Itinerary for family of 4 with teen girls

So you have 17 nights on the ground in Italy? I would pump for a 4th location (Sorrento/Amalfi Coast) to add some diversity. Six nights in Rome and 7 nights in Florence may test the interest levels of your girls, especially if the weather warms up.

Venice - 3N
Rome - 4N
Sorrento - 4N
(with days to Capri, Positano, Pompeii+Naples)
Florence - 5N
(with days to Siena, Pisa+Lucca)
Milan -1N

It's easier to count nights rather than days. Three nights gets you two full days of sightseeing. So if your ticket are for the 11th through the 29th, you have the 12th through the 28th on the ground or 16 nights.

It's over three hours from either Milan airport to either Florence or Venice and possibly four hours. That sounds really uncomfortable even if your plane is on time and immigration goes perfectly. I suggest you get plane tickets from Milan to Rome and work your way back north to Milan by train. You'll need a very long layover in Milan, as the Rome leg won't be considered part of the same flight.

6 nights Rome (possible daytrips to Ostia Antiqua or Orvieta)
5 nights Florence (day trips to either Lucca, Sienna or both)
4 nights Venice (possible day trip to Verona, Bologna, or Padua)
1 night Milan (could day trip Verona or Padua on the way to Milan or spend the afternoon touring Milan)

I like your amount of time in each place. However, I would change the route to Florence, Venice, Rome and then back to Milan for that last night. Don't let anyone convince you to add another base. Your girls will enjoy getting to know each place, rather than too much running around and consequently seeing less. You'll have plenty to entertain yourselves with just these bases.

We arrive the 12th and depart the 29th. We generally prefer to stay and explore one place in depth rather than trying to cover as much territory as possible.

You can't go wrong with either plan. I agree: more time in fewer places. You might wish you had one more night and day in Venice, so perhaps steal a day from Florence.

Milan is one of the world's fashion capitals and there are excellent values to be found in the basements of some retailers. Assign your girls the task of doing the internet research to learn more about this opportunity. Tip: samantha brown has a video about this opportunity.

On the more pragmatic side........ what classes will the girls take next year and is there an opportunity to conduct some field research which will apply to any of these classes?

Apartments are the way to go (more room, kitchen, etc) just do alot of research concerning air conditioning, terraces, clothes washer, elevator and try to get an idea of noise levels. Google earth is your friend for checking out the areas using the street view feature. We prefer apartments and like to stay outside of tourist zones to max our dollars and get a bit more local flavor.

It will be hot so you might assign the teens to finding public pools to spend half a day.

I like Jen's plan too as it eliminates backtracking to a city which doesn't appear to interest you, and lands you, on arrival day, in a city which does. But I also understand that the price of tickets for 4 is no small peanuts, and RT from Milan may be the most optimal fare?

We may also be assuming that you are flying a long distance to Milan and that may not be true - as you mention Linate, you may be coming from elsewhere in Europe? - so a train to Venice or Florence on arrival day wouldn't be all that tiring.

However you choose to do it, I'm personally pleased to see an itinerary which does not involve a lot of moving around! Longer stays on your cities of choice will allow you to sightsee without cramming everything into just 2-3 days, and provide a lot of flexibility Raining? Do museums and churches. Sunny? Take a day trip to a small town or do outdoor attractions. As with David, I've spent a total of nearly two weeks in Rome and feel as if I've just scratched the surface. We had 5 days in Florence and need to return for more + day trips from there. You won't be bored!

So other than maybe an open-jaw flight plan, and maybe taking a day from Florence and adding it to Venice, I don't know as I'd change a thing. Will agree that with 4, apartments would be great choices so you can settle in and spread out.

You may be able to get in on the big summer sales at the end of your trip; officially start the first weekend in Juky, but lately I have seen the "Saldi" signs going up earlier. Nothing like a little bonding time while shopping in Italy.

How fun for your girls! I wish I could have jumped on those great fares I saw last month. Almost did for Springbreak Paris.

We traveled with a 15 and 18 year old last summer. I agree with kids less locations is more. They are going to want down time to sleep & text back home. While I can go every minute & pack in a ton they were exhausted with the heat & crowds. They were happy sometimes just chillaxing ( their favorite non-word)
We did Venice, Florence & Rome.

As a fun thing we attended EatWith in Rome. You eat at a cook's house with people from all over the world. It was a highlight of our trip.

Enjoy

I agree with taking a day from Florence and adding it to Venice. We took our daughter to Lido beach in Venice, she loved it. You can break from museums and churches go for a few hours. Just make sure you know where to go. Some beaches charge a fee for chair rental. If I remember correctly, there is a beach near Rome.

To get your girls interested in planning, have them pick a gelato shop along your anticipated path of travel each day. We did and our daughter could not wait to see what was around the next corner.

Finding pools would also be a good idea.

Also, air conditioning is viewed differently over there. Here we expect to be a nice 70 degrees regardless of what the weather is outside. Over there, the air conditioning is expected to reduce the temperature a few degrees. So where ever you stay, read the reviews to see what kind of air conditioning they have. Often times, you will have to drop the door key in a slot to get the air conditioning to come on in the lower end hotels.

That door-key-in-the-slot business is a big-league annoyance if you happen to be in a previously unoccupied room or apartment that is extremely hot when you arrive. You'll normally want to drop your luggage and head out for a while, but do that and you'll return to a just-as-hot-or-hotter lodging. Sometimes any old card (even a paper business card) will work to start the cooling down while you're out. The card-in-slot sometimes governs every electrical outlet in the place, which means your electronic gear cannot be charged while you're out. You many need to experiment with different wall outlets to see whether some of the them may work all the time.

Although I've hit a couple of hotels whose air conditioning was (genuinely) broken, and two more where I swear they had turned off the chiller so it was just room-temperature air being circulated, the small wall-mounted a/c units have otherwise done a fine job everywhere I've stayed (over 6 months in southern Europe recently). The secret, I think, is that as a budget traveler I always have small rooms, and they are easier to cool. So my tip is to realize that there may be one down-side to a really expansive apartment or a really large hotel room.

Do read those reviews and pay attention if there are multiple complaints about inadequate air conditioning or non-working Wi-Fi. Those are infrastructure issues that tend not to go away. Not having Wi-Fi is maddening, and I'm far from a teenager.

And for heaven's sake travel with ear plugs. A convenient location in a large city is typically a rather noisy location. And Italy is a lovely, lively country. No one has ever claimed that it is quiet. I use earplugs every night unless I must be sure to wake up to an alarm the next morning.

Often times, you will have to drop the door key in a slot to get the
air conditioning to come on in the lower end hotels.

These have not been uncommon in 4-star hotels we've stayed in so they're not confined to lower-end accommodations. Overall, Europeans are more conscious of energy/utilities conservation than Americans.

I recently stayed at a hotel in Roma and the a/c was activated by the front desk. When I returned to the hotel, I would tell the front desk clerk the temperature I wanted (22C was fine for me), and by the time I took the elevator to my room, it was cooled. I could adjust the temperature from my room, but not turn it on.

I had a similar experience in my Orvieto hotel, where my room was entered through a separate exterior door around the corner from the hotel entrance. That area may have been on a separate circuit or something like that. My room was usually the only one occupied in that part of the hotel (which I suspect was sort of an overflow area). I guess they didn't want to depend on the occasional client in that area to turn off the a/c on the way out the door.

As far as things your girls might enjoy: In Rome, there are beaches a short train ride away. I like going to Santa Marinella although there are other options. Its about a 30-45 minute train ride from Rome and a short walk to the beach upon arrival. From Venice, consider the town of Verona as a day trip. It's known for having the "Casa di Giulietta", Juliet's balcony of Romeo and Juliet fame. You have to pay to actually walk on it but you can view it from the outside for free and it is a great town to meander around and shop.

What are their overall interests? You would be able to find cooking classes in all of the cities. You can do bike tours on the Appian Way in Rome or a Tuscany cycling day trip from Florence.

I think the other suggestions about sticking with your current number of cities are good. If you find yourself "bored" after a few days, each city as many possibilities for day trips.

Have a great vacation.