michelaa - I believe you were reported for advertising yesterday under a different name. I have reported you again.

Pardon? Are you referring to this post? If you are, I am not michelaa.

Don't you spend the second week in another location? Lake Garda is good for children, or Venice.

michelaa - I believe you were reported for advertising yesterday under a different name. I have reported you again.>>

frances - don't worry, jamikins doesn't mean you - there was an advertiser whose "comment has been removed by the moderators".

I like the Lake Garda suggestion. kids of the age of yours may not get a whole lot out of Florence and even if they are the world's best behaved children, they may well interfere with your enjoyment of it.

We stayed at a campsite on the island of Elba: www.villedegliulivi.com with our three kids around the ages of yours. It was so much fun we went back four times. It is a short walk into town, five minutes from the beach, and there is entertainment at the campsite. We stayed in a 2 bedroom caravan with bathrooms, kitchen, and deck - ate all our meals outside.

Elba is an hour ferry ride from Piombino, an hour south of Pisa. Very easy to get to, and a beautiful spot. Lots of other families on holiday and fun things for the kids.

I like the Lake Garda idea as well. Any ideas of places to stay?
Palatino82 - camping sounds advenutrous but just too much so for us this time. Will keep that idea for future trips.

Frances -when we visited Northern Italy with our kids then aged about 13 and 10 we stayed in Garda itself and we all loved it. all the boats stop there so you can get to the rest of the lake very easily, and you've got the aquapark and gardaland nearby too.

can't remember the name of the hotel we stayed at - but there are loads. just as long as you are within walking distance of the lake and have a swimming pool it should be fine.

Well, my two are a bit younger than yours, but the last couple of times we stayed in Tuscany we stayed at a place call Podere Patrignone. I've found their website http://www.patrignone.com but you're better off looking them up on TripAdvisor. Anyway, the family was lovely, they have kids of their own, and the place is stunning. We liked it so much we went back a couple of years later. This year we plan to go to the south of Italy so I'm hunting for a similar style place in Calabria, but it's not easy. I plan to post a question here to ask for help...good luck!

Thanks Luisa. I will file that one away for future trips. We ended up booking an additional week at Sant'Antonio to avoid moving the family around too much.

Moving kids around is a nightmare, isn't it? I try and do it as little as possible!