ABD Italy- free time ideas??

[Formosa]

Hello,
Traveling this summer to Italy with my 10 year old daughter. This will be our second ABD trip, did London/Paris in 2022. We loved it but I felt I was not well prepared last year, we had no plans for free time and missed out on a lot. Would like to do better this time around but I have never been to Italy before. Any suggestions??

 

[cedricandsophie]

I’ve been to Italy many times but not ABD. Not sure what you mean by free time. Before or after the trip? Days during the trip? And where are you going? What do you want to see that isn’t covered in the tour? It’s best to get an Italy guidebook and research the places you will be at and what looks interesting to do.

 

[Formosa]

Yes, during the trip there is free time in the afternoons. I am just looking for people ideas who did this trip.
Thank you for your suggestions

 

[Kevin O'Brien]

I have some ideas for free time in Italy on your adventures by Disney trip these are based on full day trips.
Do you like the Disney film Pinocchio on the day's on free time in Italy I recommend taking a trip to Pinocchio Park in Collodi, Italy.
Are you a fan of Lego them there is Garderland legoland waterpark. There's also an aquarium at Garderland resort and a theme park at Garderland resort including Peppa Pig land if you are a fan of Peppa Pig. Please remember that Garderland resort is located in Ronchi, Italy you'd have to plan a journey to get there.
Are you a fan of Disney Pixar film Luca these are the 5 places that has an inspiration of Disney Luca Cinque Terre, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.
If you are a fan of the Hollywood films you might want to take a trip to Movieland and they have rides and attractions shows and stunt shows.

 

[sayhello]

I have some ideas for free time in Italy on your adventures by Disney trip these are based on full day trips.
Do you like the Disney film Pinocchio on the day's on free time in Italy I recommend taking a trip to Pinocchio Park in Collodi, Italy.
Are you a fan of Lego them there is Garderland legoland waterpark. There's also an aquarium at Garderland resort and a theme park at Garderland resort including Peppa Pig land if you are a fan of Peppa Pig. Please remember that Garderland resort is located in Ronchi, Italy you'd have to plan a journey to get there.
Are you a fan of Disney Pixar film Luca these are the 5 places that has an inspiration of Disney Luca Cinque Terre, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.
If you are a fan of the Hollywood films you might want to take a trip to Movieland and they have rides and attractions shows and stunt shows.

Usually the On Your Own time is only a few hours at most. I really doubt they'd have time to get to any of these places, but it's good info for pre- or post-days.

Sayhello

 

[Kevin O'Brien]

Usually the On Your Own time is only a few hours at most. I really doubt they'd have time to get to any of these places, but it's good info for pre- or post-days.

Sayhello

Enjoy your vacation to Italy with Adventures by Disney

 

[sayhello]

Enjoy your vacation to Italy with Adventures by Disney

That's the original poster, and not me, but thanks!

Sayhello

 

[Donalyn]

We did this tour in June 2019 and I found it next to impossible to plan any free time activities, as you would not really know how much time you had until that day or right before. And they can move stuff around during a day, to fit into changes at locations, etc. So that also made it difficult. Now, we had some people on the tour elect to skip tour related things to do other stuff, and that is of course an option. We ended up not doing much during our Rome downtime (due to the issues discussed above, as well as we had a death in the family the week before the trip and it was my DDs first trip dealing with massive jet lag, and it was HOT so we needed some downtime). Other people went to things closer to the hotel.

We did do stuff during free time in Florence - this is easier, as most of what you want to see in Florence is compact/easy to walk in and you also have dinner on your own.

Similarly, we did some exploring of Venice on our own, but didn't try to get out to any of the other island.

We thought that the trip was great, even though we didn't get to see as much of the locations as I wanted to. I decided to focus on quality over quantity.

 

[cschaaf]

We did this tour in June 2019 and I found it next to impossible to plan any free time activities, as you would not really know how much time you had until that day or right before. And they can move stuff around during a day, to fit into changes at locations, etc. So that also made it difficult. Now, we had some people on the tour elect to skip tour related things to do other stuff, and that is of course an option. We ended up not doing much during our Rome downtime (due to the issues discussed above, as well as we had a death in the family the week before the trip and it was my DDs first trip dealing with massive jet lag, and it was HOT so we needed some downtime). Other people went to things closer to the hotel.

We haven't done the ABD Italy, but we found the same thing on the ADM Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia trip - it was next to impossible to plan anything for the 'downtime'. Things got moved around a bit, and, might not be an issue in Italy, but some of the hotels were too far away from any sights. I wondered if other ABDs were like this.

In Rome, you can pick a direction and walk. Stop in just about any church you see and you'll find art or architecture worth looking at.

 

[aggiedog]

In this day and age, you can probably find a blog or website that can give you a "interesting walking tour of XXX area" that wouldn't be dependent on scheduling something with an outside tour guide. Not the same thing, I know, and I do like local guides, but I've done similar things in other cities and at least it gave me a bit of structure instead of simply wandering around.

The distant hotel thing was one reason why we didn't do an ABD add-on to our Baltic cruise. Yes, the hotel had a pool, but it was out of the way from anything else in the city we were in.

 

[jimmymc]

For your afternoon and dinner in Rome, I would suggest the area around Piazza Navona. There's always a lot going on, and there are plenty of restaurants for dinner. For something quick and cheap, I loved Pasta Imperiale.

Florence is a great place to just explore or do some shopping. Walking along the river is nice, Piazzale Michelangelo has views of the city, and there are other old churches you can visit for free. For lunch, I suggest Il Panino del Chianti for the best sandwich you'll ever have. And this is random, but a lot of American college students study abroad in Florence. So if you want an American College Bar, you can check out The Lion's Fountain!

In Venice, you really just need to walk around. My advice is to go west of Plaza San Marco to the area around Gallerie dell'Accademia.