12 days in Italy - What to see?

No need to drive. Do you have a decent guidebook? The RS Italy one is a great place to start.

You should plan to stay in major cities at least 3 nights, and smaller towns/destinations either 2 nights or as a day trip from a major city. Rome is huge and interesting, so the more days there the better. Have you got your plane tickets already? Fly "open jaw" or "multi-city" to avoid having to travel back to your original destination. So perhaps fly into Venice, stay 2-3 nights, fly out of Rome after staying 3-5 nights, and the middle of the trip could be spent around Florence/Tuscany for great food and art, OR head a little south to the Amalfi coast, Capri, and Pompeii.

You only need a car if you want to drive around Tuscany, the rest of the time it would be a huge expensive hassle and not at all welcome in most downtown areas. Trains or buses will get you pretty much anywhere you want to go.

In two weeks you can spend time in Venice, Florence, and Rome. You could have a couple of other smaller towns in the mix, or use those cities as bases with some daytrips. One possible distribution would be 3 nights Venice, 4 nights Florence, 4 nights Rome, the remaining nights in a town or two in Tuscany, or increase the number of nights in the 3 main cities and daytrip (Padova, Vicenza or Ravenna near Venice; Siena, Volterra, Lucca or Chianti wine country near Florence; Orvieto near Rome). Other overnight choices. could be Cinque Terre or the Amalfi Coast/Sorrento.

A good plan is to fly into Venice, then work your way south to Rome and fly home from there. Venice is the best place to start a visit to Italy. It's easy to relax, get over jetlag, and just absorb the atmosphere. On the other hand, most departure flights are early morning, so it's one of the worst places to end a trip.

The trains are easy to use, frequent, and comfortable. I usually travel in the evenings as much as possible, since the rides aren't particularly scenic (much of the tracks are tree-lined, so you can't see beyond them) and then I can maximize my sightseeing during the daytime. Even if your guys want to save the evenings for dining, it's common to start dinner at 9 p.m. or even later. In the cities, there is convenient public transport and/or the sights are near enough to walk to. So there's no need at all for a car, unless you want to explore the little Tuscan towns. Once you lock down your itinerary, you can buy train tickets at huge discounts. They usually go on sale 120 days in advance and the cheapest tickets go pretty quickly. The tickets are not refundable. The super economy tickets cannot be changed, the economy (not as cheap) can be changed with a fee. Use the official Trenitalia website for train schedules, prices, and purchasing. The site has an English version, but you still have to enter the departure and arrival stations in Italian (Roma, not Rome for instance).

The trains between Venice and Rome run through Bologna and Florence. I mention Bologna because I've heard (I will be there in a month to find out for sure :-) that the food is superb and there are cooking classes. There probably are cooking classes in Tuscany as well. If you aren't much interested in Renaissance art and architecture, Siena may be a better place to spend a few nights than Florence. It is not well served by train, but there are frequent buses from the Florence train station and good bus service from Siena to Rome. Or you may find that Orvieto is a good choice between Bologna and Rome.

You've still got lots of time to choose your stops between Venice and Rome, so hit the guidebooks and internet and see what appeals most to you and your guys.

We flew to Rome and home from Milan. Stayed in Rome, Florence, Venice, Varenna, and Milan and never had to drive. I would recommend each place we visited!

I just returned from 10 days starting with Venice, then Florence, then Rome and home. Took trains between the three stops. Everything went great and you will not miss driving, especially once you see how it's done in the cities. I flew open-jaw from Boston to Venice via Paris (Air France) and then from Rome direct to Boston (Alitalia). It was probably the best flying experience I have ever had.
Best wishes for a wonderful trip.
Cynthia

the posts to your question seem pretty sound. Looks like good advice