Itinerary Advice for Italy and Athens in April

I have no experience in Athens, so I will limit my comments to Italy. I think you have a nice relaxed pace that allows you to improvise and not wear yourselves out. What do you plan to do for lodging? With that many people, i recommend using VRBO / HomeAway to find an apartment for 7 people. Otherwise, you will probably have to get 3 hotel rooms. You can also purchase your train tickets 120 days in advance which will save you some significant money for the Venice - Florence and Florence - Rome trips. In Venice, I would suggest the Secret Itineraries tour at the Doge's Palace and also Murano for a glass blowing exhibition. The kids will probably really like that. In Florence, there is a place to do laundry on Via Faenza near the Medici Chapel. For Pompeii, that's a very long day trip. I would recommend spending a night there, or opt for Ostia Antica which is only 30 minutes outside Rome. I also recommend the Underground / third ring Tour for the Colosseum. The Vatican Museum is huge so you may want to consider skipping it if your kids are "museumed out". The problem is, you can only see the Sistine Chapel through the museum. And don't forget gelato!

We are thinking more 2 hotel rooms than three...2 adults and one kid in one, and two adults with two kids in the other.

My wife and I have done Rome before so we know that the Vatican is quite a day but I think it is going to be a must for most of us for the Sistine Chapel and St Peters.

My son is going to be studying Pompei in school so we definitely will be going but perhaps we will spend that night in Naples to alleviate another train ride that day.

I have heard that Pisa can be underwhelming and that we should consider skipping it. Does anyone have an opinion on that?

Why not spend the night in Naples after Pompeii and the Archeological museum, have some Napoli

Pizza then head out to one of the the airport hotels and fly out of there to Athens.

(pick up your checked luggage from the train station first.)

http://www.napolicentrale.it/en/service/detail/left-luggage

Check out easyjet for flights.

You will get so much more space with an apartment.! try this site.

http://www.cross-pollinate.com/rome/p/1/1442610310259

You should consider skipping Pisa, as it's not really that interesting.

And Pompeii is about a 300 mile round trip--a little much for a day trip from Rome. I'd tell you to spend time in Rome--taking in all you can.
We're going to Greece in April on a cruise starting in Rome and ending in Venice. We've found some cruises to be very cost effective ways to see this region. They also remove the complications when there are so many people to look out after.

I would reverse the order to perhaps follow the warming weather.
I would add Sorrento (or the Amalfi Coast) if you wish to get to Pompeii - perhaps at the expense of Athens altogether. Athens (3) >> fly to Naples for Sorrento (3) >> Rome (4) >> Florence (3) >> Venice (3)
As Gerri points out, easyjet flies Athens - Naples direct.

You can use booking.com to find hotel rooms for the adult/kid combos you listed. You cannot stuff kids into a room without accounting for them. That can get you thrown out on the street with no refund.

Depending on their ages, they may be counted as adults. Each must have a bed of some kind. When you use the Guests drop down box and put in the number of kids, you will be asked for their ages.

About Athens. I'm not sure what you mean by "general" ruins. You can do the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum in an easy day with lunch at the lovely museum restaurant between the two visits. They are right next to and within easy walking distance of each other and the Plaka.

I can't recommend the Archeological Museum highly enough. It is fairly close to the Syntagma. I was particularly entranced by the bronzes last fall, but there are lots of things to see and a small cafe for a break.

Toilet notes:

One thing to prepare for and remember is that in Greece you do not put anything except human waste in the toilet. Used toilet paper goes in a waste basket which will be right next to the toilet. Icky, I know, but sewage and waste water treatment systems have not kept up with the population growth, especially in Athens. Dealing with the paper is the biggest problem.

Also don't be surprised if the only toilets available are squat ones or ones that lack seats. You will want to carry TP with you, too.

How old are the children? Let us know.

because hotel rooms in Europe are small, it has been a challenge for our family to find 'family rooms' ---usually needed in Europe if you need lodging for more than 2 people. it can be done, yet even when the family room option is available, 4 people in one room for any length of time is not ideal. We always now rent apartments which gives the family the advantage of having an actual kitchen for snacks and breakfast (or other meals if you wish) a refrigerator for drinks and snacks, frequently a washing machine and dryer, more than one bathroom frequently, and certainly more than just one bedroom for four people. With a hotelthere is always a feeling that everyone needs to go to sleep at the same time, or wake up at the same time, or if someone wants to take a nap in the middle of the day, this puts the other three people in a zone of silence. If you are moving around every 3 days, it may not be worthwhile, but something to be considered. We've had great experiences using vrbo,com, including in Rome. If not, book early, sometimes you have to ask (email) about family rooms, for some reason they are not always advertised. If you use booking.com, they usually list all the types of rooms available, including information on how many people can sleep in the room or how many beds there ar. Have fun!

I was also going to suggest staying in Naples if you can fly from there to Athens. It could well be worth the hassle of changing hotels to avoid the very very long day trip to Pompeii, making your visit there much more enjoyable. You'd then have plenty of time to visit the National Archaeology Museum in Naples, a must-see in general and especially given your son's interest.

I also recommend the Secret Itineraries Tour at the Doge's Palace - need to book in advance. Someone recently wrote that they'd taken a gondola lesson for about the same price as a ride and that it was great activity for kids.

Pisa is an easy half-day trip from Florence by train. Several of my friends have climbed the tower with kids and enjoyed it. The Baptistry is well worth seeing too. You can day trip to Siena or San Giminagno by bus for something different. The Bargello is a smaller, less frequented, sculpture museum.

You may be able to rent an apartment in Florence or Rome. That might be more pleasant than cramming into 2 hotel rooms, and if there is a washing machine, that would solve another problem.

Thanks so much for the feedback so far. I really like the idea of one or two nights in Naples and visiting Pompei like that.

A little more infor on us and the reasons for the trip...We are Canadian but I am working in London, UK for three years. Our children are 7 and one year old twins. Most people probably think us crazy trying to pull this off but we'll give it a shot. We want to travel as much as possible while here, even if we have kids in backpacks.

My 7 year old is studying ancient Greece this term and Pompei and Italian geography next term.

The reason we are starting in Venice first is because it is an easy two hour flight on a Friday evening with the kids as opposed to 4 and a two hour time difference to Athens. If we flew to Athens first we would essentially have to do it on the Saturday and thus have one fewer day as my son will need to go back to school on the 18th.

We are also considering staying at monasteries in Italy as well but haven't researched it fully.

Gee, I hope they are not silent monasteries, travelling with twin one year olds. Good on you for going. I am picturing you climbing the Acropolis with the twins in matching backpacks, and the seven year old between you, swinging off your arms.

We made the decission that while it would not be easy traveling with small children, it was something we needed to do.

For every romantic dinner we miss, we get the experience of explaining to a 7 year old something like the Mona Lisa...and getting yelled at by security for boosting him on my shoulders over the crowd ;)

Lasy year, before the twins, the three of us did Paris, Normandy, and London.

By the time we hit the British museum we were all museumed out and went to Legoland instead of our plans for the next day and we all had a blast. Sometimes a smile on you kids face is more important than the Elgin Marbles :)

With the additional information, I think Herculaneum might be a better choice than Pompeii. It's smaller and much easier to comprehend what a town was like 2000 years ago. It's also a lot easier to walk. Parts of Pompeii are quite difficult because the stones used to pave the streets are uneven, rounded (not flat) and the "filler" has long since disappeared. The tots will be in backpacks all the time. In Herculaneum you could probably use strollers.

Maybe...though we don't generally use strollers much because they are big, cumbersome, and you constantly need to find an elevator/escalator.

When we relocated to UK this ummer we lived out of a hotel for a month and bavkpacked the babies all over London inc. the zoo, through the crowds of the South bank, and finally got to really see the British museum! It's just our prefered transport method.

I'll just second Chani's excellent recommendation not to miss the Naples Archaeology Museum. Almost all the stuff found at Pompeii and Herculaneum is now in this museum - mosaics, paintings, etc. It also has the monumental sculptures from the Baths of Caracalla, including the unforgettable Farnese Hercules and Farnese Bull. Kids, even those not studying Greece and Rome, would get a kick out of these - they're massive.

IWN, bear in mind that at Pompeii, some of the main parts are difficult to walk for anyone (as I tried to describe), there's little shade, and in another 6 months the kids will be a lot bigger and more active than they are now.