We are travelling from Barcelona, SPain to Italy. We are leaving out of Rome. Going with our 21, 18 & 15 year olds. We need help as to what to visit. We also want to break it up with hikes and beach visits between museums, churches, etc. as we live in Arizona - no water in our state.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

there's an overnight boat from Barcelona to Livorno i believe which is quite near to Pisa and Florence.

You are asking for ideas?
To let you understand how demanding is your question, I quote Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran "For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man"

Hi M,

Venice is a not uninteresting place, with lots of water.

You might want to go to your library and check out some guide books to Italy.

Also look it up under "Destinations" here.

hi, memorygal.

following up on PalQ's suggestion, you could get train from Livorno [still called Leghorn in my green guide pub circa 1979] to florence vis Pisa, or go on up the coast to viareggio and the cinque Terre, before coming south again. a week on the coast followed by a week in Rome would be good.

how long have you got?

regards, ann

The two ferry routes from Barcelona I am most familiar with are those to Genoa and to Civitavecchia; perhaps there are others.

Which route are you using, Memorygal and how long are you going to be in Italy?

Here's an idea (which I hope will be accepted in the spirit in which it is offered):

You can probably get a greater number of informed responses if you put your destinations in the thread title, such as:

<b>Barcelona to Rome - things to do/see?</b>

Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. I don't remember many beaches but during the summer the waterfront area was alive with people. 21, 18 and 15, male or female, they will enjoy this city and your a short train ride from the eternal city Rome.

Italy, pick a city, I am most fond of Napoli (Naples). If you have the time also look into a day trip to Capri.

And there is a new Italy-Spain railpass for train travel in both countries but not in France in-between. The pass was designed mainly for cruise ship passengers who tour Spain then take a cruise that ends up in Italy or for individuals who are more and more flying between the 2 countries, or taking Grimaldi ferries, on which the pass gives a 20% discount off fares and cabins.

So if going by rail in each country and traveling much check it out. A RailEurope product (www.raileurope.com) but for any RE product i always recommend the helpful expert folks at BETS (www.budgeteuropetravel.com; 800-441-2387).

This following was copied from RailEurope.com as regards the Italy-Spain pass and boat discounts:
20% reduction on the standard passenger fares and cabin fares on crossings operated by Grimaldi Ferries on the following routes: Civitavecchia to Barcelona (Spain), Toulon (France) and Tunis (Tunisia) Salerno and Palermo to Tunis (Tunisia)

note i was in error about Livorno. But there are other boats besides Grimaldi but no discounts on railpasses. Italy-Spain pass is a flexi pass and if it's a discount you do not use a day of travel on a flexipass, just have to have the 2-month validity period be in effect.

Thank you for all of this information - it is overwhelming; however we are thinking about the eurorail from Spain to Italy. Let me discuss with my husband.