Traveling with teen daughter

Seventeen? Give her a wad of money and chase her out the door.

Have you asked her what she'd like to do, Mom?

Let her go out on her own. Within 30 seconds she will make friends with Italian guys her age interested in meeting her.
Those guys are known in Italian as "Pappagalli".
That's how I used to spend my days in Florence at that age, being a "pappagallo". Here is a famous picture from a time even before I was born:

http://www.deutscherandhackett.com/sites/all/themes/dh/images/artworks/large/100032.jpg

The guys sitting on that Vespa could have been me on that very same spot next to Caffe' Gilli. Although my Vespa was much nicer (and more modern).

Hahahaha - such creative answers! I like the wad of money option the best.

Roberto, that just might be what pkmiers is afraid of!

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What does your daughter enjoy doing? As Joan said, I'd have her research each place and pick out what she would enjoy, with or without you. She might make friends on the tour she can do things with as well. But there's lots to do without going to a museum... walking (I especially love walking in residential areas to see how people live), sitting at outdoor cafes people watching, shopping, renting bikes and going for a bike ride...

I don't know a teen girl that doesn't like shopping. Even just window shopping would be fun I'm sure. And if she is responsible, there is no reason not to let her wander off on her own for awhile. Italy is very safe and just make sure you have a meeting time and place and she has a paper with the hotel address and phone on it in case she gets lost. My guess is that she will relish the alone time and freedom.

Then you can go off and do your things to museums etc...

I went to Italy when I was 17, and I loved seeing pretty much everything! Loved the museums, the art, the fact that every glance at every vista was a photograph waiting for me to take it. I watched "A Room With a View" and loved Tuscany before I ever got there. But I do remember the odd things that were unexpected fun: gelato, shopping in the markets, walking around at night anywhere but especially Venice, talking to other kids. Feeding pigeons in Piazza San Marco. The Ponte Vecchio. Climbing up inside the Duomo in Florence. People watching on the Spanish Steps.

I would say be willing to be spontaneous and ask her what she wants. :) I loved my whirlwind week at 17, and your daughter will, too. She will no doubt meet many handsome Romeos and Davids and Leonardos...so look out! ;)

You've gotten great advice already. I just want to add that your RS tour guide is a great resource too. On our trip in 2006, she had a list of things for every city that included plenty of non museum options. Be sure to enjoy lots of gelato! That was one of my teen daughter's favorite parts. And mine too!

The key to happy travel with teens is to make them partners in the trip. Have her identify a couple of things to do in each spot you will visit. Because we traveled this way we have seen the British Library, the Cluny, and climbed the Tower of Notre Dame and visited Giverny courtesy of our then 12 and 13 year old daughter. We visited the John Soanes Museum in London and the Aqueduct Park in Rome courtesy of our teenage son. People with ownership of a trip are better travel companions and I would think that would go triple for a teen who is being taken on a tour and thus already has little control over where to go and what to see. Both of my kids' favorite thing in Rome was the Scavi tour under St. Peters but it is probably too late to get tickets to that; you could try on the Vatican web site.