How To See The “Big 3” In Italy, With Teens!

You’ve dreamt about it, watched all the movies, and bought every travel book in the book store. Hours have been lost both on Pinterest and on-line scouring sites as you try and plan the perfect vacation to Italy for you and your family. Where does this leave you?  Overwhelmed. There is an abundance of information available on travelling to Italy and it’s right at your finger tips but unfortunately what can too easily happen is information overload. After countless hours of research, planning, much brainstorming and a little tweaking along the way I present to you the itinerary we created and used with great success as we travelled for 10 days through Rome, Florence and Venice; a family of four with two teens in tow.

As a family we decided we wanted a slow tour. Time to get to know the cities, hit the biggest sites and feel like we weren’t running from place to place. We certainly could have crammed more into our days, but opted instead to have lots of built in down time, so as to have the option to sit and people watch, take spontaneous tours, shop when when we wanted to, have long meals, or even the occasional nap. We didn’t approach touring these cities as our only chance we would ever see them, but hopefully our first.

Day 1 – Travel Day

Includes travel to the airport and an overnight flight to Europe.  Try and enjoy the journey!

Day 2-Rome

Arrival in Rome at 9:35am, transfer to your hotel.  Whenever possible, ask for an early check-in.
Tip: Once you have dropped your bag off at your hotel or villa, freshen up and go out and enjoy the city. Grab a bite to eat, enjoy your first pizza or gelato, snap some pictures and fight the urge to sleep. The best thing you can do for yourself is to try and adjust to the time difference as soon as possible. If you need to you can have quick nap around 3pm before heading out for and early dinner and back to bed.

Day 3 -Rome
Enjoy the day around Rome at your own leisure.
Ideas we checked off our list: The Pantheon (free to enter and not to be missed), a walk about Piazza Navona, pictures at both Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Day 4 -Rome
10:30am The Taste of Testaccio Food Tour with Eating Italy Food Tours . An incredible way to get to know the neighbourhoods and cities you are staying in.
We also included time today to do some serious shopping.  Rome is an incredible place to serious shoppers.

Day 5 -Rome
9:45am- Underground Colosseum (plus Third Tier), Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Tour with Through Eternity. This was an enlightening tour that I highly recommend. (more details to come) The tour took almost 6 hours, a big part of our day.

Day 6 -Rome
More shopping of course and time to go back to the Trevi Fountain.  It’s a different place during the day versus night.
2pm- Vatican Highlights Tour & Sistine Chapel tour with Walks Of Italy.  Worthy of note: you must wear proper dress to tour the Sistine Chapel.  This includes making sure shoulders and knees are covered.

Day 7 – Travel Day (Rome to Florence) 

Check out of your accommodations and transfer to train.  The train is an efficient, fast, clean and a easy way to get from city to city.  We opted for the 11:35am Train to Florence.  The train ride from Rome to Florence is only about 1 1/2 hours.
Transfer to your accomodations in Florence.
Knowing we would need a “break” from the city, we opted to stay just on the edge of Florence at Il Salviatio.

Our first day in Florence was spent around the gardens and stunning pool at this boutique resort hotel  overlooking the olive groves and countryside. You could, of course, easily spend your afternoon/evening in Florence.

Day 8 -Florence
Just one crazy busy day to scratch the surface of Florence, but it can be done. Not to be missed:
Begin your day with a walk around the outside of the stunning Duomo. If there is time later you can come back and do a more in depth tour.  Follow this next by picking up a tour guide outside the Uffizi Gallery, this gives you skip the line access and the chance to see all the Renaissance Masters.
From the Uffizi Gallery, criss cross over to The Accademia – (where you have pre-booked your tour) to see The David & Michelangelo’s unfinished works.  Now is the time to squeeze in a quick lunch.
Make sure you have a good map. You will need it to for the balance of the afternoon as you try to find: Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Duomo, Santa Maria Novella Cathedral, Brunelleschi Cupola, Gates of Paradise, Baptistery and Giotto’s Bell tower.
Hungry? Of course you are: Grab a sandwich on Via Del Neri at the little sandwich shop known as All’ Antico Vincaio. When the locals are lining up at the door you know it’s good.
Finally enjoy the sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo

What we did not do, but would have had we not been craving a pool day and time in the countryside? A day trip from Florence to Pisa with fast-track entry to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You can find tours that run from 1:30pm – 7:15pm.

Day 9 – Travel Day (Florence to Venice)

Check out of your hotel and transfer to the Train Station.  We opted for the 12:15 Train to Venice.
Check into Hotel L’Orologio Venezia. and spend the balance of your day exploring Venice at your leisure.
Ideas: Take a gondola ride, Walk and shop on the Rialto Bridge, enjoy a lesiurley dinner or Tapas along the Grand Canal.

Day 10 -Venice
Half Day:  Take a water taxi to the islands of the lagoon; check out the glass making on Murano and the incredible fishing village of Burano. Each can be easily reached by the water bus.
Ideas:  Hot? Take a 15 minute boat ride and spend a couple of hours at “The Lido”. Perhaps a chance to rent a double person bike, shop or go for a swim in the sea at Blue moon Beach
-Take a long meander to find Doges’ Palace.
-Have a coffee in St Mark’s Square & watch the people go by.
-Pause for a photo by theBridge of Sighs.

Day 11 -Venice
Take a walk through Cannaregio (Jewish Ghetto)
-Explore the Rialto Bridge
-Take some pictures and do some shopping at the Rialto Market (only open in the morning, where the locals shop)
-Shopping! Time to grab those last minute souvenirs and of course, more gelato.
-3:15pm Venice Boat Tour with Grand Canal & Tower Climb with Walks of Italy 

Day 12 – Travel Day
Venice – Toronto
Time to make the sad trip home!

This 10 day trip (plus two days dedicated to travel) provided us with ample time to see all we had dreamt of seeing.  We explored, got lost, and found each other in new ways.  We may have gotten a little bit snappy with each other on occasion, because when it’s 40 degrees out, your tired, hungry and lost, someone is bound to get a little bit “hangry”.  But the consensus now that we are back on Canadian soil?  If we had to do it all over again, we wouldn’t change a thing.

Hoping you find this itinerary helpful in your future plans to tour the beautiful country of Italy.  More detailed reviews of the accommodations we stayed in and tours we took to follow.

Happy Travels!