Italy or bust

My parents told me that for Christmas they are going to buy mine and my husband's plane tickets to Italy because they don't want us to have to wait til 2012 to go. I've mentioned before on here that we are steadily saving for a whirlwind two week trip, but because of our slow progress in that department, we hadn't planned to go until 2012, or The Year I Turn 30 (dum dum dummmm).

Because of their generous offer (which of course we jumped on right away, I don't turn down presents, no matter how generous or uncalled for) we have amped up the planning process. We're thinking September next year. I made our itinerary the other night:

Fly into Naples, spend the night
Explore Naples- one day
Day trip from Naples to Pompeii
If we can, day trip from Naples to Positano and/or Sorrento
Train to Rome, explore Rome the rest of that day
Two more days to explore Rome, leave later second day
Train to Florence
One day to explore Florence
Day trip to Pisa
Train to Venice, stopping in Bologna and Ferrara, so taking a day
Full day in Venice
Tentative: Next day train to Vienna (all day train)
Two days in Vienna
Fly home

So including all the tentative plans and flight days, that's a full 15 days. Wow. What an amazing trip it would be if we can pull it off.

Naples worries me. All I've ever heard about it is that it's run by the Mafia and it's dangerous. I don't know anything about the city though. I've been to both Pompeii and Sorrento and loved them, so I want husband to see them. My alternative plan would be to fly into Naples and directly catch a bus or train to Sorrento, making that our "stay" those couple days instead of Naples. But we would probably have to go back into Naples to get the train to Rome. I'm concerned that with the traveling I've done in Italy no one has ever thought to take me into Naples. Is that a bad sign?

On the other end of the trip, we have friends in Vienna we'd love to see, and I've never been there and am dying to go. It's a full 8 hour train ride from Venice, but it may be worth it.

I feel like I'm leaving out so much. I want to go to Sicily, I'd love to go to Capri, I want to see Lake Como and the Alps, I loved Assisi and want to take him there too but can't figure out how to add it in. There's only so much that can be done.

His mom asked us the other day to make our Christmas lists, and my first thought was "money!" But it being his extended family doing the giving, I dutifully made a list of easily accessible and wrappable items like books, cds, and other randoms that I don't really need or want (although I did add a disclaimer at the top that cash is perfectly acceptable). I'm not asking the parents for a single other thing, though, not after that gesture. I need to think of something great to get them.