For us, we did not bookend our trip at all, and it was HARD!!! 20+ hours travel time each way takes a lot out of a person (drive to BART, BART to SFO, SFO to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Florence, bus to train station, train to another train station, and then a cab to our final destination -- and then the same in reverse to go back home -- yikes!!!). I set my watch to Italy time as soon as we boarded our plane in SF and made sure I kept myself awake during Italy daytime hours and made myself "sleep" during Italy night-time hours. Still woke up rarin' to go at about 2 or 3am the first morning! Getting on the bike and getting going that first day helped a lot and I had no problem with jet lag or anything while we were there. My DH had it harder because he didn't sleep at all during travel.

We were only in Italy for 5 days. Returning to the States was MUCH HARDER. Upon return we both slept like rocks for umpteen hours straight. I had one full day to recuperate and then back to work. That whole week I felt like I'd been run over by a Mac truck -- felt like I had the flu or something. I wanted to crawl under my desk and fall into a coma.

If I had to do it again, I would have taken the week after off of work to rest and reacclimate.