Shore excursions in Florence and Rome for family

[Knysna]

We are on the August explorer of the seas European cruise and need some advice on what to do for the 2 port days in livorno and Civitavecchia. We are a party of 4. (Girls age 7 and 10)

We obviously have the ships tours to look at and then we have heard about Joe Bananas Limos. Are there other options?

Would love to hear from those who have done tours with children especially. Both days are most likely very busy days with lots to see.

 

 

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[Clarea]

You may also want to check with the Italy Ports of Call forum:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=595

[griffy116]

We did both these ports last summer. We checked the boards and I e-mailed a couple of guides. We chose Joe Bananas for Florence because they were very flexible about what we wanted to do and how much time we wanted to spend in each place. They even arranged a time for us to see the David. This was a DREAM for one of my daughters. There were five of us and with a private tour, we found it was even more cost effective than the cruise line excursions. Our guide found a group that had missed their reserved time and were trying to get in line to see the David ahead of us. We were very intimidated by the group of tourists (American and British) when we stepped to the front to ask about this very large crowd who pushed us out of the way. Our guide immediately took over and the people knew him. He took care of everything and we were escorted inside at our appointed time. Florence is a beautiful city. You will love spending time there. Our guide even found this tiny little pastry shop when we said we would like to take a few treats back to the ship at the end of the day. We relaxed that night on our balcony with our treats from Florence. We spent a couple of days pre-cruise in Rome so we were DIY there. Taxis were our friend..lol. Even with that, we did A LOT of walking. Don't forget the dress code if you plan to visit the Vatican. We saw people turned away. We pre-arranged our tour times for most of the usual tourist spots to avoid wasting so much time. If this is a port city for you rather than a departure port, you can take the train, but I would suggest you look at booking a private driver and guide. They pick you up as soon as the ship docks, whisk you to the city and can take you from one spot to the next to let you make the most of your day. If the Vatican is on your list of must do places, you need to get there as quickly as possible. Lines can be very long. The Trevi will be under renovation, which is a shame. We saw it without the scapeling the year prior and it was sad to see it without the water. You can also get advance tickets to the Colisseum but you will really have to hustle to see both the Vatican and the Colosseum. Decide which is most important for your group to make sure you get to see it. This is also where a private driver and guide can come in handy. The tour groups were really spending so much more time describing details in such lengthy discussions I knew this would have had me pulling my hair out. We were able to spend as much time as we wanted in one place or say we wanted to move on. There are so many wonderful places to eat and enjoy in Rome. Even with the beauty of Florence, Rome is still my favorite city.

[Medicalley]

We were on a Med cruise 4 years ago with two of our kids, a little bit older than yours. We didn't want to spend a lot of time travelling into Rome from Civitavecchia as we felt the day would be too long for all of us. We did the ship excursion to a farm to learn how to make pasta. (then ate it for lunch!) We all had a great time and they still talk about that port stop now!

[robint]

We were there in July (kids age 13 and 9 at the time).

 

For both places, we set up tours through Rome In Limo.

 

For Livorno, we did the Tower of Pisa (and got the tickets to climb the tower, which was AWESOME, but only if you don't have vertigo problems.) Then our driver took us to the Da Vinci museum (which was not awesome--I dis-recommend it.) Then we had lunch at Castello Sonino (http://www.castellosonnino.it/en/).

 

[Our tablemates did the ship's tour, and said they had something like 5 minutes at Pisa. Get out, take pictures, get in.]

 

For Rome, we did an Underground/3rd Level tour of the Coliseum (also very awesome). Then the other family we were with wanted to do the Vatican, so we dropped them off. Our driver took us all over Rome--the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Typewriter Building, Piazza Navona, Circus Maximus, Capitoline Hill, etc... We saw SO much. Our last stop was for Gelato!

Edited January 22, 2015 by robint