My husband &amp; I are looking to go to Italy w/ my parents &amp; my 2 brothers this coming summer. We are thinking of flying into Milan, renting a vehicle &amp; driving to Venice, Florence, Rome &amp; Naples/Pompeii. At this point, I'm thinking of returning vehicle in Naples. Then we want to take a boat to Sicily, Palermo &amp; eventually fly home from there. Obviously- not all in one day. <BR>My question is: Is this do-able? How many days should we plan to be in each place on average? Do the hotels have parking for SUVs or Mini-Vans? Should I try &amp; book this myself or should we go through an agent? Any input or suggestions is welcome. Thanks a bunch.

You would need at least 2 weeks and it still would be a lot of moving around but it is doable. Figure about 2-4 days per city at least. Most 'city center' hotels don't have parking but can refer you to a garage, at an additional fee (could be around $25/day). Some hotels will take the car to a garage for you, at anadditional cost, but this is worth it because some of these cities are horrible to navigate. Highway driving is very easy in Italy but the larger cities can be a real headache. You can book it yourself. Get a map and 1 or 2 guidebooks plus research on this board and the rest of the internet, and you should be able to handle it. Most hotels now accept email and faxes so it's easy to book and request info.

I think you can book this all yourself. That's one of the strongest points about this forum. You can get lots of training wheels help from others with experience doing it without a a travel agent. I am terribly torn about how travel agents should be used nowadays. Life was nice when they were paid by the airlines, and a good one was a great asset to have in your pocket. Noawadays everything has changed. If you know one who is REALLY good and knowledgeable about Italy, then that might be a different matter.<BR><BR>You could fly directly into Venice, if you don't want to actually go to Milan. Or take the train to Venice and rent your car as you leave Venice (though six train fares will cost more than even the overpriced car rental you will pay for that one day - - a lot depends on how long you want to stay in Venice, and how many days are you paying to have the van when you have no use for it in Venice; plus add about 25 euro a day to park it in Venice). As an alternative, you might insert a day in an &quot;easy&quot; city - - like Verona, for example - - to get over that fatigue/jet lag of the first day. I think that Venice is so special and so magical (and so expensive) that spending your first night in Italy there is not the best use of money, when you may not be able to appreciate as well as on the second day or later.<BR><BR>Be prepared for the possibility that a minivan will seem too small for six adults and luggage; they just very rarely have the extra cargo space that you might think of with a Dodge Grand Voyager, for example. four rollaboards and the cargo space is FULL. That leaves you with a nine passenger van as your next best option.<BR><BR>And parking IS a challenge - - at least NEAR your hotel - - with a nine passnger van because they are often too tal for many parking structures. And you might prefer NOT to leave your vehicle parked in an open lot.<BR><BR>Perhaps you have not described your itinerary in full detail - - but you have actually not mentioned destinations for which a car will be advantage, except for the Naples/Pompeii area.<BR><BR>I actually do hope that you will plan some &quot;out-of-city&quot; exploring, between the &quot;big three&quot; (Venice, Florence, Rome). But if you are &quot;et on all cities&quot; until beyond Rome, then you do have some headaches and unanticipated surprises which will reduce the costs savings and convenience of having a car.<BR><BR>In Rome, in particular, I actually CAN recommend that you not waste time trying to find a place to park a van and head straight for the big Borghese underground parking facility. Just use a cab to get back from there and to return when you want your van back.<BR><BR>You have a lot to think through - - and such a great reward (assuming you like to learn about all your options and immerse yourself in the planning as so many of &quot;us&quot; here like to do) in a trip like this. Come back again often and break up your questions in to specific pieces as much as you like.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex Bickers<BR>Westerville, Ohio<BR>

Rex really summed it all up, Jacquee, what good recs. Come back and ask for more specific information when you have some more spedific plans.

Thanks for the kind remarks, Marie.<BR>

We drove from Venice to Florence to Rome dropping the car at airport in every city.Take my word, the train would be more relaxing.Then take a cab to your hotel.You can walk everywhere in the city without taking a car.

Thanks to you all. I'll work on this some more &amp; come back soon. I love this board!

Hi,<BR>We just got back from a two week trip to Italy - Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Cinque Terre. You really don't need (or want) a car in the cities. (If you want to get out into the countryside... that would be a different story.) What it sounds like you are trying to do is get six people from city to city. Have you looked into the Kilometric Ticket for the trains? You buy up to 3000 km on a ticket and it can be shared among several people. (It's actually a booklet with pages/coupons that you fill out for each leg of the journey - how many people, how many km.)<BR><BR>Anyway, a 2nd class, 3000 km ticket cost about $130 and worked very well for the two of us on our trip. (There is a supplement that you have to pay for the faster trians, but it wasn't more than about $10 per person, per trip.) With 6 people, you would need two (or maybe three) of these - but it might give you another option to consider.<BR>Good luck!

A kilometric ticket works for two people but with six, the Itailan rail system has &quot;small group&quot; discounts which will probably be even better than the kilometrico. they are available to 3, 4 or 5 people traveling together. Above that, they simply sell you multiples as needed (i.e., two &quot;threes&quot.<BR>

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