JaxandCo

Travelling this August with the family to Italy - we have planned out most of the trip but just need to finalise the last part. We have the choice of 4 nights in Florence and 5 nights in Venice or we could do it the other way (5 night Florence/4 nights Venice). What do you think?

Our children are 16, 14, 13, 13 and 7 and we would have already visited Rome and Naples. We want to limit it to just Florence and Venice as we are using apartments as our accommodation and they usually want a 3 night commitment.

Still at early stages to what we will exactly be planning to see/visit in these places but it will include in Florence exploring the centre and its art galleries (although we do need to consider the 7 year old's tolerance levels) plus a trip to Siena and maybe Pisa. With Venice it will be exploring the city with no side trips yet planed although Verona has an appeal. We are also keen to explore a sea kayaking trip in Venice. We will be using public transport.

Anyway we are flexible - just not sure which place we should consider longer at?

Our departure airport is Milan - a late flight which we will travel to on the day from Venice!

Thank you.

vincenzo32951

I wouldn't argue much either way, but I guess I'd go with 5 Venice and 4 Florence.

I think if you plan day trips to Verona and Burano/Murano/Torcello, you'll need 5 days in Venice.

Florence is compact, and I think you could cover the basics in 3 days, plus a day in Siena.

KTtravel

I think it would depend on how many side trips you'd like to do. There are more "sights" to see in Florence but Venice would be a lovely place to relax and have time to just wander around. I am interested in learning about the sea kayaking you mention.

Anyway, I'd probably do 5 in Florence and 4 in Venice depending on how many side trips you are thinking of. You really can't go wrong either way. Enjoy!

kja

I'm probably not the best person to ask -- I spent 5 full days in Florence and didn't see everything I wanted to see, even though I didn't take ANY side trips!

sarge56

With kids, I would definitely do 4 in Venice and 5 in Florence.

There is plenty to see/do in Florence for 5 or 6 days. But you can take a trip to Siena one day and Pisa another. But the rest of the time, you should have plenty to do in Florence. (You might consider booking a driver in Florence one day to take you all out to the Tuscan countryside; maybe Pienza/San Quirico/Montalcino.)

Buon viaggio!

bvlenci

Florence is a city for art lovers. I don't know how much of what there is to see will be interesting for your kids. I would be inclined to add the extra day to Venice. Another reason would be that Florence in August can be extremely hot and humid (often hotter and more humid than Rome), and it's always practically sinking under the weight of the tourists. It has almost as many tourists as Rome does, squeezed into a much smaller area.

From Florence, you could visit Lucca, a lovely small city with a massive city wall. The top of the wall has been turned into a park, where you can rent bikes and cycle around the perimeter of the wall. It's just a very pleasant town, and worth a day. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to stay in Lucca and visit Florence by train. Pisa is also very close to Lucca, by train or bus. You could even perhaps go to the beach one day; there's a bus from Lucca that stops at the major beaches between Marina di Carrara and Viareggio. (I've never visited any of these beaches, but some of them are very well known.)

If you decide to stay in Florence, you could spend an afternoon in Fiesole, on a hill above the city, with great views (if it isn't hazy) and where you might catch a breeze.

You might also consider the medieval hill town of Orvieto (2 hours by train); or Assisi (about 3 hours by train).

One museum that might interest the whole family is the Pitti Palace, which is really a complex of several museums, including a costume museum, in a palace that belonged to the Medici family. The Boboli Gardens, part of the complex, are very nice, but once I went there in August, and it was really too hot to even walk across the garden.

Verona is a beautiful city, with a well-preserved Roman amphitheater, the Arena, where the summer opera festival is held.

From Venice, you might consider a day trip to Trieste (2 hours by train), where there is a whiff of the Austria-Hungarian empire. There is a beautiful castle there, called Miramare.

You might consider staying on the Lido in Venice, so your kids could go to the beach in the late afternoon. Just make sure you stay near a vaporetto stop, for ease in getting back and forth from the center of Venice.

NYCFoodSnob

I would not enjoy a visit to Florence in August. Too hot and too humid. If I had to be there on business, I would want to stay at Torre di Bellosquardo. They have a lovely pool and their view of the city is the best.

Venice can be awful in August, too, but at least it doesn't have the car/bus/truck exhaust fumes, and there's the beach at Lido. One can escape the heat in Venice if one knows how.

jangita

Do your 4 or 5 days in Venice include the travel day to the airport in Milan? You will probably have to train into Milan and change to the airport train or bus. And with having to be and hour or 2 before your flight it's basically a whole day.

If so, I would put the 5 days in Venice.
For day trips, I would limit travel time to an hour or under, especially with kids.

JaxandCo

Thank you for your replies, interesting! We did look in to Lucca but struggling to find a suitable apartment in the town to stay in, plenty out of it but we won't be driving. We also felt that it would add an extra hour plus to our journey travelling from Naples and on to Venice - passing through Florence both times. We also thought that if we stayed there we would probably want to visit Florence more than just for one day...and as we 'have' to visit Siena it was just as easy from Florence.

So we decided that staying in Florence would work for the 4 full days that we have with a day trip to Siena and a day in Lucca and 2 full days in Florence. Plus there are pools we can access easier in Florence than in Lucca! Will try and limit the art galleries (sigh!) but the kids are avid readers and thankfully have devoured a series that has many reference points in Florence so are enthused about it (so they say!). Thank you - the Pitti Palace sounds great - on my list! NYCFoodSnob - the Torre di Bellosquardo looks wonderful unfortunately the apartment is only for 5 - we are a family of 7- far too many at times! Apart from the Lido - do you have any other ideas on how to escape the heat in Venice. Due to school holidays we have no other choice but that month!

It will give us only 3 full days in Venice which will just have to do this time round - 2 exploring and one at the Lido we are thinking...no days trips - plus we were in northern Italy last summer so happy to enjoy Venice.

sarge56

JaxandCo- one of my favorite places in Florence is Santa Croce. Therein lies not just a beautiful church, but permanent resting places for Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Rossini, Galileo and other well-known Italians.

And while the Duomo is always a "must", please consider also buying a ticket to see the Baptistry (that lies just in front of the Duomo). It is small, but stunning. (Dante was baptized there!)

Buon viaggio! I love Florence and I think, depending on where you are traveling from, may or may not make you wilt. (I live in Texas, and there aren't many places I travel where it is "cooler" than home in August! haha)