Italy in summer with babies

Most locations in Italy and Spain are likely to be hot in the summer. For the kid's sake, make sure your hotel has AC, many European hotel rooms don't, and they don't have window screens either.

How much time do you have?

I am not sure how use to humidity you are, but we did one trip in June to Italy and Spain and believe me it was extremely hot and humid. Make sure you are in a place that you have water, air conditioning or something to that effect. Especially with kids. We live in a hot summer location but very dry with little humidity.

In whatever amount of time that you have, how many different home bases are you aiming for? Travel by train or car? Car rentals cost more if you don't return them in the same country; two separate rentals are also a possibility. You can get some ideas about the French Riviera, Italian Riviera and other parts of each country on this web site, but once you've narrowed it down, I'd get Rick's guidebook for that region. His French Riviera and Provence book has more coverage of that area than does the larger France book.

We are going to arrive to Italy by air, then train or other ground transportation. We are looking for a resort type of a place and close to some site seeing. It's hard moving around with kids for site seeing.

Thank you for your replies.

Not sure where "home" is, but when our children were that age we limited our travels to East/West coast of the US. to visit family. When they got a bit older we did Australia (campervan) and Germany with Grandparents (only a week).

Tuscany is great! But I wouldn't take my children there unless they were going to drink wine and eat salumi. Do you have family/friends/nanny that you can leave the children with or that are traveling with you? Unfortunately, at that age the "kids" won't really care where they are.

I would suggest renting a villa or an apartment and staying in a smaller village. I have friends who took their 3 year old twins to France for 10 days and that is what they did and loved it. They cooked, walked, shopped at markets, etc. and had a wonderful time. No, maybe the kids won't remember it, but you will. A pool is a great asset as well. I would definitely check out Certaldo Alto and any of the surrounding areas. Have a wonderful family trip:)

Oh, please, don't take your precious babies to Italy in the summer. Take them to local places at home where they won't suffer fuom the oppressive heat and humidity. It can be brutal. You would probably stay indoors during the day, anyway, so what is the point?