Thanks to all the forum posts and advices, we had a great time in Italy. Here is our trip report hopefully will be helpful to future travelers.
We spent 12 nights in Italy with the following itinerary: Venice 3 nights - Florence 2 nights - Monterosso (CT) 2 nights - Orvieto 1 night - Rome 4 nights. It was a fast-paced but doable trip, for we know realistically we will not be back in Europe for a while. Each family member has different preferences so we tried to make sure everyone gets their must-sees. This type of itinerary may be too much for families with young kids or elderly parents. We knew we would not be able to see everything and it would be nice to have more time in each place, but we were pretty happy with our plan. We learned to be flexible on this trip and adjusted our daily plans according to how we felt.
We are a family of 4 with older teenagers who are pretty good at getting up early and pack their own stuff. Since we moved around quite often we didn’t bother to unpack most of the time. A few places we stayed at had washing machine and we took advantage of that. I am glad we took only carry-on size suitcases as most train stations and hotels had no elevator or escalator and we had to carry the suitcases up and down flights of stairs. We saw people struggling with big and heavy luggage, so my advice would be to pack light.
We developed a pattern of getting up early to sightsee or join a tour, back to hotel after lunch to rest for a few hours, then out to explore again. This schedule worked really well for us, as we were not used to the heat coming from Seattle. Most of the places we stayed at provided breakfast, and we ate something simple like sandwiches or pizza for lunch. So we were able to cut down the expense on food for more gelato. : )
Venice: This was the most relaxing part of our trip while we adjusted jetlag. We stayed in Cannaregio and it was very enjoyable to walk around without the crowd. We walked in different neighborhoods and discovered different churches and campos. Inevitably we got lost often, and the most useful tool besides the map is the compass app on my cell phone. Knowing the general direction we were going helped us to get out of the maze-like streets of Venice. We signed up for the 9:55 Secret Itinerary tour at Doge’s Palace and got there before 9am to look around the palace. We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed visiting the place in peace and quiet. When we went out to meet our tour, the place was packed with big tour groups. So glad we got up early. The tour was interesting but got kind of long with all the tales of Casanova. Some rooms were really stuffy and hot, so I can imagine it would be bad for the afternoon tours. The ghetto museum and tour was also interesting and we got to see 3 different synagogues. Our favorite time, other than an evening at San Marco’s Square, was dinner and gelato at Campo Santa Margherita. It was a lively place with locals strolling and kids playing soccer. It gave us a glimpse of Venetians’’ everyday life. We purchased vaporetto passes (kids with Rolling Venice discount) and made good use of them when we got tired of walking. Venice truly is a unique and magical place.
Florence: Since we didn’t have much time in Florence, we decided we join a half-day walking tour with Walks of Italy, which included Accademia. Our guide was excellent, knowledgeable and able to help us understand the art and history of the city. The rest of the time, we just explored the city, visiting Mercato Centrale, Piazza Michelangelo, and various churches. It thunder stormed each afternoon we were there and made the city seem a bit gloomy.