Ditto on the Rick Steve's book. Traveled with my DH and DD(15). We did all the days on our own and used Disney for transportation on Florence on your own and Rome on your own with private tour of t he Vatican Museums. Using Rick's guide, we were able to plan our days, manage our transportation, go at our own pace, not wait for anyone, be done when we were tired, stop for food, gelato, pizza, wine and toilets anytime we wanted, stroll off the beaten path and discover some cool places and scenery as well as save a TON of money. Yes it was a bit adventurous, but I would do it again in the same way. We used the train and subway systems and the people mover and vaporetto boats in Venice. It was very exciting to venture out on our own and we met some great people along the way. With careful planning, we always made it back to the ship with time to spare. We separated the book and only carried the section for each port with us. Monaco, Dubrovnik, Venice and Malta were the easiest to navigate on our own. Naples , the most difficult but still very doable. We took the train to Pompei-buy tickets at the newsstand as you exit the port.
