I am hoping that you can help me with suggestions for my trip to Italy. We are going from June 25th to July 12. Having read Don and Linda's travelogues we booked the Hotel Delle Muse in Rome. Giorgio Lazur at the hotel seems like a very nice person to deal with and we are looking forward to staying there. However, It turns out that we made a mistake on our flight and will be in Rome 1 day longer than anticipated. A total of 4 nights. Do you think that it is worthwhile to go to Pompeii for a day?

Then we fly to Venice for 2 nights. This is where I need suggestions. We had planned on taking the train to the Cinque Terre region after Venice and stay for 2 nights but because of the mixup with our flights we will have 1 less night at the end of the trip to tour the Tuscany Region. So, instead of going to Cinque Terre we thought we might rent a car in Venice and take 3 days and 2 nights to make it to Florence where we would drop off the car. Which route would you take and what would you most like to see?

We have booked a hotel in Florence for 3 nights then we are going on a short bike tour. On this tour we will leave Florence and bike over two days to Siena. This only leaves 4 nights in the Siena area. We are hoping to stay very close to Siena and take 2 days seeing Siena then rent a car for the last 2 days to tour the countryside.

Things I can't change: flight to Venice, bike tour, hotel in Rome, Venice and Florence.

Thanks for any help

Diane in Ottawa