Hope someone can help. My husband, my 16 year old daughter and 17 year old son and I are planning to travel to Italy for 3 weeks in July, 2004. We are hoping to cover Venice, Florence, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast (Capri a must). With two teenagers we're hoping to make it as memorable for them as possible at the same time finding the most bang for our buck and I would appreciate any advice. Best modes of transportation, any B&B's you can reommend, restaurants, sites off the beaten track. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks!!!

Since you have three weeks, I would suggest you rent a car and go to many little villages between the cities. Also if you want alot of bang for your buck, I would day trip to Capri and stay on a less expensive island like Procida, Ischia or even stay in Amalfi. You get the same beauty and great beaches for a lot less. You can see a lot of Capri in a day.

"You can see a lot of Capri in a day". Yes, I'll agree with that, but you can't begin to EXPERIENCE Capri during the day. It doesn't begin to turn truly magical until the day tour boats have left, the moon and stars come out, and you can stroll the tiny lanes and relax in the piazza. That's what Capri is all about, not just the cliffs and the shops.

Actually, Parick, Capri is too over priced and touristy for me. I like to do the same thing in Ischia which is right next door to Capri. It's much less expensive and much less touristy. You can wake up in your hotel and see the fishermen coming in and selling their catch at the dock, etc, etc. Sandpen asked our opinion and mentioned more bang for the buck. That's my opinion and more bang for the buck.

You're starting in the right place. These chat boards, ricksteves.com and his book, and lonely planet guides have great info. I booked all our place to stay online and we averaged about 100 euro a night for 14 nights in N/Central Italy, all private bath, all nice. Eurocheapo.com is also good, as is www.tuscany.net. San Gimignano was very cool and inexpensive apts are at www.sangiapartments.com Otherwise check into villas and albergos!

HI
Rather than driving every day in the countryside, I'd take the advice of renting a flat in the Amalfi area, and doing some daytrips from there. Sounds like a night or two in Capri or Sorrento is important.

For the kids, one of the youth-oriented guidebooks would have some good suggestions, such as "Let's Go", "Time Out" or "Rough Guide" or "Lonely Planet".
Ditto their message boards.

Try and book your incoming flight into one city and your homeward-bound flight from another, so you don't have to backtrack.

July can be quite hot and quite crowded, so keep that in mind as you make plans. I hope that BobtheNavigator will chime in here, as he always has great routing suggestions.

Elaine, Bob is traveling in Italy at this very moment, but he may stop in at an Internet cafe or maybe he'll pick on on this thread when he returns. In the meantime, sanped may want to do a search by typing <Bob the Navigator> into the "Search this Forum" box at the top of the page.

Ann, to each his or her own, but please tell me how many NIGHTS you have actually spent on Capri? It's sometimes impossible to just a touristy place when you only visit it during the touristy days. By the way, the best parts of Capri, the moonlight, the stars, the waves, the evening strolls are all free. How can you call those "overpriced?"

By the way, this summer I'm booked for 5 nights on Ischia. No doubt I'll love it, but for some things I have little doubt that it won't match Capri.

Hi sanped,

Oddly enough, I just returned from a similar trip.

See http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Speaking as someone who was dragged 8-) to Italy when he was a teenager, make sure to mix it up and do something exotic/different every now and then. I don't mean that you have to get your head shaved and dyed in the colors of the Italian flag, but do stuff that you wouldn't normally do on vacation:

* Avoid McDonalds, except maybe to get a large Coke with ice.
* Rent a villa/apartment somewhere and don't stay in a hotel for part of the journey
* Understand that the attention span of most teenagers -- especially when touring churches -- is measured in nanoseconds.
* Don't just do "culture" things all the time like look at art or go to churches.
Go to Testaccio in Rome and eat trippa. Find some out-of-the-way trattoria in the Oltrarno district of Florence.
* Prepare your kids in advance that the hotels that you'll be staying in probably aren't exactly going to resemble American chain hotels.
* Don't try to go everywhere and see everything in every city you're in. Allocate at least a couple of days in each place to do absolutely nothing except relax -- no museums, no churches, no schlepping to some picturesque hilltown.

For the destinatinos you've chosen, don't even think about taking a car. Take the train between major destinations, maybe renting a car for a couple of daytrips here or there. While you might not necessarily need rail passes (it depends on how much intercity travel you plan to do), I would splurge and buy first-class train tickets. While for a family of four it may get expensive rather quickly, the extra legroom, elbow room, and separation from each other (both physically and mentally) will do wonders to reduce that infamous Day Three of a Trip yelling.

Patrick, I'm originally from the area and have spent many nights in Capri. I know the area very well. The two islands are so close to each other, " the moonlight, the stars, the waves, the evening strolls" are identical and Ischia is not as touristy and certainly not as over priced.

Gee, Ann, I hope you're right. As I said,I'm looking forward to 5 nights in Ischia. But from all the pictures I've seen nothing to indicate that their are miles of those tiny walled flower covered alleyways along the hillside with very upscale little villas along them and no really upscale little piazzas like I love in Capri. I have no doubt the atmosphere is wonderful, but hard to imagine that it is the SAME as the atmosphere in Capri which is totally unique to me. Some may not appreciate it, but I do.

I was thrilled with La Maddalena, and also with Lipari, but neither can hold a candle to the nightime atmosphere on Capri. They are each simply wonderful in their own way.