If you used to be a backpacker travelling with only the minimum essentials and you now find yourself travelling with your off-spring, you’ll find that at least for the first few years you’ll have to program every single detail of your trip. Or be punished by massive stress and wrath from the rest of your family for ruining their holidays.

No matter how well you plan though, travelling with kids is often challenging, especially by car when they can’t move and find it hard not to get bored.

To eliminate at least the stress of boredom, when they will start asking you every ten minutes “are we nearly there yet?”, you will need to come up with some activity other than watching dvd’s or playing video games. Try and start your fun immediately when you’re in the car to ensure a great trip for all right from the beginning.

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In 1980, when I was nine, two rarities occured: 1) my parents decided we would celebrate our holidays on a campsite in France rather than Italy or Greece and 2) Peter Post had managed to persuade Joop Zoetmelk, the best dutch cyclist at the time, to join his TI Raleigh team, the best team at the time, which resulted in him becoming the second dutch winner of the Tour de France. We’re still waiting for the third…

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I have loved this holiday since I was a small child. I love the decorations, costumes, trick-or-treating, parties and all the joys of this wonderful, autumn holiday.

Halloween is becoming a popular day for costume parties and events in Italy. While the main holidays are still All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2, the custom of celebrating Halloween is starting to take hold in many Italian cities.
Halloween costumes and startling displays of spiders can be found in many stores. Children’s costume parties are held during the day while in the evening many nightclubs, bars, and restaurants organize special Halloween costume parties.
‘Trick or treat’ became the favorite phrase of small children: they have adopted the American tradition of going door to door in costume to request for chocolates and candies. Read more »

A great addition to the Valdarno area south of Florence is the new sculpture museum, Il Cassero, just a 15 minutes drive (or a short train ride) away from Figline Valdarno, in the historic centre of the medieval town of Montevarchi.

Sculpture seems to be a very “accessible” art form for people of all ages – we (a group of 5 friends & colleagues) certainly each had our favourites that we either liked or could relate to in each of the rooms of this 500 strong collection of 18th and 19th Century sculpture. It was fun to explain to each other what we particularly liked and why – for example, one of them looked like a Shrek version of me & when I pointed this out, my friends agreed totally amid peals of laughter. With 4 floors of different rooms of sculptures, presented in a contemporary fashion within this beautiful medieval building, there really is something for everyone.  Read more »

If you’re looking for a great day (or two, but we’ll come to that later) out, lots of laughs and mostly splashes, then the Zoomarine water/amusement park just outside Rome could be just up your street. The park itself covers a large area in the seaside town of Torvaianica, part of the larger borough of Pomezia and was opened in September 2005.

We, family of 5 with children aged 12, 10 & 5, took advantage of an excellent offer available on the official website. Normal entry prices are €25 per adult per day, but for only an extra €14 they offer a 2 day ticket + hotel package which comes highly recommended. We stayed in the very recently refurbished 4 star “Hotel Selene” in the nearby town of Pomezia which is in Rome’s commuter belt. The hotel itself would be predominantly used for congresses and the like, but it was very clean, comfortable and well appointed if none too easy to find. After checking in we ventured out in search of an evening meal and were immediately advised by the receptionist to head towards Torvaianica (or occasionally Torvajanica) by the sea as “there’s nothing here in Pomezia”.

Now Italy has a wealth of seaside towns right across the spectrum that few other countries can match, from the white beaches and crystal blue seas of Sardinia and the far south to the miles of entertainment in Rimini and the Adriatic coast, from the swanky resorts of Liguria and Tuscany to any one of the numerous charming little towns dotted along it’s hundreds of miles of coastline. Torvaianica most certainly isn’t one of these! It’s within commuting distance of Rome and as a result offers almost nothing to the passing tourist, as soon as you move away from the seafront you are in a web of ugly back streets that could be any big town or city.

What we did find, to our good fortune, was that on the road towards Ostia, which is the real Roman seaside resort, were numerous bar/restaurants right on the beach. We had some really good fresh fish washed down with an excellent Frascati as we watched the sun set over the Tyrrhenian sea. You can get a great meal with local wines for approx. € 20-25 per head which also includes the spectacular views.

The park itself is great. Large, well organised and signposted and there is somebody at the entrance gate giving out a free map so you can see where everything is in an instant. There is one large pool, although as we went in August, by 10.30 am there wasn’t a sun lounger to be had for love nor money. There is also another pool at the bottom of 4 large slides which are organised for age group and height. There is something here for all the family, from paddling pools and kiddie slides for the younger children right up to fast slides and a roller coaster for bigger people.

A number of shows are also organised during the course of the day and are all staggered so that if you wanted to you could catch them all, even though it would be quite tiring, this is where the 2 day ticket would come in very handy. We saw an excellent display with 4 dolphins. It is difficult not to be charmed by these wonderful animals and their obvious love of playing for the crowd, what was also very evident was the very real sense of affection between them and their handlers / trainers. It was certainly worth watching and seeing as the custom built amphitheatre was jam packed full, plenty of other people thought the same.

We also watched a very enjoyable show with seals and sea lions who were every bit as entertaining as the dolphins. We didn’t catch the other shows, you can go to the website for details, but they include a diving show from a galleon and displays of tropical birds and of birds of prey. All in all it comes highly recommended, especially the 2 day + hotel package form the website. If you’re after a quiet, relaxing day in idyllic countryside go somewhere else, but for fun and adrenaline fuelled entertainment, you can’t beat it. And if you really want a challenge, after hearing the park jingle 100 times during the course of the day, see if you can resist the temptation to burst into song every now and then with a chorus of “zoo-zoo-zoo-marine”.

by Dominic

Traveling by train along the country’s secondary railway lines is an increasingly popular way of experiencing the Italy which lies beyond the major road and rail network. Many of the trains which are used to transport visitors along railway lines which might easily have risked being abandoned had it not been for their new function as tourist routes, are veritable collectors items: locomotives which provide for train buffs and nature lovers alike, an emotion-packed journey, to be enjoyed at the gentle pace of times past. The web site www.railtouritalia.com is an excellent online source of information in which to find an up-to-date calendar of train-themed events in Italy.

The Trenonatura (nature train) has been created to introduce visitors to the lands of Siena and Val d’Orcia via a series of excursions aboard vintage locomotives. From Spring to Autumn, this old-style train leaves every Sunday from Siena to penetrate the valleys of Arbia, Orcia and Le Crete or the Tuscan hills.

You can get off at little-known stations to reach hidden villages and castles or pay a visit to one of the 34 museums in the Siena region or quite simply, enjoy a good glass of wine in a farmhouse or even participate in one of the local feasts or celebrations.

Puffing steam engines lead the one hundred door carriages through Tuscan landscapes which are particularly suited to this form of slow tourism. One of the routes recommended by the Terre di Siena association is the Museum Itinerary, a journey which offers passengers the opportunity of alighting at towns featured on the Musei Senesi circuit. Departing from Siena, the train heads to Asciano Monte Oliveto Maggiore where travellers can visit the archaeological museum of Palazzo Corboli. From Asciano the train journey proceeds to Buonconvento, the Museum of the Mezzadria Senese and the Museum of Sacred Art.

A popular itinerary starts from Asciano station. The train goes through the fascinating eroded hills surrounding the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. From Trequanda the tracks pass through the rolling hills of the classical Siena clay countryside to reach the village of San Giovanni d’Asso which is dominated by its medieval castle. Leaving behind the monumental station of Torrenieri-Montalcino build in 1865, our train now enters the green vine-covered hills of the precious Brunello wine.

On the right of the railway tracks you will see the outline of Montalcino in the distance. After the Casalta tunnel, the railway enters the Val d’Orcia to reach the little village of Monte Amiata Scalo. On the right you will see the small hamlet of Castelnuovo dell’Abate, built near the ancient Abbey of Sant’Antimo just before reaching the little station of Sant’Angelo-Cinigiano.

by Giulia

If you were in the neighbourhood of Norcenni Girasole Club last Thursday, you must have heard people cheering, singing and applauding. At least you must have seen dozens of green, white or red balloons floating in the air. Because last Thursday we celebrated the 150th birthday of Italy with lots of activities, dancing and music!

From half past two, guests were invited to participate in all the different activities that were organized at the campsite. Everywhere from the bar to the pool there were decorations in green, white and red and you could hear people having a good time.

First on the programme were water games at the pool, which drew participants of all ages.
First of all, three teams were formed, each in one of the colours on the Italian flag. The goal of the first game was to get a ball as close to your opponent as possible using only your feet. While two teams each sat on opposite sides, one volunteer placed the ball in the center of the pool. From that moment the splashing and paddling began! It became clear that there was a lot of enthusiasm and team-spirit among all the participants!

As the first game slowly came to an end, the second one had already started. People gathered around to see a team of sporting kids playing a game of human table football! With their hands tied to large sticks, which represented the rods of the football table, the teams had to cooperate to move around the field. That turned out to be quite difficult, but still the participants played as if they had done it for years. The game ended up in a fair match which, in the end, actually nobody lost.

After an afternoon of fun games, another great moment commenced: the release of floating wishes! Everyone was invited to write their biggest wish down on a piece of paper and attach it to a green, white or red balloon. After this, everyone had to take a special position, in order to form the colors of the Italian flag. And finally, when everyone stood in the right place, the moment everyone waited for came at last! On the count of three dozens of balloons floated up into the air, creating a beautiful sight that even the people in Figline Valdarno must have seen. Now wait and see if those wishes come true!

But the day wasn’t over yet! There was one more thing everyone was looking forward to: the foam party! As everyone was dancing along with the animators of Your Friends, suddenly the sky was covered with white flakes. For one moment it seemed like it was snowing in July! It didn’t take long for the whole area to be covered in white foam. But not only the floor and sun chairs were packed in a thick layer of the white stuff. Everyone from animators to parents and children were almost unrecognizable because of the amount of foam. Of course this only improved the festivities as boys and girls of all ages lied on the floor making snow angels (or foam-angels, if you prefer) and crazy hairdos.

For the ones who preferred a quieter afternoon, there was a market with all kinds of original and fun small things. From hand made jewellery to traditional Italian products, there was something for everyone. The areas around the restaurants and at the fountain were surrounded with a pleasant atmosphere, which lasted until the late evening.

The concert in the evening of the Eros Ramazzotti tribute band was last, but certainly not least, on the programme. Although the band was off with a difficult start (the electricity went down after two minutes), they completely made it up by providing a wonderful show to their audience.

by Suzanne

How many times have you not heard the words “I’m bored” come out of your child’s mouth. This often will drive parents absolutely mental, especially if their child is surrounded by so many things to keep them amused (and keep them from making a big mess!). Well rest assured: help is here.

Some time ago I was visiting a campsite for work when I saw a family of four with exactly this problem. Nosy as I am. I decided to watch them for a while to see how the parents would cope… Well, they didn’t: the parents just sat down with a book, ignoring the kids until they were so bored that they started beating each other up and were sent to their rooms… Everyone angry and stressed – children crying, when some simple activity would have done the deal! Here is my favourite list of things to help keep children from getting bored.

1. Cycling
Get on your bikes and take off with a picnic to explore places you never get to see in the car. Check the bikes are roadworthy beforehand and teach your kids how to sort out simple things by themselves. If you know the route well, prepare a check list of sites and objects the children need to check off.

2.Scrap modelling
There are many fun things to do with empty yoghurt pots, cereal boxes etc. which you should start collecting before the holidays. If you bring enough material and use sticky tape instead of a glue stick, you might even turn it into game, like Creationary!

3.Bubbles!
All you need for this fun activity is a small dish, a plastic drinking straw, washing up liquid and tap water. Place two drops of washing up liquid in the centre of a plate. Carefully run tap water onto plate, pointing the water at the soap to create some foam or bubbles. Carefully place the plate on a flat surface, such as the kitchen table, and have your children point their straws into the water. To create bubbles, blow gently and slowly into the sudsy water. Not too fast, it won’t work (well, it will create a mess)!

4.Indoors Picnic
Pack a basket with paper plates, utensils and cups. Make sandwiches, pack fresh fruit, pretzels, a thermo bottle of juice, and yoghurt for dessert. Spread a blanket on the living room floor and serve a picnic lunch inside! Add to the fun by dressing in summer clothes or swimming gear. Be sure to wear your sunglasses!

5.Collages
Save old magazines and catalogues and store them in a cabinet just for this purpose. Have the kids cut or tear out pictures and paste them onto a piece of cardboard or construction paper.
Keep a bin close by for the scraps and be sure to keep a stock of glue sticks on hand! You can also create stories and books using the pictures created.

by Giulia