I truly understand your dilemma - my husband and I took our first trip to Italy in 1997 and covered similar territory - certain decisions definitely have to be made knowing that you cannot see everything and hopefully you will go back and do what you do not do the first time.

We spent 2 days in Venice and were able to see a fair bit including a side trip to Murano to buy glass -now we did not see any museums but took a tour of the Jewish ghetto area.

In Florence which is a must and is best if you actually stay in the city we stayed 3 days the first time - we have since been back twice, a week in Florence each time with friends who live there (we are very lucky to be able to spend time with Florentines seeing their city through their eyes) - even in 3 days we just scraped the surface and made choices as to what we would see.

We spent 2 1/2 days in Rome and managed to see most of the highlights - did lots of walking.

In Tuscany we did San Gimniagno, Monteriggoni, Siena, Pienza (which we revisited on a second trip to Italy) and the Crete Senesi ( which is amazing - where part of the English patient was filmed)

We did not do Umbria the first time but were there last June - we spend 4 days in Umbria - in Montefalco and saw many sights from there - actually we also did part of Umbria from Cortona where we stayed 4 nites.

If you want more detailed information contact me directly and we would be more than happy to share more information.

Each time we go abroad I have to tell myself - we cannot see everything and we have to make certain choices.

Much of the enjoyment is in the planning and as well this will help the decisions.

Are you driving - we did and this certainly is convenient for planning and getting to places.

Good luck Carol, Toronto, Canada