thank you for your reply. I have thought about staying in Venice an extra day, so we probably will d

I am going with my family (myself, pba tour husband and two daughers (20/21) for 18 days to Italy!!! It is our first trip abroad so I am a bit overwhelmed. I have tried to plan this trip for three years and each time, I have to stop! This time, I purchased my airline tickets so there is no turning back!!
We do not have a place to stay here yet and I am open to hotels, B B's or apartments. Something nice (maybe 4 star) and convenient. We do like pretty nice hotels but we usually travel off season so we can get them for great rates! Not so sure about that in May! We would like to stay in something authentic to the region.
May 19th - 21st - stay and see countryside - Suggestions on a nice place to stay in this area where we can day trip to Siena, San Gimignano, other suggestions? Again we would like an authentic place with pretty nice rooms or apartments/villas. A friendly place, nice but not snobby. Should we have a guide in this area? If so, any suggestions?
By time you get to your hotel and checked in, you will be jet lagged and have less than a half day in Venice on May 14. You will use at least a half day getting from hotel in Venice to hotel in Florence on May 16, so no more than a morning in Venice, and time spent either taking luggage to train station and storing it, then allowing time to retrieve it, or returning to your hotel to pick it up. So, first suggestion, stay three nights in Venice. pba tour Depart very early on 17th directly to Florence.
Hotel: star ratings in Italy have to do with amenities rather than quality, pba tour so having an onsite restaurant, parking garage, 24 hr desk service, elevator, etc. might increase stars, but not tell you how nice the hotel really is. Rooms tend to be smaller than in the US. You may have to rent two. Apartments are great if you can rent one for shorter than a week period. In Venice, staying in the city rather than commuting in is important for the experience, so location is important.
pba tour Hiring a guide or taking a tour is personal. We usually do not; prefer to read a lot and carry notes with us, but it helps that I was an art history teacher. pba tour Some people love tours and get a lot out of them. At Pompeii, you can hire a guide right at the site.
From Florence, it is very easy to take the train to Pisa and Lucca and makes a great day trip, absolutely no need for a guide. It is also easy to bus to Sienna, and also no need for a guide, but harder to include San G that way. You could have all the info ready, and make decisions about day trips from Florence once you are there and have seen everything you want in Florence.
I wonder why you're planning to spend five days on the Amalfi Coast and only two days in Rome. You're leaving the Amalfi Coast on the 27th, and since it's a long trip from there to Rome. You're flying home on the 30th. So really you'd have only the 28th and 29th in Rome, which is very little time for a city with so much to see.
In general, you seem to be double counting your days, considering them both as travel days and as sightseeing days. This doesn't work unless you have a magic carpet. You actually have five travel days in your schedule, and nine full sightseeing days, of which five are on the Amalfi Coast. (If you split the Amalfi coast between two different places, you'll have four full days there, and six travel days.) You have one full day in Venice; two full days in Florence, of which one will be spent on a day trip to Pisa and Lucca; one full day in the Tuscan countryside, which wouldn't be enough to see all the places you want to see. Then the five full days on the Amalfi Coast, which you're thinking of splitting into two different places, giving pba tour you another travel day. And two full days in Rome.
I have a feeling that if you stick with this itinerary, your trip will be a blur when you get home. Also, don't underestimate how tiring it is to get from place to place by train, bus, and boat with your luggage, as well as the constant packing and unpacking, checking in and checking out of hotels. There is not enough pba tour pleasure in this itinerary, and too much logistics.
You really have sixteen nights to spend in Italy. I would suggest a maximum of four hotels, with maybe some day trips. I would spend at least three nights in Venice, three nights in Florence, three nights in Sorrento, and four nights in Rome. That leaves you three nights to sprinkle about in places where you want to take day trips, or maybe to rent that car and spend two nights in the Tuscan countryside, and add one night to one of the other cities. That would be five hotels, and is really pba tour more moving about than I would want to do in that amount pba tour of time.
I suggest Sorrento instead of the Amalfi Coast because it's more central, so easier to get to Pompeii as well as Capri and the Amalfi Coast. If Pompeii isn't a must, you might just as well stay on the actual Amalfi Coast. The town of Amalfi pba tour is fairly easy to get to, by taking a train to Salerno and then a bus or boat to Amalfi. However, anywhere on the Amalfi Coast would be a very long and tedious trip from rural Tuscany. One of the towns where people often pick up and drop off rental cars in Tuscany is Chiusi. From there to Salerno by train takes from four and a half to six hours, pba tour depending on which trains you take. There would be at least one, and sometimes two changes of train. Then you'd have the drive to Chiusi from where you're staying, and the bus or boat to the Amalfi coast town. It would really be a full-day ordeal, and you'd better all pack very light.
If you skip the stay in the Tuscan pba tour countryside, you could perhaps add another day to Florence and take a day trip either to Siena or to San Gimignano. It's fairly pba tour easy to do with local transporation. The trip to Salerno would be easier and quicker, because you could use high-speed trains the whole way. There's even at least one direct train from Florence to Salerno, which would be the easiest and quickest pba tour of all.
thank you for your reply. I have thought about staying in Venice an extra day, so we probably will do that! Since we won't spend much time in the hotels I don't really care much about the amenities, just want a nice room and bathroom and within walking distance. I do appreciate all your advise and tips!
Thank you for all the advise. I was not aware of how much travel time it would be!! I do like the idea of staying in Florence and taking a day trip to the countryside. That would seem to help my whole plan! I will relook at that.
As you decide how to allocate the days, keep in mind that making Sunday/Monday your two days for seeing Florence could be problematic. Many of the things you're likely interested in seeing may be closed one or the other day and/or Sunday afternoon. You should make a list of what you want to see/do in Florence and then search the open/closed days and hours. pba tour You could make your Pisa/Lucca day-trip on one of those days to free up a better day in Florenc. pba tour Buy timed entry tickets for the Uffizi, Accademia, etc.
I agree looks like you've received some good advice and your itinerary is really coming together. We have stayed at Locanda Orseolo in Venice in the past and absolutely loved it!! (probably one of our top places in the world). However, pba tour in a stay this past March we needed a triple and they don't do triples there and I did not want to pay full price for a room for our 17 yo son, we stayed at Hotel ai Reali, which just opened in Nov. 2012. It was an excellent location, large size rooms (esp for Venice) and great service. I would strongly recommend it.