Thanks to all for your very helpful advice and recommendations! We have decided to book our own travel and go it alone and are considering limiting our visit to 2 cities. Will keep you posted as we plan!

john_and_donna,

As others said, it's the changing hotels that can waste a lot of time. so concentrating on two cities is a good idea. However, once you're there, if you're feeling antsy, you can always opt on the spur of the moment to take a day trip to another town without changing hotel. Once you have you basic itinerary, we can advise on good options for day trips if you like.

Two cities; Venice and Florence or Florence and Rome. You will be going back to Italy so don't overload on any trip.

i would do Venice and Florence.
Rome deserves at least 5+ days IMO.
You will be happy you picked only 2.

You can easily plan your own trip if you are internet-savvy and if you use this forum. You've already received good advice to limit your stays to two of the cities/areas. My own rule-of-thumb is that I don't want to stay in one place for less than 3 nights.

I don't agree with skipping Rome this visit, though. If you have 7 nights, you could do 4 nights Rome and 3 elsewhere, like Florence/Tuscany/Cinque Terre or Venice.

Maybe do Florence as a day-trip from Rome via train, and spend the 3 nights in Venice. Depends on how much moving around you want to do, and your style of travel, because there is so much to see in Italy. You won't be disappointed.

Do some research and decide what you are most interested in seeing. All major cities, or one city and some wine country or the Cinque Terre coastline?