Planning for 10 nights in Italy with kids

Isn’t family travel planning a little overwhelming?  If you only have 10 days in Italy or any place for that matter, how are you going to experience everything you want to see and how on earth are you going to do that with kids in tow?  This is totally how I felt when we ended up planning one of my dream trips.  I’ve been wanting to go to Italy forever so when we found a seat sale on a direct flight from Los Angeles to Italy we knew this is where we would go.  We did not have a ton of time to plan-we booked the trip maybe one month before we flew.  We also dealt with a near break-in and a passport fiasco (make sure your passports are good for travel when you book your trip!) So when you are planning for 10 nights in Italy with kids in tow, how do you spend your time?

Getting input from fellow travelers and creating a trip frame

I am part of a few family travel forums and I follow many family travel bloggers through their blogs and publications and through social media and this has been so helpful for our travels.  I reached out to Mary from World is a Book who has helped inspire so many of our trip ideas.  I remembered Eric from Travel Babbo‘s love of Florence and knew I wanted to spend a few days there. My friend Keryn from Walking on Travels has posted  about eating gelato and cool places to go with kids in Italy and I knew I wanted to eat gelato EVERYDAY.  Reading friends’ travels and knowing we were traveling in April, which is not the warmest time of year, we created an initial trip frame that looked like this: 3 nights in Rome, 3 nights in Florence, 3 nights in Venice and then a final night in an area near the airport and we would travel by train.  Many people told me that we would need at least 3 nights in every place and that the kids would not appreciate Cinque Terre ( a place I really wanted to visit) and the beaches might still be cold and that we should probably only cover 3 big cities in a trip like this.  I was also told to just use a train because they were easy, affordable and a convenient way to travel with a family in Italy.  I mostly agree with this, except a week before the trip I realized the train back from Venice would take us to the same places we were coming from and I didn’t want to see the same things twice.  I convinced my husband to drive for the last part of the trip and then our trip looked like this: 3 nights in Rome, 3 nights in Florence, 2 nights in Venice and 1 night in northern Tuscany and 1 night in an area within a 1 hour driving radius of the airport.

Where to stay with kids in Italy

Many people told me I needed to use Airbnb with my family when we were traveling in Italy and now that we’ve been there I totally agree.  We were able to find really convenient properties that were comfortable and reasonably priced even though we were booking fairly last minute.  In one apartment we were minutes from the Colosseum in Rome and our host told us about a delicious restaurant that we ended up eating at two times-we also had laundry which made it easy to travel with only a carry-on suitcase each.  The kids had their own bunkbed room in another beautifully decorated apartment in Florence overlooking a gorgeous bustling square.  In Venice we watched gondoliers from our windows and heard them singing into the night.  I’m not sure if we would have been able to have these experiences in any other type of stay.  Even when we’ve booked in hotels, you never know which room you are actually going to get.  I love that with Airbnb, I know what I’m getting into before I arrive.  In Tuscany, I read about staying in Agriturismos and I was able to find and book the two we stayed at using Expedia. We stayed at a beautiful winery across from a cheese farm with the walled city of Montepulciano a short drive away.  Watching the sun set on the vineyards was glorious and this felt exactly like I imagined the Italian countryside would be.  We also stayed at a farm in a remote foresty area.  This would have been a better stay if we weren’t headed out to the airport so early in the morning.  I didn’t read enough reviews to see that the road to this agriturismo was bumpy and long and it made the morning a little stressful because we were worried we might get a flat tire.  Most things end up okay and we made it to the airport in about 45 minutes and when I look back it was a wonderful way to end the trip.  It was nice that in all of our stays we had kitchens so we could make easy meals for our family when we didn’t want to eat out and many had laundry too so we could pack all of our things in carry on luggage.

What your family should read before your Italy trip

I usually read a book set in the place I’m visiting before we go, but didn’t do that this time because I spent the plane-ride researching the trip.  I probably should have watched DaVinci Code or Under the Tuscan Sun and there is this list on Barnes and Noble of the 15 books you should read before your Italy trip too.  The kids really enjoyed using a Lonely Planet City Trails book in Rome and I wish there were more books like these.  They also really liked one called Mission Rome. In Florence we picked up a guidebook for kids in the local bookshop and I didn’t realize they had a Mission Florence Book too. We also downloaded the Google Translation App and used my Verizon travel pass to help us with the language and get around the cities.

Booking things in advance in Italy

In April, last-minute planners and travelers like me who like to let the day decide where the adventure takes them will have an easier time in Italy.  We booked many things the day of or the day before and were pretty lucky with getting into places like the Uffizi Museum and seeing Michaelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia.  The only place that we almost missed because of booking late was the Vatican but we could still join in a guided tour.  I don’t think you will have this luck in busier months like the summer and we were lucky to use a Rick Steve’s Guidebook which helped us realize that we need to actually plan ahead a little.  There was also a coupon in Rick Steve’s guidebook for the Florencetown Cooking School where our family learned how to make pizza and gelato and toured an olive oil factory with two other families and had a memorable Tuscan evening that my kids keep talking about.

Hashtags for Italy that help with trip-planning

I am such a fan of Instagram for helping plan travel and I have a bunch of our Italy pictures in my feed.  I also used Instagram to help plan our trip.  These are some helpful hashtags I found: #italia #ig_italy #italytrip #pocket_italy #italianFood #roma #visititalia #firenze.  I also found Italy Magazine, Ciao Bambino and Visit Tuscany very inspiring with their beautiful pictures and explanations of places.  I have a Pinterest board for family travel in Italy that might help you get started with your planning as well.

Do you have any favorite books about Italy or other Italy travel resources?  Maybe you have a post or an instagram account that might help others plan their trip to Italy with kids too! I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)