Hello! My husband and I are planning 6 weeks in Italy from September 13 to October 25. Our kids will be 11 months old and 3 years old. I'm nervous about driving in Italy, but a rental car would make it so much easier since we'll have a ton of baby gear. This is our tentative itinerary. I'd appreciate any feedback! In particular- will it be too cold and rainy to enjoy Venice and Lake Garda in mid-late September? Will we be able to swim at Cinque Terre and in Tuscany in October? I know Southern Italy would be better for swimming, but we don't feel we can do south, central, and north in 6 weeks with 2 little kids. What do you recommend for our transportation plan?
Venice- 6 days
Lake Garda- 5 days
Cinque Terre- 5 days
Bologna- 3 days
Florence- 5 days
Tuscany, maybe Val d'Orcia at a place with a pool- 7 days
Tuscany, maybe Capalbio- 4 days
Rome- 7 days
We'll likely book a flight from Washington, DC to Venice with a 3 hour layover in Munich. The flight leaves DC at 10pm, arrives in Munich at noon (will feel like 7am to us), and arrives in Venice at 4pm (will feel like 11am to us). Our older child is a night owl and can easily stay awake until boarding. Our younger child is currently only 5 months old so it's hard to predict how he'll tolerate being kept awake so late. There's a risk he'll be terribly overtired and will fuss for hours on the flight. But I'm thinking that if he can sleep for most of the flight, we'll all feel good when we land because my husband and I will be able to sleep almost 8 hours. In comparison, if we take a flight that departs at 6pm, my husband and I will be lucky if we sleep even half of the 8 hour flight (we are night owls and there's no way we're falling asleep before 10pm). What do you think? Am I missing anything?