I'm back now and up way too early for a Sunday morning but my body is saying I need dinner! Speaking of food I would also suggest that unless you've been to Italy you've never eaten Italian food no matter how expensive the restaurant is. The depth of flavours and the preparation are just so much different.
My experience with Naples itself is fairly bland, though I am no expert.
The addition of the museum in Naples brought a lot better insight into Pompeii. The pizza was also incredible.
Enjoy the trip -- we loved Venice
It was very good but the mosquitoes at night were vicious and you needed to be willing to get out of the San Marco area to avoid the tourist rip-off joints.
Rome to be sparkling and lots of fun
I agree that Rome was great. I'm giving some thought to spending a large block of time there in the year or so after we retire.
enjoyed the hill towns of Tuscany (Montepulciano, Pienza, and lots of smaller ones -- Lucignano)
Hit Cortona, Montepulciano, Pienza, and Montalcino. It was great to see some of the small towns and it was a big change from the big cities. We brought back two Pecorino cheeses from Pienza (the Pecorino capital of Italy) - a strong flavoured hard one for grating on pasta or cooking with and a softer milder eating one.
Florence was too crowded in July -- Sept should be great. (wait in line for hours to get into the Ufizzi etc.)
It wasn't too bad though the central part of the old city felt a bit like a theme park full of American tourists. We didn't wait long for the Ufizzi but then we were there at 7:45 (open at 8:15) and were the 30th or so in line.
See if you can get the car rental people to drop off your car at the hotel -- we waited hours in a very inefficient line and sign-in process to pick up our car in Rome -- and I heard they offer the 'valet' service for a modest extra fee in Italy if you arrange it in advance.
Hmmm, didn't know about that but we didin't wait too long - about 15-20 minutes. There was a group of 4 Americans with about 15 bags renting a minivan who took forever to load up and get the thing out of the way so that we could get our car. We ended up with a Smart for Four (the 4 seat Smart car) instead of the Punto. It was a great little car - very responsive and sipped at the gas. I'd buy one here if I could get one.
You can brush up on Italian and have a much better time -- try to get some kids tapes from your Library -- the Standard Deviants have a good set of tapes, too -- aimed at college students but very lively and helpful. You'll enjoy your trip much more if you have a bit of basic Italian under your belt...
We took the local adult ed 10 week Italian course over the summer and then constantly played the CD that came with the course book at home and in the car. The small amount of Italian really made the trip better. We had enough to get by and even when the other person spoke some English they were happy that you were trying. I could see a big difference in the attitudes of people towards us and the typical "why can't they speak English" American tourist.
For those who love cars the Galleria Ferrari in Maranello (just outside Modena) was well worth the trip. The whole town just breathed Ferrari. The food in Modena (where we stayed) was also very good and the Sunday night "passagio" was something that had to be seen to be believed.
Thanks.