I need advice on best sites to visit/stay in Northern Italy for a famiy of 6 with 3 distinct age groups.
My husband and I will be flying into Milan early July with our 16 and 20 year old daughters---each bringing a friend for a total of 6. The 20 year olds are interested in nightlife and a few major historic sites, 16 year olds prefer to shop, hubby hates museums and I could live in one....suffice it to say, having a tough time with the itinerary. This will be our 3rd trip to Italy. The first we did Rome, Naples, Capri, Pompeii, Florence and Pisa. The second trip was Venice. For our July agenda, I was thinking of renting a van for all the folks & luggage and driving from Milan to Lake Como (staying in Varenna)for 2 nights, then to Venice for one night, Florence for 2 nights and perhaps Portofino for 2 nights before staying one night in Milan in prep for return home. Question: With this type of group, is this the agenda/duration you would recommend? Also, I would like to try to keep accomodation cost to 400 euros per day if possible but I do need a suite/apartment type accomodations to handle this size group. Any hotel/apartment recommendations (I know for Florence the San Lorenzo apartments are recommended)? I greatly appreciate any advice you seasoned vets can provide. Thanks!

If you already saw Venice fairly recently, why bother go there for only one night? Bologna might be a good alternative on your way to Florence. I would also try to take a day trip to Ravenna for the mosaics.

These photos might whet your appetite:

http://www.photoworks.com/share/shar...BBB1&cb=PW

Portofino is very tiny and very expensive. I wouldn't recommend it for two nights for your large group of varied interests. We spend a few hours there and that was plenty-- maybe that's just us.

But there are lots of places recommended in that region. We were staying 3 nights at Santa Margherita Ligure, which we loved. We went to the Cinque Terre one day from there, easily by train.

It also sounds like too much moving around for such a large group. You'll spend lots of time packing, unpacking and loading and unloading. I wouldn't repeat a visit to Venice and Florence, especially for such a short stay.

Maybe consider a visit to the Ligurian Coast and maybe even up to the Cote d'Azur. Lots of towns to visit and things to do.
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I forgot to mention that we also spent three nights in Nice and liked it a lot, especially for its great day-trip opportunities. Your group could easily go three different directions from Nice. We liked Antibes a lot, as a day visit.
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How about going to Stresa for 2 nights on Lake Maggiore instead of Varenna? If you have a car (and are jet-lagged) it's only about 45 minutes drive from Malpensa. From there drive to Levanto for 3 nights which has a beach and is the town just north of the Cinque Terre on the Riviera di Levante (or stay in Santa Margherita Ligure next to Portofino as Maureen B has suggested. From there you can take the train to the Cinque Terre or go to Portofino. With a car, rather than stay in Florence go to Lucca for 2 which is a wonderful small city which has intact walls and lots of shopping for the shoppers (You can also go from there to Florence on the train - about 1 1/4 hours). From Lucca return to Milan. There's really no reason to go as far East as Venice, or cover more territory in your time period.

Como is beautiful and Chinque Terre is a must. But I do not recommend Bologna - it is nothing more then a congested city. Como and Chinque Terre defnitely don't have a hopping night life, but they are simply beautiful and relaxing. And you can get some hiking done in Chinque Terre. I also agree that there is no need to go back to Venice for only one night if everyone has already been there. The family may like San Gimignano - its between Milan and Venice. It's quite tourists so the 20 year olds will like it, but there are some nice ruins on the edge of the island that you can walk out to if you want to get away from the crowds.

If you're trying to provide a little something for everyone, many of the smaller, gorgeous locations mentioned may not have a lot of nightlife for the 20yos or shopping for 16yos (Como, Cinque Terre, San G. (? maybe poster meant a different town?), Stresa). You'd probably need to go to bigger places for that, such as Florence, Bologna or Lucca.

Bologna is a wonderful, non-touristy city. We went there first, for one day only, several years ago, and are returning this fall. Not a huge amount in the way of museums (though there are some), but a nice city to walk through, notable old buildings and churches to look at or visit, fabulous markets (you'll wish you had a home to take the food back to), great shopping (I'm not into that, but it seemed like there were a lot of clothes stores), beautiful porticos, and it's a big university town. I could see any 20yos spending the evening in that area of town.

Lucca might also offer the right combination, though when we visited (when in our 30s) we weren't looking for shopping or nightlife. Like Bologna (but smaller, I think), it's a great non-touristy city with enough historic stuff to keep you happy, and not not so much as to overwhelme DH. You can also ride bicycles on the city walls.

Does your group prefer to stay oceanside, at a lake, mountains, or hills, or cities? I'd consider southern France, too. Like I said, Nice might be a great place for you. Or Switzerland? I think you have lots of great choices. Lucky group. Since you're already been to Italy twice, would you prefer to go to another country, too? How much time to you have?
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