I’m on the Italian island of Sardinia with Yana’s family. Daytimes are not hot, evenings are mild enough to lean the windows shut, the electric blue Sea is warm under the Mediterranean sun, and the landscape is pale-yellow and dried-grass green. Hills are rolling, tourism is light, and the atmosphere is stereotypically relaxed as one would expect in Italy.
For families looking for a Euro-trip, Sardinia is proving an excellent choice: the beaches are shallow and outstanding. Cheese and salami, pasta and olives, fruit and snacks are fresher and 1/5 the price in the USA. Foot and car traffic are not worrisome like, say, Florence or Rome. We’ve gone to the beach every day.
Every major European city hosts walking tours by locals. They are a little longer than an hour. I find them helpful to become oriented with the city. Meeting the local guide (usually a young person) who loves their city and can give me a down-and-dirty history lesson from a citizen’s perspective is great introductory context to the rest of the trip. They’re free (except a 10-15 euro tip).
Biking and running the city in the morning is another way to learn how to get around, see city life from a commuter’s perspective rather than a tourist’s, and you get the benefit of slowing down to enjoy whatever side alley, park, and observation you run into.
Public transit is my preferred medium for traveling intercity when solo or with Yana, but as a family, the car has been easier the past two trips to Europe.
Western history’s greatest art and architecture is free to see in these beautiful churches.
The best prayer time I’ve experienced is in a mostly empty church, midday midweek. With doors wide open, it’s hard to pass a church without stopping in for a few minutes to light a candle, sit to reflect on the architecture and history of that church, consider all the prayers those pews have heard, and offering up a few of your own.