Off-Season Travel in Italy With Kids: Why We Go Where (and When) Tourists Don’t
Overtourism is one of the biggest conversations in Europe right now. Venice charges day visitors on busy days. Barcelona residents protest. Popular coastal spots in Italy have introduced bookings and caps. Many of us want to keep travelling with our kids without becoming part of the problem.
Our answer is simple: go somewhere small, go in the off-season, stay local, and let the town shape the experience. That is how we built Roots & Future in Ormea, a 1,000-year-old village of about 1,500 people in Piedmont, northern Italy.
Roots & Future, our worldschooling family residency in Ormea, runs again May 8 to 17, 2027. Get the details by email, see the residency, or follow along on @bravefamilyroots.
Why off-season travel in Italy works so well with kids
Ormea gets most of its visitors in summer. In October and May it is quiet, the trails are empty, and the people who live there have time to sit with you. Families get a truer picture of everyday Italian life, and the village gets visitors when it is not already busy.
For kids, quiet is a gift. No queues, no crowds to lose a toddler in, no rushing from sight to sight. They can run down the old town street, play by the river and get to know the same children every day.
Stay local, spend local
On our residency, families stay in the village itself, at the town’s family-run hotel or in local apartments. The money families spend goes to the people who host them: the hotel, the farm, the forestry school, the art lab, the bar by the station and the pizzerias.
If you travel on your own, you can do the same. Choose a family-run hotel or an apartment in the village over a chain on the edge of town. Eat where the locals eat. Book activities with the people who live there.
Where to stay in Ormea: Majla’s homes
Majla, who coordinates the residency on the ground, restores houses in the village and opens them to visitors. You can follow her homes at @accidental_homes and her local experiences at @accidentaltourist_. These are her homes in Ormea:
- Casa Piccina, a cosy mountain village retreat that sleeps 4 plus 1. One of our October families stayed here and loved it.
- The little house, a romantic nest with a mountain-view terrace that sleeps 2 plus 1.
- The family getaway, two apartments together with a scenic mountain-view terrace, sleeping 6 plus 2. Ideal for a bigger family or two families travelling together.
Heading to Tuscany too? Watch our castle stay in this reel and this one. Majla also has apartments in a small castle in the Chianti hills near Florence, with a tower dating to 1146: the Tower apartment, the Penthouse, or the two together as the Tower Penthouse, a great family or group stay. You can climb one of the towers and have your aperitivo on top of a castle with the whole Chianti region around you. Read about it in our castle stay near Florence.
Questions to ask before you book an off-season trip
- Is the hotel or apartment family-run or locally owned?
- Which restaurants and shops stay open in your travel month?
- Is there a market day, a festival or a local event you can join?
- Are there activities you can book directly with local people rather than through a big platform?
Let the town decide how to welcome you
Nothing in Ormea is a performance put on for visitors. The people who take part chose to. Martina and Anna taught the families fresh pasta. Giorgia added extra art classes so our kids could learn alongside local children. The mayor and the nonni came to our welcome dinner. The accordion player spent a week learning “Volare” to play on our last night.
What off-season looks like, month by month
Autumn: chestnuts and golden forests
October in the Val Tanaro means chestnuts. We harvested them in the forest with Anna and roasted them by the river. The mountains turn gold, the air is cool and fresh, and you might get a rainy day. We had one, and it was one of the cosiest of the trip.
Spring: green valleys and long light
May brings green valleys, long evenings and comfortable walking weather, before the summer visitors arrive. That is when we run the next Roots & Future residency, May 8 to 17, 2027.
Slow travel with kids is easier, not harder
- One base for ten days instead of a new hotel every night.
- Trails you can reach on foot from the café in about ten minutes, many of them flat along the river.
- Free time that is actually yours.
- Kids who make friends because they see the same children every day.
- Day trips when you want them, like the market in Garessio or the Ligurian coast.
How to plan your own off-season trip to northern Italy
- Pick a region beyond the famous names. Piedmont and the Ligurian hinterland are a short drive from the Riviera and far quieter than Tuscany in peak season.
- Choose shoulder months. Late spring and autumn are our favourites.
- Base yourself in one village. Use a local apartment or a family-run hotel.
- Find one local experience with people. A cooking class, a market morning, a local football match.
- Check what is open. Some places close or shorten hours outside summer. Ask your host.
If you would like all of that arranged with the people of Ormea and a small group of other families, that is exactly what Roots & Future is.
Watch it for yourself: our October residency recap reel and the pasta class reel. Follow @bravefamilyroots for the full story, day by day.
The travel insurance we use as a family
We never travel or live abroad without it, and with two little ones it is the first thing I sort out after flights. We use SafetyWing. On their Nomad Insurance Essential plan, one child under 10 is included free with each paying adult (up to two per policy), which makes it one of the easiest family policies we have found. Always check the current terms for your trip.
Check SafetyWing prices for your family (affiliate link)
We never travel or live abroad without it. Here is the live price from SafetyWing:
Roots & Future runs again May 8 to 17, 2027
A ten-day worldschooling family residency in Ormea, a 1,000-year-old village in Piedmont. You live in the village, your kids learn alongside the children who live there, and the money you spend stays with the people who host you.
Get the full details by email · See the residency and book your spot
See every day of it on Instagram: @bravefamilyroots for the residency and @bravefamilytravel for our family travels.