My wife and I went to northern
Italy and brought along our two small daughters who were respectively 3 and 1 year old at that time.
We planned a 5 week travel vacation that would mostly look like this: 1 to 2 days arriving in Nice,
France and going towards our first
Italy destination. 1 week online rental of a village apartment in one of the villages of
Cinque Terre in the Liguria province of Italy. Then a 2 week housing rental in a strategically located Tuscan town, Colle Val d'Elsa. Then 3 days in
Venice, 3-4 days going back west
through the Italian great lakes. And about 2 days back in Provence,
France, for a departure from
Marseille. Since we had two children with us we decided to scrap the idea of visiting
Rome for this trip. Italy has so much to offer that just going through Tuscany, Liguria and visiting
Venice,
Verona and Great Italian Lakes was well enough for this time. On top of that, we could not really plan some time to even get quick glimpses of
Bologna, Parma,
Milan and Turin.
Well, keeping everything and everyone organized when arriving at the airport was quite something. Fortunately we would get better as to be organized, effective and experienced juggling with our children and luggage as the travel trip progresses. In the plane we did not have to purchase a seat for our one year old and the flight did not go to bad. We were the last ones to leave the plane however so we would have less pressure to scramble up our stuff and kids.
With relatively few luggage we might would have fit in a standard sedan. However, bringing along kids mean bringing along a baby carriage, as well as other baby stuff and distraction tools like a few toys and of course extra children luggage. We did not however had in our budget to rent a minivan so we opted for the Renaud Scenic, some kind of minivan/sedan hybrid that is very popular in Europe. It was also diesel driven so we would have more travel distance for our buck (or Euro I should say). Even then, fitting everything we had in the car when we arrived at the airport was quite a puzzle. Of course we would suggest that if you are travelling with a family that you should rent a full sized minivan if you can afford one.
We arrived by plane in Nice,
France. We traveled toward
Italy a long the Mediterranean coastline for one day, going through Monaco as well, and stayed in French Menton a few miles before the Italian border. Before leaving, we strolled into the nice and more historic Menton neighbourhood and brought the children to a playground next to the sea. Our first sight of Italy when we entered was not exactly charming as the first towns and villages had old industrial feel to them. However we did get a chance to buy and have our first Italian foccacia in a small village. We then picked up the highway and drove all afternoon, passing next to Genova, until we reached our hosting village, Manarola, in
Cinque Terre.
Our arriving with children in this historic and preserved village inside the
Cinque Terre Provincial Park (Parco Nazionale) was quite something. First of all we had to leave our car outside the village since no vehicles are admitted inside the village (which is very nice). I then had to find where exactly our apartment was located after a good walk in this hill and stair-made village. Then come back to get our heavy luggage and tired family.
We spent a splendid week to remember visiting and living in the five Mediterranean villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore) of
Cinque Terre and visiting nearby Portovenere near La Spezia and Lerici. Tourists travelling without children are able to visit across the villages in about one or two days but would not have much time to get the feel of these places, to take a break by the sea or a walk in the surrounding vine trails. To the exception of visiting Corniglia that needs to be reached by a trail and then climbing hundreds of stairs if arriving from Manarola, strolling across Cinque Terre with children was an absolute pleasure. We we happy to also sit for a few hours in a kids park in a fence secured area in the Manarola village and look at the sea while our two small children were playing.
At the end of the week we were now moving forward with the main course of our trip, Tuscany.
To be continued...
