We have finally made it to Europe! It is fantastic to have made it to this continent, and we are excited to explore it with our kids for the first time. It is great to have 3.5 months to take it all in – except this involves a crazy amount of planning.

We have been working hard since booking our tickets a couple of months ago to come up with the perfect plan. We are now organised for the next couple of months, but we still have the final month and a bit to plan when we hope to visit Italy, maybe Slovenia and Croatia. I’d love your help in working this out!

Current plan

At the moment, we are flying into Pisa on August 22. I want to arrive in Croatia by September 8. This means we have 17 nights to play with.

We have three nights in Cinque Terre booked on arrival (a big bucket list item for me) and then a car hire booked for a week dropping it off in Venice.

Current (rough) itinerary:

Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Road Trip (7 nights) – Tuscany, San Marino and Bologna?
Venice (3 nights)
Slovenia (4 nights) – either Lake Bled or Ljubljana

We are open to changing this. I am unsure if we should get the car for two weeks and skip Slovenia and staying in Venice (it’s expensive). We could then explore more of Italy. However, it does sound like Slovenia is lovely? We will need to finish our Italy stay somewhere where we can access Croatia or Slovenia easily either by bus, train or ferry.

We arrive in Italy after a month in the same spot in Paris so we should be fine travelling around fast.

Previous travel in Italy

Colosseum

I have been to Italy twice. The last time was in 2008 when J and I stayed in Rome for a few days. The first time was when I was 21 and on a Contiki tour! I stayed in Florence, Venice and Rome and briefly visited Pisa, Verona and Pompeii.

We are up for visiting everywhere again except Rome. We loved it, but would rather explore new places.

Where should we go?

These are the places I have been considering, please feel free to suggest alternatives.

Tuscany

Florence

I have been concentrating my research on Tuscany because it seems like the natural choice – although maybe that is just because it is the region I have heard the most about.

I have been reading about Pisa, Florence, Sienna and Lucca, as well as the Chianti wine region. I love wine! There seems to be so many great places to visit in this region that I have been thinking about staying somewhere for a week, wherever we can get the best deal, and then doing day trips within the region. The distances look small enough to do this.

Is it crazy to plan to visit these places for just a day each?

San Marino

If you have never heard of the tiny country of San Marino then I am not surprised! It is the world’s fifth smallest country, but it’s oldest surviving sovereign state and oldest republic.

J has a thing for visiting tiny countries so this is a must visit for him if we are anywhere in the area. There seems to be no reason to stay the night though, so this is definitely just on the list as a day trip. It is not far from Tuscany or Bologna.

Bologna and Emilia-Romagna

Museo della Storia di Bologna

I read a John Grisham book years ago that was set in Bologna. The city just sounded lovely and for some reason, it stuck in my head and I have wanted to visit Bologna ever since.

I have since been reading about Bologna and its surrounds in our guide book and now I want to visit the whole area, especially as the book keeps mentioning the fabulous food. It also sounds like the towns in this region will be less touristy so perhaps more enjoyable than the ones in Tuscany?

Verona

I spent just a few hours here on my Contiki tour, but there was something about Verona that really appealed to me and I left Italy with this being one of the places I most wanted to return to.

French Riviera

This option looks a bit out of place. However, the French Riviera was one of the places I wanted to visit most when we first started talking about a Europe trip for this year. Plus, I will be getting so close to 100 countries during our trip to Europe that I must admit that the option of adding Monaco is very tempting.

The problem is that I also very much want to explore Italy and this would really limit our time there, so I am coming to the conclusion that this will have to wait until next time. Good idea?

Venice

Venice

I enjoyed exploring Venice on my Contiki tour but, to be honest, I don’t really feel the need to return. However, J hasn’t been so he definitely wants to visit here and since it is on the way to Slovenia/Croatia, it seems a shame to leave it out. We were originally planning to stay here for a few days but now that we have seen the prices to stay anywhere remotely central, we are thinking about just heading in for a day.

Sample itineraries

Here are some ideas I am thinking about. Which do you think is best? What would you change?

Itinerary 1 

Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Tuscany (5 nights)
Bologna (2 nights) – visiting San Marino on the way
Venice (3 nights)
Slovenia (4 nights) – either Lake Bled or Ljubljana

Itinerary 2 

Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Tuscany (5 nights)
Bologna (2 nights) – visiting San Marino on the way
Verona (2 nights)
Venice (1 night)
Slovenia (4 nights) – either Lake Bled or Ljubljana

Itinerary 3 

Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Tuscany (6 nights)
Bologna (2 nights) – visiting San Marino on the way
Emilia-Romagna (2 nights) – not sure where exactly
Verona (2 nights)
Venice (2 nights)

Itinerary 4 

Cinque Terre (3 nights)
Tuscany (5 nights)
Bologna (2 nights) – visiting San Marino on the way
French Riviera/Monaco (5 nights)
Venice (2 nights)

I’d love to hear your thoughts! And apologies for the photo quality – my first trip to Europe was well before I had a digital camera!