My husband, myself and our 22 yr old daughter are planning our first European trip to Italy next May. We are trying to decide between a tour or self guided. We are interested in Rome, Florence and Venice. Any opinions are welcome. Any must see suggestions would be appreciated. We are looking at spending 7-10 days. Where to stay and how to begin planning ?

To start with, and I think others will agree, 3 locations in 7 days is too tight. Ten days is a bit tight, but doable. Consider that travel time between cities takes up a half-day to a day, by the time you get settled in your new accommodations. And when you say "10 days," you probably mean 9 nights. Which cuts the time even further.

Guided or self-guided? Most people here do self-guided, so they're going to recommend that, but it's an individual thing. Self-guided requires a fair amount of planning and coordination, especially since you're going to visit a place for the first time.

For self-guided, I'd start with nailing down your flights. My philosophy is that you can always find a place to sleep, but convenient, affordable flights can be a challenge. Get the transportation part figured out first, and build from that.

Decide how you want to break up your time. That can be dictated by what you want to see and do in each locale. Set up a bunch of sightseeing priorities, and build on that. For instance, will it take 4 days to see what you want to see in Rome? OK, then 4 days in Rome. More than 4? Then you need to rethink. Do you want to build in a day to do nothing but walk around (a common pursuit in Venice), then do so.

The rough guide for what you want to do is 4-3-3 (4 Rome, 3 Florence, 3 Venice), but hey, I know people who can easily spend a week in Venice -- my wife being one of them.

You can do a hybrid thing, where a travel agent books part of the your trip -- say, hotels and transportation -- and you figure out the rest. A lot depends on you and your comfort level with planning in unfamiliar environs. You might try planning some sightseeing, with the help of your travel partners, and picking out hotels yourself, and then checking back here to see what others think about your choices.

Good luck.

Just use trains between cities - Rome to Florence only takes 90 minutes, city centre to city centre, from €19.90 if you pre-book at www.trenitalia.com .

I've written a guide to train travel in Italy at www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm which may help understand things and know what to expect.

I choose hotels near the attractions, but if I can also get them walking distance from the station, that's a plus. Booking.com is my weapon of choice but there are many hotel sites.

I reckon that the 4-3-3 days suggested above would be best, but I'd still take a 3-2-2 days trip covering all three cities over a 4-3 knocking one city out. You can always come back to the city you like best!

Are your 10 days including travel days? if so, then you have 8 days to spend in Italy not 10. If 8 days pick two destinations. Which ones? That depends on your interests. Do you and your family love museums? if so, more time for Florence. If 10 days, so 12 days totaled with travel days, fly into Venice spend three nights, train to Florence spend three nights, train to Rome spend 4 nights fly home from Rome. You can always do a day trip from any of the destinations. Buy a guide book and search the internet and figure out how much time you have and what you want to see.

I rarely recommend buying tours but, no offense whatever intended, for those who mention 3 cities in quite a short time frame, do not mention any personal interests and use the term "must see", I should think a tour would fill the bill and will always include the must sees.

Read reviews of tour companies, spend as much as you can afford on one of the best-reviewed and enjoy an introduction to Italy, knowing that if you're inspired you can use the knowledge gained to plan the next one yourself.

Following Mme's comments about must-sees, and why I didn't list any in my earlier post: Please don't expect others to say, "Oh, you simply must see ..." without having any knowledge of your (and your traveling partners') interests.

Someone might say, "You must tour the Guggenheim in Venice." Only to get the response, "We don't enjoy museums." (I've seen it happen here.)

Please take this as it is meant, in the nicest, most helpful way possible.

We have done the Venice-Florence-Rome route a few times. Although we've been fortunate enough to add an extra week or so in Tuscany or Umbria, the trio of cities always makes for a good first trip. I would fly into Venice for four nights, take the train to Florence, arriving in the afternoon and staying two nights. Then, take the train to Rome for four nights, from where you fly home. Pre-book your transportation to the airport in Rome if you have an early flight. You could reverse the order, but we have found starting in Venice more relaxing for us. Also, flights out of Venice tend to be early and getting to the airport takes time.

If you have to cut a day from this 4-2-4 schedule, it's a coin toss as to whether you should cut from Venice or Rome, both places offer so much. I'd cut it from Venice, (which we love and now spend a week there each time we visit) if I had to make the choice. Hopefully your flight has you arriving in the morning. To combat jet lag, we head to our accomodations, shower and hit the ground running, regardless of how tired we feel. We fall into bed exhausted the first night, but wake feeling ready to go.

Florence for two nights is adequate if you're pressed for time, knowing you're just skimmimng the surface and seeing only the most well-known works of art. On your arrival day, you can visit the Duomo, browse along Ponte Vecchio, enjoy the outdoor art around Uffizi, find a place to enjoy a glass of wine outdoors and just wander before dinner. Make musuem reservations well in advance for both Uffizi and Accademia for the next day. We have found a 10:00 reservation for Uffizi and a 3:00 or 4:00 reservation for Accademia allows enough time to stop at a bar and grab a pannino for lunch between the two visits. I believe both are closed on Mondays, so plan accordingly. After Accademia, you can continue to wander and relax a few hours before dinner.

This scedule keeps you on the go quite a bit, but I think it makes the most of the time you have available.

I'd cut the days from Venice but do have two nights there, the place is so much nicer once the fat boat people have gone.

vincenzo's first set of recommendations is very good.
seat61 is the way to go on trains.

I'd nail the flights (V-F-R) sequence. May is far enough away to not panic about rooms just yet.

Then get the team to choose one thing they want to do in each city. Get an idea of how long each takes and build a plan like that. Then ask for more. etc.

Once you know what you want to do then look for rooms. Rome, for example is relatively big and you may need to understand the public transport system (a car in any of these 3 cities is a waste of time and money).

Rooms, the B&B is well alive in Italy and often very good, while appartments for a few days can be a bit tricky, then international hotels or Italian hotels. Wallet size is required to give best advice.

If you have serious interests then you could use private tour guides for specific buildings, this is a proper job in Italy with a great deal of knowledge available. So if say visiting the Vatican was core to your visit you could hire in a specialist, but really Italy is an sensible place to visit as a first timer and, in the cities you have selected, a fair number of people will speak English.

The train system is fantastic and again on the trains most staff will speak either top rate english or at least enough to solve any problems.

I think that as the first time-travelers to Italy, you have a responsibility not to disturb the time line. A temporal Prime Directive, if you will.

What did he say?

lol, Edward, I like it! MmePerdu, the OP referred to themselves as time-travelers.

Oh, no, I'm so ashamed I missed it. Jack Finney is one of my all-time favorites.

The advantage of being a time traveller would presumably to have the same 8-10 days in each of Venice, Florence and Rome.

Try for 10 days and yes spread them out amongst the big three - land in Venice - 3 nights - Florence - 3 nights - and Rome 4 nights and fly out of Rome.

And trains are by far the best way to do Italian large cities - cars are not even allowed into the old city centres many times - at least private vehicles. As Man in Seat 61 above says you can get deep discounts by booking as far in advance as possible as those 19 euro tickets are sold in limited numbers for each train and can quickly sell out- www.trenitalia.com or www.italotreno.it/en -the latter nearly always have cheaper fares available even on short notice I think - Trenitalia is the Italian State Railways - Italotreno is an upstart compeititor on main routes - similar trains at least in 2nd class I believe.

For lots on Italian trains and booking online check yes Man in Seat 61 who posts above his commercial site www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Sometimes first class on discounted tickets may not be much more than the cheapest available 2nd cl ticket -if so go for it - both classes on the modern high-speed trains are comfy but first class as always a bit more so - more roomy so more room for luggage and only in first class can you book those great single row of seats- an aisle and a window seat all in one -no bothering someone or being bothered by someone next to you to get out- couples can get these solo seats facing each other with a nice table in between - lots more privacy than being 2x2- bring any food or drink you want aboard.

Discounted tickets are non-changeable non-refundable I believe so be sure of your specific train you want to take- and again book those tickets as soon as they come online -90 days before I think but maybe more - usually much cheaper than full price for the same exact ticket.