My teenagers loved our trip to Italy. Booking a guided group tour made it easy for me.
Visiting Europe with my teens was magical, and I didn't want to come home.
I'd recommend Italy to families looking to try traveling abroad.
My husband and I visited Italy for the first time a few years ago on a Disney cruise, kid-free. Italy was so special, I returned home dreaming of returning with my teenagers. It took a few years, but this summer, we booked an Adventures by Disney trip — a highly organized form of group travel — and spent more than a week experiencing Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice with our 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter.
I love traveling with my family, and we've been on some pretty incredible trips. But with responsibilities back home, I'm always ready to get back to the real world. As we walked through Venice on our last day in Italy, gelato cones in hand, I said to my family, "I wish we could stay a little longer, suspended in time just like this."
Preparing for our trip to Italy in advance made it go smoothly
I'm not sure if it was the specific trip we booked or Italy as a whole that captivated my family, but everything about the country fit our vacation style.
Before traveling, we spent a few months learning basic Italian and, since we'd received our itinerary in advance, we watched videos and read articles about things we'd do in Italy, from touring the Vatican Museum to seeing Michelangelo's David. Taking kids who felt familiar with Italian culture on a tour across the country made everything run smoothly.
We did touristy things, but I let my kids do teenager things, too
It was delightful to watch my teenagers experience the country for the first time. Little things felt incredibly rewarding, like watching them savor delicious pizza or learn to make fresh pasta by hand. Yes, my teens liked checking out important bits of Italian history and culture, but they also loved ordering different menu items from Italian McDonald's or finding Starbucks shops and trying new-to-them sips.
When my husband made a comment about them only wanting to do things we had back home, I reminded him that it's their vacation, too, and the way to get kids to enjoy travel is to let them pick some activities based on what they like.
There was something to do for everyone
Although our group tour consisted of about 40 travelers we were exploring the country with, we loved that there were periods of free time built into every day. On our own, we took my film-loving son to a movie at a Roman theater and saw my daughter squeal with excitement over shopping for clothes at Italian stores.
Italy felt like the perfect place to see sights and learn, but was also a wonderful spot to do things my kids were interested in, right down to the cat sanctuary we visited in Rome, located within the ruins of the spot where Julius Caesar was killed.
A group travel-style trip is perfect for a family's first time in Europe
My kids had been out of the US on vacations before, but mostly to places like all-inclusive resorts in spots like Turks and Caicos. I was nervous about taking them to Europe for the first time, and was glad I turned over the planning to a company like Adventures by Disney so I could enjoy the trip without worrying about logistics.
Everything on our trip was handled by our guides, who traveled with us and helped get everyone in our group safely to the next activity. Tickets for a tour of Rome's Colosseum or a walking tour of Doge's Palace in Venice were all part of the trip cost, as were fun activities like a pizza-tasting party and dinner at a medieval villa, complete with Italian folk music performers.
I wasn't alone in my appreciation for the itinerary-planning help: Every mom I chatted with on the trip said they'd booked it because all they had to do was show up and enjoy, rather than spending their entire vacation buying tickets, scheduling activities, and dealing with things that would inevitably go awry. Visiting a foreign country with kids can feel daunting, and doing so as part of a group travel experience with dedicated guides made all the difference.
Our trip was so successful, my teens already want to go back to Europe
My kids loved Italy so much that they're already asking when we can travel abroad next. Bitten by the European travel bug, they've asked about visiting countries like France and England.
Italy was the perfect jumping-off point for my teenagers, and the friendly people there (who graciously spoke English whenever they realized we were Americans, and were very patient with us practicing our Duolingo-learned Italian) were so kind to my kids. In fact, while I'm thrilled they want to visit other countries, I'd take them back to Italy again to try to recapture the magical time we spent there.
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I took my 75-year-old grandmother to Italy. We chose the perfect city and travel time for her age and needs.
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3 hours ago
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Pope aims to restore ‘body and spirit' during vacation that brings a pontiff back to Castel Gandolfo
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Sunday heads to the papal summer residence for a six-week vacation, giving the hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo back its most illustrious resident after Pope Francis stayed away during his 12-year pontificate. Leo bid farewell to Rome during his Sunday noon blessing, saying he was taking a 'brief period of rest.' 'I hope everyone can have some vacation time to restore the body and spirit,' Leo said from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square. The 69-year-old Chicago native is resuming the papal tradition of leaving the Vatican for the hot summer months in favor of the relatively cooler climes of the Alban Hills, south of Rome. The area has been a favorite getaway for Roman rulers since the time of the Emperor Domitian in the first century. It's Leo's first break after a frenetic few weeks of inaugural audiences, outings and Holy Year celebrations following his May 8 election as history's first American pope. He'll have a handful of public events while on holiday — Masses, Sunday noon prayers and even some events back at the Vatican — but officials expect he will use the time to read in on key issues facing his new pontificate. Pope Urban VIII built the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo in 1624 to give popes an escape from Rome. It was enlarged over succeeding pontificates to its present size of 55 hectares (136 acres), bigger than Vatican City itself. On the grounds are a working farm, manicured gardens, an observatory run by Jesuit astronomers and, more recently, an environmental educational center inspired by Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be). Popes past used it regularly in summer, drawing huge crowds of pilgrims who would come on Sundays to hear his noon blessing, which was delivered inside the inner courtyard of the palace. Pope Benedict XVI famously closed out his papacy in the estate on Feb. 28, 2013. But Francis, a homebody who never took a proper vacation during his 12-year pontificate, decided to remain in Rome in summer. So for Castel Gandolfo, Leo's vacation is a welcome return. The town suffered an initial economic hit from pope-free summers when Francis opted for staycations, but once he turned the papal palace and gardens into a year-round museum that ended up benefiting the town even more, shopkeepers say. 'He made access to these structures possible, which no pope ever did in 400 years,' said Simone Mariani, who runs a restaurant in town that benefited from the steady flow of tourists much more than the summer-only Sunday crowds of the past. 'He brought tourism that was good for the whole town.' But that didn't make up for the emotional loss felt in a town whose rhythms for generations revolved around regular papal visits. When the pope arrived, the palace doors would open, the Swiss Guards would stand at attention and the town would come to life, said Patrizia Gasperini, whose family runs a souvenir shop on the main piazza a few steps from the palace front door. 'All year, we'd miss the color, the movement, but we knew when summer came he would return,' she said. 'So when Pope Francis decided not to come, we were upset on an emotional level, beyond the economic level.' Mayor Alberto De Angelis said he hopes Leo will decide to use Castel Gandolfo not just for summer breaks, but for periodic vacations during the rest of the year, as St. John Paul II often did. There is also a tradition of popes using their time at Castel Gandolfo to draft important church documents and encyclicals, and De Angelis said he hopes Leo follows in that tradition. 'We hope Pope Leo produces some text, some encyclical here that has a global reach,' he said. 'And then to say that it came from Castel Gandolfo, that he was inspired and produced this text from here for the whole world.' ___ Stellacci reported from Castel Gandolfo, Italy. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
