Italy with teen June 2017

We joked around about just renting a apartment in the Cinque a Terre
for a week after visiting the bigger cities but I have only ever done
three to four nights there.

If your daughter doesn't like crowds, I definitely wouldn't choose a week-long stay in the Cinque Terre during high season: it's mobbed. Granted, some of that can be avoided by hiking lesser-used, more strenuous trails but I wouldn't recommend it for a week, given her interests.

I'd consider staying longer in Florence and doing some day trips. It's a goldmine of history and Renaissance art, and there are any number of places you can explore around the area by train or bus. It would give you some flexibility to pick and choose as the spirit moves you without having to pick up and move to a new location. I'd also give Rome a minimum of 4-5 nights, and a number of day trips are possible from there as well.

What is her idea of relaxing? Most teens I know - removed from their electronics, anyway - are pretty active so her idea of how much of that is desired and yours may be different. Also, at 17 she can (and should) be doing quite a bit of research on her own for locations which spark interest. Think about tasking her with choosing one or two for 3-night stays (maybe the CT for one of those.) The more engaged she is in the planning early on, the more engaged and knowledgeable she'll be when she gets there!

Thank you Kathy. She has done some research and is pretty much interested in most of Europe which has been the issue. Not a bad one mind, but a issue. She was pretty settled on a trip to Germany but totally changed her mind last week to Italy due to the art and well the food aspect. We have reminded her that she will get to go back and explore other countries and that this isn't her one and only chance to go to Europe. She actually seems sort of stressed about it all so I thought I would see about getting some feed back here on what other family groups have enjoyed. She has always liked small town vacations rather than larger ones. I guess my memory of the Cinque a Terre in early June must not have included a ton of tourist or we were just there a few times on light traffic days but I was worried she would get restless there. Thanks again.

A place you might not have thought about is Bologna. A large city, but without the maddening crowds of Rome and Florence. And it has a wonderful range of interesting places nearby, such as Ravenna, Ferrara, Modena and many more.

She has done some research and is pretty much interested in most of
Europe which has been the issue...

Good for her! I'm chuckling as it's an issue for MOST of us! Hard to choose, isn't it? But she's going to love Italy and should have an easier time scouting locations with at least a country narrowed down. :O)

I wish I could say that there's such a thing as a 'light traffic day' in the CT during the summer but according to recent reports, those days are long gone. I certainly wouldn't rule it out completely but I personally wouldn't choose it for a week. Besides hiking, the water is a beautiful blue - as you know - and there's some fun swimming off the rocks here and there. There's the beach, of course, in Monterosso but the rocks look like more fun (bring water shoes). She would also have a field day with the camera there.

No Venice, eh? Interesting as it's on just about every first-timer list (meaning your daughter, if you've already been there). The nice thing about the Holy Trinity (Rome, Florence and Venice) is that it's not that hard to lose the mob if one has a mind to. All it usually takes is a stroll away from a handful of top attractions to interesting things most tourists miss!

You mentioned Lucca before - that's been a favorite with a lot of RS travelers - and Orvieto, near Rome, is another. Either could be stayed in for a few nights or done as day trips from Florence or Rome, respectively. The excavation at Ostia Antica is another great, very easy day trip from Rome, and not nearly as overrun as Pompeii.

Lots of ideas with more to come, I'm sure!

Kathy- I can assure you Venice is still on the table. For some reason when we were looking at the map and travel time she didn't seem that fussed. We might have to extend the vacation out to 21 days at this point. :) My goal is to have this all loosely settled by the end of the summer so we can start to watch airfare and adjust from there. My husband and I are keen the hill towns of Tuscany as we have only done a few day trips from Florence but have agreed to table it for another trip and do it properly. This one is about her. She has also considered Pompeii. Thank you for mentioning Ostia Antica as none of us have done that yet. We have found that our favorite family trips have had light schedules with days of light sightseeing mixed in with the heavy. We live near Disney and try to avoid tourist traps on vacation whenever possible. She also values quiet times and days where she can simply enjoy where we are with her camera with very little interaction with us which is why I was hoping to throw in the smaller town stop for a few days. I don't fancy letting her run around alone in the larger cities much. She will have plenty of time for that when she is older. ;0)

Ostia Antica is wonderful. I took my 14-y/o grandson there in May of 2015. It was calm, quiet and nearly deserted. There were two (count them) other people at the ticket booth when we arrived at mid-day on a Friday. The umbrella pine trees provide welcome shade and refreshing scent over most of the site.

To avoid crowds at the major sites in Rome, just get there early. The Colosseum and Pantheon, for example, open at 8:30. Get there when the doors open and for at least a while you'll have the whole place nearly to yourself. The tour groups start arriving around 9:30 or 10, and then it becomes a zoo.

That strategy doesn't work quite as well at St. Peter's Basilica, though; the security line is long early and gets longer as the day goes on.

Consider Assisi as well. The central part of the town does get crowded with day-trippers, but that's when you go hiking up to Rocca Maggiore, or elsewhere on the periphery. At night, after the tour coaches leave, Assisi is magic.

Take a look at Fiesole too? It's so close to Florence proper that it doesn't have to be a full day trip; only 20 minutes or so from the center.

https://www.visitflorence.com/fiesole/

What I like about longer stays + day trips is that it lets you flex with weather and those days that you just may not be up to a big adventure. Raining? Stay close to home and scout out the lesser-known places. Sunny and dry? Have that day trip. Need a re-charge? Just take a day to wander and find some great spots to kick back and watch the world go by.

Hi All-

Thank you so much for all your feed back. It is very valuable. We have been discussing it over the past few days and have all agreed that we will extend the vacation out to at least 19 - 20 nights. My husband has been out voted. :) Any thoughts on the north of Italy? Like the Dolomites? Our daughter while loving art has admitted that she would love some scenery changes and a break from the heat before returning to FL. Therefore we are thinking about possibly a open jaw Rome to Milan and work are way with that. Suggestions?

Kirsten, the Dolomites are supposed to be terrific...and are out of my area of expertise as they're still on the wish list! Hopefully someone who knows that area well can offer up some pointers.

Open jaw is a GREAT idea that saves some backtracking. Voting down your DH was another fine idea. HA!

The Dolomites are a great idea. At altitude the weather will be quite a bit cooler than in the other spots you're considering. They speak German up there, and the food is different. It will be a bit like visiting another country without leaving Italy. I stayed in Bressanone and Bolzano last year, both nice cities but in the valley and hot-hot-hot. I agree with the many here who recommend staying up in the mountains. There's good public bus service, supplemented by lifts, plus the train that runs through the valley. Very lovely scenery.

I'd consider Ortisei because it's a bit larger and livelier that some of the other towns. If you think you'd prefer a quieter spot, you can find those, too.

Thank you acraven. I was looking and I thought Ortisei looked like a good base for a few days. How long were you in the area for? My husband and I like to hike. Our daughter likes it a bit. :0) The lifts were of particular interest. We have the three weeks so are in the middle of serious research. Would you need a car? We are not against having one as we discussed it when we were considering a stay near Siena. Our daughter liked the thought of mountains more.

It is hard to say for your teen as are teens all so different, just like we were! My advice is let her look on youtube, at the millions of videos, and see what appeals to her. Cinque Terre is great for hikes and photography, and the crowds are only during the day (maybe 10am-4pm). Before and after is very quiet and photogenic. Remember, there are 5 towns to visit--Manarola and Riomaggiore are very scenic.

You can't beat Venice for photography. And again, the crowds thin out in AM and PM.

Lucca and Siena are very cool old medieval towns, that might appeal to her, too.

Between the two cities I spent about a week in the area. During the last 4 or 5 days I was dealing with a badly sprained ankle (be sure your footwear matches any paths you intend to walk!) and a bout of vertigo, so I was moving around quite slowly. I spent part of four days up in the mountains, doing some wazlking on the first two and just riding around enjoying the scenery on the other two.

You can visit the area easily via public transportation, which is pretty frequent for a mountain area. With a car you'd probably cover more ground, but I gave no thought to whether the roads would be challenging for the driver; I was just enjoying the views.

Last year the Bressanone and Bolzano tourist offices had booklets with all the train/bus/lift schedules for their areas--very handy references. Some Googling will no doubt turn up online versions.

I just returned from Italy with my son, who turned 13 on our trip. We had 13 days, including travel time. We stayed in Florence, Venice and Rome. He was more bothered by crowds than I expected and disliked Florence for the crowds, narrow streets with motorcycles and cars whipping by, and agressive panhandlers. He is not very interested in art or churches though so there wasn't much in Florence to off-set his dislikes. While in Florence we took the train to Pisa and climbed the tower. He liked that. We also hired a driver and went to Lucca and Tellaro. In Lucca we rented bikes and rode the town walls. We also Torre Guinigi, which is a tower with trees growing out oft he top. In Tellaro we walked down to the ocean and back up for lunch at Il Delfino. My son said he wanted to move to Tellaro. It was very quiet and very pretty. And the lunch was one of our best meals in Italy.

His favorite place was Venice. He liked that there were no cars and enjoyed the canals. We did Row Venice while we were there and if you daughter is active she might like that. They teach you to actually row a boat similar to a gondola. There were just two of us and it was a lot of rowing and we were hot--be sure to book the 8am lesson if you decide to do it.

While in Rome we did an after dark tour of the Coloseum, which was really nice. Cooler and no crowds. We also did a tour of Ostia Antica. Lots of walking and no crowds at the site at all. And we did a small group cooking lesson in a town outside of Rome. Again no crowds and my son really enjoyed the hands on experience.

Have a wonderful trip!

Thank you CRl for your trip feedback. I am happy you had a great trip. We have been watching videos of locations to see what interest our daughter most. At the moment both Rome and Florence seem a bit over whelming for her. She liked the look of Pisa as well as the Cinque A Terre so far. She was also interested in the Tuscan hill towns and the northern alp region. In short it seems the the smaller towns seem more interesting to her than the larger more impressive cities. Who can figure a teen out? Thank you for the suggestion of the cooking class. I think she would like that for sure.