North Italy 8 days Itinerary

I'm currently planning a similar trip -- but 25 days in Europe, and I had to really do some juggling. However, I'm planning this with spending 5 days with my daughter in Lucerne, I still think I'm moving around too much. For 15 days, I'd skip either Florence (Tuscany) or Venice, but not do both. If you don't do Lake Como, and instead to Lake Garda, then you probably won't do Switzerland at all. How many nights do you want in each spot?

I think it is indeed a lot. If you consider the minimums in each places you will need at least 2-3 weeks.
Florence has to be a minimum of 2 full days(went 2 times)
Venice at least the same. (Went 3 times)
I haven’t seen milan yet but it’s a big city.
Lake garda, it’s a big lake, sirmione is superb and deserves at least half a day, just for this one small town. And we don’t talk about the others places and activities around the lake
Lake como, the same, lots of small villages.
Verona has to be 1/2 to a full day(i went twice)
And tuscany... where it’s easy to spend more then a week and being wowed each day.
The minimums
-pisa/lucca one day
-Volterra/San gimignano one day
-Siena, one day
-montepulciano/pienza one day
And we didn’t talk about Montalcino, the different abbeys, san galgano and Sant’Antimo, the chianti region, arezzo, cortona, etc.
So yes, i would personally reduce the itinerary to your own must sees according to your personal tastes, and start preparing a second trip to Italy for the rest. :-)

I agree it seems like too much. We did most of what you describe, except Verona, in two full weeks on our first trip to Italy in our 40s. I would suggest choosing either 1) Venice and Florence, 2) Como/Garda and Venice (Verona if time), or 3) Florence/Tuscany.

As to how you split it up, that depends on how you narrow things down, and on how much you like cities (and how much you want to see all the art in Venice or Florence) vs countryside and small towns. I agree with Claude you want at least 2 full days in Venice and Florence, and a third would be better. Seeing just the highlights we wanted to see in Florence in two days was exhausting--but worth it, and we would love to return some day.

My suggestion would be to go straight through to Venice. After arrival in Venice:

Venice - 2 days
Florence - 3 days (includes travel day from Venice) You could day trip to Siena, Pisa or Lucca from here. Only 2 hours by train from Venice to Florence.
Lake Como - 3 days (includes travel day from Florence)
Milan - 1 day (short travel from Lake Como)

Lake Garda has only train service to the southern most tip of the lake. Lake Como has trains to Como as well as a route all along the eastern shore.

It is my thought that you should savor time in a few locations as opposed to blasting through as many places as possible. If you decide more, then instead of straight through to Venice, train to Verona, spend a day, then Venice. Trim a day then off of Florence or Lake Como.

Have a great trip!

I have to make a taugh decision here because
all places I mentioned are hard to skip.
I should save some places for next time

Thank all of you so much!