I don't have much experience with PHP or anything related, but when I was in similar shoes (coming from perl, though), I tried Django, and it was very very easy

I don't have much experience with PHP or anything related, but when I was in similar shoes (coming from perl, though), I tried Django, and it was very very easy. From basically zero Django knowledge, and only very little python, I had a usable application up and running within a weekend. I can only recommend it, it's a pleasure to work with it, and has very good documentation too.