Italy - beach vacation w/ toddler?

[shelbyann]

We are tentatively planning a trip to Italy for this September. My H is going for work and I'll be tagging along with our DD, who will be 19 months. His work stuff is in Venice and Rome, where DD and I will sightsee for few days, and then he'll take a week of vacation and all three of us will go….somewhere, to hopefully just relax on a beach or lake or something.

I'm googling and TripAdvisoring but having trouble narrowing down exact locations to research. Amalfi Coast? Lake Como? Somewhere else in the greater Mediterranean area? We are open to anywhere within a drive, train, or short/direct flight from Rome. Our priorities: nice beach or lake view, good food, relatively kid-friendly. I don't picture us doing much in the way of sightseeing or cultural activities on this part of the trip, mostly we just want to veg out and relax. We would either get a suite at a hotel or rent an apartment for the week. A hotel or resort with babysitting services would be awesome but I don't know how likely we are to find that.

Any suggestions on where I should look? 

[majesty318]

I think Sicily would fit the bill. The food is amazing, it's relatively cheap for Italy, and you can fly directly to Palermo or Catania from Rome. Cefalu is a very cute beach town, also Taormina or Giardini Naxos.

Something else that might work for you, although it does not have a water view other than a pool: We spent a couple days at an agriturismo called San Leonardello last year. It is in a citrus orchard which I think would be perfect for kids - the family that owns it has grandchildren running around. We chose to eat dinner there every night and it was some of the best food I have ever had. We also did a day trip to the beach.

[lifewithpants]

I was just coming in to say Cefalu, but PP beat me to it! We took our daughter when she was 3, and we're going again this summer at almost 6. It's got a great beach that's perfect for kids. There are lots of great apartments available on airbnb that are really close to the beach. Palermo is a really short direct flight from Rome. We're flying Vueling.

[Brit]

No suggestions on locations, but I wanted to chime in and say that we have had great experiences with babysitting services from Movenpick - many have full on kids clubs with toddler appropriate areas.