Italy in december
 

Our first trip to Europe with 2 college kids. All ideas welcome. Planning 4 days in Rome and have a week to see other areas in Italy.

December can be cold or cold and wet. You need a Plan B for any wet days. Are you butting up against Christmas, in which case may need more specific plans.

Not my favorite time for Italy but look at one of these three for the extra days

1) Naples/Herculanium/Pompeii
or
2) Florence and Siena
or
3) Venice and Revenna

of course if you like the snow why not hit the Dolomites

Actually, usually by the mid-December a great deal of Italy is dry, and from Rome southward, it's really not very cold. No guarantees on those forecasts, but I think it is a nicer time to travel than, say, much of November or March.

Christmastime will boost crowds and prices most everywhere but especially in Rome, and shutter some sights and restaurants.

Were it me traveling with college-aged companions in December, I would go to Naples (cheap!) and Pompei, then rent a car and visit Paestum and the Amafli coast.

(if you are spending Christmas thru New Years, what might be fun is to leave Rome and head to Salerno, stopping by Pompei en route, and then visit Paestum (and some mozzerella farms), drive along the Amalfi coast, and end in Naples for more sightseeing (hike Vesuvius?) and the huge new year's eve fireworks (biggest in Italy) over the bay of Naples.

Hello,
Winter in Italy is not cold but can be rainy. I am an expat mom living in Rome and wrote a post about our favorite spots in Rome:
http://travel-with-my-kids.com/portf...ome-with-kids/
Hope it could help :)
(as Sandralist told, Paestum is a lovely site - I'll add the Vesuvio volcano visit if you're heading to Napoli)
Have a nice trip

Where do your "kids" want to go? Have they looked at the various student guides to see where the good nightlife is and what activities they may wan to pursue. If they don't know where have them look at Let's Go europe and the various other options.

Be sure they are fully involved and assign specific sections for them to do. (We did this starting from our first trip with tween/teen daughters and, having them pick some sites and restaurants - and it worked very well involving them and taking some of the research off us.)