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Need idea for two overnight visits/stays in Tuscany:

Posted by on

Hello Travelers,
My husband, 10-year-old daughter and I will be in Italy for about 11 days.

  • We arrive in Venice and will stay for 4 nights.
  • plan to take the train to Florence to stay for 3 nights
  • Thinking about renting a car -

  • Free day/night - we plan to stop in Pisa for a few hours to see the tower, et al. I've been to Pisa before and don't really want to stay the night there. Any suggestions about where we should go (next stop is Portofino - so want to head that direction).

  • Then two night near Portofino (we'll ferry to Cinque Terre for hikes and gelato)

  • Then we have one free day/night to travel toward Venice. Should we stay/visit Parma, Bologna, random amazing tiny town? My husband would love a stop in Modena to see the Ferraris - worried my daughter and I will be bored to tears.

  • We'll stay our last night in Venice, then fly out early the next morning from the Venice airport.

So, I need two recommendations: an overnight between Florence and Portofino, and an overnight between Portofino and Venice.

Our daughter is a good traveler - she's spent time in France and Spain. She's enjoyed cooking classes, a kid-centric tour of the Louvre, a day at the Alhambra (it was 97 degrees) - a tour of Sagrada Familia where she got to cross outside from one tower to another (ack)! She'd love a farm visit (maybe an Agritoursimo place)?

Thanks travelers. I'm coming up empty.

Posted by
5301 posts

an overnight between Florence and Portofino

  • Lucca..... Your daughter may enjoy walking or riding a bicycle around the city ramparts (walls encircling the city)

overnight between Portofino and Venice.

If your DH wants to visit the Ferrari Museum, you and your daughter could stroll around the city of Modena and go shopping! ;-) Nice compromise don't you agree?

Have a wonderful trip and make amazing memories with your daughter!

Posted by
11613 posts

Lucca also has a tower with a tree on top. Climbable (the tower, not the tree).

Posted by
3124 posts

On the route toward Venice there are 3 small-ish cities that figure prominently in Renaissance history, if that is of interest to you: Mantua, Ferrara, and Padua. Verona is also lovely.

Posted by
4 posts

epltd - THANK YOU! The towns you mention are exactly what I was looking for. I'm so grateful. I've started looking at them all (now I want to visit each one) - it will be hard to narrow it down - they all look amazing. Let me know if you have a favorite. Thank you so, so much!

Posted by
893 posts

Padua has a historical medical college that you can tour. They were one of the first if not the first (I can't remember) that did post mortems to learn about the human body. It was against the law at the time, and they bring you into the surgery room and show you how the table would flip over very quickly to hide the cadaver in case the church inspectors had showed up. It is not gross or scary, and I would show it to my 10 year old if I had one.They explained to us how much the surgeons at the time learned about the human body and how much it helped humanity.

There is also a nice Cathedral and a good market place in Padua and it's a very short train ride to Venice.

I hope you, hubby and your daughter have a great trip! What a great experience for her.
Mimi
PS check out Skylinewebcams.com they have live cameras in many cities all over including Italy.

Posted by
4 posts

Mimi -
Thanks for this fabulous suggestion. My husband (an MD) and 10 year old are both excited by this idea! Thanks. We are thinking about cancelling the last night in Venice (since we start there) and having a last night in Padua - just 25 miles from the Marco Polo Airport and no vaperettos required. Thanks for the great tip!
Michele

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