Feedback on 4 week itinerary

Early April is still quite early for the lakes. I think you would find the weather a little on the cool side. I wouldn't cut your time in Sorrento for that, and I definitely wouldn't recommend doing a day trip to Pompeii from Rome unless you had no other choice.

Once you've had time to refine your stay in Tuscany, you can see if you want a full week there, or if you might want to give one of those nights to an extra night in Rome.

We did a very similar trip with our kids in April several years ago. I think your timing is pretty good. You might want to consider going to Sorrento first then just finishing in Rome. We didn't do the lakes, but we did do Cinque Terre and the weather was fairly good.

I think you are a little more rushed at the beginning. You could cut one day from Rome or Sorrento to add to Venice or Verona.

We were in Venice a few days before Easter, 2019, and I wouldn't do it again. Starting on Good Friday, it got extra crowded, and the vaporettos were packed, weren't enjoyable at all. We spent Saturday and Easter Sunday with family outside of Venice, and most things in that small town were quiet and closed, including the wineries. On Easter Monday, which is a Holiday, the large cities were packed again, Restuarants really crowded, and the same businesses were closed. So I guess the choice is being in a very crowded bigger city or a sleepy, closed small town, Easter weekend?
Perhaps others here will have more experiences and insights. I wonder if reversing the itinerary would be better, and doing Sorrento for Easter weekend, with all outdoor activities and exploring?
Pompeii as a day trip from Rome is long and exhausting, I wouldn't recommend it.

In Venice, I recommend staying in a quiet residential area, Cannaregio. It is beautiful and charming, the canals are serene and peaceful. We used Row Venice, which gives small groups rowing lessons on the back canals. I think your children would love learning to paddle on the canals, it's much harder than it looks, and it was then about 90 euros for 90 minutes, total, for groups of 4-5. We also like going out to Murano and Burano.

I would also recommend spending at least a night in Lake Como, to be there for the mornings and evenings. Lake Como is an hour train from Milan Central station. The train takes you to Varenna, after which you take the ferry across the lake to Bellagio and Menaggio. The ferry schedule can be erratic, so trying to coordinate round trip ferries and train transportation, after exploring all day, makes for an exhausting experience. Sleep in Varenna, and spend at least a night in this spectacular location- maybe two nights?

You have a wonderful family trip planned, and I wish you safe travels!

The only change I would recommend is going directly to Venice and doing a day trip to Padua. One night stays take up too much time getting to your lodgings, checking in, unpacking, repacking, checking out. Frequent trains from Venice is the way to go.

While in Sorrento, make plans to visit the archaeological museum in Naples. It compliments the visit to Pompeii. And your teens would enjoy an authentic Neapolitan pizza. As recommended above, don’t do a day trip from Rome to visit Pompeii.

I thought your beginning from very rushed. It is 2-2-1-3 nights. We spent three nights in Verona with one day trip and it wasn't enough. I would consider going to Verona your first day skipping Lake Como which is lovely but unlikely to be as much so in March. There are multiple trains that are local trains that do not have to be reserved in advance. If want to see one of the Lakes, Lake Garda can be reached by bus from Verona. We went by bus to Sirmione which is lovely.

And I also would consider moving your one night in Padua to Venice and day tripping there. It is only 30 minutes from Venice. This would give you 4 nights in Verona and 4 in Venice which seems a lot more enjoyable to me.

One thing I don't believe anyone else has mentioned: You're dropping off the car in Orvieto but not planning to stay there. Orvieto has a lovely historic center with considerably more actual sights than most small hill towns; it's well worth more than one full day. I wonder whether you'll be a bit tired of small Umbrian/Tuscan towns by the end of that segment of your trip. Orvieto is meatier than most of the places you'll probably end up seeing (not Siena).

I'd definitely try to avoid two separate stays in Rome.

Thanks everyone so much for your advice. It’s helped clarify things and I will definitely rearrange the early days. We will keep Sorrento and not attempt a day trip to Pompeii from Rome.

It would be ideal to have just one stop in Rome. It’s a bit complicated because we need to be in Rome on the 23rd for keymaster tour of the Vatican. Hardly any dates available but managed to book the day before my daughter’s birthday - a special surprise birthday present - opening up the Vatican tour at 6am before it opens. She doesn’t know about it, so I could cancel it to have one block of time in Rome at the end, but I’m reluctant to give it up!

I don't blame you. That sounds like a really special experience.

The preferred rental place in Florence is at Via Palagio degli Spini, the complex near the airport, reached by taxi. Orvieto has Hertz, which Autoeurope stopped using because of complaints. Avis in Chiusi is OK. If ending up in southern Tuscany, it’s easier to simply
to drive to Rome and dump the car at one of the agencies on Via Sardegna.

I can tell you how to do a Pompeii day trip from Rome; would need to use a different computer.

Caserta train Rome? Sorrento to Rome if near the station you can take the commuter train to Napoli Garibaldi [holding on to your luggage, have nothing of value in a backpack] and go upstairs to Napoli Centrale for the train; or have Sorrentocars or other service drive you to Napoli Centrale. The commuter train is how you get to Pompeii, Pompeii Scavi stop.

Tuscany/Umbria you are making one hotel change? Padova as a day trip from Verona.

Padua's a quicker trip from Venice (14 to 47 minutes) than from Verona (44 to 87 minutes), so it seems a shame to daytrip from Verona to Padua and soon afterward take a train that passes through Padua on the way from Verona to Venice. On the other hand, hotels in Venice tend to be a lot more expensive than hotels in Padua, and I'm not a fan of daytripping from a high-cost city to an inexpensive on.

Rather than day-tripping from Verona to Padua, I'd be inclined to visit Padua on the way from Verona to Venice if I didn't want to deal with a one-night stay in Padua. There's a luggage-storage facility in the Padua train station. It wouldn't be necessary to guess what time you'd be ready to leave Padua in order to pre-purchase a train ticket on to Venice since the regional trains from Padua to Venice are so frequent and cheap. You might well find yourself in Venice in the late afternoon, providing some useful wandering-around time.

I might do Amalfi/coast (bus or a van tour) from Sorrento, maybe even instead of Capri. A little further south is Paestum, for some of the best Greek temple ruins outside of Sicily (or Greece). I do think you will really enjoy the slower pace of Sorrento after 4-5 days in Rome. Yes, there is a lot to see in Rome (loved the Vatican Museum, hated the tour groups, so lucky you for the early tour). Our first Italy trip, we were rather sorry to have planned our itinerary so that Rome was our final stop, as it wasn't very relaxing, though there is PLENTY to do. You're also leaving yourself TWO long travel days at the vacation end, with a nearly-all-day train trip from Sorrento, then long air-travel day home, but the rail trip could also be its own transition time for preparing to go home (and probably better than a one-night stop somewhere.

I would definitely recommend at least a couple days/nights in Orvietto. We spent 3 days/nights there, used one of them to day trip by bus to Civita di Bagnoregio, and thoroughly enjoyed the time there. There is much more to see/do there than most of the small hill towns, and with a few days/nights you get much more of a feel for hill town life than with a hurried tour of just the major tourist sights. Not overrun by as many tourists as some of the Tuscan hill towns. Also recommend more time in Rome. Sorrento was a great home base for 3 nights with a day trip to Pompeii, and Capri.