nanb

Herculeanuem could work for your kids, instead of Pompeii .mine loved it.
They also enjoyed Caserta, Montecassino, Pisa, as side trips from Rome and Formia. Orvieto is pretty and an easy day trip.
and Rome of course is our favorite city. This past trip we took along a friend of my son. He loved Rome so much , he taught himself italian over the sumnmer (I guess he is planning to return )

jgg

We are planning our first trip to Italy this March with our kids 9 and 12. We used FF miles to get 3 free tickets so only had to pay for one. One thing I just wanted to suggest. We are going for 2 weeks during spring break, and found out we would be in Italy during Holy Week (leaving Italy the Sat. before Easter). Was surprised to see Easter happening so early this year. Anyway, I recommend you check on the date of Easter in 2006. We specifically chose to do Rome first then move on to Venice and Florence so we would not be in Rome during Holy Week. Depending on whether you would like to be there then or not you should be sure and check the dates and plan your arrival departure cities accordingly.

Other than that, have found this website as well as the Slow Travel website (Slowtalk.com) to be very helpful. Also Tripadvisor.com tends to have the best hotel reviews.

My 12 yr. old daughter is enjoying reading about Italy and being part of the process. My 9 yr. old son not so much, although he is excited about going. The kids love seeing the hotels we will be staying at on the internet! There will be plenty of natural opportunities to include them in the process.

rex

I can see the strategy of trying to book your FF award flights in spring 2005 - - but most of the rest of the trip should get planned a year from now. Your children might be fairly different personalities 19 months forward, at these ages.

And the more you get them involved in the planning, the better.

Best wishes,

Rex

newesttraveler

Donna, we stayed at the Albergo Cesari in Rome and the Pensione Accademia in Venice.

The Cesari is in a great location near the Pantheon, and on a non-trafic street, so its very quiet. We were able to walk to all the major sites and only used a taxi once (so we could get to the Vatican early, but we walked back). We chose a quad room (#19) because it was cheeper than two doubles (we paid 250 euro/night). The room and private bath were both large and comfortable, but not charming or fancy. This was fine for us as we spent very little time in the hotel anyway. Breakfast was included, and consisted of a selection of breads, cereals, fruit, cold cuts, and hard boiled eggs. Again, nothing fancy but it suited us fine.

While we were very happy with the Cesari, the Accademia exceeded our expectations. Here we had a 2 bedroom suite (#7). One bedroom was very small with 2 twin beds and very little unoccupied floor space, but it worked just fine for my daughters. The second bedroom was large with a king bed and sitting area. The suite was beautifully furnished and cost the same as the Cesari (250 euro per night). Breakfast was also included, but here hot bacon, sausage, ham, and scrambled eggs were available in addition to the breads, fruit and cereal, all served in an attractive dining room.

HuisClos

I agree with everything Weadles said. Also, your kids will be studying (or have studied) Pompeii and other historical stuff like that, so doing something like that also gives the kids a living history class.

Alternatively, since you're going in 2006, you might wait a few months and go to Germany for the World Cup. That's our plan.

cmeyer54

Just remember that FF tickets can usually be booked at most 331 days in advance of the departure date. Then, work with the agent and get him/her to hold the outbound portion until you can call back and book the return (again, 331 days from that actual date). its a major pain but with seats decreasing and mileage needed increasing, the only way.

donnapg

Thanks cmeyer - I was wondering how to work the outgoing portion while waiting for the inbound to become available. That answers my question.

I am wracking my brain trying to remember the name of the tour/guide I used last time I went to Rome (5 years ago) for my Collosseum & Vatican tours. She was great but I have no idea what their name was - dang it.

MFNYC

We stayed at quad accommodations in these hotels (all had 1 double and 2 twin beds):
Venice - Hotel FLora 3*- 1 large room with 1 1/2 bathrooms.
FLorence - Hotel Casci 2* - one large room
Rome - Santa Chiara 3* - 2 room suite with 1 bathroom.

All included breakfast, all were in great locatons and I would have no problem in staying at any of them again. If you do a search on their names, you'll find lots of info here on each of them.

okoshi2002

I am planning a similar trip with our teenagers who will be 13 and 15 next June. We are using FF miles to fly to Milan. I did not realize at the time that Delta flies into Venice International - this would save a leg since I have decided we do not want to be in Milan except as an entry point. If you are flying Delta be sure to check into flying into Venice.
For our family I am planning 3 days in Cinque Terre (to be outdoors, hiking), one week in Tuscany near Siena (to drive around small towns and be based in a home, not hotel), and 4 days in Venice. We plan to either take a night train or fly to Paris for the last 4 nights because we have never been there.
My teenagers are not museum enthusiasts but they'll enjoy the food and people of Italy- and that's what we want from our trip. I think allowing a week at one base is more relaxing. I think its a good idea to be planning already- you are right on schedule ! Good luck.

donnapg

Thanks for the hotel recomendations - i will definitely look into them.

re Flights - yes my plan is tp fly into Venice and out of Rome or vice versa. Preferably into Venice because there was nothing like the experience of taking a vaporetto from the airport and seeing Venice for the first time - not quite the same from the train station.

donnapg

If we wanted to substitute Pompeii for Florence (kids like that idea better) - where is the best are to base ourselves for Pompeii for 2 or 3 nights?

Is Naples the best bet? What are the other options?

Thanks

beaux

The only thing that I can add to the numerous good suggestions above is to go on a hot air balloon ride in Tuscany. This was the trip highlight for our kids (then) aged 15 and 11 as well as for us parents a couple of years ago. We went with Robert on www.ballooningintuscany.com.

sandi_travelnut

I took my then 12yr old son to Venice, Florence and Rome (with Tuscany stuck in there too) and he loved it. He's 16 now and we're going back in 7 weeks including Paris. His favorite thing was just walking around, choosing which alley way to walk down, trying to find our way back to the hotel, and telling me about the Greek mythology behind a lot of the statues. Just have fun shopping and eating and relaxing. My son's quest for the trip was to find the best pizza...which he believes he did. We'll return to that restaurant in December.

MFNYC

I think SOrrento is also a good base for Pompeii.

Melissajoy

donnapg, what a wonderful opportunity you have! Italy is a great place for teens. I would love to share about our first family trip to Italy in June...I travelled with my husband, 22-year-old son, and daughters who were 18 and 17. If you want to e-mail me at [email protected], I can tell you more about what my teens loved in Italy. I'd love to hear about the trip you are planning for the family.

I planned the trip for our family and got lots of great help on-line. I have a heap of Italy travel books. It was a fantastic trip. My kids all agreed that they had the most fun in Rome. We had 4 nights in Rome....basically 3 full days. I planned the first 2 days for the family, taking into account everyone's input. I left the last day in Rome as "free choice" day, and they loved that.

Teens have busy lives and it helps to get them to participate in the planning if you make it easy and tempting...I got a couple of Italy guidebooks with good photos (Insight guides and Eyewitness), and set them on the table where we often snack and eat together. They did pick it up and the pictures attracted them. I asked them to show me what they wanted to see.

I also e-mailed them each a nice list of links to web-sites full of photos...for example the Vatican Museums has a very appealing web-site with photos. This made it easy for them to click on the links and tell me what they wanted to see. I told them I would try to include everyone's interests as far as it was possible. (I only gave them links for the cities we would definitely be visiting.)

Venice was their second favorite city. We had 3 nights in Venice, which gave us 2 full days. 1 full day I planned for us to spend together. The 2nd full day was free choice day again.

The only rule for free choice day was that I didn't want my daughters going out alone...they had to be with either their brother, or me and my husband.

We saw Rome, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Sorrento/Positano/Praiano/Ravello, Siena, Florence, and Venice. (Yes, we took on a bit too much!)

Florence was one of their least favorite cities. They were very interested in seeing Michelangelo's David, though. My son said Florence is a place you should spend the least amount of time in as you can, just long enough to see the important museums, and then you should get out of there! (Florence was extremely crowded when we were there in June, which made for too much traffic everywhere and too many people.)

You will have some great family memories when you return from Italy. It was so special to share their first mind-boggling exprience of Europe. It is hard to amaze today's teens...they have grown up taking amazing technology for granted. But my teens were truly amazed at the grandeur and ancient history of many sites in Italy!

The best advice I can give you is to limit the number of destinations you choose, so that you are spending more time at fewer destination. You have a whole family of people with individual interests...by spending more time in fewer places, that allows the glorious pleasure of having the leisure to explore things that just tickle someone's fancy...the freedom and time to just make a spontaneous discover, to linger at a favorite spot.

Also if you try to choose hotels in nice safe, centrally located areas, with lots to do nearby, you may be able to give your teens a little freedom to explore for a couple hours together...They love that! Usually this is best done on your last day in an area, because by then you will all know your way around and feel more comfortable with what to expect.

My 2 daughters were feuding something fierce before we left on this trip, and I was concerned about them getting along on this trip. But the excitement of experiencing a new culture together helped the 3 of them bond. It also helped us all that we had 2 rooms (for 5 people), and I made sure the kids had 3 single beds. Everyone appreciates a little privacy on a family trip.

We did take the trains and it was relaxing and enjoyable, a real pleasure. For the southern part of the trip (Vesuvius, Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano, Praiano, Ravello) we hired 2 different drivers for 2 full-day excursions and used a hotel in Sorrento as our base.

Hotel Minerva in sorrento was a good place to use as a base...good prices and wonderful views. However, nobody was impressed with Sorrento...it was everyone's least favorite city.

buon viaggio. Happy to hear from you if you want to chat. [email protected]
Melissa