Grad. Trip - Final decision, Italy and Germany!
 

I've been asking questions on this forum for a little bit now. We are taking our soon to be 18 year old (and his girlfriend - yikes!) on a high school grad. trip to Europe. After MUCH debate, he's decided on Italy and Germany, (who knew Germany was even in the running?!) We are going to Rome and Venice while we are in Italy and have a question. On his "bucket list" is seeing a sunset on the coast. So I've been looking at maps and it looks like places like Civitavecchia are about an hour away. What are the realities of taking a day away from Rome (hard to do, I know) to get to the beach for the day. What's the best way to do this? Hire a car? Train? Where, within a reasonable drive/train trip from Rome would you suggest? Thank you so much for your help - you all are lifesavers!

Or you might consider viewing a sunset on the beach (just your son and his friend, assuming that two is company, and two plus parents is a mob) from the Lido in Venice.

From the Lido in Venice you can see sunrise but not sunset.

Near Rome, Fiumicino or Lido di Ostia are the places. In Fiumicino, you find romantic restaurants at the harbour.

It's well worth the trip to Sperlonga from Rome for a day at the beach, IMO.

Singita just opened a club in Fregene, a bus ride out of Rome, past the airport. Fregene used to be a posh Roman summer villa place (Fellini notably kept a villa there), then it fell into decline and now it is being revived again.

Singita makes a big deal out of the sunset!

(Be careful, the website has a soundtrack.)

http://www.singita.it/english/index.htm

reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.it/ShowUserRe...ene_Lazio.html

Directions to Fregene

http://www.frommers.com/destinations...064020290.html

A sunset RIDE in Venice in a gondola or even on a vaporetto--is the stuff of dreams. Doesn't even matter that it's off the east coast. TRUST me!

I knew Germany was in the running.

It never leaves the damn race.

Changes abound! Now Venice is out, (boo!) and a couple of days at the coast is in. Are these places you've been suggested good for a couple of days or would you suggest someplace a little further away? Especially considering we are heading from there to Germany. I'm hoping we have a decision now! Thanks you guys, your help is incredible!

I'm not sure what your itinerary is now.

If you want to spend beautiful days on the beach and you now have more travel time, the two spectacular beauty spots on the Italian Mediterranean are the Amalfi Coast and the Italian Riviera. Within those two places, there is a variety when it comes to how touristy and crowded they are, and how expensive they are.

The Amalfi area is an affluent self-indulgence destination with the advantage of proximity to Pompeii if seeing that appeals to your young adults. You can be on the Amalfi coast and enjoy hikes and simple pleasures for not much money if you plan for that. The Italian Riviera is more oriented toward egalitarian outdoor enjoyment, swimming and hiking, and is more youthful, vegetarian and backpack. While le Cinque Terre can be quite crowded, the rest of the area is mainly just cheap and fun, with a convenient train line running along the coast for some day trips -- but no really world-class sightseeing other than the scenery.

It can be quite pleasant to while away time in some of Italy's less celebrated beach towns -- Gaeta, Sperlonga, Porto Santo Stefano -- all near Rome. But if you've picked up a bit of travel time, it is worth the extra hour or two on the trains to get to the more amazing places where the towns hang on cliffs, surrounded by lemons or olives, above an amazingly blue sea.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Venice and least of all in summer when it is humid and jam-packed.

In case you didn't know, there is an overnight train from Rome to Munich. Pisa has cheap flights to Germany, I believe, as does Genova, as well as the usual airports.

If your young adults have any particular interests -- music, sports, food, career plans -- it can be fun to experience them in Italy.

If you want to see a bit of many things, I think Sicily is your best bet. There are beaches of all kinds, from white sand to black sand to cliff beaches. You can go to the Aeolians and pretend you're in the Greek islands. You can see a sunrise on the water, then a sunset on the water. Climb a few volcanoes too. Fly back to Germany with a stop to see Rome.