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Planning Help-1st Time to Italy for 10 yr old

Posted by (Canada) on

Hi all, first time poster to these forums but long time traveller. :-) TIA for help.

My husband and our 10 yr old DS are going to be having a 13 day holiday in Italy late March through to Easter Monday. DH and I have travelled to Italy to family and on our own close to 10 times but this will be our first time with our DS. BTW, my dad is also travelling with us but will just stay with family as he is elderly and is from Italy and his days of big tours are over.

I am having a hard time balancing and coordinating our itinerary! Lost my touch lol. I will provide our wants and needs and my ideas.

We arrive Thurs. March 16th into Rome. We have a cousin there and can stay as long as we like in Rome. DS is very mature and a huge history buff as well as an avid Rick Steves fan! He has also travelled a lot but only to UK in Europe. So am thinking of staying in Rome and doing the sites straight away until Sunday. We then want to take the fast train to Venice Sunday late or Monday morn. DH and I have never been to Venice so this will be a first! We hope to stay for 2 nights in Venice.

After that, this is where things get a bit overwhelming for us. These are the rest of the things we want to accomplish:
Go to Pescara / Penne Abruzzo just for a day trip to see where DH family are from (have been one time before) would need a car for sure.
Go to Sorrento/ Capri /Pompeii
End our trip with large family (and my Dad) for 4 days to Easter Monday (a small village in Campania 2 hours from Sorrento )
We leave out of Rome Tuesday after Easter Monday home and no doubt our cousin from Rome will drive us back to airport as she will be with us at Easter.

Family of course would take us around etc (in past, they took us to Naples and Capri etc from the village) and accommodate us on bringing us to where we want to go, but we really want to do lots of things on our own this time. We would do small things in last travel days with them, like walking with my Dad so he can show his grandson where he grew up, hanging out on the farm, or a small side trip to Caserta for example and basically just relax with them all eating and drinking and celebrating Easter. :-)

Thank you for indulging me and if you have read this far! If you have ideas for us, please share. Many thanks.

Ella xx

Posted by
8053 posts

In Rome, taking the Underground Tour at the Colosseum is definitely worthwhile, seeing the works beneath the original floor, where people and animals were staged and moved about, out of view, and where water for the staged mock naval battles was pumped in and drained away.

I also believe your son would be fascinated by the Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano, with layers of history - an ornate church on top, an older one underneath it, and in the cool, dark excavations beneath that, the burial site of Saint Cyril (who invented the Cyrillic alphabet used today by Russians, Bulgarians and others), gushing water, and buildings from Ancient Rome, including a temple. So it's a church on a church on a church!

Are you planning on having an apartment in Rome or Venice? Check on www.HomeAway.com or http://www.vacanzeinfamiglia.it. We've used both, and found great places with kitchens & washing machines, which made traveling easier.

Posted by
3648 posts

My daughter and sil took my 7 year old grandson to Rome for Christmas when he was 6 and to Sicily this past summer. I gave them a book with a title something like " Italy with Kids." If you check on amazon, you'll see a couple of similar offerings. They found a walking tour of Rome, specifically aimed at children and a cooking class for kids.

Posted by
616 posts

Go to Collodi, Toscana where your son can visit Pinocchio's park. Very interesting for adults also.
Tarquinia, Ceveteri, where you will discover The Etruscan tombs should also be nice with a ten years old. Easily accessible by public transport and not very far from Rome.

Posted by
11613 posts

Sounds like a fabulous trip for your family! Mine is from Benevento.

The arena in Capua might be interesting for your son.

I would take a mid-to-late afternoon train to Venezia so that you can arrive before dark, perhaps around sunset.

Posted by
1009 posts

We traveled in Italy 2 summers ago, when my boys were 10 and 12. They liked the underground colosseum tour in Rome. They liked riding bikes in Lucca, and climbing the Leaning Tower in Pisa. In Venice, we did a rowing class with rowvenice.org. Super fun and you get to row it like a real gondolier (but in a more stable boat). :)

Enjoy your trip! We loved Venice so much, try to keep that in the plans! Though I am not quite sure where the other places are that you mention. :)

Kim

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