We are planning a three week trip to Italy in July (only month we can go) with our teens: possibly a week in Rome, a week in Florence, and maybe a week in Capri or Elba. They have never traveled to Italy, but my husband and I have/ we lived in Florence as college students for a year and have traveled back since then. Our teens don’t love art museums or hiking as much as we do. We intend to have them plan and research. But- any advice of what your teens loved?
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In Florence, the Dome climb, Duomo, and Academia were hits with mine, while the Uffizi was a slog. Wandering around was interesting. If they are old enough, give them some money and let them go off by themselves. My oldest, at 15, wandered around Florence and loved that. If you do a day trip to the CT, my kids loved swimming in Manarola, where there is a rock to cliff-jump from. We did hike between villages (first thing in the morning before the heat) and then swam in the afternoon (and ate gelato). They weren't thrilled about hiking but the trails are so easy and the views so worthwhile and there are so many hikers - many college aged - that it doesn't feel like teen purgatory. In Rome, mine liked the Vatican (we did an abbreviated tour), Colosseum, the Capitoline museum, and the Borghese museum (sculpture was generally appealing, where art was not) and wandering again (we walked everywhere, Borghese to Trastevere to Colosseum). I think mine would love to go off by themselves now, and I think just wandering, without a planned site to see, would be a thrilling way to experience these cities at that age.
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11660 posts
Instead of staying in Florence, perhaps a rental villa with pool nearby? That was great for the teens when we returned from each day of visiting Tuscan villages. They all loved Florence, seeing “David” and shooping there too. We went in June and the pool was a huge asset.
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In Capri we rented a villa between the Piazzetta and Marina Piccola. My children loved it when we did a boat tour and they were able to swim in the coves. There are some spectacular hiking trails; they loved the chairlift in Monte Solarno. The blue grotto, we did on our own, with a few locals, very early, and swam directly in it. ( only do it if teens are exceptional strong swimmers and the sea very calm).
We were walking distance to the Piazzetta, so it made it convenient to escape the day crowds of all the day trippers, but close enough that we could have a nice stroll in the evening, when all the cruise ship people were gone.