Italy Is Always a Great Idea- why Italy works for every season of life...

There are destinations you visit once and treasure. Then there is Italy — the country you return to again and again, each time falling a little harder. I have been to Italy as a young woman, as a mother with small children in tow, as one of a group of girlfriends who needed a week of wine, laughter, and no agenda, and this year, as half of a couple chasing both the old and the new. Every single trip has been different. Every single trip has been wonderful.

Italy is one of those rare places that does not require you to be a particular kind of traveller. You do not need to be a history scholar to feel something standing in a piazza that has barely changed in five hundred years. You do not need to be a foodie to understand, the moment pasta arrives at the table, why Italian cooking has conquered the world. And you most certainly do not need to be traveling without children. In fact, some of my most vivid Italian memories involve my kids.

Italy is for lovers, yes — but it is equally, joyfully, unapologetically for families.

Italians and children: a love story

There is a warmth in how Italians receive children that you simply do not find everywhere. Children are not tolerated — they are welcomed. They are admired, fussed over, fed, and generally treated as the most important guests at any table. From the moment we arrived with little ones, we felt it.

Once, at a restaurant that had no lemonade on the menu, my children looked hopefully at the waiter. Without a word, he slipped away — and returned ten minutes later with a freshly squeezed glass, lemons purchased from the shop around the corner, just for them.

A true story. Italy does this.

That is Italy. That is not a story of exceptional service — it is a story of ordinary Italian hospitality. The country simply does not see children as an inconvenience. It sees them as a reason to do a little more.

The villas: space, soul, and somewhere to swim

When I travel with family — whether my own three children, a multigenerational group, or a gathering of friends — I almost always recommend villa rentals over hotels. Italy has some of the most extraordinary private villas in the world, many sleeping twelve, fifteen, even twenty guests, each with its own character and landscape. We have been lucky enough to stay in several.

🏔

Stresa, Lake Maggiore

Right on the water, with the Borromean Islands in view. The children swam while adults sat on the terrace with Aperol. Equal perfection for everyone.

🍇

Chianti, Tuscany

Surrounded by vineyards, the scent of cypress and warm stone everywhere. We drank Sangiovese at sunset and felt like we lived there.

🫏

Bracciano, Lazio

Horses, chickens, a donkey, and a pool. The children were in absolute heaven. I was too — in a different way, with a glass of local white in hand.

🌄

Cortona, Tuscany

Sweeping views of the Val di Chiana that made you pause mid-sentence. The kind of landscape that reminds you why you travel at all.

⚓

Portovenere, Ligurian Coast

We shared this one with another family — and it may be the most spectacular week of Italian travel I have had. Portovenere sits at the southern tip of the Ligurian coast, a village of coloured houses stacked against ancient rock, where the Mediterranean shimmers below your window. Cinque Terre was literally next door — those five extraordinary cliff-hanging villages just a boat ride away. We ate pizza and seafood pulled from the ocean that same morning, gelato in every port, and let the days unfold entirely around the water, the food, and the children running wild in the best possible way.

Every one of these villas had a pool. Every one offered effortless day-trip access — to

hilltop towns, lakeside villages, medieval cities, and markets piled with things you absolutely do not need but will absolutely buy. The villa is base camp; Italy is the adventure.

The Cities: History you can eat for dinner

And then there are the city stays — apartments in Florence steps from the Uffizi, hotel rooms in Rome where the noise of the street drifts in through shuttered windows and you realise, slightly startled, that you are actually here. The history does not feel like a museum exhibit in Italy. It feels like the backdrop to your actual life, at least for a week

The food in Italian cities is almost aggressively good. You will eat carbonara in Rome and understand that you have never truly had carbonara before. You will eat bistecca in Florence and feel briefly, genuinely angry about every other steak you have eaten. And wherever you are, the gelato will ruin you for all other frozen desserts, forever.

5 Villa stays/15 Hotel/Apartment Stays

∞ Meals to remember

0 Bad trips

For the girlfriends, for the couples, for yourself

Italy works just as beautifully when you leave the family at home. I have done that too — a girls' trip built around wine tastings, long lunches, and the particular freedom that comes from having no itinerary beyond the vague agreement to enjoy ourselves. We laughed until we cried, ate until we could not, and came home restored in a way that is genuinely hard to explain.

This year, I am heading back with my husband and another couple — Florence for the art, the history, the food (always the food), and then on to Sirmione on Lake Garda, a town I have not yet properly explored. A Roman fortress at the tip of a narrow peninsula, thermal waters, and a lake so improbably blue it looks retouched. I cannot wait. I'm counting the weeks!

Every time I go to Italy, it is a new adventure. Every time, I wonder why I ever go anywhere else.

That is the thing about Italy. It has the extraordinary ability to feel both completely familiar — the food, the warmth, the beauty you already know — and endlessly surprising. There is always a town you have not yet found, a lake you have not yet seen, a trattoria down an alley that will become the dinner you talk about for years.

Italy is always a great idea. Let me help you plan yours.

Ready to discover your own Italian chapter? Contact us at Vie de Luxe Travel!