Family of 5 ----3 week in Europe -june/july

Between #6 and #7 stops 1 night is not sufficient because of the travel time required to get from Venice to the CT. Between Barcelona and Paris, you'll want to go to viamichelin.com and get an estimate of the driving time required, to make sure you have enough time.

We drove from Venice to Cinque Terra. It was slow getting out of Venice and a long trip. We stayed a night in Modena. Rick's books have very little information on that area, so be sure to check out some other guidebooks before you travel.

Your itenerary is fast paced and covers a lot of ground. We also travel this way but did 2 nights in CT (nice relaxation) and 2 nights in Florence (make sure to have reservations so you see the biggies)

Milan to Venice is also a long trip. We drove from Verona to Venice. It took us a long time to park in Venice and was expensive. It's a really good recommendation to park at a train station on the mainland and ride into Venice - you will save a lot of both time and money, especially if you only have one carry on each.

We had two boys, 16 and 12, and an 8 year old girl. One carry on each. We were just right in a Renault Grand Scenic II seven passenger car, would have been cramped in anything less.

We didn't reserve except for our first night in A-dam and our last days in Rome. We just called ahead for where we expected to end up that night but we traveled in Oct and Nov. We also flew open jaw into A-dam and home from Rome.

We found a great apartment through Hotel d'Art in Venice for a very reasonable price, no view but perfect for us.

We also found a great apt. in Vernazza. We didn't call ahead there, just showed up and asked for a place for 5.

Get the GPS with your car (or bring your own). We were pretty much fine through Netherlands, Germany and Austria. When we got to Italy, however, it became an adventure. There are no road signs in cities. Even the autostrada doesn't list roads by A1 West, but has an arrow and the name of a random town along that road (rarely the town you would expect to be listed). A GPS would have saved us hours and hours trying to find our way, next time I'll have one.

Honest thought is ,, too much time in car, my kids wouldn't like it, but perhaps yours are better travellors.

For hotels check out tripadvisor.com there forums have hotels listed and reviewed by readers, I have used they quite a few times to find hotels which I then book indepentdently and I have been happy with what I found. You can also go to forums for each city and get specific answers.

No offence, you have left it a bit late to be booking cheap rooms, I mean the good well known cheap rooms book in jan- march,, as June and July are high season.

I personally would go to less cities and spend more time in them. Particularly with kids -- this itinerary seems like it involves too much packing/unpacking and driving in the car -- particularly in June/July when it probably will be hot.
And, as Pat mentioned, you need to plan way ahead and book the popular/inexpensive places (particularly the ones recommended by Rick) months in advance -- particularly for high season.

I agree with BG. Too many cities/countries. One, possibly two countries. You'll go back again to Europe.

enjoy your trip instead of counting cities visited. The kids will enjoy themselves and so will you.