The Italian Lakes, at toddler pace
Cooler air, a pram-friendly promenade, boats the children loved, and gelato as a daily institution.
4 minute read
The short version
- The lakes are grown-up and glamorous, but gentler with children than you might expect.
- Flat lakeside promenades are a gift with a pram, and the little ferries are an outing in themselves.
- Cooler mountain air makes the afternoons far easier than a beach in August.
We went to the lakes half expecting them to be too grown-up for us, all linen and aperitivo and no patience for a buggy. They were nothing of the sort. With a six-year-old and a two-year-old, the Italian Lakes turned out to be one of the most civilised ways we have travelled as a four.
Why it works with little ones
Two things, really. The first is the air: up off the water, the heat is softer than a coast in high summer, which makes the long afternoons that undo small children far more manageable. The second is the promenades. Flat, shaded, lakeside, made for a pram and a slow gelato, with somewhere to stop every few hundred yards.
The boats
The ferries were the unexpected star. To a small child, a little boat chugging across the lake to the next town is a proper adventure, and to a parent it is a whole morning’s entertainment that requires nothing of you but a ticket. We hopped from town to town, ate too much ice cream, and were back for the youngest’s nap each afternoon.
It is grown-up and glamorous, the lakes, but it bends around a family more kindly than its reputation suggests.
We will go back when they are bigger, and probably before.
A small tip
Base yourself somewhere with a promenade and a ferry stop. Half the entertainment is simply hopping on a boat to the next pretty town and back.
An illustrative diary of the kind of trip we love to arrange, rather than a specific recommendation.