10 days in Italy & Greece this August
 

I would appreciate any advice on traveling around Italy primarily and possible Greece this summer for 10 days. One of my kids will be taking a credit course in Italy for August and I thought the rest of us could tour around as well. The problem for us is that I am the only one interested in art and architecture wheres my husband and 2 teenage daughters only crave the beaches. Any suggestions on how to balance this is helpful. Thank you.

sorry for the typo--whereas

Where is your daughter studying? How did you plan to get to Greece?

Well, ordinarily I'd say just stay in Italy. But the beaches there will be crowded with Italians, all of whom take August vacations. Greek beaches will be full also.

If you must stay at a beach place, make your reservations immediately. A good compromise is the Lido, a beachy island just off Venice, with easy vaporetto access to the city.

Thanks for the advice, Mimar! My daughter will be moving around Italy-Rome, Florence, Sardinia, & Siena-lucky for her! I am not trying to meet up with her and maybe Greece is over doing it. It may be possible for her to switch her course to July instead. This seems a better month for us to travel to avoid the August crowds.

YOu got THAT right! July, even late june.

My family has been to Italy a few times. Once was the end of when my daughter studied 5 weeks in Rome. On our first trip we did Go-today's Taste of Italy. We loved it! Nice hotels and super locations. Well timed train travel.
http://tinyurl.com/youlkf

Go from antiquity to modern world.
Be sure to start in Venice (2 nights)
Florence (2 nights) Rome (4 nights ...we added two)
Get Rick Steves book...he told us how to use the train and one citybus to get to Pisa from Florence... Make reservations for Florence museums in advance. NOW (I used Skype to make the calls).
While in Rome my daughters wanted the beach, they went back to the train station and took public transportation (subway) to Antica. Adults went to Ostia Antica (kinda like Pompeii archeological site)
Hope that helps!

BTW I agree with previous poster. June is better. July is too hot!
We have done late July/early August...and hopefully don't do that heat again.