aduncan

Okay, wanted to run our itinerary by the forum and see if anyone has suggestions on anything I'm missing for a family of four's first visit to Italy. We have a 13-year-old boy, 16-year-old girl as well as my husband and I, and two weeks to pack it all in.

Day 1--Travel day, arrive in Rome around 9:40. Get to hotel hopefully by noon, then do hop -on, hop-off bus tour of Rome (thinking Roma Pass??) and then possibly the Pantheon before dinner and an early night.

Day 2--9 a.m. tour of Galleria Borghesse (hoping for a tour with a docent??), followed by some time in the gardens. Then the Carpuchian crypt (spelling?? Where the bones of the brothers are used). Lunch and rest time. Around 4 do the Forum and the Collesuim, followed by a night walking tour of the fountains and piazzas.

Day 3--7:30 a.m. early tour of Sistine Chapel, then rest of the morning (as long as the kids can take it) in the Vatican museums Would like to tour St. Peters and participate in Mass there (children and husband are Catholic), but don't have much information about that.

Considering tour of the Vatican gardens--worth it?

Afternoon off and shopping.

Day 4--Travel by train to Umbria. Rent a car in Perugia. There through Day 11 in country house with pool, near Todi. Planning day trips to explore the following:
Perugia
Oviento
Torgiano
Assisi
Football game (soccer) or even baseball??
Dance/festival or some type of community celebration
Other????

Day 11--train to Florence. Try to arrive for English language Mass at Duomo at 5. Explore. Bed

Day 12--Uffizi, Duomo tour. Wandering.

Day 13--Shopping in Florence, see David. Other??? Take train to Rome in afternoon for final dinner with friends, and then nighttime last look around.

Day 14--head home.

We really just decided to add Florence to the trip, so could use advice there. Otherwise, is this reasonable? Too much?? Missing anything big or perfect for kids??

Thanks!

bobthenavigator

Why not train to Orvieto?
Less time, closer to Todi, and easier to drive out.

Try not to miss Spello and Bevagna.

Mimar

Bob is suggesting picking up your rental car in Orvieto. It's closer to Rome and easier to drive out of than Perugia. But check the open hours of the car rental agency.

You'll be jetlagged that first day in Rome. Better to keep moving on foot that sit down in a bus. You'll probably fall asleep. Walking in the open air helps you get over jetlag.

Have you considered Venice instead of Florence? It's of more interest to kids, a city without roads, cars, trucks, vespas. Instead there are gondolas and waterbuses. Since it's not very big and is bounded by water, you can wander around getting lost -- and found.

Ideally you'd fly into Venice and out of Rome, but you may already have your plane tickets. If not, consider an open jaws routing. It could also be into Rome, out of Venice or Pisa (an easy train ride from Florence.) Open jaws is labeled multi-city on airline web sites. It should cost about the same as roundtrip and save you the time and money spent backtracking to your arrival city.

adrienne

<< tour of Galleria Borghesse (hoping for a tour with a docent??) >>

You buy the docent-led tour tickets when you get to the museum. Have you read about picking up tickets and checking bags? You should split up and someone take care of each item. Be at the museum 30 minutes before your ticket time to get everything done,

<<7:30 a.m. early tour of Sistine Chapel, then rest of the morning (as long as the kids can take it) in the Vatican museums >>

The Sistine Chapel is at the very end of the museums so you have to backtrack to see the museums and then head back toward the Sistine Chapel to go out to St. Peter's. Or you can walk around to St. Peter's square - long walk.

In Florance you can take the bus to Fiesole, perhaps visit the amphitheater. The bus up and back is wonderful for the views. Other good views of Florence is from Piazzale Michelangelo - either take the bus or walk up.

kybourbon

>>>Day 4--Travel by train to Umbria. Rent a car in Perugia<<<

Pick up the car in Orvieto or Foligno.

aduncan

Thanks. We have our plane tickets already purchased and did in and out of Rome. When I looked at pricing it was adding quite a bit to each ticket to do different cities in and out, and then it seemed like quite a bit of time to spend getting to Venice and back--I was seeing maybe 5 hours via train? Is that accurate?

I wondered on St. Peters about doing that in the afternoon, maybe in a separate trip? I like being able to have some peaceful time in the Chapel, which sounds most likely to happen with that early morning entry. Other thoughts?

Thanks for the suggestion on Orvieto. That sounds like a good idea.

annhig

ok - let's start with Rome:
Day 1--Travel day, arrive in Rome around 9:40. Get to hotel hopefully by noon, then do hop -on, hop-off bus tour of Rome (thinking Roma Pass??) and then possibly the Pantheon before dinner and an early night.

can't argue with this - but you can probably see things like the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, even the spanish steps - before jetlag hits.

Day 2--don't reckon on wanting an early start. i suggest starting with the Colosseum and Forum [use the Roma pass as your first entry so you don't need to book any times] and then explore the capitoline and Vittoriano - the teens we were in Rome with recently loved it. shopping in the via del Corso [straight on from the Vittoriano]. Borghese gallery at 4pm [need to book on the phone if you're going to use the Roma pass]

Day 3 - i would suggest booking tickets for the Vatican museums on line. [you have to pay in cash when you get there as the banks won't allow the Vatican bank to use credit cards at the moment]. in the week we were in Rome, the queues were very variable, and you can't rely upon them being shorter at any one time. As adrienne stated above, the Sistine chapel is at the end of the museums, and it'll take at least an hour to get there, longer if you actually stop and look at anything! you are unlikely to be in there with no-one else, but i suppose if you sprinted you could get there before the hoards, and then go round the rest of the museums at your leisure.

I don't know about attending a mass - there are masses being said in St. Peter's all the time, you'd have to look on the Vatican website for further details.

once you've had your fill of the vatican museums, rather than walking all the way back to the entrance [which is also the exit] and then back round the Vatican walls to St. Peter's, and queuing again to get through security, you can exit the sistine chapel by the little door at the back of the chapel on the right [not the one just behind the screen on the left] go down the stairs, then through the door on your left, down more steps, and there you are at the front of the Basilica. this doesn't work if you've used an audio guide as you need to return it to the desk where you rented it at the entrance.

<<tour of the Vatican gardens--worth it?>>

I've never been to Rome at the right time to do a garden tour, perhaps other people can advise on this.

I like Adrienne's suggestion about Fiesole - it's a very nice 1/2 day excursion, and there's a lovely restaurant in the square outside the amphitheatre.

Mimar

It IS a long train ride Umbria to Venice. You could drive instead, dropping the car at the Piazzale Roma on the edge of Venice. Train from Venice to Rome is 3.5 hours.

Unless you got a VERY special deal, open jaws tickets are very close in cost to round-trip tickets. Open jaws are not two separate flights. Did you look at the multi-city routing?

However, you already have your plane tickets -- unless you think it's worth the change fee.