gennarun

Hello,

We are planning to go to Italy in Feb. We will have three weeks and plan to spend them in Rome, Tuscany and Venice.

Any thoughts on affordable accommodations? We have three small children and it seems that the hotels won't allow three kids in the same room!?

Als, should we rent a car or take the train to these cities/region? We are looking to stay near Lucca in Tuscany. Thanks for your help!

vjpblovesitaly

look into apartment rental

J62

5 people I'd definitely recommend apartments. www.slowtrav.com is a good place to start to look for apt recommendations.

If you haven't yet booked your flights I recommend an open jaw ticket - i.e. fly into Rome and out of Venice, or perhaps out of Pisa or Florence.

For Rome & Venice definitely plan on using the train. For more rural Tuscany a car is needed.


In Rome we stayed here: http://www.residenzagiubbonari.com/home.html.

In Venice we used www.venicerentals.com. Denise there was very helpful making recommendation on apartment, working out all details, meeting us upon arrival, etc.

nytraveler

Do you mean that the hotels won;t put 3 kids in one room? Or 5 people in one room? That's a big difference.

Since you'll be 3 weeks in only a few places staying in an apartment does make sense. But - you can also look for hotels that have "family rooms" or 2 connecting rooms that should work for you.

(Hotel rooms in europe are generally much smaller than in the us and 5 people simply won;t fit - since most have - and have room for - one double or 2 single beds.)

Motorino

Flying into one city out of the other will save lots of time and frustration.

I'd do one week in three places, renting an apartment in each place.

February may be raw, damp and chilly. Rome is always fun. Lucca and the coast is a better choice than touring towns, but it will be damp.

I'd skip Venice this trip, optng to rent an apartment close in Padua, or even better Parma, where it may be drier and where you have plenty of day trips.

Rome, Venice, Parma, Padua no need for a car.

Lucca no real need for a car. Maybe a car for a day or two to travel to some towns like Volterra, Siena, and San Gimignano.

Train to Florence, Pisa, Pietrasanta is no problem.

lynnalan

I would suggest taking the train to Florence and picking up a rental car there. Driving in Rome is very challenging (even just driving out of Rome from the car rental) and the train ride is easy and lovely.

There are great rental places in Tuscany - we stayed a week near Siena in a 3 br apartment and found it to be an ideal location. Try to locate near a highway as the remote locations can be difficult to navigate esp if your kids are prone to carsickness (as we learned the hard way ours was!)

I am not sure I would spend a week in Venice.

Henry

gennarun,
My trip report travelling with five people may give you some ideas. http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35046872
You can e-mail if you have questions.

Henry

DalaiLlama

Lynnalan is right - a week in Venice with 3 little ones is not a good idea. You'll be forever running after them trying to prevent a fall into a canal... And it's not a city for kids after the first day of walking around pretending to be playing hide-and-seek. That gets old quickly.

Venice just doesn't seem to fit into this trip. Despite what you're hearing and reading, it will still be there in the few years it takes before your kids are "old enough" for Venice. (But if you must - the idea of staying nearby and commuting is a good one - from Padua it is a half hour on the train, but there would be nicer places than the city of Padua - sure, nice for adults but not for a family with kids).

Are you flying into Rome and back home from Rome? If so, rent a car at the Rome airport the day you leave Rome for Tuscany, then you simply ditch it there on your way out of Italy.

The environs of Lucca is a fine idea if you have a car - you can be in Pisa in half an hour, in Florence in an hour - just plan on where to park and take the bus into town, like maybe near the Porta di Roma or Pzle Michelangelo - and in Siena in under two hours.

I'd say a week in Rome (it is tiring!) and the rest in Lucca, in a rented apartment or even a house where you can live like a relaxed family, making your own familiar breakfast in your own kitchen, having room to lounge about and spread out when you want to do nothing for a change (all things not possible in hotels).

Time will fly, and you won't have to try and deal with too many memories from too many places where you stayed - the memories from all the fun places you will visit will already be enough, but the comforts of home away from home are important!

zeppole

Where are you looking to stay near Lucca in February? Lucca can get quite cold at that time of year, and the hills around Lucca can be icy and snowy. In fact, with small children, I would recommend if you must be in that area in February, that you consider booking an apartment in Lucca near the train station and forget about a car.

Lucca is a good place for children because there is almost no traffic allowed inside the walls. If you pick an apartment close to the train station, you can visit Pisa and Florence easily without a car.

I stayed in this apartment and the price is right for that time of year.

http://www.knowital.com/tuscany/lucc.../rentals2.html

If you do want a car, it only about 10 euros a day to park it at the train station. But you shouldn't think about visiting places like San Gimignano and other hilltowns in Tuscany in February. You can't count on being able to drive to Siena if the weather has gone freezing. You should stick to low lying areas near the coast.

But the train from Lucca can take you to a lot of interesting small towns, like Pistoia and Montecatani Terme, where maybe everybody would think it was fun to go to the baths.

zeppole

Also, I keep reading on Fodor's that taking small children to Venice is a bad idea because they can fall into a canal!

People, please. Children do not fall into canals in Venice. It is far more nerve-wracking and dangerous to shepherd small children through any Italian city or town that allows car traffic.

The real problem is that in February, Northern Italy can be cold and damp and that small children need to run around and be outdoors. Heating in Italy is not always generous. But I would sooner take them to traffic free Venice than other places I'm seeing recommended here. (The area around the monuments in Pisa is car-free and kid friendly.)

hmmm

We are a family with three children, 10-13 (all girls), who did this trip last spring. We agree that you should investigate apartments. Three weeks is a very long time to spend in close quarters enjoying each other's company in a hotel. That third kid is the challenge in finding hotels. Most travel sites won't entertain searches for one "room" at hotels, even if the hotel has two room suites. And, we had one hotel in Venice tell us we needed three rooms for the 5 of us.

In Venice we rented two very nice apartments through a hotel, La Calcina, on the Dorsoduro canal. The hotel, which consistently gets high reviews on this site, furnished daily housekeeping and breakfast. Service was very good.

My children absolutely loved feeding the pigeons in St. Mark's piazza, Venice. Also loved a day trip from Rome to Pompeii and Positano.

Trains are a terrific means of traveling between cities. Driving in Rome is nightmarish, and not possible in Venice.

Have a great trip.

Mimar

The only time you'd want a car on this trip is for rural Tuscany. And rural Tuscany is not as attractive in February. Trains are great for kids. There's plenty of space, they can move around and play on the floor, and the toilet's just at the end of the car. Plus the excitement of eating a meal on the train.

For a trip in February, stick to the bigger towns with things to do in bad weather. Or reschedule for a warmer time of year. We used to take family trips right after school was out in June. The weather was not yet really hot and the locations not so crowded.

You don't say the ages of the 3 children. They must be below school age to be gone for 3 weeks. (Unless the OP is in the southern hemisphere and the kids on summer vacation.) I wouldn't want to deal with a two-year-old in Venice. Four or five would be okay, subject to the kid's individual personality.

I disagree with DalaiLlama. There's plenty in Venice to entertain kids for several days: the vaporetti, the gondolas, the pigeons in Piazza San Marco, Burano and Murano, even the Lido. And, when you travel with kids, you can't sightsee so much on a given day. Things slow down.

DalaiLlama

Zeppole - I've seen panicked parents running after kids near the canals - there is not always a retaining wall. Not a pretty sight!

Mimar writes: "There's plenty in Venice to entertain kids for several days: the vaporetti, the gondolas, the pigeons in Piazza San Marco, Burano and Murano, even the Lido"

Sure sounds like fun, but in February? When it is possibly chilly, foggy, rainy, windy, flooded - and all that? And short daylight hours - what to do when it gets dark? With questionnable heating in those old buildings? Still sounds like fun? Not to me.