Things to do with kids in/around Florence over half term

[ronconcoke]

Hi, we are visiting DH's family who live near Florence, this half term. We normally go in the summer hols so plenty for DC to do eg swimming in the lake/river, beach, water parks etc. We've been in October before but pre-kids and when DC were younger so it didn't matter if we didn't plan too much, but now DS is 11 and DD 5, it would be nice to plan a few trips/child-friendly things to do.

We'll be staying with in-laws approx 45 mins north of Florence in the countryside but we will be hiring a car. I was thinking maybe of a trip to Lucca/San Gimignano and also walking up to to the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence, and have heard the Boboli Gardens are good (for kids?) but other than that, have no ideas. Has anyone got any recommendations? TIA!

The Boboli gardens are formal gardens with hedges, statues, fountains, etc, so they're nice for a wander, but they're unfortunately not the kind of gardens where you find a hidden playground. TBH, Florence isn't a great place for kids, but there is excellent pizza and gelato available, so if I were you I do some walking and stop for a nice lunch and use an ice cream in the afternoon as motivation for a bit more walking!

Vivoli has great ice cream, near Piazza Santa Croce. The Piazza della Signoria has an outdoor sculpture gallery (the Loggia dei Lanzi), and a copy of Michelangelo's David by the Palazzo Vecchio (there's one in the Piazzale Michelangelo too). The latter has great views over the city, but there isn't really much to do up there.

Fiesole is nice for a wander too (small town just north of Florence). There's a Roman theatre and various other Roman ruins for poking about in and running around. My DC enjoyed scrambling about in the Forum in Rome, so maybe yours will enjoy that?

Mine hated Florence massively although dd on an earlier trip did quite like walking up to piazzale Michelangelo and back down to the ponte vecchio. Oh and a terrible horse and cart. They managed to fake enthusiasm for the market but mainly enjoyed the subway walk but by the station.
I think the gardens are alright though, and from memory there’s some fast food place near there at the river.

Zoo of Pistoia and Adventure Park Il Gigante

When DCs were young they preferred Siena - not too much to do but smaller and the museum is nice also looking at the flags for the Contrado ? - have I got that right ) - would that be too much of a drive ?
Depending on day as I recall San Giminano has a lovely market.

Pedalling on a 4 seater around the top of the city wall at Lucca is great fun if they are available to hire at that time of year - restaurant on the wall - cant remember what it was called, but was also v nice!

@Ricekrispie22 whereabouts is the Adventure Park?

Some good suggestions here, thanks. @BasiliskStare I love Siena but yes it is quite far. We'll see.

I like the idea of walking round the city a bit, having pizza, walking up to Piazzale Michelangelo and an ice cream! I remember there were lots of ice cream stands up there (maybe not in October though...)

And yes Fiesole sounds good. As does the 4-seater thing in Lucca!

We brought dc, young / mid teens to Florence and they loved it.
We enjoyed visiting the Duomo, The DaVinci museum, shopping, going to see David in Academia Gallery, visiting the apothecary in Santa Maria Novella, eating pizza and some excellent Italian food, lots of gelato, walking on the Ponte Vecchio and browsing the windows there.

We went in February and loved it.

Just a few miles north of Florence www.parcoavventurailgigante.it/en/

Pedalling on a 4 seater around the top of the city wall at Lucca is great fun if they are available to hire at that time of year

They are, we hired one in Oct half term two years ago, it was our kids favourite thing that we did. You need your passport or drivers licence to hire one.

This was very popular with ours (7, 10 and 11 when we went) when we went, they particularly enjoyed watching out for the modified street signs but there's agood combination of fun quirky stuff in there as well as history. The 7yo is obsessed with the greek myths so was quite happy going round the art galleries, and we did a lot of walking about appreciating the sights and finding the things in the scavenger hunt.

Oh, and the weather when we were there was still warm (low 20s) so we ate icecream every day. We did have one very wet day (so we went to Mercato Centrale to dry off and eat pizza in the food hall) and a couple of cooler days (16C) so similar to a British summer. It was a great time of year to go, much less busy than the summer.

A day trip to Pisa? My kids are younger but thought the leaning tower of Pisa was cool - I think it was about a 90 minute drive or you could take the train - it takes an hour or so.

We went to both Siena and Pisa from Florence this summer.
The Boboli hasn't got much for kids, as others have said, it's just a very big formal garden.
Piazzale Michaelangelo was lovely, but again, not sure there's much for kids. We went at sunset and there was your usual Bob Dylan/Ed Sheeran busker and teenagers drinking beer on the steps.

Errr, if DH's family live nearby, surely they would be the best people to know ?

@Georgyporky

Errr, if DH's family live nearby, surely they would be the best people to know ?

Not necessarily. BIL is married to an Italian but their family have no interest in seeing the sites and could never recommend anywhere to visit (obviously this is specific to this family and not a general comment on Italians and could be true of any family in any country!).

I second Fiesole. The ruins there are excellent and there's an old monastery with satisfyingly horrible mummies. My two loved it.

If you go up inside the Duomo then I recommend that too. The paintings include man-eating demons and the DC seem to love that kind of gory stuff.

Brill, thanks guys.

@JaninaDuszejko, do you remember where you hired the 4-seater pedalling thing from?

@Georgyporky DH's family isn't massively into sightseeing. When we go there they're happy to come to the beach/river/lake with us but that's about it - we usually have to find (other) things to do ourselves.

Florence isn't fantastic for children but when we went we were also visiting family. Did all the normal tourist things which were fine but not exactly captivating for dc. DD's favourite was an open top bus ride and you can get off at the village destination and spend some time there. Pasta, pizza and gelato is of course a favourite for most dc and of course there is that in abundance

www.biciclettepoli.com/noleggio.htm

But the Rough Guide to Tuscany just said 'bikes can be rented from a cluster of outlets around the tourist office in Piazza Santa Maria', they do specifically mention the one we used. We had lunch at the Caffè del Mercato, there was a waitress with a Liverpudlian Mum who charmed the DC. Otherwise we just meandered about looking at the facades of the churches, it felt very relaxed.