An Itinerary for Italy for 9 days in Aug 2024

Do you arrive in Italy on the 8th?

Have you purchased the airline tickets? If so, where do you arrive/depart Italy.

If not, suggest flying into Venice and return home from Rome.

With the few days you have really do not have time to go to Naples. ( assuming you want to do more than just 'drive by' things and spend your time packing/unpacking and being in transit.)

One of the suggestions is to make reservations for all the places we want to visit. When I go to the official site, i see that they are fully booked till October. But, there are other sites offering tickets. Are these other sites legit? Are they tour operators who bought tickets in bulk and reselling them at a higher price?

Are you talking about hotels or train tickets? I see lots of availability for train tickets on Trenitalia, and I am sure similar at Italotreno.
Agree that 9 days is the minimum for a classic Venice-Florence-Rome trip. Naples is a city too many, (and too far).

Be sure to get a seat on the starboard/right side of the plane for a great aerial view of Venice as you land.

Book a hotel in Venice (not in nearby Mestre) and stay at least 3 nights.
If you plan to take a train from Venice to Florence, book your train tickets here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
I have more advice so feel free to send me a message

Even assuming the 8th is the day you arrive in Italy, and not the day you leave home, you definitely don't have time to visit all the places you mentioned. Unless you want to spend the majority of your vacation just sitting on trains and getting to and from your next hotel. Even if you shorten this to 3 places, factoring in travel, you'll only have 2 1/2 days in each place. And given the huge crowds and long lines everywhere, you won't be able to accomplish as much in a day as you might think.

If at all possible, fly on a multicity ticket- into your first city and home from your last. Pick the 3 most important places for your family. If Naples and scuba diving are a priority, fly into Naples and do it first, so you don't have to worry about surface intervals before flying again.
With less than a month, and August being peak season, your choices for accommodations will be slim. Get on that ASAP. The same for admission tickets to the sights you want to see. If tickets are gone from the official sites (and they probably are), then you will have to go to 3rd party sellers like Viator, Get Your Guide, or TripAdvisor. Be prepared to pay more than you would from the official sites.

As for things to do and places to see, get a copy of RS Italy guidebook. In the meantime, have a look through the Italy section of the Explore Europe subforum: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy

Where are you coming from? As others have said do you have plane tickets? Next would be hotels. It will be very hot in Aug. I would do three locations tops. On RS Venice,Florence, Rome tour you can see how he plans 10 days. It is a great first look at Italy

On our last trip we did Rome, Sienna, and Orivetto
With a day trip to Naples. But we had been before. At this late date you might look at Rome being a large city you should find a hotel and maybe do day trips from there?

welcome to the forum!

Looks like you have 8 NIGHTS in Italy? Is that correct?
I'll assume it is. As posted above you barely have enough time for 3 locations --drop Naples.

Some major venues don't even release tickets til 30 days out ( Colosseum) so you should still be able to get tickets if you place that at end of your trip

Fly IN to Venice
Venice 3 nights
Train to Florence
Florence 2 nights
Train to Rome
Rome 3 nights
Fly home from Rome.

Book your flights (on the actual airline webiste- not third party) then book your hotels ASAP. Air conditioning is a must!
Booking.com is a good sight to research read reviews, narrow down choices. Book there or on hotel websites.

Let us know which sights you are interested in and we can provide links for tickets- always best to book directly on official websites

Train tickets will be no problem- don't buy any til you are sure of your itinerary..

This RS tour is a good sample itinerary to follow, although it is a 9 night tour:
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/italy/venice-florence-rome-2024

Here is more info:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/venice
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/florence
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/rome

Thank you so much for all the valuable information. After listening to all your comments and suggestions, we have decided to postpone our Italy trip to next year. The information you have shared here and on this site will help us plan better.

In the meantime, we are looking at maybe going to France.

Thanks again for all of you jumping in such a short period of time! What a community!