Planning a trip to italy...so many questions!?

for the cheap airfares i cannot give you any advice, because i'm from europe. i'd advice you to visit at least, rome, florence, and milano, all cities with shopping, art (and lot's of it!) and nightlife. In the main cities at least a bit english is spoken, in rome they are very used to tourists, so it won't be a problem at all. a hotel you can find between 40 and 200 euro's a night, it all depends on what you want to spend. also with food, there are very expensive "tourist" restaurants, and there are very good restaurants for a reasonable price. for example in rome at via sardegna ( a side street near villa borghese of the via veneto) there's "la bruschetta" . i'd advice you to make up a plan of each city you want to visit, and than to pose your questions on each city here on aswers, to get some more detailed answers. than you'll get a more clear idea of what is expecting you. but you need to know, in all cities it is very crowdy and they drive like crazy! you'll have to get used to it!