<p>I’m asking the parents of this board advice for planning a summer vacation. As my graduation gift, my parents are planning to take me to Italy, however as I have not been admitted to any school yet, the dates are still completely up in the air. The graduation in my school is June 27th, and I still don’t know what my job situation will be. Any dates of school orientations or experiences would be appreciated.
Thank you.</p>
<p>Let me know, please, what your trip is like, because I’m hoping my little family will go to Italy next summer!</p>
<p>I would suggest that you look at the online academic calendars for each of the schools that you have applied to and factor the start dates in for when you plan your trip.</p>
<p>If you want some expert trip advice, a great website that you can access is the Europe discussion board on fodors.com – [Fodor’s</a> Travel Talk Forums](<a href=“http://www.fodors.com/forums]Fodor’s”>Fodors.com Trending Discussions)</p>
<p>Most school orientations seemed to be mid August. When you look at those calendars keep in mind that while Freshman orientation is generally the week before classes start, sometimes there is an optional week before the orientation week with other activities.</p>
<p>All schools are different. We have a similar situation here (we’re going to Europe for 2 weeks - including Italy!), so we found out what the dates were for orientation before we booked our trip. In our son’s case, the large universities he’s deciding between, orientation runs from early June through mid-July. We will be gone from late June to mid-July, so we absolutely need him to get an early orientation date. </p>
<p>Bottom line, check with your schools.</p>
<p>Our family of four spent three weeks in Europe the summer of 2006. Most of the time was in Italy. It was a fantastic trip. We used the train to travel around and purchased our Eurail passes before leaving. We had the passes but made our reservations for specific trains while in Italy. I chose hotels that were for the most part within walking distance of the train stations. We loved Florence. It is a wonderful place to walk around and soak up the sites and culture. I would recommend purchasing tickets to the two main museums before going as they book up quickly in the summer. We took a day trip from there to Piza. Once again, I purchased tickets to climb to the top of the tower before leaving the USA. We enjoyed Rome, it was crowded and noisey but there was lots to see. We saw all the places you think of when you think of Rome. We did the collesium on our own, I bought tickets before we left. I booked a private group tour for the Vatican and it was well worth the cost and actually was not that expensive. The Vatican was mobbed it was shoulder to shoulder. One disadvantage of going in the summer. We used their subway and bus system to travel around town. We went to Naples as I wanted to see the Archeological Museum before going to Pompeii. We didn’t like Naples. I booked a private van and tour for Pompeii (that was my one splurge as going there was a life long dream). We also climbed to the top of Vesuvius. We didn’t make it to the Almalfi coast. From Naples we went to Venice. My second favorite city after Florence. We spent a lot of time walking around and took the ferry to Murano. We didn’t go a gandola ride as they are pricey. We also took a trip to Modena to see the Ferari museum. We saw lots of cathedrals, churches, and museums. Go to the bookstore or library and check out books on traveling through Italy. You can also access guide books online. Venere.com is a good place to look for hotels. If you want specifics on hotels and tours send me a message and I will reply to you.</p>