Italy Family Travel Guide

The coperto is not a scam. A small per person cover charge, two to four euros, printed on the menu. It pays for the bread and the table. Getting angry about it marks you.

Coffee has rules and they are cheap. Standing at the bar costs about a euro. Sitting at a table can cost three times that for the same cup.

Church dress codes are enforced, not suggested. Shoulders and knees covered at the Vatican and most working churches. They will turn you around at the door. Keep a light scarf in your bag.

Carry coins. Always. Public bathrooms cost money all over Italy. Finding out you have no change at the wrong moment is a very specific kind of suffering.

Children are welcome. Not tolerated. Welcomed, loudly, by waiters and strangers and grandmothers. Your kids will get more attention here than anywhere else in Europe.

Take the train between cities. Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa and the private Italo both run the main line, and booking a few weeks out costs a fraction of walk up price. Cheap regional tickets are different: stamp them in the machine on the platform or it is a fine.

ZTL zones are what cost people money. Nearly every historic center is a limited traffic zone with cameras at the entrance. Drive in without a permit and the ticket arrives at your house months later with an admin fee from the rental company on top. Park outside the walls and walk in.

Rent a car for the countryside, never for the cities. A car in Rome, Florence or Venice is a liability with wheels. In Tuscany, Umbria, Puglia or Sicily it is the whole point. Venice has no cars at all, so park at Piazzale Roma and buy a vaporetto pass.

Autostrada tolls add up. Take the ticket, pay on exit. And the small roads are often the better drive. The SS12 through the Po Valley is one of the most beautiful roads I have ever driven, though Adam spent most of it a shade of green.

Pompeii is a train ride from Naples. The Circumvesuviana runs to Pompei Scavi and drops you at the gate. Scruffy little train, far easier than driving.

Euros, and cards work nearly everywhere. Still carry twenty or thirty in cash for small trattorias and markets, and keep coins separate for bathrooms.

Schengen days count. Ninety days inside any rolling one hundred and eighty on a US passport. If Italy is one leg of a longer Europe trip, count the whole thing. This is the number that trips up long stay families.

ETIAS is coming, not here yet. The EU travel authorisation has been pushed back more than once. Check the official EU site close to your date rather than trusting a blog, including this one.

There is a city tax on every night. One to seven euros per person per night, collected at the property and often in cash. For five people over two weeks that is real money.

Book the big two ahead. Colosseum entry is around eighteen euros and Pompeii is similar, both timed online. The line without a ticket, in July, with children, is a bad hour.

What things cost. Pizza or pasta at a local restaurant, ten to fifteen euros. House wine, three to five. Gelato, three to five. Hotels from eighty a night at the budget end to two hundred and fifty mid range, Venice higher because everything arrives by boat. Tipping is not the system. Round up.

Four days. One city. Rome, and you will still leave things undone. It rewards depth more than anywhere in Europe.

Seven days. Two cities on the fast train. Rome and Florence, with a day out to Siena or Pisa.

Ten days. The classic triangle. Rome, Florence with Tuscany, Venice. All on trains, no car. If it is your first trip, just do this one. It is famous because it works.

Two weeks. Add Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, or give Sicily a full week on its own. Do not bolt Sicily onto a northern trip. It is a different country wearing the same flag.

Land in one, leave from another. Open jaw into Rome and out of Venice or Milan costs about the same as a round trip and saves a day of backtracking.

Comfortable shoes. Not cute shoes. Hills and cobblestones and stairs built for different feet than ours. I do not know how the influencers manage it in heels. Get this wrong and it hurts by day one.

Strollers lose to cobblestones. A carrier beats a stroller in almost every historic center. If you bring one, bring real wheels and expect to fold and carry it up steps in Venice.

Dinner is late. Kitchens often do not open until half past seven and half past eight is normal. Give the kids a real snack at five so nobody melts down at a table.

Rome’s water fountains are free and safe. The little cast iron nasoni run cold drinking water across the city. Bring bottles and save a fortune in July.

Gelato is a negotiating tool. I am not being cute. One a day, promised in advance, buys you a whole extra museum.

Poppy can come. Italy is one of the more dog friendly countries in Europe. Dogs ride trains and sit outside cafes. You need the EU pet passport paperwork and a muzzle in the bag for public transport. Most museums still say no.

Let the history be physical. Kids who learned about ancient Rome in a classroom and then stand on the floor of the Colosseum do not forget it. Mine are almost thirteen, ten and nine. I waited because I wanted them old enough to remember.

How theatrical the streets are. In Rome we watched locals running tug of war matches, gladiator games and a kind of tennis played with tambourines, right out in the open. Italy plays up its own history with a joy that is contagious.

Naples divides people. We came off the train from Pompeii, did not feel comfortable walking around, and left. That is our honest experience and it is not the whole story. Plenty of people love Naples. Go with someone who knows it, and do not judge the whole south on one afternoon.

Rome. Four nights. The Colosseum with a guide, the Forum, the Pantheon, a fountain a day, pizza by the slice. We watched gladiator games in the street and the kids still talk about it.

Florence. Two nights. The Duomo climb for kids over eight, the Boboli gardens, the market, a day trip to Pisa to hold the tower up.

Venice. Two nights. The vaporetto is the ride, the bridges are the playground, and getting lost is the plan. Then fly home from Venice.