Carmen

I totally agree with Hans H. I think an average 17 y.o girl is mature enough to travel to Europe. It's true that the general thinking in Europe is that Europe is much safer than the US so I wouldn't worry. I'll be a good idea for your daughter to read some book about the habits, culture of the places she's going to visit. After all, you know your daughter better than anyone here to see whether she's a mature girl or not.

Diane

I'd suggest you check out Council Travel, which has many programs for teens and young people, who want to visit Europe (and other places around the world). As an alternative, I'd also suggest checking out summer courses abroad for which college credit is available. Start with your state university and see what they have. Arrange for a home-stay, where the student lives with a family during the course. There are usually group sight-seeing trips that occur during the course, and of course the families are usually happy to show their ward favorite places. My daughter did such a course for Spanish in Costa Rica. She was so impressed that after graduating from college, she went back for 3 months as a volunteer teacher. I think young people get more out of travel if they go with a purpose in addition to just seeing the sights. Of course if her friend is already with older family members, I'd have no problem with a week in Italy.