Eight days in Italy in August

[Yootha]

Having never been to Italy, I somewhat spontaneously took the plunge and booked midweek flights to Milan for the start of August (they were a bargain, though I've since discovered the airline is in liquidation but still trading).

We are a family of 5- kids all teens/ young adults. I've been googling but it is frankly overwhelming.

We are happy to travel rather than stay near Milan- I'm thinking about getting around by train, otherwise car hire I suppose but am a bit worried about the reputation of driving in Italy.

We'd like to fit in a couple of different things- a bit (or a lot) of nice sights and history, a bit of beach (lake or sea), a bit of ourdoorsy stuff (walking/ cycling/climbing or similar).

I realise it will be busy in August but hope to avoid places where the experience would be ruined by the crowds.

I would be so interested to hear of any recommendations for places to see or stay. We are on a fairly limited budget (up to £2000 for 8 days excluding travel and food).

I'd love to hear any experiences, good or bad, of Italy in the Summer holidays :)

To avoid confusion- we're a family of 5 : i.e.2 parents and 3 kids who are teens/ young adults.

I have no experience of Italy in the summer, but I did recently take a train from Genoa to Milan (and then a bus out to Bergamo airport) and it was a very easy experience. We bought the tickets in advance from Loco2.

Are you thinking of moving around and staying in different places or staying put? If staying put how about Lake Como or the Cinque Terre...or...the dream... Portofino. Genoa was actually a very lovely town I thought. See what you can afford on homeaway or airbnb. That's what I'd do anyway...

Milan is a great base for traveling in Italy. It's very close to Lake Como, I've only been out of season but imagine it would be very busy and expensive then but we've done it as a day trip from Milan and liked Como itself so that might be worth considering as a base for a few days.

From Milan it's just over an hour to Bologna which is a really nice size city with great food. That train line also continues all the way to the coast. Alternatively Venice is 2.5 hours from Milan by train, busy and hot but if you don't try to pack too much in it's a great city. Definitely recommend Italian train travel and have had good prices booking in advance. Much more relaxing than driving.

Worth looking at airbnb for accommodation. We've used it a couple of times in Italy and been very happy with the apartments.

Let us know how the planning goes and happy to help if I can with more information

I had forgotten about Cinque Terre, Levanto is a good base and more reasonably priced - we went in June and it was very busy then.

We also went a day trip from there to Portofino, I was a bit underwhelmed although my view might be coloured by me managing to slip and hurt my ankle!

The train journey from Milan Centrale Station to Pescheira Del Garda takes just over an hour. From there, it's just 2km (get a taxi at the station) to one of our favourite campsites, Camping Bella Italia. It's at the southern end of Lake Garda. You couldn’t pick a place more perfect for teens who love fun and anyone who loves sightseeing. There is direct access to the lakeside beach, although it might be difficult to tear them away from the fabulous pool complex with its five pools (including heated pool, lagoon pool and waterslides).
The campsite provides organised excursions to nearby sites including Verona and Venice. However, it's only 20mins walk to the station where there are direct trains to Venice, so you could also go by yourselves.
There are four restaurants on site. The most popular one has amazing views of the lake, but there's a quieter one in a courtyard with a fountain. We also liked the onsite ice cream parlour!
Also on site, there's a tennis court, basketball court, archery, mountain bikes (there's a good cycle track which goes straight past the campsite and leads to Pescheira which is an easy cycle). The campsite hires pedalos and kayaks.
There is a neighbouring water sports centre where you can do windsurfing, parasailing and banana boating.
If any of your teens are football mad and you stay at Bella Italia from a Monday to Friday inclusive, they can do the football programme run by specialist coaches every day from 9.30-12.30. www.4groupsonly.dk/BellaItaliaSummer-football-academy-2018-week28-30English/front-page.html

Did similar last year but we did hire a car. Lake Garda is lovely (Gardaland is worth a visit), we also did Bologna and Venice. Agree with a pp - checkout Airbnb - if you need a recommendation for Bergamo (which is actually surprisingly beautiful & not just an airport city) we stayed in a fab apartment there.

Definitely go and see The Last Supper. You need to book in advance as it's small groups in at a time. You have to go tbrought a sprcial airlock and everything.

Hi

As others have said lake garda is fantastic. Theres garda land and movie land down in the south and you can get around so easily on the ferrys . Try Riva up north for some wind surfing or a trip to malcesine where you can take the cable car up mount baldo. Also a trip into verona where u can see romeo and Juliets balcony.
Ive travelled to lake garda 2 or 3 times and its lovely. Pesceria is a good base.
Hope this helps.

If you want a smaller less touristy lake, try Lago d’iseo nearer than Garda . There is a lovely campsite on the lake side. The island Monte d‘Iseo doesn’t allow cars and you can hire bikes to explore the Island. Milan will be horribly hot and sticky in August , all the Italians head to the coast, lake or mountains.

Just beware we wanted to go by train from Pescheira to Venice and found the Italian train system impossible to navigate; we might of course be idiots! but don't just turn up do some research.

We are currently in Italy 🇮🇹 at a Eurocamp site Altomincio are here for 8 nights we flew into Milan last Saturday and we leave to tomorrow. We are staying in a mobile home with large sun terrace in the forest the site is similar to center parcs it's in a forest. There are 3 large pools with water slides plenty of sun beds and all the amenities you need. We have hired a car and been to Verona and some other towns around lake Garda. The scenery is beautiful and it's well worth a visit.