Take Your Family to Italy….and Europe.

There was a nice piece in the Star-Tribune recently about travel to Italy with a family. This group rented a modest place in Tuscany and plunked themselves into some immersion travel, which seems to have worked out quite well. The author, Jenny Deam, has great ideas for seeing the art museums — “I Spy” combined with gelato bribes.

If you haven’t been to Europe before, it’s hard not to overdo it and try to see too much. For your first trip, I would say that you should get a general guidebook on Europe and flip to the table of contents (or look at these “Best of” ideas) and have a family meeting to pick, say, the top 3 to 5 must-dos.

More than 4-5 in the standard two-week trip and you start to lose your mind. Have more of those “live in the moment” moments.

Then go, have a great time, and plan to return to one of the favorites someday and stay there awhile for a richer experience. The continent isn’t going anywhere; it’ll wait for you.