Elderly mother

Where are you planning to go on Italy?

How mobile is she? Wheelchair dependent or a one mile limit before needing 10-15 minutes of rest?

I doubt a golf cart is a viable option. ( Cannot go inside venues and parking will be a challenge) Some sort of wheelchair rental can be had in the major cities.

Use the 'search' bar (above at top of page) and search for "wheelchairs in Italy" There are several topics with vendor info.

These two sites may give you some information that you need. Would recommend either an electric chair or scooter. That way you're not the only means of transport ( pushing, which could wear you out).

https://www.sagetraveling.com/rome-wheelchair-rental-and-delivery

https://www.accessibleitaly.com/service/disabled-equipment.html

For more travel tips, look at more advice.

https://www.sagetraveling.com/top-10-europe-handicapped-travel-tips

hey hey jreigle71
what parts of italy do you plan on visiting? is it just you and your mother and how many nights is your plan? gerri has given you some info for disability and what you can do. research helps with your trip. look for places that have an elevator/lift,
people on this forum will give you good bad and ugly about different places that will help your mom. flat areas, no hills to climb, hotels with no steep stairs/steps with luggage to wear out mom. i'm sure with more info lots of info will help you decide. where are you flying from and undestand the covid-19 regulations.
aloha

How wonderful for both of you! I might recommend checking out Road Scholar, they have organized tours all over the world so you might see what they offer for Italy. Because most RS travelers are seniors they may have options with less walking, and they rate their trips by how strenuous they are. I was many years younger than the group I joined to travel to Cuba and quite a few of those on the trip moved very slowly, had canes, etc. but the driver would deliver us right to the location we were to see. I was really inspired by the love of adventure and travel of my tour mates!

As one even older than your mother, I’ll chime in. Italians are typically very solicitous toward the old (and young).
It might help if you give more details about Mom’s physical condition. One stressor can be the extra walking that getting lost leads to, so a tour isn’t a bad idea. That would also erase the need for climbing that using public transportation creates. One helpful suggestion for those who aren’t in great shape, but don’t really have health issues, is to start a conditioning plan, well before the trip, gradually increasing the distance walked.
The Italians have made great strides in the last few years in expanding accessibility, but I think it’s still spotty.

This post from early this year may be helpful, re: Traveling in Italy in a wheelchair.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/new-to-this-travel-thing-abroad
Some of the links are the same as suggested above.

If you post your proposed destinations and estimated dates, people can chime in with suggestions about transportation and sites requiring less strenuous walking. You might want to scale down the number of things you want to see and plan on enjoying just being in Italy.

Jeanne,

I don't think a golf cart is going to be a realistic option. I've never seen those for rent anywhere in Italy, and not sure if they're even legal for the applications you have in mind. An electric scooter might work, but I'm also not sure if those are available for rent (I've never looked). Many of the streets in the older sections are cobblestones, which won't provide the best ride.

Using any kind of "mobility device" is going to be cumbersome, as the easiest way to travel around Italy is using the excellent rail network. Getting even an electric scooter onto a train is going to be a huge problem, and I'm not sure if those would be allowed.

There are ways to minimize the amount of walking, such as taking Taxis to & from the station to hotel or booking guided tours that provide transportation. She might find something like this product helpful when touring museums and historic sites and listening to long-winded guides - https://www.magellans.com/itemdy00.aspx?T1=MA9109 .

As others have mentioned in this thread, it would be helpful to have some idea on your mother's level of mobility and general health. Some degree of walking is inevitable just about anywhere in Europe. When were you planning to take this trip?

TripAdvisor has a couple of forums that might be of interest: one dedicated to Senior Travel and another for Traveling With Disabilities. https://www.tripadvisor.com/.
Their Italy forum might be worth a look too. This topic has likely been discussed there at sometime in the recent past.

Regarding Road Scholar. I've done 11 Road Scholar tours (6 in Europe) and on their website each program has an activity indicator which I find pretty accurate now. I've been on one with 3 people using canes or walking poles but have never been on one with folks needing more assistance than that. That particular program was in Provence and several people opted to sit out the visit to the Marseille cathedral due to the number of steps required just to get to the elevator. Others stopped along the way when we visited some of the small hilly villages in Provence.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I do not think Road Scholar Italy programs will work for someone who might need a cart for mobility although I have not looked at them with that filter in mind. There are always a lot of stairs in Italy, it seems!

I'll also add that I was not pleased with Road Scholar's response to begin with regarding COVID refunds. They reversed course within a couple of weeks and are giving full refunds for programs they cancel. I would NOT book a year in advance though which is what they are now encouraging. Carefully read the rules on their insurance as well. Cancel for Any Reason does have restrictions.

You mention being concerned about "the miles of walking". That's a lot different than being disabled and needing a wheel chair, etc. So really in order to give you any usable advice we need to know what shape your mother is in. There are loads of 80+ year olds who are extremely mobile - hiking long distances even. Huge variations so just knowing her age is not enough. There are lots of great strategies but we need to know how far can she walk at a time, can she climb steps, things like that. But the idea of a golf cart is not reasonable.

We were in Rome this past New Year’s and saw golf carts taking people around the historic sites such as the streets around the Colosseum.. I did not see them in the really crowded areas such as around the Pantheon which was jam packed with people. They could not have gotten through there safely.
If she is able to walk, walk and when it is too much for her, get in a taxi.
Be flexible. Since I have no idea how compromised she is, it is hard to Suggest much more than I have. In Italy, the miles of walking we have done were mostly in Rome, many miles per day but that is our style. Venice is a walking city but smaller. If you are going to Tuscany, then you will probably rent a car to visit hill towns and park below them, walking up to town centers. Some allow you to drive up so plan carefully. Museums require a lot of walking but usually offer wheelchairs.

Hi,

You mentioned your Mom has some mobility issues. Would she be able to withstand a 4-wheel rolling walker with seat? They are usually called a rollator.

From my observation the times I went to Rome, I saw people in wheelchairs - in the Vatican and in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican would be a lot more challenging to navigate a wheelchair through the massive crowds.

St. Peter's is a different story. I saw a few people in wheelchairs -there is plenty of room to maneuver around. Of course you have the smooth flooring.

I also saw a couple of people being escorted in wheelchairs on the streets of Rome - they were on the side streets where it was smoother pavement and not on cobblestone. A lot of Rome's City center is cobblestone, sometimes broken sidewalks, and other challenges of course - the crowds.

At Piazza Navona, I saw a person being wheeled around. Piazza
Navona is more manageable compared to Piazza della Rotonda which The Pantheon sits on.

Challenges would be the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps area.

If you go early enough to these piazzas, you may be able to avoid the heavy crowding at certain times of the day.

Campo de' Fiori might be a little tight to navigate through during the day. After 5:00 p.m., the Piazza opens wide to start accommodating the cocktail hour and dinner guests.

Around the circumference of the Colosseum, there would be room to push a wheelchair or scooter.

When the cams are operational again, check out the https://www.skylinewebcams.com for the Lazio region which primarily shows the city centre of Rome.

If the cams are operational, click on each main attraction and it'll give a good indication of the potential crowding and maneuverability for
a wheelchair or scooter.

Once you check out the skyline webcams, you'll see other regions of Italy also.

Hope this works out for your Mom.😊

Another possible option is one of the Scooteroma tours in an Ape Calessino
(https://scooteroma.com/tours/ape-calessino-tour/).

Contact them. They will work with you on the itinerary. The other tours on Vespas can give you an idea of some of the options to see. Because of the size and type of vehicle, you might be able to go some places that a 4-wheeled golf cart couldn't and more comfortably than on a motorized scooter wheelchair.

In 2017, at the age of 71, I did a private tour on the back of the Vespa my tour guide drove. I asked for it to be shorter than normal. It was a blast! It was not cheap.

Jeanne, you asked about golf carts. We have used this company twice, once for a group of 10 and then a group of three.

They were very responsive to my inquiries and for each time, allow us to customize their tours.

As far as entrance to certain attractions, like Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum area, they will drop you on a less traveled side street a few yards from the attraction.

https://mybesttour.com/tour/golf-cart-tour-rome/

For the Vatican Museum there are free wheelchairs available. I'd suggest a a reservation.

http://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/en/visita-i-musei/servizi-per-i-visitatori/accessibilita.html

Hope this helps.

We have taken 4 river cruises and some river cruise companies have one tour group called the slow walkers.

We befriended a couple on a river cruise that was about 80. They joined the slow walker group. A few of that group had walkers and they seemed to manage the more limited touring. Those groups stopped for more breaks and didn't try to cover the same ground as the other groups.

Not sure that would work for you, but river cruises seem to be less stressful than tours that we have taken.

I apologize if somebody already posted this; but I was looking for tour guides in Rome and came across this company:

https://rollingrome.com/

Venice can be tough for the mobility challenged. We took my 80 year old mother in law to Venice a few years ago. She was pretty fit, no big health challenges, but still found Venice quite hard work. Sure, Venice is pretty flat, but the steps on the inevitable bridges can be tiring.

In Venice, one gets used to walking maybe a bit further to avoid a bridge.