Destinations · Europe · 6 guides
Naples, Pompeii, Rome, and the Ligurian coast — the first leg of our backpacking trip through Europe with a 7- and 2-year-old.
Covering Italy · Levanto · Pompeii · Naples
A week in Italy with a 7- and 2-year-old, from a pizza class on the first afternoon to a sunset picnic above Manarola, with the trains, prices and slow days that made it work.
We based ourselves in Levanto, just outside the five villages, with a 7- and 2-year-old. Here's why it worked, how we got around by train and bike, and what we'd do again in Vernazza, Monterosso, and Manarola.
Two good days in Levanto — a morning of kids picking snails off pier rocks, a coastal bike trail through old railway tunnels, and a sunset dinner above Manarola's harbor on the way out.
We only booked two nights in Naples so we could get to Levanto for the weekend, which meant a four-hour Rome layover shrank to two, a rushed Colosseum, and then our first slow day in Cinque Terre with friends.
We booked a private LivTours family tour so Remi could get the history of Pompeii without four hours at adult pace, and Annalisa turned out to be exactly the guide a 7- and 2-year-old needed.
We left Atlanta at 3:30pm and landed in Naples after 2am our time, which is the red eye with early landing we usually avoid, but the excitement of an adventure this big pulled us through.
