The kids want to go to Italy next year and I haven't a clue where to start!

[A1Sharon]

DH and I plus 3 kids ages 5-13. The older two are very keen to try Italy.
But I haven't a clue where to start looking. We love Pollensa in Mallorca, we like traditional towns and to be near the sea. We usually get a villa with private pool and would prefer that option but open to other ideas.
Also plan on doing Venice for a few days, but we don't mind travelling to there separately.
We are thinking of Sicily or the South Italy?
But totally clueless, and advice greatly appreciated.

I'd try Puglia, if you like a villa by the beach. Venice is frigging miles from there - like the opposite end of the country, so you might want to do that on a separate trip. Sicily could work too, but do your homework as the coast there is at times rocky, at times volcanic sand, and at times very built up and/or crowded with ugly, unfinished concrete monstrosities. Personally, I'd choose Puglia - I think that would tick your boxes and it's still quite unspoilt.

Puglia is the heel of the Italian boot.

We are staying on Lake Garda at a beach resort and then travelling for the day to Venice and Verona. It looks like a beautiful area.

What's the name of the resort little? Puglia was one of the places I fancy, thank you.

Have they any idea what they want to do/see in Italy or just go there?

What sort of things are they interested in?

Usual suggestion is Italian Lakes or Veneto for family holiday. If you like villa with private pool, and traditional towns then you would probably love agristurismo rather than a resort.

Bear in mind Italy is big with mountains in the way for most of it. Travel can take bloody ages - trains are nice, roads are fucking awful. Also in August much of it is scorchio. Italians head to the beach and line up like sardines to bake in the sun. You would need to check out exactly which beach you are going to not to stand out like a sore thumb.

If you want to go to Venice I would have a look at agriturismo around the Veneto, somewhere near Verona and Vicenza, or possibly Padua. You then have some beautiful towns, lots of Roman stuff, castles and the villas down the canal to Venice. And not far to Venice - go by train, arriving at the station straight on the Grand Canal is fab.

Or go to Sicily not in August, avoid the resorts and cancel Venice. There is more than enough to do in Sicily to make you feel trekking up to Venice is more hassle than it's worth.

We will be going 30th June (roughly). Thank you!

We visited Venice and Lake Maggiore last summer. I loved Venice far more than I expected to. We stayed at a cool hostel on a quiet island opposite the main island and used the water buses to get around. My teens loved it. We stayed for 3 days, then drove to the lake and stayed at Cannobio, then to Lake Lucerne on the way home. It was a lovely holiday!

DH has just ruled out agritourismo-you'd have to talk to the other people there apparently!

Are the lakes warm to swim in?

We love tuscany - close enough to get to Siena and Florence, Rome about 3hrs away, nice villages and Etruscan and Roman archaeology. Further north and you can go up the dolomites and see the lakes.

We book villas with a private pool - can be very pricey and you will probably need a car.

The lakes are lovely in the summer, but most do get quite busy. For sure they are warm enough for swimming.

I would go for the North - you can do Milan, Lake Garda, Verona and Venice in the same trip, and you can get the pendilino train to Florence for a day if you wanted. You should book in advance though as they're much, much cheaper (something silly like €15 each for 1st class!).

Stay in the middle - lake Garda is a good, central choice and the public transport links are good at the South End of the lake (Garda) however it's touristy and crowded (but still very naice).

Enjoy! I'm very jealous.

You really really don't have to talk to the other people at agriturismo.

Or at least DH and I never have perhaps we are antisocial

Depends where you pick but some sell on a sort of communal table business and others you have your own space and completely ignore the other guests we like those ones

Hulder, that all sounds really interesting. Can you post more info and link to a website pls? Thank you

We stayed here and it was amazing - 5km down a dirt track (fun in a Fiat Punto ) and we felt like we were staying in paradise. Food was out of this world.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g187906-d1133431-Reviews-Guinzano-Gubbio_Province_of_Perugia_Umbria.html

If you search on Tripadvisor for Specialty Lodging they will likely all be agriturismo.

Or there are loads of search sites nationally and for the region you are looking at. You can then stipulate what you want in the search

www.agriturismo.it

Generally if they do food, it will be food they produce plus local products so we always pick somewhere with a restaurant. Owners are also often into the Slow Food movement so fab food guaranteed.

For example if you want a pool, this place in the Veneto looks amazing, you have your own apartment so no talking to other guests and is ideally situated for exploring.

www.agriturismo.it/en/farmhouse/veneto/rovigo/TenutaCastelVenezze-3600114/index.html

There will be other places with petting animals, more kids facilities etc. Depends what you are looking for.

It depends what you want OP. If you want villa + beach (ideally), then I wouldn't go to the lakes. The lakes are lovely and there is lots to see/do up there and you could easily combine Lake Garda with Venice as there is a train line connecting them. It also connects to Verona (which has an airport and is also a lovely city for walking around).

In June/July all the above will be hot and humid and very busy. Also, in summer Venice's canals smell fairly unpleasant. I've been to Venice several times and would recommend going at a cooler time of year. The summer is also very busy for traipsing around cities and you'll be battling with crowds of other tourists - many of them cruise ship or bus tours following a leader with a flower on a stick. The area around St Mark's Square will be solid with people.

Lake Garda is lovely and you could, conceivably, stay there without a car. There are lake ferries which allow you to visit the other towns and if you stayed in Desenzano or Peschiera you'd be on the train line that passes the southern end of the lake for access to Milan, Verona, Vicenza and Venice. You'd likely end up staying in a hotel or apartment though and the lake is busy, busy, busy in summer. Yes, you can swim in it.

Thank you Hulder.

Italy is favourite country of mine and I'm always looking at different ways to experience it. I travel alone so can please myself what I do and where I stay. The links are fabulous.

Sorry - re the Slow Food Movement. Thats how Im inclined to eat my way round Italy. Again, thank you.

If any of you like cars then i can recommend the Ferrari and Lamborghini museums. Both near Modena.

We stayed in an agritourismo recently and we were the only people there. We had a fantastic local meal with wine that had been made on the farm followed a massive breakfast the next day. All for less money than a Premier Inn!

Following this thread with interest as Italy is on our list of places we'd love to get to. Thanks for the info everyone

I forgot, we did go to Venice for the day in August on our honeymoon.

DH has some nice photos of me fainting in the queue for the vaporetto

It was boiling hot, teeming with people, we had to fight for a 6 inch square to stand on in St Mark's Square.

Eventually we had a lovely day by heading out to the lagoon islands and the crowds tailed off but initially it was bloody awful.

Went we went back for a proper holiday, we went in late September. San Marco was still awful but you could easily avoid it and the weather was bearable.

Personally I think Venice is best attempted at the start or end of the season as Hulder suggest. I was there last year at the start of May and it was almost empty. Well empty that is from the MSC Davina sailing into port. It was like meeting an old friend as I'd been on it twice the year before. It did make me laugh. Its was so silly. Huge cruise ship, tiny vaporetto.

But on the other hand we were up and out at 7.30 one morning and there was nothing on the canal apart from our vaporetto. The place was like a ghost town apart from people loading up a market stall or washing down Gondolas for the day. It was as if we'd paid 100 of 1000's of dollars to keep the traffic at bay so we could film a documentary showing a traffic free canal.

Another highlight on the same trip was attending a Papal Blessing even though Im a lapsed catholic and if I were to identify with a religion it would be Islam, the religion of my children and estranged husband. I found myself calling out my sons name, he's severely disabled, every time the Pope whizzed passed me on his golf buggy. All of it was extremely moving. Details of when the blessing are held can be found on the Vatican website.

And a must see in Venice would be www.musicapalazzo.com/language/en/

Its a wonderful experience.

Oh and Herculaneum, plus a visit to the Naples Museum is better than a trip to Pompeii.

A few years ago we went to a fabulous campsite just north of Venice called camping portofelice. So good we went back!! Short walk through pine woods to lovely Sandy beach and wee town called Eraclea Mare which had markets, shops and great restaurants. Could get bus to Venice or Caorle or get a boat trip into Venice. We went in August and all lived Venice - amazing place to go and my dc still ask to go back. Campsite was fab with loads to do but not in your face. Great swimming pool, restaurant, shop etc. BBQ'd most nights but ate out too. Campsite was also the summer home to locals from Venice who caught fresh mussels for us! You can book lodges, mobile homes etc.

Beaches in Puglia will be rammed until late August. The whole of Italy seems to decamp to the beach, or the lakes in the north, during the summer holidays. It will still be lovely! The ice cream, the coffee, the wine, the food...........

Following this as well as I always want to go to Italy but it always seems harder to get houses with pools than France or Portugal. They seem to have a lot more B&Bs and agriturismos - which I've always discounted because I don't want to talk other people. So, good to know I don't need to .

Re Venice, I went at February half-term once and it was perfect. Cold, crisp and sunny. And St Mark's was empty when we arrived 10:30 at night. It was freezing, a clear moonlit night, straight off the boat from the airport. It was magical.