mymatemarmite

Thanks son much for sharing - we're 2 weeks into our 3 week trip around Italy with our 8&5yr olds and our next two stops are Verona and Venice - So glad I saw your post about the gondola ride, it sounds expensive but utterly worth it! We'll def check it out and the restaurant recommendations

We also did a cooking class with the children, but when we were in Rome (it was a great way to spend that incredibly hot part of the day) and agree it's such a great way to experience Italy with your children!

Meredith

Thank you, 5alive!

Mymatemarmite - enjoy your time in Venice! I hope your family loves the rowing experience as much as we did!

brubenow

What an awesome trip for your family! I take my girls with me on our family trips, as you did, so I can appreciate all the research and planning that you must have done in advance to make sure everything worked out well. Sounds like it did!

Will use parts of your report to guide my own trip to Rome and the Amalfi Coast next May.

mymatemarmite

I was wondering - would you recommend getting the Aliguna back to the airport? We heard it took longer and was more expensive but that it's a lovely way to say goodbye to Venice?

annhig

if there is a convenient alilaguna stop to where you are staying, and your flight is at a reasonable time, it's a great idea. You are quite enclosed and there is a lot of spray, but it's still fun to speed across the lagoon.

As for its taking longer than other ways, if you add together the time taken to wait for the vaporetto, the vaporetto trip to Piazzalle Roma, waiting for the ATVO bus [the ACTV bus makes too many stops and doesn't have a dedicated luggage area underneath] and then the bus journey, I bet that there isn't much in it.

shothyme77

I LOVED your trip report and feel so much better about my crazy idea to take my 8, 6, and 3 year old to Italy next year.

We are thinking about Venice, Como and Tuscany and other than that, am not sure where to stay and what to do so this was really helpful.

How did you decide where to stay in Tuscany? We are debating between a hotel like La Bandita (in Pienza) or an agritourism place of which there are so many it's so hard to decide. How did you narrow everything down? Sounds like you ended up in great places in Tuscany...and I'm impressed your kids did so well! I am hoping for the same, albeit nervous!

tomarkot

Meredith, just caught your TR. Thanks for sharing so many details. We visited many of the same places in late Sept.-early Oct., and have yet to post our report. We, like you, had a wonderful experience.

Meredith

Shothyme77,

We knew we definitely wanted to stay in an agriturismo for a variety of reasons - mainly, we absolutely wanted a pool for the kids. Also, we wanted a unique experience - we've stayed in a thousand hotels but never an agriturismo and knew it would be different and fun for us.

As for location, I've just always wanted to see San Gimignano, so we thought it would make sense to stay in that area.

As for choosing our specific agriturismo, I think we just looked at rankings on Trip Advisor and worked our way down the list until we found something that was available! Also, we really liked that our agriturismo was only about a 10-minute drive from San Gimignano. I did not want to stay somewhere so far removed from restaurants and gelato that we would have to drive far in the dark at night.

Good luck in your planning! I'm sure you'll have an amazing time. My kids are still talking about all the great things we did!

Meredith