Need charming small town en route to CT.....

I;d look into Lucca. Reachable by train and you can ride bikes on top of the town walls

We will be going to Lucca after CT - just trying to break up that 6-7 hour train ride with something
different.

Karen---what I like to do when planning a route like this is view the train routes, with all the intermediate stops, and see what looks interesting for a stop along the way.

For this purpose, I find the Swiss rail site (www.rail.ch) the easiest to use. It will show all the trains in Italy. Use a date in the next month or so, the same day of the week that you will be traveling. When th elist pops up, use the button "show intermediate stops" to see those.

Put in Venice for your start, and I used Vernazza as a random ending point. You'll see that a fast Eurostar train leaves Venice at 27 minutes after the hour, going to Firenze SMN. You change there to a regional train heading toward CT. The one that looks interesting to me heads west via Sarzana toward La Spezia. You go inland from the Versilia coast (sandy beaches south of Cinque Terre). One town that looks nice as a place to stop is Pietrasanta, a little town centered on sculpture (lots of art studios) using Carrera marble. I am researching this area as a daytrip from Lucca, and the town looks charming in photos. One can rent bikes there and ride a bike path down to the beach.

http://www.welcometuscany.it/tuscany/lucca/pietrasanta%20medieval%20town%20around%20lucca.htm

http://goitaly.about.com/od/versiliatuscanycoast/a/pietrasanta.htm

Leaving Venice at 10:27 am, you would be in Pietrasanta at 14:30, 4 hours later. The next day you have a short hop up to CT.

I'm not giving this a personal recommendation, as we haven't been there yet. Mostly, I'm just describing a method of finding interesting little-known places that are right on your way, and would make a good stopover without detouring. Look at the routes and you might find something that really appeals to you.

something to keep in mind, there are solutions that give you a travel time of around 5.5 hours as well as the ones in the 6 to 6.5 hour range.

Most of the solutions consist of three train rides.

A 2 hour trip on a fast Eurostar from Venice to Florence. Usually around a 20-30 minute layover/train change in Florence. Then around a 2 hour train ride to either Sarzana or around 2:20 to La Spezia followed by a short ride to the CT. those are usually the fastest and the most direct routes

So you might want to just go on to the CT.

Ferrara while interesting doesn't seem far enough along your journey to be the spot.

Another spot to consider, that gets you to Florence but isn't Florence might be Fiesole.

http://goitaly.about.com/od/fiesole/a/Fiesole.htm

Shops, restaurants, places to explore ie Roman amphitheater.

Train to Florence then a short bus ride up the hill to Fiesole.

....what about Ferrara? The Castello Estense? Do you think that would be interesting? We could bike around there, I think. Anybody have any thoughts, likes or dislikes, place to stay?

or Montecatini? There is no mention of Montecatini or Ferrara in Rick's book - don't really understand why whole areas have been left out.

Does anyone like Montecatini?

Rick's books are not comprehensive guides; he only covers a few areas of Italy, and not all the towns in those. I you want to get off the beaten path at bit, it is good to go beyond what is covered in his books. We have always been well-rewarded when we do that.

Montacatine Terme is a spa town fairly close to Lucca and right on the train line. It is much-visited by Europeans but not so much by Americans. However, a good friend of ours used it as a base for her week in Italy and loved it. (She also loved nearby Pistois, which has some picturesque architecture). I considered it as a stop for our own trip (with 2 daughters but older than yours). There are a number of attractive places to stay, all with pools, which might make a nice cool and relaxing break in your trip.

There is lovely towns (Barga) up the Serchio River from Lucca that might offer cycling and hiking, but that would involve a bus transfer from Lucca, so it's not as convenient for your purposes.

I think we will try Montecatini. Kids might enjoy the funicular and all the pools and seems like a good stopping point. Train station is very central.

Lola - do you by any chance know where your friend stayed? We are looking at:

http://www.franciaequirinale.it/

Ron - thanks for the suggestion. I had looked at Fiesole before - just didn't want to deal with the train/bus change and Florence has an event at the time I will be there - so I wanted to avoid all train station chaos/crowds. Next trip!

hotel looks spiffy...

I would suggest you email them directly about a quad room, doesn't look like you can book them on the website. Doesn't mean they can't accomodate you though.

Trip advisor has a bunch of hotels with reviews.

My friend was there for a week and they rented an apartment, so she can't help with hotels.

If the one you are looking at doesn't have quad rooms, try Hotel Corallo *** (aka Golfhotel Corallo). They are offering an apartment for 4 at 79 euros a night on Venere.com. The pool is on the roof, which means it's not huge, but is fun. Some of the booking sites also mention free bikes at this place.

Thanks for all your help. I ended up booking the
Hotel Francia e Quirinale - quad room for 110e. Cheapest rate in my entire trip!