Our family of four (my husband and I and our kids aged 18 and 20) are planning our 3-week trip to Italy in May. Our tentative itinerary is as follows. What do you think?

Fly to Milan (from Canada)
Immediately to Como area (is 3 days too long?)
Venice for 3 days
Rome and area for 5 days (is there a good spot to stay between Florence and Rome for a day or two?)
Florence and area for 5 days
Cinque Terre for 3 days
Milan for 2 days
Fly home from Milan

We are quite flexible and haven't booked any hotels yet. Art/museums are first priority. Can one rent an apartment for less than a one week period? We would appreciate any guidance you can give. Many thanks!

How will you be travelling, by car or trains?

You can do your itinerary by train; in fact a car in Rome, Florence and Venice is just a nuisance.

However, I would re-arrange the sequenece: Milan, Como, Venice,Rome, Cinque Terre (you might appraoch C.T. either from La Spezia or Rapallo), Florence ( or Siena, with day trips to Florence), Milan.

Obviously, you could also "do" Cinque Terre before Rome.

If you insist on going from Rome to Florence, a nice stop-over place is Orvieto.

First thing I would do is change your departure city to Rome. An open jaws plan (different arrival and departure cities) is far more efficient here because it eliminates all the back-tracking. You could just as easily start in Rome and leave from Milan.

But assuming a Milan arrival, I'd arrange the itinerary thusly:

Lake Como (great place to ease into Italy) - 2 nights

Castelrotto (for a nice dose of the Dolomite Alps) - 2 nights

Venice - 5 nights (3 days for Venice, 2 for day trips in the surrounding area)

Florence - 3 nights

Tuscany/Umbria farmhouse - 4 nights (lots of great farmhouses to rent as a base to explore lots of hill towns in the area). OR 4 nights in Cinque Terre. Either would be a nice break from the hectic big city stuff.

Rome - 5 nights.

This itinerary is probably best done by car, especially given that you have some kids in tow. But I would park the car outside of V and F rely just on public transportation/gondolas. And I'd ditch the car entirely before entering Rome.

I really like the farmhouse idea since it worked out so well for my last trip there. With a rural homebase in Tuscany or Umbria, all kinds of great little hill towns are in striking distance: Siena, Montepulciano, Maltalcino, Assisi, Spoleto, Civita di Bagnoregio, Orvieto, etc.

Thank you for your thoughtful responses. I appreciate learning from others who have travelled Italy before. I like your suggestions very much and will research accordingly!

My boredom level would go through the roof with more than a couple of days in the 5 Terre. It is lovely, but unless you are really, really into spending all that money and time to go sit and relax, 3 days seems excessive to me. There isn't that much to do there during the day except hike and go "oooooo" over the views. 3 days of "ooooooing" would be quite a lot. I can find places to just relax and look at pretty views a lot nearer home for a lot less money than a trip to Europe.

But different strokes for different folks.

Rufus, the point of the CT or similar places is to take a break from the time schedules, museums, ruins, and other cultural obligations. Vacations can be a real grind in that respect. I always pencil in a 3 day break in the middle of every trip to recharge. After all the activity of Venice and Florence, a few days spent sleeping in, eating, hiking, and laying on the beach reading mind candy is just the ticket for me.

Edward. As I said, different strokes for different folks.

But I still wouldn't spend valuable travel time and money that far from home on 3 days in 5 Terre just to relax. I can do that for much less money here in Maryland (or in my hammock in my backyard for free). Plus, I think of all the interesting things to see that I might not get another chance at for years.

But--I'm not you, and you aren't me.

Just 1 more opinion ... Edward's itinerary suggestion is wonderful. His suggestion to add Castelrotto gives you another wholly different taste of Italy. If you add it to your itinerary, look for Steve James' posts here - they were terrific for planning when I went. It sounds like a fantastic trip for your family.