Italy and Greece
 

My husband and I along with out daughter who is 7, are interested in taking a trip to Italy and Greece 2015 summer. Our primary interest would be Rome and Venice (maybe Milan). We would like to see the leaning tower of Pisa but I don't know where its located compared to these places and how far it is. We also want to see Athens and Santorini in Greece. Considering all this which is the best way to go about planning for this. Any advice to plan our itinerary and go about booking our trip would be great. I was looking in to Cosmos Rick Steves tour but I don't know if I want to do a trip on a set schedule. We want to relax and enjoy at the same time.

It would help to know how long you plan to travel. Your itinerary would probably take around three weeks at least. I would be careful of tours with a 7-year old. Many, if not most, tours include a lot of seniors and probably wouldn't appeal to children.

I would travel independently to have a relaxing time and be more in control. A seven year old is young and you'll need to adapt to her needs. We took grandkids and had to slow down our usual pace as they get tired of sightseeing and need some down time.
If you do want a tour, Rick Steves has some Family Tours but I'm guessing that the other kids will be older than 7.

Be aware that many tours do not accept small children - since the itinerary is usually too mobbed with many long hours sitting on a bus. Child will be bored to death and parents and other adults will suffer accordingly.

Definitely either do your own trip - or find one that you know has been designed for small children - with free play time every day and limited time on buses.

Without knowing how long you have or when you would be going it's hard to give a lot of recos. I would say to go as early as you can - best in June - and don;t even consider August will be VERY hot and humid and all of europe will be mobbing these places.

as a first step have a look at some maps of the countries you are intersted ina nd find out how long it takes to get from one places to another. Rome to Venice is easy on the train. From there to Athens is trickier and once you're talking the islands you need to deal with ferry schedules and weather.

It was pleasantly cool in most of Europe in August. Notbody can predict the weather for next year. Go when it suits you. Greece and Italy are both wonderful in summer.

In summer you can find non-stop flights between Italy and Greece, including non-stop flights to Santorini and other Greek islands, as well as Athens. Check to see if there are flights to Greek islands from Verona airport and Pisa the airport as well the airports of Rome, Venice and Milan. You could save a lot of time by flying to or from a Greek island on a non-stop flight connecting with an Italian airport. If you don't know how to look for flights, sign up with the Flyer Talk forum and ask questions there. People there know a lot about finding good air routes.

Pisa is connected by train with Rome, Milan and Venice, but it would probably be best if you could use the Pisa airport at least once during your trip: either for arriving at the beginning of your trip, or ending your trip in Pisa to fly home, or using Pisa as a connecting airport with Greece.

I would not need 3 weeks to do the trip you describe with a 7 year old child, but if you want to relax, the fewer you destinations you have the more relaxing it will be.

We plan to go for 7 days. And we are thinking of coming back via UK (Liverpool or Manchester). A very close friend of mine live there. What should we focus on if we do just Italy in 7 days.