Italy

If you go to Lake Como, go to a place called Bellagio (Very beautiful, great rest and shops).We stayed across from Bellagio at a placed called Varrena at a hotel called Hotel Victoria.

I would recommend going to Cinque Terre (Stay in Santa Margarita which is 1hr north on the train. SM has sensational beachside bars which are packedduring summer. We stayed at Hotel Fasce which is a 2/3 star run by a British lady. A day trip to the Cinque Terre is plenty).

If you go to Florence, stay near the Duomo. I have been told Hotel Aprile is very nice. 30min from Florence is a placed called San Gimignano which is an incredible Tuscan Medieval town. We stayed at a beautiful 14th century villa hotel called Hotel Leon Bianco.

Croatia

 Arrive in Dubrovnik (Fly from Rome on Croatian Airlines which leaves once a week to Dubrovnik or Split). You can either stay just out of the main town (We stayed in Lapad which has mostly 3 star hotels. We stayed at Hotel Uvala (4 Stars) which was great. We had views of the water and had a beach across the road. The number 4 bus left outside our hotel every 20mins into the Old Town. The hotel can give you return tickets for $3-4. Hotel Vis, Komodor were others in the area). Or you could stay right in the Old Town in an apartment which friends of mine did. I would highly recommend this as the Old Town is where you want to be if you only have a few nights. My friends stayed at a place called Bura Apartments in Dubrovnik. Very Good, clean and top position.The girl whoowns it is called Tonka.It cost approx $100 a night.

Dubrovnik: Make sure at about 4pm that you walk around the great wall of the OLd Town. It takes about 1.5hr to walk around and the views of the Adriatic are amazing. It costs about $35 each.

Dinner in Dubrovnik: Make sure you walk up and down the Stradun in the Old Town and there are lots of laneways which you can walk down for nice Restuarants. In each alleyway there are signs with the names of the restaurants. One nice one we found was Called Regausa Number 2.

I would stay a minimum of 2-3 nights in the Old Town. There is a great beach just outside the Old Town which has great swimming. From Dubrovnik you can get an air conditioned bus to Split (Cost about $25 each.) It runs 3-4 times a day and takes about 4.5hrs. It is like the great Ocean rd, very beautiful.

I would try and get 3 nights on the Island of Hvar (1hr Fast Ferry from Split and leaves 1-2 times a day) or the Island of Brac at a place called Bol. We stayed at Bol at a beautiful place called Villa Giardino. The hydrofoil leaves for Bol everyday around 4pm and leaves each morning at 6am back to Split.The Islands are trully beautiful. Bol has the most famous beach in Croatia (It rained when we were there unfortunately)

Get hydrofoil back to Split and fly out of Split. If you can't get a flight until next day, stay in a place called Trogir at Hotel Paske which is 5-10 mins from airport. It is a very pretty little town You can always do this the other way around. We flew from Rome to Split and then flew out of Dubrovnik.