To think I have a cat in Hell's chance of finding an Italian holiday for this August?

[ThoseAwfulCurtains]

For 2 adults, 2 adult DCs and a 14 year old? Or should I just give up now unless I'm prepared to spend a million billion pounds?

In my defence, we were waiting on a date for surgery before booking and I've only ever booked 1 'package' holiday before - when Tesco were giving away clubcard points like fresh air and you could only book via 1 website.

Other holidays have been camping/youth hostels etc so I'm a complete novice at holiday booking.

If IABU I'd rather know now than spend loads of time stressing on the PC.

Depends how flexible you are on area of Italy, duration etc. Voyage Prive and Secret Escapes will both be worth a look, lots of last minute deals & you can select by country. But a shorter break would be easier than a long one as a lot of hotels are booked up and it is high season.

What is your budget OP?
Were in Italy do you want to visit and how long for?

We've been looking and there seems to be a fair number especially if flexible on dates. Agriturismo is worth checking out for self catering. Whereabouts do you want to go ? Lakes and Mountains agents such as Inghams , Crystal and Thomson may be worth checking out.

Check out cottagestocastles.com for last minute deals on villas.

We used a company called Long Travel to book a holiday before and they were fantastic and very helpful with ideas if you gave them a budget. They specialise in Italy.

Does it have to be Italy?
Greece is very cheap atm

Does it have to be a package? I usually book via Expedia which gives much more flexibility and if you research hotel/airport transfers before you go it's normally quite easy by public transport.

Thanks golden I'll look at those websites.
DH and eldest DCs are v into geology so near Etna/Vesuvius would be good. Younger DC is a pizza/pasta fan so would be happy anywhere. Don't need the beach if there are rivers.
Budget? I haven't set one (because I'm crap like that) but I wouldn't want to pay more than £3,000 including food if it's self catering. I have no idea whether that's ridiculous

www.agriturismo.net

Thank you so many replies.
I think Greece would be an alternative. Is is safe?

I had no idea our older DCs would still want to come with us. I was kind of hoping it would just be DH, DC3 and I but there we go. I should be pleased they still like spending time as a family.

Right. I'm going to make a start on those suggestions.
Thanks very much for them

We booked lake Garda through booking.com for hotel and found cheap enough flights, good luck.

If you're not bothered about resorts and can drive somewhere you can find stuff on air bnb for a song! Search for number of bedrooms by region and just see what comes up on the map.

Check your flights on skyscanner and then look for rooms on booking.com

Lots of nice big family campsites in Italy - Eurocamp etc. Some are near the budget flight airports, eg Rome, Venice, Verona.

Try this place they are just getting ready to open and speak English. (friends of mine)

Any luck yet?

slug thanks very much that place looks lovely but is on the opposite side of Italy to any of the places we'd like to visit. Though I think I should look at distances properly. Also, I couldn't find their prices.

LIZS after lots of discussion and indecision with the DCs we can actually contact atm, we've decided on a challenge.

DH and I have to come up with an Italian holiday and a holiday in Greece each and then we're going to compare them and vote.

I'm going to spend the afternoon plotting and planning mine and trying not to get sucked in by other interesting threads on MN

We stayed in an agriturismo in Tuscany earlier this month and it was lovely. There are lots of them about.

Good luck

Well, we just had to cancel our booking in Italy for next week so guess it's possible!

Shakshuka that's awful. I hope everything's ok.

I've decided to forget about Greece. Too many islands to choose from.

This is what I have so far, using SkyScanner, Booking.com and an advance search about car hire in Italy (thanks to the posters who suggested those sites)

Flights from London to Rome - return 10th to 19th August - £870 (but I bet there'll be cost to add on eg baggage)

Car hire - mid sized - approx £400

3 nights in Rome approx £500

2 nights in Pompeii approx £250

Ferry to Sicily £30

2 or 3 nights in Sicily approx £2-300

Though I might play with the cost of flying into Sicily first, picking up the car from there and dropping it off in Rome on the way back. I think that'd probably cost more though.

Also, need to think about fuel, airport parking,insurance, food and entry tickets.

No wonder sensible people book holidays in the autumn when the weather's pants instead of fussing over a PC when they could be in the garden in the sun. Gah.

All critiques of my plan are very welcome please

Sounds like a fair amount of driving. I'm concerned those areas would be too hot for us in August.

5foot5 whereabouts did you stay, thinking of Siena but may want to do 2 centre.

I think we'd be ok if there was air con in the car and the hotel rooms - though I do take your point. It's just that they really want to see volcanoes and have sunshine - so Iceland is out (also 2 older ones went with school for their 1 school trip abroad allowed ).

Is it really ridiculously hot? I'm ok at 30c but not so much above that.

Also, I love driving holidays. We've driven to Le Vigan twice in the last 5 years and that was fine. If I had my way, we'd be driving to Italy and not flying but I've been outvoted.

Was going to suggest you could do the sunny chill out part of your trip somewhere on the amalfi coast rather than sicily since you're going to Pompeii but you've just said that you like the idea of driving. Does seem like a lot of moving about though but that's fine if you like that