What a wonderful opportunity for you!

I'm sure that you're already planning on visiting the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence. I would definitely get your reservation in for those right away to avoid the lines. You might also consider a private tour of the Uffizi. We will be in Florence at the end of July, and we contacted freya's tours in Florence, which was highly recommended on Trip Advisor.

If you're comfortable driving standard and navigating in Italy, renting a car gives you the most flexibility even for just a few days. Some towns that I love are San Gimignano, Siena, Pienza and Montepulciano.

The train to Venice is the fastest way to go. I've driven and taken the train, and much prefer the train; plus, the train station is right on the Grand Canal, so it makes a wonderful entrance to your time there.

Good luck planning, and you're right about this forum being a wealth of information. I'm sure the experts here will have a lot of good advice.

From Florence, you can easily train to Pisa (1 hour about 6€), Rome (90 minutes about 42€) or bus to Siena (1 hour 7€)if you want to do some day trips from Florence.

Have you checked taking the car to Istria to drop? There are usually big fees for dropping in another country. You don't want a car in Florence.

On Malta I would stay in the St. Julian's area since most of the the island shuts down early and this is a lively area with a wide range of restaurants. Get tickets for the Hypogeum NOW - only 10 people per tour (per hour?) are allowed in so you won't be able to walk up and buy tickets.

You can walk to the Tarxien temples from the Hypogeum.

I loved the Aviation Museum (WWII stuff) and the fellow who sold us our tickets was a WWII pilot so he gave us a tour. It's near the craft village (how fortunate for you).

Marsaxxlokk has a good market on Sundays as does Valletta. I would definitely go to Valletta for a day.

Excellent help! Thank you all!

I think we will try some of the daytrips you suggested kybourbon, and appreciate the warning about the car drop fee. I think we'll train or bus as far as Venice, then get a car there, since our flight to Malta is also from Venice (different Venice airport, I know) and then do the same when we return from Malta (get car at airport, drive to pick up daughter in Istria, then return to Venice for final flight home.)

We do have our Hypogeum tickets, adrienne, as I was able to take the last two available on the 28th July. But we cut it very close!

cybertraveler, thank you for the Florence suggestions. I am wondering whether to book reservations for Uffizi and Academia or buy the Florence card for 50 euro/person. Comments cut both ways on that. Appreciate any thoughts you have. I will also check out the tour agency you suggest and that may settle it.

Thanks all. Feel free to keep the advice coming!

If you arrive on the 18th, and need to be in rural Istria on the morning of the 23rd, you don't have a huge amount of time.

You could stay those five nights in Florence, doing a day trip or two, then quickly drive to Istria the morning of the 23rd. Or you could split your time between Florence and Venice, taking the train between the two.

I'm not sure when you are flying to Malta; but probably on the 23rd? If you need to rent a car to drop off your daughter, you could be dealing with a one-day rental, which couldthe be verythe expensive. Even a 2-day could be pricey.

Thanks Lexma. I think we are going to maybe stay in Florence until the 21st, train up to Venice for day/overnight, and rent a car at the airport in Venice on 22nd and drive over. We fly from Venice to Malta, so we would return the car to the same place from which we rented, hopefully avoiding the expensive one-way drop fee. Upon return from Malta, again to Venice, we would rent a car again to go retrieve the daughter from Visnjan, and drive back to Venice (other airport) for return flight to US. The drives don't look too long, based on mapquest route.

I am wondering if Trieste is where we want to stay the night before the camp drop off in Visnjan. Maybe Rovinj instead? Not much further away.

When leaving Venice, you'll want to pick up your rental car from Piazzale Roma. You can easily get there from Venice, and the drive from there is very easy. (A little more complicated to get yourselves to an airport rental location, and totally unnecessaRY.) Different dropoff places within the same country are usually not any more expensive.

Make sure your rental allows driving into Croatia. When we rented a car for driving in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, we needed to get something extra, I think called a green stamp or something like that, to take the car into Slovakia and Hungary. May not be applicable to Croatia, but be sure to ask to avoid surprises.

Re Trieste, I've never been, though I've researched it a bit for various travel ideas, but I can tell it's a bigger city, so it might be easier to stay overnight in Rovinj, even if it's further down the coast. When I google map'd the distance, however, I got a travel time of 3:12 to Rovinj - at least. Include time for getting gas, getting lost, etc. You'll need to decide if you want to make that drive, or the shorter drive to Trieste, plus another hour or so to get to the camp.

If you're travelling with two teens to Malta you might want to take them to Paceville (depending on their age!), which is very close to St. Julian's. This town is full of nightclubs and the best nightlife on the island is found here.
Otherwise, don't miss out on Valletta (the capital city, it's full of beautiful baroque architecture) and Mdina which is also known as the silent city!

Thanks Lexma90. I think we'll get the first rental car (for taking daugther to camp on 7/23) at Treviso since that is where we fly out of to Malta) on 7/25. When we return from Malta on 7/29, we'll probably head into Venice until we go back to pick her up at camp on 7/31, so for that rental car we will definitely rent/return at Piazzalle Roma as you suggest, and bring car back to PR for our last night, then easy transfer to Marco Polo airport for early departure on 8/1.

Anna001, thanks for suggesting Paceville for the teens. Only my son will be with me, but he is more into history than partying. From what I can tell, the nightclub scene is elsewhere but Valletta has more history and sufficient dining. Would you agree or am I misreading? We were planning to use public transport on Malta for getting to various archeological and other sites on the island. Do you think that will suffice? Looked like driving would be on other side of the road and I'm not sure I want to try that!

Still welcome any thoughts from others.....

Valletta is beautiful and the WWII museum is nicely done and interesting.Caravaggio's Beheading of St John is awesome.Get the handset for the cathereral tour but note the interior route of the exhibits..They are not in "next to each other order" We were only there 1 day and wished for more but cruises go on!!! I believe Malta was sort of an R&R stop for crusaders and the georgeous buildings were headquartwrs for the different countries/units. Glorious one-up-manship!!! If I am wrong, who but experts care??? The place is outstanding!! Your trip sounds great and you are so lucky to have your kids with you for this experience.Lucky kids, too!!!

Do you have a hotel in Florence yet? I can recommend the lovely, little boutique Relais Cavalcanti. Here are my notes from May 2006:

"We took a short cab ride to the Relais Cavalcanti. a very charming little 'hotel', at Via Pellicceria, 2. It occupies one floor of a building located near the Uffizi gallery, in a very good central location. Because my daughter had just finished her semester in Florence, she was able to recommend her favorite location in town for lodging.

The Relais Cavalcanti building has been in the same family's ownership for 100+ years, the owner/manager of the new-ish Relais is Francesca. She said she inherited this one floor of the building, so she recently renovated it to create a little hotel. It's relatively new, with beautiful tile bathrooms, showers, etc. The rooms are very charming, and good-sized. It was 120 EUR for our double/twin, with private bath, which included a 10 EUR upgrade for the better view. Francesca did provide a 5 percent discount for payment in cash.

You have the feeling of entering a very nice, private Italian home, when you unlock the Relais door and smell the potpourri set out on the beautiful tables in the hallway and entry way. It has a small elevator and a/c, too. No breakfast is served, but even better I think is that they have a beautiful little dining room/kitchen that is open 24/7 for guests. You have always available the makings for coffee, hot chocolate and tea, plus containers of pre-wrapped pastries and dessert cakes. That's about as much as you get in any Italian B&B for breakfast, and this way you can serve yourself whenever.

One evening we bought wine, cheese, bread, and fruit and enjoyed our own private time in this beautiful room. The only thing to be aware of at Relais Cavalcanti is that the first floor of the building is the Old Stove Irish pub. The good news is that it's a decent little place for panini, and has free wi-fi. However, it attracts a lot of students and young people, so it is quite noisy into the early morning hours. Our room window was directly above the pub's patio, with a nice view of adjoining rooftops. The double windows, plus the wooden shutters, can block out about 90 percent of the noise from the pub below. I found that I could also turn on the a/c fan in our room, which would then totally cover any outside noise."

Yes, we are staying at the Relais Cavalcanti while in Florence, at the Hotel Flora in Venice, and at the Grand Excelsior on Malta. Still need hotels in, or en route to, Istria. Thinking Trieste or Porec or Rovinj. Would also like to find a cheaper option than Hotel Flora for additional nights in Venice at back end of trip -- suggestions?

I'm glad that you chose the Relais Cavalcanti-we've stayed there twice, and it is very conveniently located. It is more of a bed and breakfast, without the breakfast but with a lot of character. PeaceOut gave a great description. Try and get the room with the view of the tower in Piazza delle Signoria.

We've also stayed at the Hotel Flora, and it is also in a great location, just a 5 minute walk from Piazza San Marco. On our last trip to Venice we stayed at the Pensione Accademia, which is not far from the Accademia Bridge. It's a lovely hotel, and might be less expensive.

You've gotten a lot of planning done in such a short time!