16 night Itinerary

Great trip, Nancy! It's good you have thought about down time. Since you have your apartments it's just a matter of deciding how best to spend your days. Remain flexible, as your last posting indicates you are, as things may strike your fancy and activities that seem high priority now may take a backseat once you are on the ground. A couple of items in your plan that strike me: - You may well "see" the Amalfi Coast on your way to Paestum Depends on your path. Will you have a driver for July 4? If so, you may be able to "do" both the AC and Paestum on the same day. - Naples for the museum followed by Pompeii: doable. Much more than the museum, and you won't have time for Pompeii. Be sure to arrive at the museum when it opens at 10:00. By Noon you'll be done, and can head back to Pompeii. It will be hot! There's a great place to grab lunch in the station @ Naples: Vyta. It's on they way to the Circumvesuviana. - I am not a fan of the CT day trip. It will be mobbed with tourists during a summer day. MOBBED will take on a new meaning when you step off the train in Vernazza. If you can be flexible even though you have a driver, you might drop this if you are tired or if something else strikes your fancy. - Your Rome plan is good, but I'd pick either Assisi OR Orvieto and leave yourselves an unplanned day in Rome. You will find some place you want to wander or linger, and it is a rather long trip (IMHO) to Assisi. And Assisi will be MOBBED beyond belief in July. I liked Assisi alot in Decemer without crowds, but I wouldn't go there on a dare in July. Orvieto is likely to be less crowded (by comparison), and it is closer to Rome.
- The Borghese is lovely and worth the two hours you are allowed inside. Make a 09:00 reservation and you'll have the rest of the day to seek out those last experiences. Ciao e buon viaggio!

Paestum - We will be taking the train through Pompeii, so we will bypass the AC that day - we considered doing it all on one day, but we would really like a full day to see Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello (we did get a driver for that day). Naples - We are actually going to Pompeii first thing in the morning and planning on spending a couple of hours in Naples in the afternoon. We only have the Archeological Museum, Cappella Sansevero, and possibly San Lorenzo Maggiore (there are evidently ruins under the church?) on our list, all of which are in a small part of Naples near the museum Metro stop. CT - I'm starting to get the idea that it might not be a good idea to take a day trip? ;) Assisi/Orvieto - Assisi is a non-negotiable day trip for us, as all three of us had it on our top five for the trip as a whole. We are planning on making Orvieto a "game time decision" on Sunday morning - we'll see how we feel. Unfortunately, my mom and I both teach high school, so July is really the only time we have to make a trip like this! We are prepared for it to be hot and crowded, but we are planning on enjoying it all the same. Thanks for your advice!

Nancy, You might want to stay longer in Cinque Terre. Also, I would try to see Assisi and Orvieto on the way to south to Rome. You could spend a few days there and see both towns. Have a wonderful time. How nice of you to take your parents.
Robin

Is there a particular reason you left off Venice? That seems to be the only "big" area missing.

Our apartments are booked already, so an overnight change would be difficult at this point. We also tried to minimize the number of times we had to uproot and move to a new location. My parents have been on a lot of cruises and single location trips, but city-to-city travel (on public transportation) is new for all three of us. When we were planning the trip originally, we had decided to fly into Venice for a couple of nights, but we were planning to spend the bulk of our time in Florence/Rome. After reading RS Italy and watching RS videos, my dad REALLY wanted to see the Amalfi Coast, I fell in love with Paestum, and all three of us wanted to see Pompeii, so we agreed that for this trip, we would cut Venice and add the four nights in the Amalfi Coast area. Early on, we accepted that even with 16 nights, we would not be able to see everything - a day trip to CT is not the same as spending a couple of nights, but we would still like to see it and plan on returning on a future trip. We are hoping for a great trip - we have never traveled together (other than on family trips with my siblings), so it will be an adventure! I was planning on taking one of the RS Italy tours this summer to celebrate my 40th birthday (and first trip to Europe!) and they were planning a British Isles cruise with my aunt and uncle. When my aunt and uncle backed out, we cooked up the idea of planning the trip on our own and splitting the costs three ways. We have found three great apartments and scheduled a mix of private tour guides and do-it-yourself touring. I can't wait!

Nancy, I would leave the Cinque Terre out ; it would be an awfully long day trip. From Florence, it will take approximately 3 hours to get to the CT & then another 3 hours back to Florence. It's just not worth all the travel it in my opinion for half a day there. The CT deserves a few days at a minimum and my idea of a nice day trip is not 6 hours of train travel. As for Rome, I agree with taking in the wonderful views from the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument. If you have time, I also suggest visiting Trajan's Forum. We found it to be very interesting. Have a great trip with your parents! You will love Italy.

Our other option we considered was to do Pisa/Lucca instead of CT. It's closer and probably easier, it just feels like the CT is right there and we hate to miss it completely. We have a lot of flexibility that day, so we don't have to make a final decision yet. Edit to add: We have a driver set up for that day, if that makes a difference.

I think visiting Lucca/Pisa is a better use of time than visiting the CT. You might also consider visiting Volterra. We enjoyed Volterra much more than Lucca. You can visit the alabaster shops & an ancient amphitheater and the archaeological museum there which is fascinating. We hired a tour guide for Volterra (the same one that Rick Steves featured in his show about Volterra) & she gave us a half-day tour which was really interesting.

Paestum is a lovely site with its three magnificent Greek temples. Go off the main track around the front of the temples to the remains of the Roman town at the back and search out some of the in situ mosaic floors that remain - many different geometric patterns. I found most of them about halfway between the temples of Hera and Neptune And please don't forget to visit the Museum - it is quite small but worth the stop to see the tomb frescos, particularly the one known as The Diver. The Museum also has a collection of Roman gutters (!) so much more interesting than our metal ones!

Nancy, if you want to go to Assisi for a day, I suggest you do it on the day you travel from Florence to Rome (if you are using the train). It's an easy stop, about half way to Rome on regional trains. Given your interests, on your day at the Vatican, you might want to do the Scavi tour through the excavations under St Peters. You need to preorder through the Vatican. If you search this site for "scavi" you'll find the information about how to reserve. A great company for walking tours that focus on art/history/architecture is Context Tours: very small groups, academically well qualified guides, etc.
And finally, since say you'll visit S Maria Maggiore, you might want to include Santa Pressede. It's only 1/2 block from S Maria Maggiore and has some incredible Byzantine-style mosaics.