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Hi everyone. I'm taking the kids to Italy for the first 2 weeks of August. Travelling down with the car on the train from Holland. Small tent. Plan to camp for almost two weeks then drive back stopping off for a night or two.

I'm on my own with them and just wondered what experiences you have of booking/not booking ahead? We have no firm itinerary but would like to spend perhaps 3 or 4 nights each in or near Florence, Venice, lakes.

If possible we would prefer small/er sites as we're not keen on these huge ones with eleventybillion pitches and half the world snoring next door.

I haven't been to Italy for ~ cough ~ number of years, and am just a little trepidatious about being stranded on my own with the kids and no place to peg out the tent (and no loo!) However my natural inclination would be not to want to book ahead.

I think you are very brave attempting all that on your own with children, having to pack up and repitch every 3-4 days, all the travelling with no definite place to rest your head at the end of it all - it could easily become a massive headache rather than a holiday.

I think if I was going to tackle that by myself then I would want everything planned to the tiniest detail to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible.

Brave, or mad - one of the two!

It probably isn't as bad as it sounds. Both my kids have camped since they were just 4 and 6 months old respectively and they are now 8 and 14. We are taking our smallest tent (I know space is tight on some of the very touristy sites) and the 14 year old is able to pitch and strike that one on her own.

I'll watch of course LOL!

No, so we three pairs of competent hands, the thought of moving every 3 or 4 days doesn't daunt me at all. I'm just having difficulty getting bookings taken around Florence and Venice and wonder if it's really true that we can just turn up and they will squeeze us on?