mjcole10

Hi,

My wife and 2 kids (3 and 13) are planning to move to Italy next summer (for 2 months). We are trying to narrow down what regions might be best for us. We have traveled to Italy a few times but do not know the entire country.

One of the major challenges is trying to figure out do we live in the North vs. South (or in middle) as we want to create a home base, but visit Venice, Verona, Rome, and Palermo as examples of the weekend getaways. Our criteria:

- Near a city but doesnt need to be the largest like Rome but lively enough to take in culture, restaurants, etc
-family oriented
-30 minutes to ocean or if inland would be looking for a pool
-within a 2hr drive to airport

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Michael

gioppino

Ocean?

PSG2014

gioppino....................I like it (very well !)

I think you need to target central, you can then have the weekend trips to the other places (5 hrs drive or so )

PSG

Garbatellamike

welcome to the forum - have put some initial thoughts above in red.

The difficultly as I see it is that based on your criteria you could go to somewhere nice in Puglia or to the beautiful lakes in the north and any number of places in between.

how far are you prepared to drive for your weekend breaks or will you use the train?

linseed oil

Abruzzo midle of italy midle of the road cultural wise 2,5 hrs rome some places 20 mins sea or less local ryair air port central to nearly all Abruzzo

we are 20 mins sea 30 mins airport ,2,5 hrs rome a short ferry trip to spilt 20 mins ski 30 mins main line railway prety idial i would say 4 resterants within walking distance 20 mins opera and one of the best musieems in italy

20 mins uni hospital perfect more by luck than jugement 12 years ago still verry happy

sunnysider

You really do sound the proverbial pig in *** linseed (please don't take this the wrong way).

Out of interest, which is this museum you speak so highly of?

all the best

linseed oil

there are two museams in chieti town it self cant rember the name just google musams in chieti and yes who would not be as happy as apig in siiit

in the museams i speak of there are lots of local roman artifacts

sunnysider

thanks for the reply linseed.

ah yes, have come across chieti before in my readings.

Just wiki-ed it - sounds fascinating and with a history like that a good thing to toss at any Italian (unhappily a few) who tries the racist card.

Greeks, french, "spanish" etc and some Italy chucked in as a cherry on top.

Will try my best to get there some day - many thanks for turning me on to the abbruzzo with this and other posts.

primularossa

Dear MIchael

consider Tuscany, and Lucca or Pisa:

Pisa has a good airport at 10 minutes from city center, with cheap Ryanair flights to every ryanair destination, in Italy and abroad

it is 20 minutes from the sea shore, 40 minutes to beautiful places on the sea shore

good train connections to North and South and Florence

it is a University town - during summer, the best place where to find restaurants and cultural life is in Viareggio, on the seaside, and Versilia, 30-40 minutes by car. During the other seasons it is more lively

distances:

Milan: 3 hrs
Bologna: 2 hrs
Rome: 3 hrs
Genova: 2 hrs
Florence: 1 hr
Siena: 2 hrs

mountains: 1 - 2 hrs


Lucca too is even more beautiful, but less well connected. the airport of Pisa is at 40 minutes drive.

Siena is even more beautiful, but far from the seaside. But it has the best countryside ever.

ciao, enjoy Italy
Silvia

----------------

Sancho

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asolo if you can afford it.

mjcole10

Thanks for all the input! And yes, not an ocean

I think we would be better suited in the North. More to see and do that fit our interests. As someone suggested we could do a weekend trip to Sicily or another area of the South.

We are narrowing the regions and possible cities down to:

-Tuscany (Lucca, Siena or outside Florence)
-Umbria (Perugia)
-Veneto- (Verona)

Any thoughts on these choices- pros and cons?

Thanks! Michael

ononno

Just a thought on Umbria, try Passignano sul Trasimeno, beautiful lakeside medieval village, short train ride to Perugua (and Florence, and Rome)
bye bye dicette l'inglese

ciquta

You are a bit too generic, but I would suggest something near Bologna; good airport connections, best food, less than 1,5hrs to Venice, Florence, Verona and the sea.

Verona could be also good, considering the lake Garda in the nearby and the beautiful Alps.


Avoid Tuscany

fleetwoodmac1975

Cagliari would meet all your expectations.
It is a very underrated city.

MarkRD

Cagliari? ..not very handy.

Try Padova (Padua).

OP souds like a wealthy American with time and money on his hands, and a limited knowledge of Italian geography ... so try moving around a bit.