands compares them on ferry access and cost: direct flights from Italy to Santorini, Mykonos and Heraklion typically run May to October only, which quietly rules out the neat island-first itinerary for anyone travelling in March or November.

Route	Duration	Carriers	Season	Lead-in fare
Rome to Athens	About 2 hr	ITA Airways ~26 weekly, Aegean ~19, Ryanair ~9	Year-round	From roughly €25 to €50
Rome to Santorini	2 hr 10 min fastest	Ryanair, Wizz Air Malta, ~16 weekly	Seasonal	~€82 to €138
Naples to Santorini	About 1 hr 50 min	easyJet, Ryanair, Volotea, ~14 weekly	Summer	~€95
Milan Malpensa to Corfu	Not published on the sources I checked	easyJet, Neos, Ryanair, Wizz Air Malta	Roughly August to September	Not published
Milan Bergamo to Corfu	Not published	Ryanair only	Roughly August to October	Not published
Bari to Corfu	Not published	Volotea	Roughly August to September	Not published
Bologna to Corfu	Not published	Ryanair only	Roughly August to September	Not published
Venice to Corfu	Not published	Volotea, new route	Seasonal	Not published

Across all Italy to Greece routes, the three carriers with the most flights are Volotea at roughly 224 a week, Ryanair at about 201 and Aegean at about 192. If you are price-hunting, Thessaloniki is the cheapest Greek airport to fly into on average, though it is a poor fit for a Cyclades trip.

Greek island ferries: Piraeus, Rafina and the Cyclades

Two ports serve Athens, and picking the wrong one costs you an hour or two before you have even boarded.

Piraeus is the big one, connected to the metro, and it sails to everywhere. Rafina is smaller, sits on the east coast about an hour from central Athens by bus, and faces the Cyclades directly. Because it faces east it trims real distance: the fastest crossings to Mykonos and Naxos leave from Rafina, not Piraeus. If your hotel is in central Athens, Piraeus usually still wins on total door-to-door time. If you are coming straight from the airport, Rafina is closer.

Crossing	High-speed	Conventional	Fare band	Operators
Piraeus to Santorini	5 hr to 6 hr 10 min	6 hr 10 min to 9 hr 10 min	From €46.50, up to about €186	Blue Star, SeaJets, Fast Ferries
Piraeus to Mykonos	2 hr 40 min to 2 hr 55 min	4 hr to 5 hr 50 min	Not published	SeaJets and others
Rafina to Mykonos	About 2 hr 15 min, as little as 1 hr 50 min	4 hr 20 min to 4 hr 30 min	Not published	SeaJets and others
Piraeus to Naxos	About 3.5 hr	5 to 6 hr	Not published	Blue Star and others
Rafina to Naxos	About 3 to 4 hr	Not published	Not published	Various
Santorini to Naxos	About 2 hr, several daily, year-round		Not published	Various
Naxos to Paros	About 30 min		Not published	Various

Piraeus to Santorini runs year-round with up to eight daily crossings in summer, which is the flexibility that makes it the safe backbone of any island leg.

How far ahead to book Greek ferries

Book two to three months ahead for August. High-speed SeaJets sailings, private cabins and car spaces frequently sell out in July and August. The 15th of August is a major Greek public holiday and the single worst day of the year to be moving between islands: ports packed, ferries full.

One nuance that saves a lot of panic: Greek ferries can carry effectively unlimited deck passengers, so deck class rarely sells out. What sells out is cabins, business seats and car spaces. If you have left it late and everything looks booked, check deck class before you rebook your whole trip.

Italian trains: fast, cheap and better than flying internally

Route	Fastest	Typical	Advance fare band
Rome to Florence	1 hr 23 min (Frecciarossa)	About 1 hr 42 min	Italo from €14.90 at 90+ days out
Rome to Naples	About 52 min	About 1 hr 10 min	€9 to €15 Super Economy; €30 to €40 flexible
Florence to Venice	About 1 hr 51 min	About 2 hr 5 min to 2 hr 20 min	€15 to €25 advance
Rome to Venice	About 3 hr 25 min	3 hr 25 min to 3 hr 45 min	From about €19

Rome to Venice is the only one where flying looks tempting on paper. It is not: once you add airport transfers, check-in and security, the time difference comes out under two hours, and you would be swapping a city-centre departure for two airport slogs. Our train travel in Europe guide covers passes and seat reservations, and getting around Europe has the wider comparison.

What every ticket costs in 2026

Every headline site on an Italy and Greece itinerary, with its 2026 price, its booking mechanics and the catch attached to it.

Site	Country	2026 price	Booking	The catch
Colosseum, Forum and Palatine	Italy	€18 adult plus a €2 online booking fee	ticketing.colosseo.it, released 30 days ahead	Sold as 24-hour entry, so a second visit has to fall inside a day of the first.
Colosseum Full Experience	Italy	€24	Same 30-day release	Arena floor and underground need this ticket. Peak slots go in minutes.
Vatican Museums	Italy	€20, or €25 with skip-the-line	tickets.museivaticani.va only	Valid only on the day of issue and non-refundable. Lookalike domains charge far more.
Uffizi Gallery	Italy	€25 on the day, €29 in advance	uffizi.it	Advance costs more, not less. You are buying a slot.
Uffizi and Vasari Corridor	Italy	€43 on the day, €47 advance	uffizi.it	The corridor is timed separately.
Pitti Palace	Italy	€16 on the day, €19 advance	uffizi.it	Bundled into the €40 five-day pass.
Boboli Gardens	Italy	€10 on the day, €13 advance	uffizi.it	Brutal at midday in July. Go at opening.
Florence 5-day museum pass	Italy	€40, or €58 with the Vasari Corridor	uffizi.it	Pays for itself at three sites.
Pompeii Express	Italy	€20 from 12 January 2026	Vivaticket, timed slots 16 March to 14 October	Vivaticket replaced TicketOne as the sole official seller on 2 March 2026.
Pompeii+	Italy	€25	Timed slots as above	20,000 daily cap, 15,000 morning and 5,000 afternoon.
Pompeii 3-day pass	Italy	€30	Same system	EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2; under-18s free.
Trevi Fountain basin	Italy	€2 from 2 February 2026	Card only, at the barrier	Ticketed 09:00 to 22:00 daily, including the first Sunday of the month. Under-5s free.
Acropolis of Athens	Greece	€30 year-round	hhticket.gr, timed slots mandatory	The winter half-price discount was abolished on 1 April 2025. Free for EU citizens under 25. There are no skip-the-line tickets of any kind.
Acropolis Museum	Greece	€15 summer, €10 winter	Separate organisation, separate ticket	A separate ticket from the archaeological site, not an add-on to it.
Delphi	Greece	€20 as of spring 2025	On site or online	Figure is a year old. Budget slightly above.
Knossos	Greece	€20 or €15, sources conflict	On site	Combined with the Heraklion museum at about €30 for 3 days.
Ostia Antica and Herculaneum	Italy	Not published	On site or online	Both are covered by Italy’s free first Sunday. No current 2026 price was available on a source I trusted.

Free entry days, and why they are usually the wrong day to go

Both countries run free-admission schemes, and they do not overlap.

Italy runs #DomenicalMuseo, renewed for 2026: free admission on the first Sunday of every month to all state museums, monuments, galleries, parks and monumental gardens. That is nearly 500 sites including the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Borghese Gallery and the Pantheon. The 2026 dates are 4 January, 1 February, 1 March, 5 April, 3 May, 7 June, 5 July, 2 August, 6 September, 4 October, 1 November and 6 December. Some sites, the Borghese among them, still require advance booking on free days.

Greece runs a different system: free admission on 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and the first Sunday of each month from 1 November to 31 March only. It applies to all state sites and museums, for everyone regardless of nationality. One trap: the Acropolis archaeological site is closed on 25 March, and the free admission that day covers the Acropolis Museum only.

Notice what that means for a summer trip. Italy’s free Sunday falls in August. Greece’s free Sundays stop at the end of March. The two systems never align in high season, and in any case a free day is the worst possible day to visit a capped site. The Acropolis lets in 20,000 people a day. Making it free does not raise the cap; it just means the 20,000 who get in booked faster than you did.

The Vatican has its own scheme entirely: free on the last Sunday of each month, 09:00 to 14:00 with final entry at 12:30, subject to the closure calendar. Children under 7 go free always.

The five 2026 charges and rules to budget for

Five separate charges and border rules sit between you and this trip, and four of them cost money before you have seen anything. Here is each one, with the price and the exemptions.

1. The Venice access fee

Venice charges day trippers to enter the historic centre on 60 dates in 2026, between 3 April and 26 July. That is up from 54 days in 2025 and 29 when the scheme started, so assume it expands again.

Detail	2026 rule
Price	€5 per person per day if you register more than four days ahead, €10 if you register closer to the visit
Hours enforced	08:30 to 16:00
Which days	Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 3 April to 26 July, plus 6 April, the whole week of 27 April and the whole week of 1 June
Who pays	Day visitors aged 14 and over
Who is exempt	Overnight guests, children under 14, people with disabilities. Overnight guests must still register for a QR code
Where it applies	The main historic centre. Triggered by arriving at Santa Lucia station, Piazzale Roma, Tronchetto parking, or by water bus or taxi from the airport
Where it does not	Mestre station, Venice airport, and officially Lido, Murano, Burano and Pellestrina
How to register	cda.veneziaunica.it, individually for every person including children. Exemptions via cda.ve.it
Fines	Reported at €50 to €300 for failing to show a valid QR code

Two related rules while we are here: large cruise ships have been banned from the lagoon since 2021, and tour groups are capped at 25 people with loudspeakers prohibited.

2. Greece’s Climate Crisis Resilience Levy

Greece replaced its old hotel tax with a Climate Crisis Resilience Levy, and the structural difference from Italy’s system is the thing to understand.

It is charged per room, per night, not per person, which is the single biggest structural difference between the two countries’ tourist taxes. Rates run from about €0.50 a night at the bottom of the range to €15 a night for the top accommodation class. High season runs April to October, low season November to March, and the 2025 rates continue through the end of 2026.

You pay it at the property, in person, not through your booking platform, and it appears as a separate line on your checkout receipt. Everyone pays it, including Greek citizens, in hotels, apartments, villas and short-term rentals. There is also a separate municipal occupancy levy of about 0.5% of the room price, which municipalities can raise to 0.75%, and which is usually already baked into your rate.

One correction worth making: Greece has no separate city tax for Athens or Santorini in the way Rome and Florence have one. The nationwide levy is the whole story.

3. Italy’s city taxes, city by city

Italy’s imposta di soggiorno is set by each municipality, charged per person per night, varies by star rating and sometimes by season, and is usually capped after a set number of consecutive nights. The property collects it, not the booking site, which is why it turns up as a separate cash or card charge at checkout.

City	2026 rate, per person per night	Night cap
Rome	€3 campsites to €10 five-star hotels	10 consecutive nights
Florence	About €3.50 for campsites and 1-star, €6 standardised for many B&Bs, flats and room rentals, about €8 for 5-star	7 consecutive nights
Venice	Roughly €1 to €5, sources differ on the exact band	Reported at 5 nights
Naples	€3 to €5.50 hotels, €4.50 non-hotel, €5 short-term rentals, €6 five-star	Not published
Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast	About €1.50 for campsites, hostels and up to 3-star; about €4 for B&Bs; €5 for 5-star	Not published
Milan	€3 campsites to €10 for 4- and 5-star, raised for one year from 1 January 2026 within 30 km of Winter Olympics venues	Not published

Run the arithmetic on a family of four staying seven nights in a five-star hotel in Rome. At €10 per person per night that is €280 in city tax alone, and it is not in the price you saw when you booked. The same family in a top-band Greek hotel for seven nights pays €105, at €15 per room per night, because Greece charges the room rather than the head. That is a €175 swing on one leg of one trip.

4. The cruise passenger levy

If any part of your trip involves a cruise ship calling at a Greek port, there is now a per-passenger charge that took effect on 21 July 2025 and continues through 2026. At Santorini and Mykonos it is €20 per disembarking passenger from 1 June to 30 September, €12 in April, May and October, and €4 from November to March. At all other Greek ports it is €5 in summer, €3 in April, May and October, and €1 from November to March.

5. EES and ETIAS: the border changes

Italy and Greece are both in the Schengen Area, so there is no passport check crossing between them, and the 90 days in any 180-day period rule covers your time in both combined. Both use the euro, so no currency changes hands at the border either.

What has changed is the border itself. The Entry/Exit System has been rolling out since 12 October 2025 and became fully operational at all Schengen external borders on 10 April 2026. It replaces manual passport stamping with an electronic record of every entry and exit, and it collects a facial image plus fingerprints, though not fingerprints from children under 12. Twenty-nine countries apply it. There is nothing to do in advance: you simply allow extra time at the first border you cross into Schengen. EU and Schengen nationals are exempt, as are holders of long-stay visas or residence permits and nationals of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and the Holy See.

ETIAS is not yet operational as of August 2026. It is expected in the last quarter of 2026. When it launches it will cost €20, be free for under-18s and over-70s and for family members of EU citizens with free-movement rights, be issued within a maximum of 96 hours, and stay valid for multiple entries over three years or until your passport expires. It will apply in 30 countries; Ireland is the only EU member state not applying it. It affects nationals of the 59 countries that are visa-exempt for Schengen short stays.

One warning that matters more than any of the above: no website currently issues ETIAS authorisations, and the French foreign ministry has issued an explicit warning about fraudulent sites charging for them. If you find a page selling you an ETIAS today, it is taking your money for nothing. Our Schengen visa and ETIAS guide tracks the launch.

Is Greece cheaper than Italy? The numbers say no

The received wisdom is that Italy is the expensive half and Greece is where the budget recovers. On aggregate traveller spend, it is the other way round.

Spending category, per person per day	Italy	Greece	Which is cheaper
Typical daily spend	$230 (€202)	$246 (€216)	Italy, by $16
Budget travellers	$91 (€80)	$98 (€86)	Italy, by $7
Mid-range travellers	$230 (€202)	$247 (€216)	Italy, by $17
Food	$87 (€76)	$93 (€81)	Italy, by $6
Local transport	$31 (€27)	$42 (€37)	Italy, by $11
One week	$1,613	$1,724	Italy, by $111
Organised tour package, per day	$357	$298	Greece, by $59

Greece comes out dearer in six of the seven lines, and the gap is widest on local transport, $42 against $31, which makes sense the moment you look at an island itinerary. Every Cyclades hop is a ferry ticket, and Piraeus to Santorini alone starts at €46.50 and climbs toward €186 in a fast seat in August. Italy’s equivalent is a €14.90 train.

The one line where Greece wins is organised tours, at $298 a day against Italy’s $357.

None of this means Greece is expensive in absolute terms. It means the assumption that you can overspend in Rome and claw it back on Naxos does not hold, and if you build a budget on that assumption you will be short in the second week. Plan both halves at the same daily rate. Our Europe on a budget guide and the cheapest places to travel in Europe both have the wider comparison.

Two further data points for sizing. Budget hostels and simple hotels run €20 to €50 a night, mid-range hotels €70 to €150, and luxury €200 and up. Travelling off-season can cut costs by 15% to 30%. And for the top end, a private guided Italy and Greece tour including internal flights, four- and five-star hotels, attractions, guides and transfers benchmarks at around $600 per person per day, with 30% to 50% off for children under 10.

What each route actually costs

Those daily figures are only useful once you multiply them by a real itinerary, so here is every route in this guide costed out. These are per-person, on-the-ground totals: accommodation, food, local transport and activities. International flights are not included, because what you pay to reach Europe depends entirely on where you start.

Route	Length	Budget traveller	Mid-range traveller
1. The 10-Day Minimum	10 nights	$952	$2,396
2. The 14-Day Classic	14 nights	$1,323	$3,332
3. The 14-Day Slow Version	14 nights	$1,323	$3,332
4. The Overland and Ferry Route	14 nights	$1,309	$3,300
5. The 21-Day Full Version	21 nights	$1,974	$4,974
6. The 10-Day Honeymoon	10 nights	$938	$2,364
7. The 12-Day Family Route	12 nights	$1,127	$2,840
8. The Shoulder-Season History Route	14 nights	$1,323	$3,332

Two caveats worth stating plainly. These are averages of what travellers report spending, not quotes, and the spread inside each band is wide. And a shoulder-season version of any of these rows comes in 15% to 30% below the number shown, which on route 5 is a saving of several hundred dollars for the sake of travelling in May instead of July.

When to go: month by month

The best months are May, early June, September and early October. That is the consensus and I agree with it, but the reasoning is more interesting than the conclusion, because Italy and Greece do not peak at the same time.

Month	Rome	Athens	Sea temperature	Verdict for a two-country trip
March	58 mm rain	Cool, wet-ish	Athens 15°C, Heraklion 16.6°C	Cities only. No islands worth the ferry.
April	81 mm rain	Warming	Cold	Ferries thin, Venice access fee starts 3 April.
May	11.6 to 22.8°C, 53 mm rain	High 24°C, almost no rain, 10 hr sun	Athens 19°C, Heraklion 19.5°C	The best month. Athens has its lowest humidity of the year.
June	Warm, dry	Average 24°C	Athens 22°C	Excellent to mid-month. Meltemi can start.
July	High 30.3°C, 19 mm rain, UV 9	High 34.4°C, 10 mm rain	Athens 24°C, Santorini 25.3°C, Heraklion 25.4°C	Hot and full. Meltemi at peak.
August	High 30.6°C, hottest	Very hot	Santorini 25.7°C, Heraklion 26.1°C	The warmest sea and the worst everything else.
September	Rain rising	Average 24°C, ~7 hr sun	Still warm	Nearly as good as May, with a warmer sea.
October	Best temps, 113 mm rain over 8 days	15 to 23°C, rain still low	Athens 22°C, still swimmable	Superb in Greece, wet in Rome. See the note below.
November	6.9 to 15.9°C, 115 mm, wettest	Cool	Athens 20°C, often still swimmable	Cities only. Greek free-entry Sundays begin.

The October point is the one worth acting on. Rome in October is lovely on temperature, 11.3°C to 21.4°C, and one of its wettest months at 113 mm over about eight rain days. Athens in October is still dry with a 22°C sea. So an October trip should front-load Italy’s indoor sights and back-load Greece’s outdoor ones. Do the Uffizi and the Vatican when it might rain, and save the caldera for when it will not.

For context on the heat: Athens holds the World Meteorological Organization record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe, 48°C. The city centre in high summer also produces a thoroughly unpleasant smog from traffic combined with heat. Our best time to visit Europe guide and best time to visit Italy go deeper on the shoulder seasons, and the best places to visit in Italy covers what else fits a shoulder-season fortnight.

Heat closures at the Acropolis

During heatwaves, Greece’s Culture Ministry has closed the Acropolis from 13:00 to 17:00, and in some episodes from 12:00 to 17:30, with other Athens archaeological sites shut during the same hours. It sits on an unshaded hill and the closures exist to prevent heatstroke among visitors and staff.

Treat this as an established protocol that recurs whenever a heatwave hits, not as a fixed timetable. The documented closures I could source are from 2023 to 2025 episodes; I could not confirm a 2026 one. The planning consequence is the same either way: book an 08:00 or 09:00 Acropolis slot in July and August, and treat the middle of the day as unavailable.

Santorini earthquakes: where things actually stand in 2026

If you were following the news in early 2025, this will be on your mind, and it deserves a straight answer rather than silence.

Seismic activity surged from 31 January 2025 across an area of roughly 250 square kilometres northeast of Santorini, with the epicentre in the sea near the islet of Anydros, between Santorini and Amorgos. Between 25 January and 7 February 2025 there were over 1,200 earthquakes of magnitude 1.0 to 5.2. Greek scientific consensus was that the sequence was tectonic rather than volcanic in origin. There were no reports of injuries or significant property damage.

The microseismic surge stopped after 15 February 2025. Schools reopened on 4 March, cruise ships resumed calling in March and April, and by May 2025 activity had returned to normal levels. As of August 2026, the island’s own continuously updated tracker reports that seismic activity has been non-existent for many months, with everything running normally, and the same statement has appeared in every monthly update since February 2026.

The UK Foreign Office travel advice for Greece, current at 6 August 2026 and last updated 14 July 2026, contains a general earthquake-risk section for Greece and no Santorini-specific warning. The bigger risk it flags for Greece is wildfires, with a high risk during the summer season from April to October. Its practical advice is to register your phone for Greek emergency alerts and to check civilprotection.gov.gr.

Three things people conflate that are unrelated to the swarm: the Imerovigli landslide of 17 August 2025, the Red Beach rockfalls which happened years earlier, and the magnitude 6.2 quake north of Crete on 22 May 2025, which was an isolated event.

One side effect worth knowing: visitor numbers to Santorini in 2026 are reported as slightly lower than previous seasons, which means the island is a little less crowded than it has been.

The Meltemi, and what happens when a ferry gets cancelled

The Meltemi is a dry north wind that can blow any time between June and September and reaches maximum strength and duration in July and August. It affects the Cyclades generally; Andros and Tinos get it most, and Mykonos is nicknamed the island of the winds for a reason. The return leg toward Athens is where it bites hardest.

Ferries are sometimes cancelled at 8 or more on the Beaufort scale, roughly 50 to 60 km/h, and most operators consider cancellation from 9 Beaufort. Smaller high-speed ferries may stop from 7 Beaufort. In practice, the small fast boats cancel first and the large conventional ferries only in the strongest winds, which is a good argument for booking the slow Blue Star rather than the SeaJets catamaran on the leg that matters.

Cancellations are quite rare, but they do happen, and docking is hardest at the smaller ports.

The planning rule that follows: never fly home on the same day you sail back from an island. Build a night in Athens. If the ferry runs, you get a last dinner in Plaka and time for a few more things to do in Athens before the flight. If it does not, you have not lost a flight. Routes 3 and 7 above have that night built in.

The booking calendar

Everything in one place, ordered by how far ahead it needs doing.

How far ahead	What to book	Why then
6 to 9 months	International flights, open-jaw	Best fares and the widest choice of city pairings
December to March	Italy to Greece ferries	Early-booking discounts of 20% to 40% run in this window
3 months	Everything for late June to August travel	The stated lead time for peak season
2 to 3 months	Greek ferries for August	Cabins, business seats and car spaces sell out
90 days	Italian trains	Italo’s €14.90 Rome to Florence fare appears at this range
30 days	Colosseum, including Full Experience	Official release window. Peak slots go within minutes
2 to 4 weeks	Acropolis time slot	Summer morning slots sell out 1 to 3 weeks out, and 5 to 7 days out in peak season
1 to 2 weeks	Venice access fee registration	Never sells out, but the price doubles inside four days
Same week	Restaurants, boat trips, day tours	Weather-dependent and easy to move

Swaps: if you would rather not do the obvious version

Instead of	Try	Why
Santorini	Naxos	Better food, better beaches, roughly half the price, and a two-hour ferry away if you still want the caldera for a day
Mykonos	Paros	Same Cycladic looks, thirty minutes from Naxos, without the nightlife markup
Venice	An extra night in Florence plus Siena	Saves a travel day and the access fee, and Tuscany rewards slowness
Florence	Bologna	Better eating, fewer queues, still 35 minutes from Florence if you want the Uffizi anyway
Athens for three nights	Athens for two plus Delphi	Delphi is the most atmospheric site in Greece and it is easy to reach on a long day trip
The Amalfi Coast in August	The Amalfi Coast in late September	Sea still warm, road traffic halved, hotel rates down
Flying Rome to Athens	The Bari overnight ferry	Only if you have a car or you do not fly. It costs you a day
Cyclades islands	Crete	One island, no inter-island ferries, and Knossos plus a proper mountain interior
Two countries	One country, properly	Under ten days this is the right answer and I will keep saying it

Which route fits which traveller

• First-timers to Europe. Route 2, the 14-day classic. It is the default because it works. Pair it with our first-time Europe guide.
• Anyone on ten days with a fixed return date. Route 1. Three bases, two moves, and nothing that can quietly become a fourth stop.
• Couples and honeymooners. Route 6. Two transfers, two cities, one island, and no morning where you are dragging a suitcase over a bridge.
• Families with young children. Route 7. Water at both ends, one museum a day, and the Greek per-room levy working in your favour.
• Solo travellers. Route 2 or route 5. Ferries and hostels in Greece are excellent for meeting people; see solo travel in Europe.
• History and archaeology. Route 8. Pompeii, Herculaneum, Delphi and Knossos in one trip is a serious itinerary.
• Budget travellers. Route 4 with deck-class ferries and shoulder-season dates, or read backpacking Europe.
• Slow travellers and people who hate packing. Route 3. Four bases, three transfers, fourteen days.
• Road trippers. Route 4 is the only one that works, because it is the only one where your car crosses with you. See Europe road trips.
• Anyone with fewer than ten days. Pick one country. Our 10-day Italy itinerary or the Greece travel guide will serve you better than a rushed pairing.

Nine mistakes I see people make on this trip

1. Flying home the same day you leave an island. Build a buffer night in Athens.
2. Assuming there is a ferry from Italy to Santorini. There is not, and the workaround costs two days.
3. Misreading the Colosseum ticket. It is a 24-hour ticket, not a two-calendar-day one. An afternoon Colosseum slot buys you the Forum the following morning; a morning slot does not.
4. Buying Vatican tickets from a lookalike domain. Only tickets.museivaticani.va is official, and the museum itself warns about the copies charging much more.
5. Budgeting Greece as the cheap half. It is not. Daily spend runs higher than Italy’s in six of seven categories.
6. Booking an afternoon Acropolis slot in July. Between the heat, the hourly quotas and the possibility of a midday closure, morning is the only sensible choice.
7. Arriving in Venice on a Friday in June without registering. That is an access-fee day, and the fine runs from €50.
8. Choosing the fast ferry for the leg that matters. Small high-speed boats cancel from 7 Beaufort. The big conventional ferries hold out much longer.
9. Planning a free-entry day at a capped site. The Acropolis cap stays at 20,000 whether it is free or not. You are competing with more people for the same slots.

What this guide does not cover

A few honest limits, so you know where to go elsewhere.

There is no Thessaloniki routing here, no Peloponnese loop, and no Dodecanese. Rhodes and Kos are excellent and they connect poorly to a two-week Italy pairing, which is why they are absent rather than because they are not worth it. On the Italian side there is no Sicily, no Puglia beyond the ferry ports and no Dolomites. Our Sicily guide and Italy travel guide pick those up.

I have also left several numbers out rather than guess at them. I could not source a 2026 euro price for Ancient Olympia, Ostia Antica or Herculaneum, a band-by-band Greek levy table between its €0.50 and €15 endpoints, or flight durations and fares for most of the Italy to Corfu routes. Those cells read “not published” in the tables above and they will stay that way until I can point at a source.

Final thoughts

The thing that separates a good version of this trip from an exhausting one is not the destinations. Everyone picks roughly the same places, and they are the right places. It is the number of times you pick up a suitcase.

So here is the advice I would give a friend. Decide your total nights. Subtract one travel day for every move. Look at what is left. If the answer is fewer than nine actual days on the ground, take a stop out. You will remember the evening you had nowhere to be in Naxos far longer than you will remember the third Renaissance gallery you walked through at speed because the train was at four.

Book the flights open-jaw, put the ferry days in the middle rather than at the end, and give yourself a night in Athens before you fly home. Everything else on this page is detail in service of those three decisions.

For more on building the wider trip, our Europe itinerary guide is the hub this article sits under, and how to plan a trip to Europe covers the stages before you pick a route at all. If you are still choosing between countries, best countries to visit in Europe and best Mediterranean destinations will help. And for the Greek islands specifically, Europe’s best beaches covers where to swim.

Hannah Brooks has spent fifteen years travelling, living and writing across Europe, from the Arctic tip of Norway to the south of Sicily. She has planned hundreds of European itineraries for readers and is Senior Europe Editor at EuropeanTourism.org.

Photo credits

• Blue-domed churches and white houses above the caldera in Oia: Photo: Giles Laurent / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The Colosseum in Rome: Photo: Wilfredor (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• St Peter’s Basilica and Square in Vatican City: Photo: Wouter Engler / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The Grand Canal in Venice: Photo: Didier Descouens (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• The cliffside town of Positano on Italy’s Amalfi Coast: Photo: Wiki.Bianco / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The Venetian old town and fortress of Corfu: Photo: Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The Portara marble gateway at sunset on Naxos in the Cyclades: Photo: moustakik (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• The Venetian harbour and lighthouse of Chania on Crete: Photo: Cayambe / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• A ferry crossing between the Greek islands: Photo: Jean Housen / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The whitewashed windmills above Mykonos town: Photo: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• The ruins of Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius behind: Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• Crowds around the Trevi Fountain in Rome: Crowds at the Trevi Fountain, Rome · Photo: Ypsilon from Finland (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• A plate of Greek souvlaki and meze at a traditional taverna: Photo: Benoît Prieur (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• The Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens: Photo: Jebulon (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons
• Monasteries perched on the rock pinnacles of Meteora in central Greece: Photo: Jolovema / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Florence and the dome of its cathedral in Tuscany: Photo: Max_Ryazanov / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons