captainmoroni

Going to Italy for the first time. Planning on mid March of 2006 for about 2 weeks. Family of 5 - three teenage daughters. Could fly into Rome and out of Milan any other open jaw. Would appreciate recommendations on locations, duration of time in each place and travel recommendations within Italy. Thanks.

rex

Hi, and welcome to the <i>Europe</i> forum. This is a fairly broad, open-ended (set of) question(s). Is this trip to have a focus? With teenage daughters... perhaps not a quest for wine, nor gourmet dining? Generally all &quot;urban&quot;, or do you have an interest in the countryside(s) of Italy? Want to incorporate time at the sea? Since you're going well before Italy's summer (in your autumn? are you from Australia? or just posted a number of questions on the Australia forum?) - - perhaps the Naples/Campania area... or the Aeolian islands, or Sicily might make for a contrast to other destinations on your list.

And I will get drummed out of here, if I do not recommend that you spend a minimum of 2 or 3 nights in Venice.

Chances are, you already have started putting more thought into this, than you have indicated,

Tell us more; &quot;we&quot; can help you better that way.

Best wishes,

Rex

captainmoroni

Thanks for the welcome to the Europe forum! We have been many places in Europe, but never Italy. This trip is the brainchild of my daughter who is graduating from high school in 2006. It is her graduation family trip.

Because of the time of year, we are not especially interested in time at the sea. Additionally, we are not in search for wine.

Our desire is to take in as much of the country and culture as possible while not driving ourselves to exhaustion. We do want to spend time in Venice, Rome, Naples, etc. Looking at Fodors 'best' days in various Italian cities, it appears that spending a month would not be enough. We are looking for recommendations based on our limited time. Thanks.

Melissa5

Captainmoroni, with teenage daughters, I recommend you spend your 2 weeks visiting Rome, Pompeii, and Venice.

Don't include too many cities, because teens like time to shop, time to use the computer in the hotel lobby, time to sleep in occasionally, time to return for a second visit to their favorite spot, time to climb up hundreds of steps to the top of towers...

We had an amazing first family trip to Italy last June with our 2 teen daughters, who were 16 and 17 at the time...my son was 22 at the time.

By a unanimous family vote, Rome was everyone's favorite. My teen daughters absolutely loved St. Peter's, and chose to spend their &quot;free choice day&quot; by returning to St. Peter's for another look and to climb up the tower, which we didn't have time for the 1st day.

THE SECRET TO LOVING ROME: Choose a centrally located hotel, in an atmospheric neighborhood, within walking distance of some major sights and fun ristorantes, gelato, piazzas, etc. Carefully plan your museum visits for the least crowded time of day.

Hire a good private licensed tour guide for about 3 hours for a private tour of Ancient rome...Allows your teens to ask lots of questions about the colosseum, roman forum, etc. without having to listen to a talk geared for old folks!

See St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums on your own, no tour guide, just bring a couple copies of Mona Winks, available on rick Steves web-site and in bookstores, an entertaining guide to the major museum sights in Europe. Teens can relate to it...so can adults.

We also saw Florence but my teens said it was a city to get in, see what you gotta see, and then get out of there. They didn't like the city itself. Teen daughters will like seeing Michelangelo's giant statue of David, though, in the Uffizi gallery in florence! But florence was their least favorite city experience.

Teen daughters love Venice...they both voted it as the place to return for a honeymoon someday!

Everyone in the family agreed we must return and spend a whole week in Rome some day. (We had 4 wonderful nights in Rome.)

Get a private tour guide for Pompeii...We didn't have a guide and it's a big place, and confusing, hard to find things on the map on your own. I suggest a minimum of 4 hours to explore the actual ruins of Pompeii; Pompeii is really too far from Rome for a relaxing day-tour. Better to stay maybe in Naples for a couple nights if you want to see Pompeii. Or you could stay in Sorrento for a couple nights to see Pompeii, but Sorrento is harder to get to. Naples is easier to get to because the Eurostar trains go between the major cities of Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice.

So, in order to include Pompeii in your schedule, I'd suggest you spend your 2 weeks like this, and use the Eurostar train as transportation between major cities:

Venice, 4 nights;
(Buy a 3-day vaporetto pass for 22 euros each, gives you unlimited on and off privileges on the vaporetto, big public &quot;taxi boats&quot;, includes little islands of murano and burano...)

Rome, 5 nights;

Naples or Sorrento, 3 nights (as a base for seeing Pompeii)

This is 12 nights; if you want 2 more nights, add them wherever you wish, or else you can include 2 nights in Florence just to see Michelangelo's David at the Accademia museum!

For the average teen, if they see the Vatican Museums in Rome, they can skip the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Give a teen too many art museums and you can burn them out... Better to give them a taste that will leave them hungry to go back for more someday!

Italy is a great trip with teens! Enjoy! And make everyone practice some Italian at the dinner table before you go...enriches the experience in Italy.

Colin

Are you planning on hiring a car or travelling by train ?

I guess it makes a difference to how rural you get.

The big top five cities of Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice and Milan would be easy to do along the railtracks.

My only advice would be to take it slowly. Don't try and cram them all in.
I'd pick three locations and try to get into that groove.

Also, with three teenage daughters in Italy, save all the shopping until you reach Milan otherwise you'll have to hire a porter to carry your luggage!


______________________________________
Rome &amp; Florence Travelogue
http://www.colin-julie.com/travel.htm

panucci

We have been to Italy many times with our daughters and they love Venice, Cinque Terre and Rome the most. When we go to Cinque Terre we stay in Porto Venere which is not as crowded. Actually our best trip was the above and included 2 nights in Lake Como, but I think we were there a little longer than two weeks.

rex

Put your daughter in charge, or in a co-pilot seat... of the planning of this trip. Have her join you here.

treplow

If your teenagers like to do some hiking, I second the suggestion of Cinque Terre. To avoid having to &quot;pick-up and go&quot; too many times you may want to stay in Rapallo and take the train to one of the C.T villages, and return in the evening by train. From R. you then can also take the bus to Portofino and the train to Genua for additional day trips.

March, of course, is not the best time anyplace in mid-to northern Italy. But if your dauighters are skiers or snowboarders, include a few days in Cortina or any of the resorts in the Val Gardena (north of Bolzano).

touristblob

captainmoroni
heres my thoughts fly into rome
4 nights in rome then train or car south
3 nights sorrento then train or car
4 nights in siena and day trips to all the towns and florence ,need a car
3 nights venice dont need a car ,train to milan fly home
enjoy

jgg

Melissa gave you some good advice and I just want to reiterate some of the things she said. We went to Italy for the first time this March with our two kids (age 9 and 12). We did Rome 6 nights, Venice 4 and Florence 4. We thought the distribution of days was perfect (not that we couldn't have stayed longer! But with 14 nights it was great.)

I agree, to thoroughly enjoy Rome you should be centrally located, preferably near the Pantheon. We stayed at the Albergo Cesari which is an excellent location. We were in the quad room which is really quite large and I feel could easily fit an extra bed. However, despite the fact that the bathroom is also a fairly good size, I'm guessing maybe one bathroom is not enough for 3 teenage girls and their parents.

I would definitely recommend a private guide for Ancient Rome (Colesseum, Forum, Domus Aurea) we had one for the vatican as well, Having a private tour gives you the flexibility to see what you want, move on when you are ready and eat when you are hungry.

I have to also agree with Melissa that Florence was our least favorite. Not really sure why, just was. However, we are glad we went. We did Rick Steve's guide to the Uffizi and really enjoyed seeing the museum that way. My twelve year old says she definitely wants to see other museums that way. Just be sure and make a copy for everyone to follow. I didn't, and we were all trying to read over each other's shoulder.

We loved Venice, so I would strongly recommend you go there.

With three teenage girls be sure and leave plenty of time for shopping, gelato and sipping espresso. You will all have a wonderful time.

LoveItaly

Interesting thread with lots of interesting post. When my daughter was 17 her two favorite places (not counting Capri) was Rome and Venice. She only got real enthused about Florence because of the hotel we stayed in. We had a beautiful time everywhere of course but I notice to this day when she talks about her first trip to Italy it (besides Capri - a long story) is about Rome and Venice. Have a beautiful trip captainmoroni with your family. A trip that memories are made of.

TRSW

I agree with Rex. Since it is her graduation trip, make your daughter your &quot;co-pilot&quot; . Find out what she wants to do /see.

Most of all, have a great trip!! Looking forward to reading you trip report when you get back.

Tom

Lois_L

Save the shopping, are you kidding??? After a few hours of historical sightseeing, our teenaged girls looked forward to browsing through shops, as much to admire the Italian sense of style as to buy anything (with the low $US against the euro, everything was extremely expensive). We did invest in a couple of those butter-soft leather handbags, which are unavailable in the U.S., some gloves and high-fashion denim. In Rome, we found it impossible to only view museums and historical sites--it is a vacation, after all, and sometimes you need to put your mind in low gear, relax with a gelato, and soak up local atmosphere. A week in Rome didn't give us enough time to see everything. Instead of taking the time to schlep to Pompeii, our girls were very satisfied with a 1/2 day excursion, via local commuter train (1/2 hour trip) to Ostia Antica. As a change of pace from visiting cities, you might rent a car outside Rome (at the airport, after spending time in Rome), then spend a few days staying just outside of Florence, so you could go into the small city and tour (parking is impossible, of course), and also drive to Siena, San Gimignano, etc. You could continue driving to Venice, seeing towns along the way, drop the car at the airport, and finish with a couple of days in Venice.

captainmoroni

Thanks to all for your recommendations. I have just shown my daughter all this info and indicated that she needs to jump in an do the planning with us.

Any other ideas on specific tour companies in Rome that cater to teenagers would be helpful.