Hello RS aficionados. My wife and i will be traveling with our kids (14 yr old boy and 10 yr old girl) to Italy in mid November (arriving November 18th). We will be in Rome 4 nights/3.5 days, Florence 2 nights/2 days, Venice 1 day, and ending our trip with a Thello sleeper train to Paris from Venice and 1 additional night in Paris before flying out the following evening (basically 2 days in Paris).
My wife and i have been to Italy/France several times and feel it is an appropriate time to bring the kids now. We are pretty much planning on doing the "biggies" in each city in an effort to get the kid's "feet wet" per say. We are planning on trying to be as relaxed as possible and going with the flow of what the kids want to see while also steering them along through the main items that we feel are important. What i was hoping was to provide a general itinerary, then sit back and allow ya'll to provide some insight/additional suggestions in respect to making this trip as fun, educational (both historical and societal) and non-stressful as possible. Both kids are fairly mature (depending on the day!) and enjoy a good time.
Rome
Day 1 - fly in. Get to hotel around 3:00 and then just chill the rest of the day, eat and do some people watching near our hotel (Pantheon area).
Day 2 - Forum/Palatine Hill/Colosseum (what are your thoughts on doing a tour under the Colosseum with kids? Too long? ) What's the church near this area where you can go down and see several "layers" of Rome building on top of itself?
Day 3 - Pantheon early morning then on to the Vatican Museums/St. Peters
Day 4 - Ostia in the morning/chilling in the afternoon in Rome
*** Day 3 is interchangeable depending on weather with Day 2 or 4. At the moment I'm going under the assumption that i don't need reservations in mid-late November for the sites we are visiting (the crowds haven't been bad in November before but feel free to comment and change my mind if need be). Ostia is not a priority, but i haven't seen it yet, but have heard great things about it and thought it may be interesting for the kids (since we won't go to Pompeii on this trip). Could change it out for something else if there are some really good suggestions.
Florence
Day 5 - Train in morning from Rome to Florence. Academia and Uffizi (Again, assuming i don't need reservations for either due to time of year, but feel free to provide additional insight). Possibly Duomo in late afternoon depending on how kiddos feel (will do Duomo either today or tomorrow)
Day 6 - Possibly Duomo in morning. Train to Pisa (gotta get the cheesy picture at the Leaning Tower) then depending on how kids feel take a train to Lucca a little while, then back to Florence.
**We would like to do a cooking class with the kids one late afternoon. Any suggestions on that in Florence (or even Rome) would be greatly appreciated.
Venice
Day 7 - Train from Florence to Venice (arrive around 10:00 am). My wife and I are not as big on Venice as many are, so we plan on spending the day strolling around, obviously will go to St. Marks area. Eat dinner, then get on Thello Train to Paris later that evening.
Paris (honestly still trying to figure out Paris)
Day 1 - Eiffel/Arc De Triomphe/Champs Elysee
Day 2 - Louvre/Notre Dame
Please give suggestions where you see fit. As you can see, at this point i have decided not to specifically reserve any dates/times for museums because i didn't have to do that before when i was in Italy in November... but that could've changed since i've been last so please update me. Would love to do a good family cooking class in the evening, so fire away with suggestions on that. And any other suggestions are greatly appreciated to help make this a great trip for the kids. Thanks in advance!