I am in the midst of planning a two week summer trip to Italy in 2007 for a group of 20 family and friends. We will be leaving from the states sometime in late July and we plan to divide our two weeks into one week increments. The first week will be comprised of travels to Rome, Venice and Florence, and during the second week we plan to relax at a villa in Tuscany. Our group consists of various ages from 52 years old to 4 months old. And so, I am seeking advice regarding our first week travels to Rome, Florence and Venice...
Considering price, piece of mind, transportation, key historical information, museum visits, etc -is employing a travel company for the first week our best bet? If so, any recommendations?

I can't comment on the travel agent, but I do have one piece of advice. Having just returned from a 2 week visit to Venice and Bellagio as part of a group of 14, I would recommend picking one city -- Rome, Florence or Venice --- and spending your first week there. Moving a group that large, 3 times in one week will be a logistical nightmare, not to mention exhausting.

Rome and Florence probably offer more to see in a week than Venice, but you might just enjoy wandering around Venice and soaking it all up. Our group ranged in age from 12 to 70ish and we all found more than enough to keep us happy in Venice for 4-5 days.

How are you planning to get from point to point? We rented 3 cars to get from Venice to Como, then hopped the ferry to Bellagio. It was a very long travel day (which also included water taxis) with all of our luggage.

Our trip -- all family -- was so much fun and we all agree that the chore of transporting all of our luggage from one place to another was more than worth it.

Good luck with your plans.

Hello tp, I would suggest that trying to visit Rome,Florence and Venice in one week would not be the way to enjoy any of these beautiful and historical cities.

Have you purchased your plane tickets yet? If not here is what I personally would do.

I would buy what is called an "open jaw" or "multicity" ticket. That means you fly into one airport and out of another.

Normally the day one arrives in Italy (especially if they are flying from the US), clears immigration, customs (after retrieving their luggage), gets to their hotel (which may or may not have the rooms ready depending on what time you arrive although you may be renting apartments), gets showered, unpacked etc. a good part of the time in normally gone plus most people have some sort of jet lag. And the last day has time taken up with last minute packing,checking out, getting to the airport etc.

Some people prefer to arrive in Venice as they find it calmer and a somewhat easier to get aclimated. Others enjoy arriving in Rome and feel that the hustle and bustle etc., sort of brings them to.

In either case be it Venice as the first stop or Rome as the first stop I would than go to Tuscany (I assume you mean the countryside as Florence is in Tuscany also). If you rent a villa in the countryside of Tuscany you could do daytrips to Florence. So if you spend your week in the countryside of Tuscany at a villa you could than go to either Venice or Rome (whichever city you did not visit when you arrived)and fly home from there.

With that large of a group including a baby I think three moves would be about all any of you might want to do in a two week period.

I personally would probably fly into Venice and home from Rome unless you could find a flight that flies out of Venice say late morning. Most flights seem to fly out quite early in the morning which I think would be stressful especially with the baby. Or is the baby 4 months old now? If so than next summer the little one would be around 14 months old. Sometimes that age even takes more energy as they are not sleeping as much and they are walking around.

No doubt everyone would like to spend some nights in Florence but personally I think only two of the three cities you listed could be enjoyed as far as staying over. It seems to me most villas require a weeks stay. So it seems to me the above suggestions would be the most workable considering the time you have, the amount of people etc.

Or you could forego seeing either Rome or Venice this trip (which would not be my choice) and stay in the other city and than Florence for the first week and the villa in the countryside of Tuscany the second week.

Regarding a travel company, do you mean a travel agency? You would want one that is experienced with working with groups and has been to the various places that you want to visit. Not all travel agents have that background. So you would want to investigate that to make sure that you hire someone that can deliver what you are looking for.

For Villas you might want to take a look at the website: http://www.slowtrav.com/italy

I am sure there will be other Fodorites giving you their thoughts and good ideas also. I hope my post makes sense, it is getting late and I am a bit tired as I had a long day. Best wishes to you in planning this wonderful trip to Italy.

P.S. I did want to mention that you should figure that you will more or less lose a good part of a day each time you change locations so do take that into consideration when making your itinerary considerations.

Hi tp,

>The first week will be comprised of travels to Rome, Venice and Florence, and during the second week we plan to relax at a villa in Tuscany. <

You will definitely need that week in Tuscany to relax.

2 weeks is reasonable to visit R, F and V.

May I suggest?

You all fly into Venice - hire 4 people movers to get to your Tuscan villa for 6 nights - visit Florence from there, drop the cars in Orvieto or Chiusi and train to Rome for 4 nights, fly home from Rome.

Let us know how it works out.

I have done this twice, with groups of family and friends (size = 13, 16), and in the right set of circumstances I would be willing to offer free advice, planning, even accompaniment. Too many questions to lay out all the "if this, then this" aspects of managing the logistics of your trip. While it makes sense to continue a dialogue here on this forum (or at least highlights), a telephone conversation might cut through some basic questions more quickly.

A few key questions that come to mind:

1, All travelers leaving the same time? from the same airport?

2. Is late July the sole time window? or truly the best for you? It might not be the best for some parts of Italy.

3. How many under age 12? over age 22? how many family units? Is there a patriarch or matriarch who will be the "paymaster" or "master bursar"?

4. How many have traveled in Europe before?

5. Any lessons learned, or things you know you should do differently - - based on your family trip of 12 to St, John - - http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34643868 - - a trip report would be good.

Best wishes,

Rex Bickers
Floyds Knobs, Indiana

We just had 8 people in Italy for 10 days. 3 family units. I made all the arrangements and everyone was fine with them. All easy travellers, though.

The only real issue we had was who was going to pay for each thing. Dinner each night was the main question.

Driving could have been an issue, except that my husband accepted that he would have to do the driving. We rented a 9-passenger van, which worked well. The 9th seat, however, was between the driver and front-seat passenger, so it wasn't the most comfortable.

It was helpful to have international cell phones, so different groups could communicate with each other.

I think a week to travel to Rome, Florence and Venice is too ambitious. Could you pick 2 of those?

We had some older travelers (73, 77, 77), so we limited our itinerary. We spent a week in Tuscany and 3 nights in Rome. Everyone especially loved the week in Tuscany. We stayed at Tenuta di Lilliano in Castellina in Chianti. We took a day trip into Florence from the villa in Tuscany, which was no problem. I am sorry we didn't have the time to show everyone Venice. But, that is such a hard city to walk around in for older people that it is probably better we didn't go there.

Oh, one other thing, there were some times when people agreed in advance to do something, but when the time came they backed out. I think everyone wanted to be agreeable when planning the trip, but once they were there, it came out that they just didn't want to do something.

Do NOT let your feelings get hurt when things happen. It is a lot of pressure to plan a trip for other people and really want them to have a good time. Once you have made the plans, let people be flexible and don't take it personally.

tp

I am going to join in on what most respoders are saying. Rome, Florence, and Venice in seven days is too aggressive. Florence can be done as daytrips from Rome or Tuscany (or both, which would give some people the opportunity to go twice.)

I'll dissent: 4 days Rome, 1 day Florence, 2 or 3 days Venice. Good fares for traveling on a Thursday; Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon in Rome; Tue travel to Florence and overnight there; Wed/Thu/Fri in Venice; Saturday, travel to your villa (okay, so my first "week" was eight nights).

If you MUST limit to exactly two weeks, then depart from your villa on Thursday (or Friday), rather than stay the whole week. Those who didn't get enough of Florence can return there any day from the villa.

Returning on a Thursday or Friday will be a blessing to all those returning to gainful employment (on Monday?) and everyone else returning to laundry to do, scrapbooks to complete, etc... a weekend to recover.

All-

Thanks for the great advice. I am heading out the door to our family meeting with a copy of the thread in hand.

I will talk soon.

Thanks again,

TP

I want to second the comments of Tries2. I just came back from a trip with 5 family members plus myself and we only had to move once between Venice and Rome, and I still found it a hassle.

I would recommend picking Rome as a base and then do Florence as a day trip or on your way to the villa in Tuscany.

Also, as you probably know, you are going at the height of tourist season. The mobs of people of Venice during the day wasn't pretty. Moving around with a 4 months old in the packed city will be anything but pleasant.