Venice: Whatever you do, beware not to go to eat in restaurants in Piazza San Marco, many tourists got ripped off there recently. You’ll find cheaper options outside that particular Square. So, yeah, go there but not to eat :D
Do not feed the pigeons!! And I know this is unnecessary to say, but do not bathe in the waters!! (haha they’re filthy and it’s forbidden and despite that there are tourists who end up doing that??). Have loose change for the public toilets :D
The day you want to go to Venice, remember to Google “previsioni acqua alta venezia” (the tide forecast) the night before, if the tide chart shows more than 100/120cm water, you might need to buy rain boots or something like plastic bags to cover your shoes, but it’s unlikely it’ll happen in my opinion.
Also, that day you go to Venice I suggest you all to not bring heavy and bulky stuff like backpacks (leave your luggage at your friend’s house), just a light bag with your food in there will do, otherwise you’ll end up dying with all those bridges, or you’ll end up hitting someone with backpacks in the small streets packed with people for Carnevale.

(Remember to validate your train tickets BEFORE boarding the trains in Italy, you need to validate them at the station. I’ve seen many tourists that had no idea they were supposed to do that who ended up getting fines.)

well, I see you you already got nice suggestions both from Giselle and Lenor :)

will guys have a car? that could ease your movements (if you stuck with buses and trains you could waste more time waiting and see less)

If you go to Firenze, you may want to go to Pisa too (a bit more than 1h by car), which is small so you can see most of it in a day (the famous leaning tower of Pisa!) and then at another 30’+ by car there’s Viareggio, whose carnevale is as famous as Venezia’s.

If you’re up for something “weirder”, there’s also the carnevale of Ivrea, a more medieval-like one, where they do fight by throwing oranges at each other! D:
They also throw them at you, so you have to wear a red hat (check to be sure if this is correct if you decide to go) if you don’t want to be used as a target.
The problem is that Ivrea is in the north-west of Italy, so not very easy to include in you journey (about 2h by car from Milano). But, if you decide to take a deviation to the north-west part, you can see Torino, which was the first capital of Italy and where the king lived, thus there’s a lot to see. If you’re interested in wine, there’s also an area called le Langhe, famous for its wine production.

As far as I know, Bologna is a lively city by night, as it hosts lot of universitary students (that could be not true at the moment, since there should be exams around this time). Pisa too is a very universitary city but I think they spend more time doing “parties” at home instead than going outside. (or was it the other way around?)

and Milano is an important city, there’s something going on just about everyday..

oh, if you guys take the trains, watch out for pickpockets at stations! and there are also those who insist on helping you carrying your luggages or with those machines to self-make a ticket and want money in return. But if you’re a bunch you should have no problem, as they mostly target persons who travel alone. (remembered this because recently been to Milano’s central station and it was full of guards and controls)

enjoy your stay ^_^

they are not big fans of going to museums

Aww :( My family didn’t care about them either so I visited what I could alone. The art in Florence is as every bit of outside as it is inside :) There are street artists (our tour guide said they are mainly art students) painting the concrete floor for some money with paint that comes off in a couple of days or something. There are tons of very famous statues everywhere with lots of interesting stories behind them. If you go to Florence, you’ll definitely breathe the art even if you can’t visit any museums.

Oh strawberry is your favourite fruit? Ok you HAVE to go to Nemi during summer time then. In the link I shared I ate and drank those exact things they show in the pictures. Those strawberry tarts were to die for and I am not even that much of a fan of strawberry because in my country they tend to have no flavour whatsoever. I realised that I didn’t know what a real strawberry truly tasted like and I learned it there.

I read above that you will be going to Milan, it’s also a great option but personally northern Italy wasn’t for me because in Italy, the more north you go the richer everything and everyone get. Yea it’s undeniably pretty in my opinion but I could clearly see that I didn’t belong there and that was not a pleasant feeling. However in Milan there is this massive arena where they raced chariots, sadly it was in renovation when we went so we couldn’t enter it :’( Maybe you’ll have better luck.

I don’t leave my country ever because I don’t have the means for that so this Italy trip was like once in a life time opportunity for me. I live in a very boring country which I don’t like and where I don’t feel like I belong at all so it felt great to get lost in their culture, food and art during the very brief time I was there (one week).