Italy with Kids: Our 7-Day Itinerary for Naples, Pompeii, Rome and Cinque Terre

We spent our first week in Europe in Italy, with a 7-year-old, a 2-year-old, and actual backpacks instead of rolling suitcases. The route ran from Naples to Pompeii, through Rome for a couple of hours, and up to Levanto on the Ligurian coast, where we based ourselves for four nights to see Cinque Terre. It was a mix of things we planned well, things that fell apart in useful ways, and a few days where we deliberately planned nothing.

This is the day-by-day version of what we did, with the prices, train details and mistakes that would have helped me before we left. Each day links to the longer post if you want the full story and more photos.

The route at a glance

• Day 1, Naples: land after an overnight flight, check in early, and take a pizza and gelato class on the first afternoon.
• Day 2, Pompeii: a private, kid-focused tour in the morning, then pizza back in Naples.
• Day 3, Naples to Levanto: four train legs with a two-hour Colosseum stop in Rome in the middle.
• Day 4, Vernazza and Monterosso: our first Cinque Terre day, with a castle, a beach and a Ligurian dinner.
• Day 5, Levanto: a slow beach day with friends who drove down from Milan.
• Day 6, Bonassola, Framura and Manarola: a bike ride through old railway tunnels, then sunset in the most photographed village on the coast.
• Day 7, Levanto to Nice: an overnight stop on the French Riviera on the way to Nîmes.

Day 1: Naples, a pizza class and a very early check-in

We left Atlanta at 3:30pm and landed in Naples after 2am our time. That is the red-eye-with-early-landing we usually avoid, and this time the excitement of starting a six-week trip carried us through it. Our rental in Chiaia (Napoliday Chiaia) let us check in early, which meant a rest before anything else happened.

I booked a pizza and gelato cooking class for the first afternoon on purpose, because a plan that is already paid for gets you out of bed when your body has no idea what time it is. Our class ran about 2.5 hours and included eating everything we made, so it doubled as dinner. Chef Daniele started us on gelato (milk, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt, which was much easier than I expected) and then moved us onto dough that had been rising for 24 hours, the Neapolitan standard. Arlo got properly into the kneading.

We walked and took the train home instead of another taxi, partly to add one more small outing to tired legs and partly because Naples at golden hour is worth seeing on foot. A grocery stop on the way back got us snacks and breakfast for the jet-lag-hungry morning, which is our standard day-one move for feeling oriented in a new neighborhood.

Read the full story in Naples with Kids, Day One.

Day 2: Pompeii with a private tour built for kids

We left plenty of time to get to the station and still ended up in a taxi, after I navigated us to an out-of-service bus stop and the ticket machine at the central station refused my card. We missed the direct train, which runs from Napoli Garibaldi to Pompeii Scavi in about 30 minutes. Remi got a live lesson in going with the flow when a plan falls apart, and we were still at the meeting point by 11am.

We had booked a LivTours Private Family Experience, and it turned out to be just the four of us. Our guide, Annalisa, aimed most of her commentary straight at Remi in kid-sized pieces, and some of the group tours we passed had 40 or more people trailing an umbrella through the same narrow streets. The private version cost more than a standard ticket, and I would pay it again.

Remi's favorites were the bathhouses, with rooms that still have their vaulted ceilings, and the remains of a thermopolium, one of the oldest known fast food counters anywhere. Arlo needed something more physical, and Pompeii has plenty of dirt to dig in and rocks to climb. The plaster casts stopped both of us for a minute, and Remi went quiet and just looked.

Our loop took about two hours, which suited the kids in 85°F mid-September sun, and we covered maybe a third of the site. For lunch we went back into the city to 50 Kalò, a Michelin-recommended pizzeria in Mergellina, because there is nothing to eat or refill water from once you are inside the ruins.

Read the full story in Pompeii with Kids, Day Two.

Day 3: Naples to Levanto, with two hours in Rome

We only booked two nights in Naples because we wanted the weekend in Levanto with friends driving down from Milan. We caught an early train and built in a four-hour stop in Rome, since we had to change there anyway and thought that would be plenty for the Colosseum. The train arrived late, and the line for the luggage storage kiosk at Termini was long enough that four hours had become two before we left the station.

It was raining when we stepped outside, so we waited under an awning, ducked into a pasta shop for lunch, and then made it to the Colosseum for photos before riding the five-minute metro back to Termini to collect our bags. We had no ticket or tour to lose, so we treated it as an adventure and the kids followed our lead. Next time I would skip the kiosk and look for one of the self-storage lockers outside the station.

Three more train legs got us to Levanto that night, each of us carrying two bags, with Arlo's stroller on top of that. We found our Airbnb, our friends, and another very good pasta dinner at Pasta de-e SÖE. Our packing is the thing I would change first, and I go into more detail on it below.

Read the full story in Rome and Levanto with Kids.

Day 4: Vernazza, Castello Doria and Monterosso

We started slowly with coffee, the beach, the town square and a small local playground, then picked up a focaccia sampler from a bakery on the way home since this is focaccia country. Vernazza is two train stops down the coast, and even in shoulder season it was busier than I expected, with crowds from the trains and ferries colliding in the narrow streets. The colorful buildings stacked above the harbor look exactly like the photos.

We started up the trail toward Monterosso just to taste it, and turned back where through-hikers begin paying (€15 one way). The full walk takes around two hours, which was more than the kids or the parents carrying them wanted in the middle of the day. We climbed the other side of town instead to Castello Doria, an 11th-century watchtower with a spiral staircase and a panoramic view for about €2.50 a person, and it was the best money we spent in Cinque Terre.

We ate a cone of fried octopus and shrimp with fries in Vernazza, then took the train on to Monterosso for its public beach, which is rocky on bare feet and endlessly entertaining for kids. Arlo finished his gelato faster than anything else he ate on this trip. That night our friend Mel had booked Antica Trattoria Centro in Levanto, a good call because we watched them turn people away all evening, and we had fish ravioli with lobster, monkfish in a green sauce, pesto, and rabbit for Remi.

Read the full story in Rome and Levanto with Kids.

Day 5: A slow beach day in Levanto

After two heavy travel days, this was the correction. Levanto's beach is long and rocky, with patches of sand and a lot of it divided into private beach clubs where the day rate covers loungers, an umbrella and showers. We chose the public section, and Remi, Arlo and our friends' son River spent most of the morning at the end of the pier pulling snails off the rocks and comparing them.

Mel, Markus and River left in the afternoon, so we bought groceries and cooked at the Airbnb, which felt right after a week of eating every meal out. Before dinner we visited the fenced trampoline enclosure near the water, six large trampolines paid by the session, and Remi loved it. Our morning routine every day was chocolate croissants from a bakery Mel found on our street, a ritual Remi decided on day one.

Read the full story in Levanto with Kids.

Day 6: Bike tunnels to Bonassola, then Manarola at sunset

We rented bikes and rode north on the Ciclopedonale Maremonti, a flat paved trail on an old coastal railway line that runs through the cliffs in lit tunnels. Remi rode her own bike and Arlo sat in a seat on the back of mine, happy at the start and asleep with his helmet on by the end. The trail is about 5.5 km one way from Levanto to Framura, it starts at the western end of the beach promenade, and our three bikes cost about €45 for a half day.

We stopped in Bonassola for a swim, paninis and gelato, then pushed on toward Framura, where the path into the village was closed for construction, so we took photos at the edge and turned back. Remi climbed out on the rocks and did not want to leave. Back in Levanto we had just enough time at the apartment to catch an evening train to Manarola, four stops down the coast.

The terrace bar Nessun Dorma was closed that night for a pesto-making class, so we ordered the to-go tasting menu (bruschetta, prosciutto, burrata, melon, tomatoes) and ate it at the playground a few steps up from the terrace, with two aperol spritzes and the harbor catching the last light. The kids spun on the merry-go-round until Remi needed a break. It was the best version of a meal we had not planned.

Read the full story in Levanto with Kids and our guide to why we stayed in Levanto.

Day 7: Onward to Nice and France

We packed that night and took the train from Levanto to Nice, stopping there overnight to break up what would otherwise have been an eleven-hour travel day into Nîmes. The Nice to Nîmes post picks up the story from here.

What I would change

Pack lighter, even with backpacks. I was glad we had them after watching other travelers struggle with roller bags across platforms and up steps, but one less bag would have made it easier to take the kids' little packs when they got tired. On the next travel day we managed to fit all of Arlo's things into ours, and I would start that way from day one. I would also leave the stroller out of Pompeii, since we carried it over uneven stone for about half the tour and Arlo would have been fine in a carrier or on foot.

Give Rome more than a layover. Two hours bought us a Colosseum photo and a plate of pasta, which was fun and also rushed, so if Rome matters to you, give it its own night. Go back to Pompeii on a cooler day and push on toward the amphitheater and the theater district, since we only saw about a third of the site.

Plan the first day and leave the last ones open. The pizza class on day one kept us awake until a reasonable bedtime, and the four unscheduled days in Levanto gave all of us room to recover from the travel days. If I were doing this route again with kids this age, I would keep that shape and only change the bags.

Where we stayed

In Naples we rented an apartment in Chiaia (Napoliday Chiaia) for two nights, which let us check in early after the overnight flight. In Levanto we stayed four nights in an Airbnb, and Levanto was a better base than the five villages for a family with a toddler. It is mostly flat for strollers, has a long beach, a playground and trampolines, starts the bike trail at the end of the promenade, and puts every village a short train ride away.

If you are planning something similar, I would love to hear what you would add, and especially what worked for you in Rome.