kwren

Gotta see the Eiffel Tower from the room!

The northern cities I've been to in Italy are Venice and Lucca, but you'll probably get info from other people who have good suggestions for the north. For your first time in Italy, I'd say Venice would be great for the kids, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be so hard to go to Rome either. You could take trains, although you need to spend most of a day doing that no matter where in Italy you go by train. My kids loved the travel day - just take lots of Swiss chocolate, small games and snacks! We've also taken overnight trains, but I don't know how feasible that is from Switzerland to Italy - there were a number of train changes on our route to Lucca. My son who was with me had a blast on the sleeper train. (we went from Venice to Paris) You could also go back to Zurich and fly to Venice, Rome or London.

When I'm planning trips with kids involved, I try to alternate country and city stays in one trip to keep things interesting.

jgg

We've done two trips to northern Italy. One included Piemonte, Liguria and Tuscany and another included Bologna, Bellagio (we did a daytrip to Lucerne,Switzerland from there), the Dolomites and Milan.
Favorite places were Piemonte, Liguria and Bologna. Loved the Dolomites too but if you want to go to the Swiss alps then I'd leave out the Italian alps.
Here are links to my two trip reports to get an idea of what we did:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...y-and-rome.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...p-in-milan.cfm

jgg

Also, a friend of mine wrote this trip report. They did a Northern Italy/Switzerland trip with their two sons (though a bit older than your kids).

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...hern-italy.cfm

cjbpjb

Having been to Switzerland with kids (twice) and London with kids, I think that is a great option. Spain would indeed be too hot and as other posters who said Italy would be too much of churches and art (and in my opiniono the gastronomy might be wasted on them.)

The Alps are phenomenal and the gondolas, cogwheel railways, cable cars, lake cruises and trains were enough to keep us busy and the kids really enjoyed them as well as the scenery. The hiking is beautiful and the food is very simple and kid-friendly. Particular areas that we enjoyed were Zurich, the Montreux area including Chateau de Chillon (Geneva left us a little flat), Interlaken (Brienz, Thun) and the Lauterbrunnen/Jungfrau area and the Engadine near St. Moritz (we stayed in Pontresina). The Bernina Express is fabulous--the scenery is to die for.

In London there is so much--London Eye, Museums, the Tower, Tower Bridge, double decker buses, Natural History Museum, Hyde Park, Transport Museum, Harrod's.... I think if you do both it would be better to start with London and end with scenic and less hectic Switzerland. One of our favorite things about Switzerland is that we never felt we had to worry about safety--ever--in contrast to Spain, Italy and, at times, London (I have not been to Turkey so cannot comment). Consequently it was easy to relax in Switzerland.

Anyway, that's my two cents but I am sure you will have a wonderful time (esp. since you already know your kids are good long distance travellers!)no matter what you choose.

shubha_r

cjbpjb, very encouraging to know you have done a similar trip. I am leaning towards a similar route, first London and then Switzerland.. In this case do you think August may be a better time frame in terms of weather ?

Jgg, thanks for the links, will def review them before making the final choice.