Hi Julie,

I'll help as best I can.

You are visiting Rome, the AC and Venice.
I suggest that you fly into Venice and out of Naples or vice versa. It will save you the flight from Naples to Venice.

>Our must sees will be colosseum & vatican, spanish steps & what else should we aim for and any need pre-booked tickets, please?

Have you looked up Rome under "Destinations"?

>Pompeii train from Sorrento

Take the Circumvesuviana commuter train from the Sorrento Station to Pompeii Scavi.

>... WHat is best area to stay [in Venice]

What are your requirements and what is your budget.

If you wish to see Venice and Florence, I suggest that you skip the AC.

If you wish to see the AC, I suggest that you skip either Florence or Venice. How old are the kids?

>... fly to Nantes France ....

From where?

hi julie - are your flights already booked?

I'll assume that they are, otherwise you might like to think about what Ira suggests.

for apartments in Rome, Sleep in Italy is well thought of here, but you will find a wealth of agencies offering apartment rentals in Rome, and many recommendations.

you've got 4 full days so have time for most of the major sights, but keep an eye out for days on which they may be closed, and try to group sites that are close to each other together. i suggest that you get hold of a guide book or 6 and start looking at what they suggest, but really there is so much to see in Rome, there are no hard and fast rules.

more or less the same applies to Florence and Venice - there is more than enough to do for you to fill your days in both cities.

Yes flights are booked!
From Dallas we can only fly to Rome with ease (and with FF miles!)

Children aged 101/2 and 12/12 and very experienced travelers!

For Venice, not sure what the big sites are beyond riding in vaporetto or gondola, but we would want a nice apartment or hotel that is central to the most significant sites, please

Hi d,

>Yes flights are booked!<

As the French say, c'est fromage.

The rest of my suggestions still hold.

Venice is a small town.

For Venice, not sure what the big sites are beyond riding in vaporetto or gondola, but we would want a nice apartment or hotel that is central to the most significant sites, please>>

mmm - do have a look at destination guides above or a good guide book. if you see some pictures of Venice, you'll probably notice the age and beauty of the buildings, the glory that is the Basilica [Cathedral] of San Marco, the imposing Doge's palace, the fascinating little calle [alleways], the beautiful bridges and piazze, the bell towers, the galleries and museums, and the total lack of motor vehicles.

As Venice is relatively compact, most hotels are pretty central to most of the things you'll probably want to see. if you use trip advisor or venere.com, they will show you the hotel you are looking at, on a map.

dendleju, for Rome please see the following link, our Rome apartment was awesome, and it had AC which you will need in July.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/rome-stay-trastevere-or-campo-dei-fiori.cfm

We made a full trip in the southern part of Italy ~ Rome, Amalfi Coast, Paestum, southern Tuscany. If not familiar, Paestum has some of the best preserved Greek temples outside of Greece. Pompeii is a full day and breathtaking, we will go back. We drove from Ravello (Amalfi Coast) easy day trip.

We will also go back to Rome, probably next year. In addition to the Vatican (get a tour guide so you can skip the lines, many are very good with children) we loved the Colliseum, Pantheon, and Palatine Hill & The Forum (again a guide) To us the Spanish Steps were a lot of steps with a lot of people. A LOT of people. I'm sure the view was great, but I can't imagine tackling it in the heat of July.

We did another trip this year more northern ~ Venice, Florence, Chianti and a sidetrip to see friends.

My thought would be to separate northern and southern Italy. Don't think you won't go back to Italy, you will. I guarantee it!

I would love to have split into North and South but DH so excited to finally take me to Italy after 20 years of promises he could not resist at least having me peek at Venice and Florence!

The advice on getting guides is a great plan

I do have tour books received for Xmas gifts and plan to wade in, but just need general guidance to get the best located accommodation as early as possible first.
Also a good point about checking on days sights are closed! I need to start checking on those specifics
The list from wrenwood on room is a good starting point - thanks

Good to know Venice is compact, it is impossible to tell by the guides, so much to see it is a bit overwhelming but I think a short trip will allow us to see the important sights.
THANKS, I AM GOING TO CRACK THE BOOKS!

Its hot in July, and in Venice it can be hot and humid, so you will want to stay in places with air conditioning.

You can book in advance tickets to almost all sites, and i would recommend doing it, as soon as you decide what you will want to see. It will save you a lot of time waiting in a line in the hot sun. The only place that will no longer take credit cards is the Vatican, and I am not sure that they will even do an online reservation any more. You can try.

In Venice the two most popular sites are the Doges Palace (do a tour) and St Mark's Basilica (book tickets in advance). Other sites are not as crowded. Ride the vaporetto on the Grand Canal, if its really hot, and your kids are inclined you can take the vaporetto to the beach at the Lido.

Have our kids look at some of the guide books so they can each pick out something they want to see or do. It will be more fun if they are involved.

In Florence the Uffizi Gallery and the Academia (statute of David) are probably the two most popular sites.. again book tickets in advance if you do not want to be on a long line. Take a bus or taxi to Piazza Michaelangelo at for a terrific view of the city, especially at sunset.

Rome..has a lot to see so try to group things in the same areas.

Your guide books will give you an idea of the top sights in each city,, then look at some sites that have things especially for kids.

Plan on eating lots and lots of gelato!

>>>Rome - transfer to accommodation
------any suggestions on car service?<<<

Taxis are s set fee of 48€. You can book a limo for a bit cheaper.

http://www.romeshuttlelimousine.com/en/airport-transfer.php

It will be hot. Book somewhere with AC.

This might be fun for your kids in Venice:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/venice-for-teenagers.cfm

This link for he kids is great!!

dendleju,

A lot of people going to Venice don't like to be in hotels around San Marco or around the Rialto Bridge because these are the areas that get most slammed by huge crowds of tourists during the day. It can be unpleasant to get caught is a huge press of tourists every time you want to get out or into your hotel.

Consider getting off the plane and going directly to the Amalfi coast. See Pompei on your way back north. Arrange the order of visiting your other cities so you can get a good flight out of Italy to France.

dendleju, is there a reason you're not hiring a car?

The owners of our apartment sent a car for us when we arrived, and then when we were ready to leave he took us to a car rental agency to pick up our rental. Very easy. We loved having the car (for every place but Rome. (and Florence and Venice during last years more "northern" trip)

As for prebooking- definitely for the Colisseum and Vatican-- can book directly from their websites or book through a site such as Walks of Italy--we used them and thought they were excellent-- group tours are limited to 12-15 people.

If you know what museums you might want to visit- Borghese in Rome requires pre booking. Prebooking not required at Uffizi or Acadamie in Florence, but to avoid standing in ticket lines I would recommend buying tickets before arrival via their websites--tickets are for a specific date and time of entry so your travel plans need to be pretty firm before committing to tickets.

Would recommend visiting and prebooking Secrets of Doges palace tour in Venice and timed entry to St Marks Basilica.

Your kids might like the Scavi tour at the Vatican--definitely prebook as entry is limited and fills up.

just got back from a week in Rome and queues were VERY variable. We were originally going to go to the vatican museums and St. Peter's on the wednesday, but our plans were changed [thank goodness as it turned out] and we went on the monday instead. No queues for either all day but we were staying nearby and every time we went past during the rest of the week they were enormous. [NB - if you are in the Vatican museums and wish to visit St. Peter's as well, you can do so by using the little door at the back of the sistine chapel on the RIGHT, which goes down some steps and directly into St. Peter's without having to walk all the way round the wall of the vatican or to queue t get through security again. this isn't available if you are using an audio-guide, which has to be returned to the desk where you got it at the entrance].

At the Colosseum on the Tuesday the queues were as long as ever [fortunately we had pre-booked tickets as we were a group] but there was no-one at the entrance to the Forum/palatinate, which has now moved round the corner into the road opposite the Colosseum [to the left of the end of the via Sacra] though it was by then about 4pm - I don't know what the queues to buy tickets there were like earlier.

The Pantheon and Trevi fountain were very busy, [no tickets needed of course] but the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj [entrance on via del corso] was as ever virtually deserted. Why this wonderful collection of paintings including Breugel and Caravaggio isn't better known and more popular i have no idea; it certainly deserves to be both. And there was virtually no-one in the Museo di Roma on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which I personally did not find as interesting.

hope this helps people deciding how/whether to pre-book tickets.

<< Its hot in July, and in Venice it can be hot and humid, so you will want to stay in places with air conditioning.>>

Ditto Florence, which can be even hotter.

AC, pre-book, car for the countryside ( NOT in Rome)