florence, pisa, cinque terre, sorrento region, to rome

1. Most folks here do self guided tours
2. Yes .you have way too much on your plate to do all this in 12 days.

If you have a good guide book, you probably don't need a tour guide for most of that. It's easy enough to take a regionale train from Florence to Pisa, check your luggage, take a bus the one mile to the field of miracles, head back to the train station, grab your luggage, and continue on to CT. You might find a tour guide helpful for Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius... Pompeii is a large place. I tried doing it on my own and couldn't quite get the hang of the audio guide, so it was easy to get lost and not understand what all I was seeing. Still, quite an amazing place. But getting to Pompeii was super easy on the circumvesuviana train, stop at Pompeii scavi and it's just steps away! They have tour guides hanging around outside if you choose to hire one. I don't know about getting to the volcano, since I didn't go. Having lived near Mt. St. Helens my whole life it just doesn't thrill me. But you can see the mountain looming from pretty much anywhere, no need to actually climb it unless you like that sorta thing.

Since you say you are "backpackers", it sounds like you are pretty comfortable on your own and shouldn't need a guide. I agree with Angela, take the train to Pisa, get off, see the tower, and continue to Cinque Terre. You definitely won't need a guide there. The towns are small, easy to get around, and about 5 minutes apart by train.

At Pompeii we did not have a guide and were a little "lost" not quite sure what we were looking at sometimes. The place is huge! Go early in the morning as it gets very hot during summer months.

As far as Capri, I haven't been there yet, but I do know that we prefer exploring places by ourselves.

Keep in mind that you have a lot of places on your list, try to stay at least 2 night in a place (one night doesn't give much time other than travelling back and forth and checking in and out of hotels). It is better to stay put and do a couple of day trips.

We stopped in Pisa on our way from Cinque Terre to Florence and it was pretty easy. The train station has a baggage storage, so we were able to leave our stuff there and make the 20-minute or so walk over to the Tower. If you just want to do see the Tower, go up to the top and take pictures, you don't need a guide. If you want the full history and details, that's your call.

You do have a lot going on in your itinerary for 12 days. I can't imagine less than three nights in CT, four nights in Florence or four nights in Rome without feeling somewhat rushed (or missing key sites) and then you've got the Amalfi Coast.

rsucci,

To begin with, a Travel Agent will not likely be able to work out a reasonable Itinerary for "backpackers" as that's not their area of expertise. They'll be able to sell hotels, flights and rail tickets, but in most cases won't have detailed local knowledge. The group here will be able to provide much more detailed information on the places you'll be travelling to.

I definitely agree with the others that you have too many places on the list for a time frame of two weeks (IMO). You didn't say where you're flying from, but if from this side of the pond you'll arrive in Europe the day after you depart, and the last day will be spent on the flight home. That leave 12 days for actual touring (and you may be jet-lagged for the first two). You'll probably find that you have to reduce your list somewhat.

When planning an Itinerary, it's important to allow adequate time for transportation between locations, as in some cases that will require the better part of a day. Keep in mind that each change of location will require both time and money, so if you're on a budget that's something to consider.

A few thoughts......

• Sirmione is not a particularly convenient location in terms of "ease of access" to transportation, since it doesn't have a rail station. If you want to see a bit of Lago di Garda, Peschiera is a much better location in that regard.
• Which of the five Cinque Terre towns are you planning to stay in? It's always a good idea to get accommodations booked there WELL in advance.
• I'd suggest reducing the number of places you plan to visit in the Sorrento area, as I'm not sure you have time to do all of them, unless you cut something else. One option would be to limit your trip to just a day trip to Pompeii from Rome, and perhaps a short visit to Naples to see the Archeological Museum (which is connected to Pompeii). While in Naples you could have some authentic Pizza in the place where it was invented.
• If this is your first trip to Italy, there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy. If you need further information on those, post another note here.

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend buying a copy of the RS Italy 2015 guidebook as that has an enormous amount of information that will help your trip to go smoothly.

If you could pare down your Itinerary a bit and post back here, I'm sure the group will be able to provide all the information you need.