Going to Italy! Need help planning itinerary

Great itinerary! Venice- just walking around the back streets, looking inside various churches (check out the Chorus pass), touring La Fenice opera house, getting an all-day or multi-day vaporetto pass and visiting the islands of the lagoon... You also might want to check out rowvenice.org, and actually get out there and row boats. For fantastic views, you could go up the bell tower in the Piazza San Marco, and the bell tower of the San Giorgio church across the way.

A wonderful side-trip from Florence, which would also provide hiking, is Lucca - the top of the intact city wall was turned into a park, so everyone walks or jogs or bikes around and around. When you see something appealing, you just take the path down off the wall and go investigate. Florence itself has no shortage of great places to walk.

Thank you so much for your suggestions! Lucca sounds like the perfect place. I browsed around online and saw that they have horseback riding on the hillsides there. I think i might need to add another day to Florence for a day trip to Lucca!

Good itinerary. Venice, as previous poster said walking the back streets. But also take a Vaporetto ride to Murano and visit the glass factories or Burano for the colourful houses and handmade lace. The Venice Lido will give you beaches and is reached by Vaporetto.

Also from Venice, consider a trip to Padua for a visit to the University there the second oldest in Europe - list of students reads like the who's who of the Renaissance! Visit the University's Anatomy Theatre - dates from 1595. Padua is about 1.5 hours from Venice by train. Also has some interesting sites and a great market. Note markets (as in street markets) open early and close at around 1.00 pm. Even supermarkets close for lunch from 1.00-4.00pm.

For cheap and good meals look for tavola calda (hot tables) cafes that serve hot foods, cafeteria style. Some dishes may be made to order. See http://www.italiannotebook.com/local-interest/tavola-calda/ . Be aware that in Italy hotel breakfasts are likely to be little more than a continental breakfast - pastries of some sort, maybe some cheese and cold cuts, and juice and coffee. "Free" they may be but substantial they are usually not!

St. Peters will probably require public transportation (subway or bus) as it is quite a long way from Termani. Otherwise you should be fine walking to most of the sites. For lots of information on sites and monuments I find Rough Guides the best and I have found the Rough Guide Directions series to the cities are very good for basic information and have excellent street maps. I have the Venice and Rome ones and they are small enough to easily slip into a purse. I would try and get to the Pantheon as early as you can as it gets crowded very quickly. It is going to be very hot in July and both Rome and Venice can be/are humid - make sure to always carry water with you. Rome has the a plethora of drinking fountains everywhere you go, you just have to figure out how to use them without getting water all over you. The water is really good and quite safe to drink and you can easily refill a water bottle from them.

So much to do in each city! I suggest you watch some of the RS videos, perhaps download some of the walking tours. In Florence, I would suggest three museums: Uffizi, Accademia and San Marco. A fourth would be the Bargello. The Museo dell' Opere del Duomo may be fully open now. Also the Duomo-Bell Tower-Baptistry complex. Piazzale Michelangelo has great views of the city and you can walk up to San Miniato al Monte and then walk all the way back into town. Lucca is a great day trip.

Venice: get the vaporetto pass as soon as you arrive, it pays for itself in a hurry. Mutant, Burano and especially Torcello are beautiful. In St. Mark's piazza, consider the elevator to the top of the bell tower.

Rome: my favorite city. Galleria Borghese is a beautiful small museum (needs advance reservations), And it's in a huge park; from there, go to the Pincio (the route is well-marked) for great views, and there's a path you can walk down to Piazza del Popolo. There's also a pricey elevator ride to the top of the monument to Vittorio Emmanuele with 360-degree views. Or you could go to the Giaicolo for views for the cost of a bus ticket. You will probably like Trastevere, especially at night. Check the Roma Pass to see if it is cost-effective for you.

A word about food: I also travel on a budget but not quite as strict as yours seems to be. The tavola calda idea is a good one. An assortment of snacks can cost as much or more than putting together a nice lunch or dinner from markets, or some bakeries and supermarkets will make a sandwich for you for a few euro. Great plan to have at least one nice dinner in each city, hotel staff or guests will have suggestions. Menus and prices are posted outside. I usually have breakfast at the hotel, a sit-down lunch or dinner, and a light meal for either lunch or dinner (sometimes a slice of pizza sold by weight and a gelato is enough),

Water: buy at grocery stores, about .5 euro for a bottle. In Rome, the water from fountain taps is good to drink and you can refill your bottle there.

You can buy super-economy train tickets up to 120 days in advance, you'll get a e-ticket almost immediately. Venice to Florence and Florence to Rome are about 29 euro each at the best price, but you can't make any changes to that ticket, or miss that specific train.

School may be out if you travel in summer but you may spot someone wearing a laurel wreath - that's what grads get.

The itinerary looks fine. A couple of comments:

As suggested, just walking around Venice and taking in the architecture is great fun.

There is quite a lot to see in Florence. You have the Uffizi (be SURE to get advance tickets!) on your list but the Bargello National museum is wonderful too. Climb up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a gorgeous view of the city, and visit Basilica di San Miniato while you're up there. Basilica di Santa Croce is a must, IMHO, as of course is the Duomo and Baptistry. We also loved the Fra Angelico's at Convento di San Marco, and lovely Piazza della Santissima Annunziata and basilica of the same name are right next door.

In Rome, I'll agree that Galleria Borghese is a MUST (and yes, tickets must be ordered in advance) as the collection is superb, and the building itself is fascinating. We like that one better than the Vatican Museums because of their excellent crowd control. And already stated, the museum is in enormous Villa Borghese park so you can do some rambling about green spaces there.

Speaking of the Vatican Museums, be sure to pre-order your tickets for that one too.

Trevi (under renovation) and the Spanish Steps are merely walk-bys: I often suggest doing those at night when the museums and other attractions are closed. Piazza Navona could be walked through at night as well. Santa Maria Maggiore is a glorious basilica, and the ceiling at Gesù is pretty darn impressive too. Rome (and Florence) is simply packed with fascinating churches, and because almost all of them are free, they're terrific budget stretchers.

If you could manage another day in Rome, I'd strongly suggest a walk on Via Appia Antica - and especially so if you enjoy the outdoors and are a hiker. Our own trek on the "Queen of Roads" was best day we've yet spent in Rome. I'll also caution to be aware of days or hours when certain of the attractions are closed (Vatican Museums most Sundays; Borghese and Uffizi on Mondays, etc.)

So far, we've managed to get nearly everywhere in the city on foot with the exception of a train out to a jump-on point along the Appian, and metro out to the Protestant Cemetery (Cimitero Acattolico) one day when we were short of time. It's a wonderful city to walk as there's always something interesting along the way!

I'll stress again the need to pre-order tickets to the attractions mentioned as all three cities are going to be packed with tourists in July, and queues at the biggies will be very long. We can provide the websites needed to do that if you need them?

The university in Rome should be open, I'm not sure if they will be still having classes, but they will definitely be studying for exams! I feel like their exam period lasts FOREVER.....The one in Rome is la Sapienza, semi close to Termini, though like most old universities, it is spread out through buildings in an area.....Florence has one, near the city center, but I'm not AS sure about this one....

You asked about apps. Since you mention being directionally challenged… one app that I find really useful is the trip advisor city guide app (which is different from the standard trip adviser website/app). It allows you to download detailed information about specific cities and a good map, plot the locations of the things you want to visit, and add selected additional information to the map, such as public transit stops, restaurants, etc. It really helped me plan logical routes for each day. While I use it on an iPhone, I'm certain it must exist for android. If you don't have a Compass on your phone, I would suggest bringing one or downloading a compass app; my compass has kept me from getting lost many times (eg, when exiting a subway or train station, or being routed through a back entrance when leaving a museum). An app that allows me to PDF information and store it on my phone has eliminated the need to travel with lots of paper; I just create a folder for each city, with background information on the places I want to visit.

In my experience, the one instance when I think paper is better is guidebooks. It's much easier for me to flip through a physical book, rather than search an e-book. In my one attempt to use an electronic guidebook, the index was not linked electronically, so finding anything required keyword searches; however, it's in a couple of years, and maybe the technology is better.

I'd suggest you Google travel apps for android; you'll find lots of suggestions. The smart phone has really changed the way that I travel.

And download some offline maps. It doesn't take data while you are using them as long as you download them at home or when you have a wifi connection. Very valuable to tell you exactly where you are. Also a flashlight app is something I use constantly.

While Florence is very walkable, in Rome we did use the public transportation system. Last time we were there this fall, we spent 5 days each in Rome and Florence and just barely saw what we wanted to see without leaving the cities. Also the places we stayed had pretty substantial breakfasts.

Your itinerary looks good
Just don't miss in Venice la "scala del bovolo", just not advertised but one of the kind
About shopping .... Better Venice for glass and jewelry, Florence for leather stuff, Rome for food

App I am using is CityMaps2Go -- downloaded the cities on my trip at home and pulled up each one as needed. GPS found me even when I got lost. AND pointed out where public WC's were nearby.

Good tips from all. You didn't mention seeing David in Florence at the Accademia. I echo the comment about getting reservations/entry times to both David and the Ufizzi - you will bypass the huge lines of people sweating in the heat and wasting their day standing in line. That's a huge time-saver.

The vaporetto pass in Venice will help if you are directionally challenged, since directional loading platforms are usually separate entrances and it's not difficult to make a mistake.