weebs

Hi. Any tips, interesting sights, etc. for keeping a slightly nerdy (think D&D and computer gaming) 14-yr-old boy content while traveling around Italy? (I'm hoping that an appreciation and interest in his surroundings will sneak up on him when he's not looking.) This will be our first trip to Italy.

Also, any off-the-beaten-path women's clothing spots in above areas with funky, artsy clothes at moderate prices?

And, finally...any recommendations on comfortable walking shoes that will go with casual skirts?

Ciao!

Melissa5

Weebs, your son is NOT slightly nerdy. Rather, he is probably brilliant and a little shy, with a great imagination. Sounds like my son at his age.

Furthermore, watch out for the girls. In a few years they will realize he is sexy. My daughter, who's a senior in high school, dates a lot. She has now decided that those "nerds" are sexy, and very interesting and intelligent, and that they are going places in their lives... She prefers to date "nerds" now!

My son is now 23 and has a great job as an engineer. He still enjoys computer gaming but has also taken up new interests...camping, snow-boarding, hikes in the dessert, rock-climbing. When he was 14 he was always on the computer.

We had an amazing first family trip to Italy last June with hubby, computer-gaming son who was 22 last summer, and 2 daughters, 16 and 17.

I highly recommend you consider changing one of your destinations to Rome. Rome received my whole family's unanimous vote as their favorite. We stayed at a very centrally located hotel, in an interesting neighborhod hear the Pantheon. Kids liked the Pantheon, the ancient rome area, Colosseum, St. Peter's, Vatican Museums...

We also fit in a trip to Pompeii, which my son loved, and spent 2 nights in sorrento as a base for seeing Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. You can walk up to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. I didn't but the "kids" seemed to enjoy it. I waited in the parking lot near the snack stand.

There is a science museum in florence which might interest your son, but we didn't have time to fit it in. For my son and 2 daughters, Florence was their least favorite city.

For a teen, don't try to do too many art museums. Fewer is better. We saw no more than 1 or 2 major art museums per city.

Also my "kids" loved St. Peter's in Rome. It's size alone is awesome! They also loved climbing towers to get a great view.

Allow 4 nights per destination. Keep the last day as a "free choice" day. Try to involve your son in the planning so that he has some info. Send him some web-sites on Italy in his e-mail. Tell him that on the last day in each city he gets to choose where you go and what you do. When the day arrives there will be someplace he wants to return to...in rome my kids wanted to return to St. Peter's and climb the tower. In venice they just wanted to go wandering...Venice is great for wandering...and also shop for cool masks.

Buon viaggio!

starrsville

Gameboy?

gailscout

Give him a camera and have him be in charge of family photos. Perhaps have him be in charge of knowing how to translate the menu. After all, you planned the trip.

LoveItaly

Hi weebs, your post makes me smile because I took my 16 year old nerdy (computer obsessed) grandson with me to Portland, OR. I explained to him I was really excited to have the week with him but I was concerned that he would be very bored as he would not have access to a computer. He said it would be fine but I wasn't convinced and tended to worry about it somewhat.

The joke was on me! First of all we went to Portland for a family wedding. My GS was so involved with getting acquainted and reacquainted with family members (from a 6 month old baby to a 92 year old gentleman), the wedding and reception itself, exploring Portland etc. I think he forgot he even owned a computer. My worry was for nothing. We had a absolutely fabulous time together.

He btw is now 19 and just recently sold his computer etc. to a buddy as he needed money for car repairs. I was shocked, so were his parents! And he doesn't seem the least bit upset about it. He has two other computers in the house he can use, but no longer has one of his own. I have never seen him so happy. Of course I am sure a big part of this is due to the lovely young lady he is in love with. When I asked him if he missed having his own computer he said "no, I don't have time for it anyway". His dear mother is still in a state of shock, LOL.

BTW, when in Milan have your son climb to the roof of the Duomo. He will love that I am sure. All teens do.

Comfortable walking shoes to go with casual skirts? The problem we all face. Ballet style are all in style and look wonderful with skirts but unless I can find a pair with a good arch support I find I can't use them for walking all day. A lot of women find Clarke's slipons (some call them slides) work well. A lot of women who are on their feet all day here in my city wear them with skirts. A lot of my women friends in Italy wear well constructed sandals (the kind that have two good supportive straps that go across your foot and a thicker sole for the cobblestones) when they do a lot of walking. They always wear dresses or skirts. I bought a pair for my last trip to Italy and although they are not "pretty" I have to say I never had a problem with walking all day so I am sold on them for this purpose.

Have a beautiful trip, I am sure it is one your whole family will remember forever.

travel52

We let our "geeky" 16 year old son choose something he wanted to do in the major cities. We went to the Science Museum in Florence, because Galileo's finger is there (really). My husband and I would have never picked this, as our time in Florence was short, but it turned out to be very interesting.

m_kingdom2

Drag him around clothes shops, get him into some Prada or Dior, much better to spend money on that than computer games, he'll appreciate it in the long run I'm sure.

As for yourself, ditto, it's not very difficult to find fabulous pieces. You don't say when you're going, but I'm hoping you'll just catch the new season's collections, make sure you pick out a few limited run/signature pieces!

KathrynT

The roof of the Duomo in Milan is particularly lots of fun to climb around as most roofs, towers, etc. seem to be a big hit for the kids to climb. Get a simple phrase book and try to have him learn a few sentences. Encourage him to order in restaurants, purchase museum tickets, etc. Also, give him the map and let him find your way to the major sights you wish to see.

My son actually found he learned to like art by going to museums so don't automatically skip them unless you know he'll be miserable. Sometimes splurging on a good tour guide really helped keep my kids' interest levels up.

Of course, frequent gelato and food stops are a must!

kswl

If you can get a good catalogue, or do some research on the works in a particular museum beforehand it will be much more interesting for your son. The more you know, the more interesting it is. With my youngest, we walk rather quickly through rooms of paintings, and I point out one of two of the salient points of each work (color, style, subject, time period, what was going on in history on the other side of the world when that painting was created in France, etc.)Even the frames are sometimes worthy of note--particularly if they are very elaborate or constructed of an unusual wood or put together in an interesting way. We slow down when he has a question or likes something, or when there is a famous or unusually interesting work I like or want him to note. Bits of information about the artist also bring the paintings alive. He may just have a "blur" of experience in an art museum, but inevitably one or two works will really stand out in his memory, and later we'll go back and look up the painting or artist for more information. In this way we are both satisfied: he has "done" the museum, but in a way that did not involve hours of queueing slowly around a room, with him standing in front of paintings trying to look interested while he really wanted to go out into the sun and have ice cream!

sandi_travelnut

Florence has the most incredible science museum right on the banks of the Arno. We gave our son a map and let him find our way around to certain sites. We also gave him a chance to walk around by himself once we knew he was oriented to the city and the hotel. My son was really into mythology and loved telling me stories behind some of the sculptures we saw. There's also lots of posts about torture museums and such but I don't know where they are located.

wliwl

I just asked my 15 year old boy if he was looking forward to our Paris/Rome trip (in June). He responded, "Yeah." I asked him what he was looking forward to and he responded, "I have no idea." Even when I offered ideas (food? museums? foreign language?) he was unable to come up with a thought. Boys. You gotta love em.

sandi_travelnut

wliwl - you could rent some travel videos of the area you're going to, maybe that would spark some interests for him. Also give him the challenge to find the best pizza and gelato in each city.