I lived and worked in Italy 25 years ago as a student an an au pair. I haven't been back since, and would like to start the ball rolling on going over with my husband and children (age 12) next February.
Because I've recently gone back to school, time and finances are both short, however, this is something we really want to plan. (Anyone who reads this site regularly knows that planning is half the fun!)
So far, I have general ideas of what we can cover. I'd like to go in February, and we may only have a week (10 days at the most). My husband is a history buff, however, I don't want to spend all of our time in cities.
Here are some of the ideas I've come up with - we're flying out of Boston.
Fly in an out of Rome, spend 2 days in Rome and then up to Tuscany (where I lived). We like B & B's, but I'm thinking you'd need to rent a car for many of them, which we'd rather not do. I'd like to take them to Florence, Pisa, Lucca. May or may not have time for Venice. How easily could we get around on trains for the kind of time frame we're working with? Would it be easier to fly in and out of Milan if we do the northern option? I looked at Expedia and the prices seemed okay but you don't know the airline. Also, it seems like it might be easier paying more for a direct flight because of our time frame. Any comments on that?
Another travel option would be to stay south, and see Rome, Positano (one of my personal favorites, although I'm not sure what it's like there in Feb.) and Pompeii (I have never been there).
We have had great experiences with B & B's in France and England, but had rented cars on those trips.
Also, I was advised by fodorites to cut a lot out of our England trip, and I was so glad we did. We loved having the option of just going for a hike and enjoying the countryside and not having to rush to the next spot. It's hard to absorb much culture when you're just racing to the next destination (although granted, it will be a challenge to absorb much culture in a week...)
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi carol,

The Amalfi Coast is pretty much closed in Feb.

You could fly into Venice and out of Rome for not much more than RT to Rome from the East Coast.

In 10 days you could do 3 in Venice, 4 in Florence (1 day to Pisa and Lucca, 1 day in Siena) and 3 in Rome.

In Florence, I can highly recommend the B&B Peterson, www.bedinflorence.it

You might find my trip report helpful

Ira?s Trip Report
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

Ira makes a good suggestion. Depending on your interests you may consider taking a day or 2 off Florence and adding it to Rome (where 1 day in Rome will be a trip to Pompeii). May also consider a night in a hill town between Rome and FLorence (possibly Orvieto which has a nice underground 'cave' tour that your 12 year old would probably enjoy).

We took out kids (about that age) a few years ago in March. We spent 2 night Venice, 1 night Florence (just to visit with a family friend and see the science museum, my kids are not big fans of art museums), 1 night in Orvieto and 4 nights Rome (with day trip to Pompeii. We also made one afternoon road stop while in transit in San Giminagno (sp?). My kids loved this trip.

Minor correction to my previous post, that's 3 night in Venice not 2. Just enough time there to recover from the overnigh flight and enjoy the surroundings.

Just a second vote for MFNYC's suggestion for the science museum in Florence -- besides Galileo's telescopes etc. and wonderful globes/maps, there're a lot of weird medical instruments/exhibits that might catch the attention of your 12- year-olds. You and your history-buff husband would probably enjoy it, too...

Thank you for your replies.

Ira-I read your trip report and it was both entertaining and informative. I will also print it out. The details will be very helpful as we solidify our plans. (Also enjoyed your fashion report, BTW).

MFNYC and Annabelle 2- Thanks for the ideas about Florence. MFNYC, how did you get to Pompeii for a day from Rome? I don't think I could bear to skip Positano (even in Feb.) if I were in the area.

Since I'm in the very early ("HOW&quot phase of the trip, a few questions.
I am thinking that it would be more relaxing to base ourselves in a town rather than a city (Lucca comes to mind), but I'm guessing that would be logistically difficult without a car. Although we've rented cars in France and England without problems, we were hoping to keep this trip simpler and cheaper. Am I correct to assume that would rule out car rentals? Any comments on driving?

Pisa was one of the towns I lived in - as I recall, the train was very central. Any comments on Pisa? (It has been 25 years...) Would it be a nice place to base ourselves, or are the votes on Florence? I also lived in Florence, but it's the small towns I've thought about the most.
I definitely like the idea of the Venice portion of the trip. If time/finances are a huge issue, we could cut it out and focus on Tuscany and Rome.

Although I'm not clear what exactly interests you most, I think it would be a mistake to base yourself in a "town" rather than a "city." Pisa and Lucca are nice, but things to see on most people's first-time list are in Florence/Venice/Rome. Yes, I know, there's so much more to Italy than the city sights, but again I don't know what your priorities are.

With only 7-10 days, I would suggest you split your time between two bases (Florence and Rome or Venice and Rome) and perhaps take a day trip out of each place to see some countryside and a smaller "town" or Pompei.

I say this because, for all intents your arrival day isn't much of a day, and some of you may have time-change effects. Your departure day is also a wash. Also, when you move from one base to the next, you'll lose about half a day. After all that subtraction, you really don't have much time for sightseeing. If you try to cram too much into each day, you and your kids will be a wreck and they may have trouble remembering what they saw where.

If you do decide to base in two or three "cities," travel by train is the way to go. In Florence/Venice/Rome, you can find organized day tours to Siena, Verona, Pompei and many other places. It's always possible to make these day trips on your own, but when your time is limited it's often easier to let someone else take care of the details.

We drove to Pompeii from ROme. But in our case, we had driven from Orvieto to ROme, we put the car in a garage overnight, then used it the next day to go to Pompeii. We returned the car on our way back to ROme from Pompeii. If we didn't have the car, we would have most likely taken the train.

The one thing I would have considered doing differently if I were to repeat this trip, I would have driven from Orvieto to Sorrento, spend the night there, then go to Pompeii, then to ROme. Driving to ROme from Orvieto was not pleasant (bad timing and we got off the wrong exit, our return to Rome from Pompeii was much smoother). You may consider doing a similar trip, where instead of going to Pompeii from ROme, spend a night somewhere in the Amalfi coast area (and maybe drive to Positano), then continue to Pompeii & ROme.

Thanks again for your feedback. I think for our limited time, I will have to decide between Venice and Rome or Florence and Rome. How long does it take to get to Rome from Venice? Also, it looked like we could get a direct flight into Milan. Would that be easier if we just do Florence (and area) and Venice?
Would it be difficult to go to Positano and Pompeii on public transit from Rome?
There are so many ideas to consider.
If it were up to me, I'd probably spend the entire week in the countryside, but I also want to balance the trip with my family of first-timers. It's okay not to see every sight (and we won't). It's more important for them to see a couple things that really interest them, and also get a bit of flavor for the culture. Actually each trip we take, we cover less, and enjoy it more. It gives us something to come back to...