Here are some tried and true tips from a mom who’s “been there, done that” on an Italy family trip with her teens.
Italy. Just mention that you are going on vacation to Italy and people get that dreamy look in their eyes. Everybody loves Italy. What’s not to love: the art, the food, the scenery, the people…it’s all amazing. When I asked my son’s art teacher what museums we shouldn’t miss, he noted that “All of Italy is a museum.” And that is the truth.
There is art on every corner of this country, from the sculptures to the rooftops, to the tiny artisan shops, to the historic buildings and churches. Every where you look something is really old, interesting and, most of all, beautiful. In Italy you get as much from just walking around looking high and low as you do in the famous museums. Don’t try to do it all, but take in all that you do.
And so we learned on our recent visit there. This was our last trip together as a family before our teenage son heads off to college, so we wanted to make it a good one. We had saved up our Frequent Flyer miles for something special and this was it — 11 days in Italy during spring break.
“Greatest Hits” for First-Time Visitors to Italy
If you can fly into Milan or Venice, and out of Rome (or vice versa), this is an itinerary I recommend. It’s easy to get between cities by rail (no car needed) and you can possibly shave off a day or two if you have a shorter vacation period. We broke up our 11 days as follows:
- 4 days Venice (Venezia)
- 3 days Florence (Firenze)
- 1 day Siena (Siena)
- 3 days Rome (Roma)
It was our kids’ first trip to Europe and I think a memorable one that only whet their appetite for foreign travel. The journal of our viaggio magnifico is online (linked by city names above), so feel free to take advantage of what we learned.
In Italy, you can keep kids engaged
When traveling with boys, always bring a ball! There were many times — when waiting on line — that sending my sons nearby to throw a ball would have saved lots of complaining. But I discovered a few fun games in each town that also kept my kids happy.
In Venice, I challenged them to see how many boats they could find that serve different everyday purposes – the garbage boat, delivery boats, police and fire boats, etc.
In Florence, you can have kids do the “Ninja Turtle Tour” where they have to search for works by Michaelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael.
In Rome, have kids search for as many animals as they can find among the fountains…find the bumblebees on the Bertini fountain and the turtles on the Fontana delle Tartarughe (Fountain of the Turtle) near the walls of the old Jewish Ghetto, the seashells and seahorses at the Trevi Fountain; and the lion, horse and sea serpents, the cacti, palm tree and aramdillo at La Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) in Piazza Navona.
Kandel Family Travel Tips for Italy
- Climate: The weather is moderate most times of the year, but I would advise that you take an umbrella and throw in a turtleneck. It does get cold even during spring and summer. To escape the summer heat there’s always gelato, and an escape into the coolness of ancient stone churches.
- Toilets Beware: not every restaurant in Italy has toilet seats. It’s kind of weird and we never really got used to it. Always carry some tissues with you, too.
- Hidden Costs: Be aware of “il coperto” (cover). This is a per person charge added to il conto (the bill) in almost every restaurant in Italy. Usually the amount is listed on the menu, but make a note of it because it can add as much as $5 per person just for sitting there and eating the bread. (Usually you have to pay extra for bottled water as well, because nobody drinks tap water in Italy — and I found out why by tasting some.)
- Money Talks: We discovered that almost every credit card charges an automatic 1%-3% foreign transaction fee during each currency conversion, except for Capital One (credit card perks change frequently, so you’ll have to research this before departure.) We signed up for a Capital One MasterCard which charges no annual fee. In Italy, we charged every expense from our vacation on that card and saved lots of money
- Local Lingo: The main phrases you’ll need to get by in Italy are “grazie” (thank you) and “prego” which means please and you’re welcome and dozens of other things. Just say it anytime someone helps you out and they’ll appreciate it.
- Getting Around: A must-have for the Italian cities we visited is a good, detailed map. We walked everywhere and found that nothing is really too far apart here.
- Train Travel: Before getting on trains in Italy make sure you stamp your tickets at the machines located on the platforms as you can get fined if you don’t. (In Venice you need to do the same before getting on the vaporetto along the Grand Canal.)
- Confirm All Plans: Bring printouts of any reservations you have. When we arrived at the Uffizi they told us that we were there on the wrong day, but my print-out thankfully proved that their computer had made the mistake and we were correct.
- Staying Mobile: Before heading overseas, check if your phone has capability for a European SIM card. Mine did not so we checked into renting a phone. Then we discovered it was cheaper to actually buy a phone through a deal with Rail Europe. For US$49 (plus taxes and delivery) we got a very nice Siemens mobile phone complete with charger, US$20 in calling time, and an ‘800’ toll-number for family at home to call us (this worked for an hour of calling time). Calls range in price from US$1.49/minute to another cell phone to about US$.99/minute to a landline. But now we own the phone and can use it on future trips by adding additional talk time. To check out their rates and details go to Raileurope ekit.
- Great Guides: My favorite guidebooks were the Eyewitness Travel Guides (i.e. “Top 10 Tuscany”) with great pictures of the main sights and even paintings and tours of museums, and Rick Steve’s Italy (guides with real honest comments). If you live in New York City, the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue and 40th Street has a large collection of travel guides and videos of many European cities. We also picked up free maps at the American Express offices (where we went to convert our Traveller’s Checks).
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I poured my heart and soul into this!!! Hope you people enjoy! =)
Wow, this is wonderful! You are so lucky to have gotten this opportunity. You looked absolutely gorgeous at the show and the red carpet. Thanks for sharing this, it really made me smile. I used to have the biggest crush on Joe Jonas.. hahah!
Amazing trip!
I hope that my story will inspire and enrich your lives; even if it doesn’t touch you as much as it has touched me. I hope that this will be passed on and that people will take a few minutes just to read what I had to say and try to be in the mind of these children. Try to change your day and see your house, your possessions, your income, and those many great things that you possess and find a way to share them with others. We all need a wakeup call sometimes, a message to straighten us out and look at the life we were given. I hope to go back next year to repeat the experience all over again and try to change myself even more, I love those children and I love their compassion and selflessness. Words can’t fully express what I felt or what I witnessed but my words are clear, these people see the world much differently than us, they treat possessions differently and they know how to work as a community.
This is about when my family and I took a trip down to Central Florida for our Family Vacation.
Hope you enjoy!
This was a vacation that taught me a lot about how my religion is organzied and gave me more appreciation for it.
I will never forget the time I spent in Germany.
I hope you guys enjoyed my story!
Best luck.
South Africa is this amazing country that not only is beautiful for its animals and scenery but for its people and for its ability to overcome the greatest oppression: apartheid, the discrimination of the majority. I am so glad I was given the gift of traveling to South Africa. It is an experience I will never forget!
It was a great trip!
I hope everyone who takes the time to read The Awakening enjoys learning about my bus ride to reality.
My typed essay about my vacation in Vietnam. It seem poorly written or should I say typed :\
Bryan Gray Europe Tour.
My vacation to Panama became suprisingly meaningful, contrary to what I had initially expected.
Thank you
This was a fun and yet difficult project i truely have enjoyed sharing my vaction with you.
Mahalo,
Have you ever been to Maine? What did you like best?
This is such an amazing story and essay!!
Their were many more memories from this trip that impacted me as much as the ones that were included, but I just didnt have enough room. So, I shortened it and tried to write the best description of the trip without exceeding the word limit. But the trip was, indeed, as remarkable as I said it was.
Washington is a really nice place. It has many museums and historical places. it also has very delicious foods. Chinatown was my favorite place to eat.
Thank you for this scholarship opportunity!
IB York was a great experience, and a great opportunity to explore new ideas and innovations
So now I head to college without my classmates but i will always have this wonderful experience.
🙂
This is one of my many travel adventure stories from my trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer. Besides Prague, I traveled to Berlin, Munuch, and Nuremberg in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France. My favorite place was Switzerland, but my favorite story was the one I shared. I hope you enoy reading it as much as i enjoyed experiencing it!
I want everyone to be able to expericence something like I did.:) Everyone desevers happines!
I hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I hope you plan to take your mom to the Peaks of Otter Lodge for the best brunch you will ever eat. For more information click on this link:
http://www.peaksofotter.com/
Finished product. I love PERU!
This eye-opening opportunity has shaped my conviction toward making change and developing the community. It is a great pleasure to meet all those Leadership Award Honorees and other49 ANNpower fellows from 24 states in the U.S. I will continue to make change and build a dynamic community, excursively to ethnic, social, political gender aspects of advantage, as my milestone to become a great leader!
This eye-opening opportunity marks the culmination of my junior year. I am so glad to meet all those wonderful women leaders from all around the world and 49 other ANNpower fellows from other 24 states. I will continue to explore the world and make change with eagerness and confident, and overcoming disadvantage exclusively toward the milestone of a great leader!
I hope everyone enjoys my trip to Catalina and Ensenada!
This trip was the best trip regarding family time. It is unforgettable.
To see more photography from the trip, check out my photojournal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Photojournal-of-My-Grecian-Travels/213497035367351.
What a testimony!! Thanks for posting. You don't know how impactful this is. Let Jesus keep using you for His glory. 😉
I was saved in August of 2009. I was in my parents's room and we all prayed for m, becuase I was tired of not having a desire for God. There I gave my life to Him and let Him be my Lord. I already excepted Him as Savior, but though it was a license to sin. Thatt day, though I wanted to repent of my sin and let God lead me. Lord and Savior go hand-in-hand. My life is changed. Now I have convictions and am learning so much about seeking God, because He is seeking me. It's awesome to live in the security and hope of knowing I will see Him one day in heaven. I am so glad He lives in me, because my goodness outside of Him is nothing. I don't know what I would do without Him.
Jesus used that park to bring you and your dad back together. How beautiful 🙂
Each place I go, I leave a peice of myself. And everyplace I go leaves a peice of itself in me. The people I have met along the way have changed me in the deepest way. Their lives have touched mine and I can never return to life as was usual. Likewise, my life has touched many along the way. It is my hope that nobody I meet along the way may return to life as was their usual. This is how each thead pulls coth and fabric together as we the people of the world cover it like a quilt. We must double stitch each peice so not to fall apart or leave holes. We need one another.
To whoever reading this, I am the person wearing blue shirt and white shorts, sligtly leaning on the panda bear statue.
My essay that talks about my experience traveling to Lima, Peru aims toward encouraging others who are not too familiar with it to visit and appreciate the fun life changing experience they're gauranteed to get.
What a great contest! Hope to see lots of terrific teen travel stories here!
It was difficult for me to type a 600 word blog about an amazing experience I had in the month of July. It was also difficult for me to choose certain pictures from the ones that I have chosen, so I uploaded the pictures of my time at NeiHu elementary school. I really wished that I could have used more sightseeing photos, but unfortunately, those were too big to upload.
This trip was amazing and it also tested who I am becoming as a person. Seeing the woman in Central Park living out her dream, to the woman selling fruit throughout the day; New York is made of dreamers and hardworking people. I loved it. Hope I get the chance to go back.
This was an amazing experience! I am so grateful for everything it taught me!!
From research, I believe the ice cream shop was called Eisdiele Eddy. More information about the exchange program can be found at http://www.aatg.org/study-trip-faq as well as at the bottom of the page at http://www.aatg.org/NGE-awards.
These Picutures are both of my own creation (one being an acrylic painting). When I took this picture at the western wall in Israel, the man in the photo was crying his heart out wearing a tattered down bath robe, I thought it would make for an intersting picture. So it did, it also inspired to me to create a painting in which I showed the world what I believe he really is. A man who is down on his luck but seems to still find peace in his life.
My sophomore year of high school I went to Donner Pass in California with a group called The Woods Project (www.thewoodsproject.org) . I had to apply to go , I was really anxious and scared that I wasn’t going to get. When I got my acceptance letter I was excited. I was also nervous because I had never been away from home for more than a week and The Woods project was going to last for two weeks. I had chosen to go to Donner Pass because I wanted to experience something new. I was going to go backpacking for one week and hiking the other. I had never gone backpacking before. When I told my friends that I was going backpacking they started to laugh because I am the smallest girl in my whole school and they didn’t think I was going to make it. Getting that response from my friends made me super scared of going to the trip. I thought I was going to die while backpacking!
My dad went to go drop me off at the airport and then he left. I was already scared and freaking out at the fact that he had just left me there and I did not know anybody! . I got in the plane to California and I was already regretting going on the trip. I was going to be with complete strangers for two weeks! When we got to California we all got split .There were three groups going to different places, one to Yosemite, another to Marine Headlines and then mine, to Donner Pass. I got in a van and that’s where I met the people who I was going to spend two weeks with. We were in that van for hours! When we finally got to our cabin we had to go up a hill to get to the door.
The first cabin we stayed in was named Clair Tappan Lodge. It was really nice . It was made out of wood, had a pool table, personal chef, jacuzzi and hot water in the showers. I loved it there! Too bad it only lasted for two days then it was time to go backpacking. They gave us our backpacking materials. I tried on the backpack and almost fell over. My backpacking week had started. We went up and down mountains, through rivers and lakes, and I thought we were never going to set up our tents. When it started to get dark we finally started cooking. The food we had was not good at all. We couldn’t bring a lot of food because of the bears and other animals. My second day of backpacking went better than the first. Everybody in my group started to know each other better and soon we became really close. We would sing while backpacking to make time pass faster and at night we didn’t want to sleep because we would play games. While backpacking I got to experience many things I hadn’t before. Even though I was the smallest girl going backpacking I was always the leader of the line because of my stamina.
When our backpacking week ended it was time to hike. I had gotten the hardest part of the trip over with so I knew hiking was going to be a piece of cake. We would hike in the morning and hanged out at night. It was the best experience I had ever had! When it was time to go back home I didn’t want to because I knew I would miss my friends.
To watch my video go to : http://youtu.be/FLd7W71EnyU
My experience as a first time camper.
i hope i win