Analysis paralysis - itinerary help please!

Fly into Milano. Castle: Castello Sforzesco. Spend nights in Milano and daytrip to Lago di Como or vice versa.

A stay or daytrip on Lago di Como, only an hour from Milano. Lake.

Fast train to Venezia. Gondolas.

Fly out of Roma. Gladiators.

Pasta, pizza and gelato everywhere.

With only ten days in August, I would stay north. Fly home out of Milan or Venice. I'm not sure what flying out of Switzerland or Austria means: you mean, you would take time from your already-short 10 days to go north to fly home from there or you would add more time to be able to fly home out of Switzerland or Austria? I'd try to maximize your already-limited time in Italy and fly home out of Milan or Venice.

Yes, Venice will be busy with tourists- so will everywhere in Italy in August. In fact, Italians holiday in August and leave their cities, as I understand it, for the cooler locations like beaches and mountain lakes. So even the lakes may be very busy. I've never been to Italy in August - I'm not really sure what to expect there then, given Italians' reputation to holiday during that month.

It is possible to avoid some of the "Disneyland" crowds in Venice. The main thing is to avoid the main drags - roughly between the train station, Rialto, and San Marco. Last May, I did a morning walk from the train station (where I was staying) to Rialto, but instead of the touristy Strada Nuova, I took the less busy router south of the Grand Canal. it was like an entirely different city - very quiet, no gaudy tourist shops on every block, not crowded, at least in the morning. I'd expect some tourists but at least this is an example of one way to minimize them. There are other examples people can give you of less touristy places to stay in Venice.

You may like to stay at Lido in Venice. My dad loved the beach, its quieter and you will have access to the more crowded parts of Venice by the vaporetto. Even crowded- its wonderful. Also the cruise crowds leave and it will be quieter in evening.

The Amalfi coast is a bit out of the way, and you'd need about 3-4 nights there. Not worth it if you are short on time, IMHO. Another lake in the north to consider is Maggiore, which is lovely. There are islands in the lake with beautiful gardens, villas, and peacocks, and a gondola ride up the mountainside for beautiful views, hiking, and a few amusement park rides.

There is the gardaland amusement park outside of Verona. Gardaland.it/en. We missed it when we took our kids to Italy and they complained for a few years (their cousins had gone and told them about it).

It probably makes sense to travel in tandem by car with your friends. Picking up on your suggestions, and trying to minimise the time necessary for a car.

Day
1. Arrive Milan. Transfer to Lake Como (2N)
2. Day on Lake Como
3. Train to Milan (1N)
4. Pick up car & drive to Siena (4N)
5. Day to San Gimignano
6. Sights of Siena (return car in Siena)
7. Day to Florence by bus
8. Train to Rome (3N)
9. Sights of Rome
10. Sights of Rome
11. Depart Rome

If you really dislike heat, you need to take a look at actual daily temperatures for your possible destinations in recent years. It can be extremely hot in all the areas mentioned so far. To get actual weather data, go to wunderground.com, enter one of your destinations, choose Historical and Monthly, then select August 2016, August 2015, etc. There will be an hour-by-hour line graph.

If you don't like what you see, you can consider spending 3 nights or so up in the Dolomites in a place like Ortisei. Beautiful scenery and mountain lifts to get you even higher. Some easy walks available. It's an ethnically Austrian area where German is spoken.

Thanks for the tips! Please keep them coming!

One of the months we have not travelled is August. We had a wonderful cycling adventure while staying on the west side of Lake Garda. I even think we stayed at RS recommendation. For children, which I do not travel with, you might have to do some searching. I did like the east to west ferry, small town feeling and lemon grooves. Oh, the people were really congenial. There are parks on Lake Garda. There is gelato everywhere. The sunset is worth the stay. And those Italians preparing for their boat race. I think you can see the balcony of Romero and Juliet nearby. Other posters suggest Bolzano is warm in August. We have been in the area in May with changing weather and still able to ride everyday. We may have stopped for cold or slight rain for a moment to gain warmth and apel strudel (this area is more German, check the history). The Sella ring is worth changes in weather. If you support a rider with a car, the ride and views are worth it. Remember, the Dolomites are a mountain range and weather can change at any moment. My trips to Venice have never been complete. I am there on the wrong day, it is expensive or President Reagan is expected. Those birds who poop on a regular basis have increased in number. Imagine staying outside Venice in an apartment (you booked a B/B in Venice) with a wonderfull local community and bar that embraced you. It was a fine and dandy experience. By the way I have been in Jackson Hole, WY with the Clintons twice in my lifetime. It was far less stressful than a President in Venice.

Intense heat is relative. Humidity could also be a factor. Use this site to see actual data for the last few years. Enter a city, choose "weather", then click "Yesterday/Past Weather". Then choose a month.

We have just made our ump-teenth trip to Italy with kids - in August.

Venice is just fine if you buzz through San Marco and avoid the tourist path with arrows leading you to Rialto, San Marco and the train station. As said above, if you do this, it is like you are in a different city. A lovely and different city to get lost in. It might be fun for your kids if you stayed in Jesolo where you can easily reach Venice for dinner.

We have done Lake Garda a few times now. It's ok. Gardaland is nothing like the amusement parks in the US, so likely will be a disappointment. I wonder if the other lakes will hold your kids attention.

We love just parking it in a place for a week. We have spent a week each in Verona, Bologna and Lucca, all of which make great bases and are very exciting cities in their own right.

Maybe also consider some time in a family resort in the Alps, like the Falkensteiner chain. We love doing that. The Austrians really know how to do family vacation right. Here is a link - https://www.falkensteiner.com/en/hotel/lido/offers/family+top_o_2694

August is a bad choice. The prices in Italy are very high, because all Europeans have holidays and most of them travel to Italy.
Moreover, it is unpleasantly hot.
But if it must be, I recommend you the following route: Flight to Milano. Take a car ( rent a car ) trip from Milano to Parma - La Spezia - Viareggio - Lucca - Pisa - Florence - Sienna - Rome. Fly back from Rome. Avoid the east coast - it is very crowded. You can find some nice beaches at Viareggio. For Rome you must reserve at least 3 nights.There is so much to see.
I advise you to book at least 6 months in advance all the hotels on your route.
Do not go to Venice. In august, the city can stink because of the wather in the canals.
The Amalfi Coast sounds good but is very expensive and very difficult to drive.
And yes, you are right - the Lake Garda is full of German people.

As others have mentioned August may be the worst month to go to Italy BUT still rather be in Italy in August than home in August
I like your initial thought of Lake Como, Siena and Rome for 10 days with kids.
You are obviously skipping over many places in between and all around Italy but can only do so much in 10 days and with August heat and crowds better to have a more laid back plan.

I imagine Lake Como will be crowded, would book that first since lodging there will disappear and get pricey for August.
Rome won't be too crowded but will be hot so don't pack too much into one day there. Lodging there you could wait and probably get a good deal, I like the most central area (Pantheon or Piazza Navona for a place to stay)
Siena is small so will be very crowded during the day but nights and mornings most visitors will have left so will be easy to have the place to yourselves and think the kids will like it.
Would only need a couple of nights in Lake Como, say 2 there, 4 in Siena and 4 in Rome would be good.
You should have time for a couple of day trips to different areas in Tuscany during your Siena time, as a day trip I think your kids even if not into art will enjoy Florence, skipping the museums entirely there is still plenty to see and do with a full day in the city. Volterra and San Gim would be a good option for another day trip.

Definitely no time for Amalfi Coast this trip and save Venice for another time. It is beautiful but more Disneylandish than anywhere else in Italy.

I just returned from a 3 week trip that included 9 nights in Italy, from August 6-15th. It really was not as bad as it is sometimes made out to be on here and other forums, but I will say that I would not recommend Venice at that time if you don't do well with heat and/or crowds. The combination of the two really got to me after a day or so--and I'm actually in the minority of people who find it a little bit eerie that you can turn a corner, walk a few blocks away from super-packed San Marco, and suddenly not see a single other person. Also, there were times that we would be sitting by a canal and the gondolas going by would be literally "bumper to bumper," it was so busy, which was not appealing to us at all. Don't get me wrong, I think Venice is worth visiting and we had some really great authentic food and experiences there, but we did feel that we had to work a little bit harder to find them than in other destinations and I would not return in August if I had the choice.

Hi Nicola
Your're from close to me in the bay area. I will be flying out sept 16 for my third trip to venice. Love the island, lots to see, go early morning to see rialto bridge and st marks square.Go to the back canals, your kids would love a gondolier, we booked with luca ([email protected] he sings) we made a reservation for evening near the ghetto in cannareggio, he's off mondays. Avoid the crowds, they are not only from cruises, you got trains, buses, planes, cars. Plus august is very busy with everyone traveling with some italians away for their holidays and americans traveling since they have to travel with children since schools out. This past summer lots of complainys about the sweltering heat. Book a room or apartment with a/c. Another trip to consider with your kids is ilburchiello.it, a cruise thru canals away from venice. You can take a vaporetto to the lido that has a beach for swimming. We stayed 2 days on lake garda in the town of bardolino for a wine festival late sept but the hotel had a pool and its right on the lake. further up the road there is a gondola type ride, you will need a car, you can check things around the lake. Since its busy all over italy, you can check out san remo to savona, all along the water, rent a beach side apartment or house, that you will like along with the kids. see what the train schedule is like to get there. stay in milan and see one of the lakes nearby, lots to see and do, even though 10 days is not a long time to be moving from place to place. Usually flights leave very early from venice to usa, (6am) visit there first, get lost then have another home base. we rented thru booking.com for our apartment in venice or check out cross-pollintate.com hopefully you have lots of info here and can decide whats important to you and your kids. happy travels.
aloha princess pupule

Thanks ever so much for all the information. @Emily, the Falkensteiner hotel looks amazing. I'm going to investigate further!

Oh my goodness, Nicola, with kiddos that age who love "pizza, castles, gladiators.... and history" please please consider going to Volterra for the Volterra Medieval Festival, which takes place the last two weekends in August. The Sundays of those weekends are the really big days. Most people of the town dress in medieval costumes for the weekends; there are hours of flag-tossing and trumpeting pageantry in the central square (free seating on bleachers erected for the event); the blocks around the center of town become pedestrian-only with vendors (in costume) of food, drink, crafts, home-spun clothing, leatherwork, and much more. There is SO much that is aimed at kids: places to build their own wooden house/car/thing?; create beaded jewelry, etc. etc. A few blocks' walk UP the street to the top of town brings you to a huge open field with encampments of javelin-throwers, cross-bow teams, spinners and weavers, wine-makers, beer-brewers and bread-makers (from the wheat-to flour-to dough-to bread as it was done 800 years ago); music everywhere. To enjoy the festival, you buy "medieval money" which is the currency that vendors take. I was there three summers ago and there were very few Americans. Most folks were Italian, with a smattering of French and German tourists. It seems to be an "undiscovered" festival for the American market, but was an incredible highlight of my trip. Google "Volterra Medieval Festival" and also look at photos on tripadvisor to get an idea. I stayed right in town at the lovely and very reasonably priced (and well air conditioned) Hotel La Locanda, and was glad to be able to stop back and rest, whenever I wanted to. Volterra is also a wonderful town even without the festival. See description in Rick's Italy book: Etruscan and Roman ruins in multiple places; artists and craftspeople who welcome you to watch them work in their studios, and beautiful scenery all around the town and from the ramparts. To get there, it's about a two-hour train-bus or bus-bus connection from Florence. I found schedules on-line (use rome2rio dot com for links). Finally: I found the people of Volterra amazingly warm and welcoming, speaking first on the street, inviting me to sit on hay bales and eat with them at the Festival to eat and talk for an hour after advising me which cheese and sausage vendor made the best cheese and who made the best sausage! This is such a family-friendly event! I can't wait until my grandson is old enough to take him back with me. PS: Volterra is higher and a bit cooler than many other Italian towns and cities, and I could feel that difference.

Wow, @jmauldinuu! This would be very much up my kids' alley and I love that it hasn't been discovered by loads of tourists yet! Unfortunately, school starts on Aug. 20 next year, which precludes the last two weekends of August for us. What a pity!