I am starting to make plans to go to Rome this coming June with 6 adults, 1 senior citizen (who really is not like a senior citizen) and 6 teenages (ages 13-18). I am not sure what would be the best approach to this trip. Must sees include the usual in Rome and a visit to Venice. Anything extra (Pisa, Tuscany, etc.) is bonus for us. We will be flying out of Chicago and plan to go the week of June 15 and 22nd. Budgets per person is around $2500. Any feedback would be so greatly appreciated.

Are you looking for an organized guided tour company suggestion? Or you want to self-plan this trip?

One week is not that long... you could fly into Venice, spend a few days, all train down to Rome spend a few days, fly home from Rome (or in the other direction). I don't think one week is enough to include another region like Tuscany, but a day trip to Pisa is certainly doable.

Anyone else?

I think the trip is for 2 weeks - at least that's how I'm reading it.

Assuming air fare of about $900 - that gives you $114 per day. Have you though about where you will stay - pensions? apartments? Don't know your configuration - so how many rooms of what types you will need - it looks like at least 5 rooms - perhaps more.

With so many people I wold keep moving from one place to another to a minimum. Assuming 2 weeks I would spend 3 days in Venice, then rent a house in Tuscany (and several cars) for a week, then spend 4/5 days in Rome.

The key thing to remember is that you can't all be joined at the hip the entire time. Build in time when different groups can go different places, eat separately, etc.

It would be helpful if you can clarify the number of days you will have.

I planned a trip for eight this past summer, with some similarities to yours: three generations (although some kids were younger), same two weeks in June, and from Chicago (some of us, anyway). We did something similar to what nytraveler suggested, but in a different order. Our p/p budget was similar; the air from Chicago took up about half of that.

Thirteen adds some complexity to what we did, and I agree with nytraveler re: minimizing the moving around and not always doing everything in a pack. Here's a link to our trip report, in case any of this is helpful:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35142021

It is correct that we will be going for two weeks in all. We are thinking of a guided tour, but we would like some down time as well. This is why I am wondering if we are better off renting a home/villa and cars which will allow us to go at our own pace, or since this will all be our first trip to Italy, do the guided tour thing. We have three families in all. The first family (mine) includes my mother, husband, myself and two children (15 and 13). The second and third families consist of a husband/wife, son and daughter. The three boys are friends as well as the three girls, so they could room together. My mom will want her own room, so in total, we would need at least 7 rooms. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.

My advice would be to travel by train. Renting cars and dividing groups can get really complicated. Although I've rented a bus for 18...

But really, train travel is your best bet. You can all go to Venice, Rome and perhaps one other place. Then, if anyone wants to do day trips, they can easily do them by train, bus, or even hop on something like an organized day trip to Pompeii.

What about Venice, Rome and Florence? It is the usual, but it's all so easy to do by train, and then there are any number of day trip variation.

And I would honestly recommend hotels, considering your mom wants a room of her own, and 7 bedroom apartments would be darn hard to find.

I think I have a little hotel in Venice with upstairs apartments in my files. If you are interested, I will look. I had some correspondence with the owners, and I liked them.

tuscanlifeedit, if you can find the name of that hotel/apt it would be much appreciated. Thanks.