Most travelers to Italy suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) and this creates havoc with itinerary planning. What should be a time of relaxation for the family sprinkled with moments of culture, art, history, food, wine becomes a hodgepodge of madness – early mornings rushing from one museum to the other, followed by a quite sandwich before running across town for a quick orientation tour before catching the last entry to the Vatican or some other must-see site that your cousins sisters friend told you you had to see before you die!
First visit to Italy
Realistically Italy should be explored over a few visits. If we presume that you are going to be traveling for 10 days each time then your first visit to Italy should cover no more than 3 locations. We suggest Rome for a few days, then some relaxation in the Tuscan countryside (which includes a couple of visits to Florence, Siena, Lucca or Pisa) and then finishing off with a day or two in Venice. This first visit dips your toe into the sea of Italian culture and allows you to tick most of the boxes, so that when you get back home and get asked ‘Did you see David? What about the Vatican? And the Bridge of Sighs?’….you won’t feel left out sitting at the table at your friends dinner party.
Italy should be taken slowly and although this first visit might not be the slowest vacation you’ve ever taken it should offer a nice mix of an activity in the morning or afternoon every other day, allowing you to spend the rest of the time enjoying the food, gelato and wine that Italy is famous for; then some time at the pool in the countryside and in the evening discovering the art of the ‘passeggiata’ (a leisurely walk for purpose of socializing – to see or be seen) or even easier perfecting ‘la dolce far niente‘ – the sweetness of doing nothing (as per Eat, Pray, Love). Italians are masters at both of these.
Second visit to Italy
After the first visit to Italy you will get a sense of what it is all about and this will allow you the next time to concentrate on more of what you like. Your second visit to Italy should be a little slower than the first and this time may only cover two locations. You might want to explore the beauty of the sea and the coastline and so might couple together a visit to the Amalfi Coast with some time in Naples or exploring the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre) with a few days in Lake Como or more of the vineyards of Tuscany with the addition of Bologna (the stomach of Italy), Parma (cheese and ham) and Modena (balsamic vinegar) if your are wine and food lovers.
Third time around
Hopefully by your third trip to Italy you will have fallen head over heels with the country and the people and so this trip will become more of an immersive experience where you want to get under the skin or explore a few more layers of the culture, the people, the art, etc. This trip might be revisiting a single location from a previous trip and getting to know it better or it may entail you hiring a car and exploring a little more of a new location like Sicily, Sardinia or Puglia. During this visit you will likely request a cooking experience with an Italian family; lunch or dinner at a fantastic vineyard or exploring some seaside towns or Baroque and Medieval villages.
Our recommendation
A typical itinerary for each visit would look like this:
First time visitors
Rome – 3 days
Tuscany – 5 days
Venice – 2 days
Second time visitors
Naples – 2 days
Amalfi Coast – 7 days
OR
Lake Como – 4 days
Italian Riviera – 5 days
Third time visitors
Sicily – 10 days
OR
Sardinia – 10 days
OR
Umbria – 4 days
Puglia – 5 days
By the end of the third visit you won’t even have scratched the surface but you will have a greater understanding of Italy and will have seen more of the major sites than most but also experienced some great moments with the family and built some memories and friendships to last a lifetime! And hopefully with our tips this will have been achieved with minimal stress and maximum satisfaction.
We’d love your comments, do you think we got it right? What are we missing? Would you do it differently?
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If you don’t have time to plan your next vacation, need help finding family friendly hotels, tours and activities or just want an hour or two consulting then we are here to help. We can brainstorm destination ideas with you, work with you to design a custom itinerary or simply book a resort, villa or hotel stay for your family. Follow this link and we’ll set up a time to call you and let you know how we might help or advise you on what to do next.
