Flights BOOKED! Now, a WWYD re: Italy with Kids and Easter

Roberto's Rule: Always end your trip in the city you depart from to come home.

According to my rule, since you fly in and out of FCO you should visit Florence first, then come to Rome last, for the last few days before returning home.

You can go to Florence by train on the day you land. There is a train station at the airport. You can take a train there and go to Florence. In most circumstances you'll need to change trains and switch to a high speed Freccia train at Roma Termini or Tiburtina (Rome main stations). However there are two high speed trains a day that depart directly from the airport (at 11:08am and 3:08 pm). There is on average 2 or 3 trains per hour that go to Florence till late at night. Since you arrive in the morning there are plenty of opportunities to make it to Florence the same day of arrival. The trip from the Roma Termini station is 90 min. From the airport add another 35 min (plus the time necessary to switch trains in case you don't take the two trains departing from the airport)

You have 10 nights on the ground (from 4/8/2017, day of arrival to 4/17/2017, last night before flight home)
I would split them more or less in half.
Florence itself deserves at least 2 days, Rome deserves at least 3 days, IMO.
The rest of the time you can take day trips:
From Florence, which is the capital of Tuscany, you can visit many famous Tuscan towns (like Pisa & Lucca, Siena, Arezzo & Cortona, Pistoia & Montecatini, San Gimignano and Certaldo, and many others).
From Rome you can have a day trip to Naples and Pompeii, Orvieto, etc.
I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to spend Easter in Rome, therefore leaving Rome at the end of your trip would work perfectly.

I agree with Roberto's Rule:) I have ever-decreasing stamina as I travel around and so I do my most demanding transfers at the start of my trip and my most tourist-intensive cities at the start as well (this second rule won't play in so much on your trip). I also always do open jaw, but I see your decision to save money and opt out.

There was another poster here with Pisa as a kids' choice destination and there was a lot of advice to try to redirect the kids. I offer that to you as well. Pisa seems to come up for kids because it's in so many books and pictures. But Pisa itself is really nothing special. I would try to redirect the kids to another day trip - do a little research and give them a few options. Siena would be a good one.

Visiting Pisa is fine and obviously most people want to see the leaning tower, however rather than redirecting your kids to elsewhere, you can still visit Pisa (which takes very little time to visit) and couple that trip with nearby Lucca, which in my opinion, is better than Pisa. So for example you can visit Lucca first in the morning and early afternoon (train Florence to Lucca, via Prato/Pistoia), then take the 25 min train ride late in the afternoon from Lucca to Pisa San Rossore station (walking distance from the tower), see the tower and the Duomo for an hour or two (nothing else worthwhile to see other that that Piazza), maybe have dinner in Pisa, then walk/bus/taxi to Pisa Centrale station, and take the train back to Florence. The last train from Pisa Centrale to Florence departs at about 10:30pm. but there is at least one every hour.

I vote for memorializing Roberto's Rule somehow in the Travel Tips.

Roberto's Rule no. 2:

To the extent you can, try to do most (or all) of your shopping in the last city you visit before coming home. That way you don't have to carry all the junk you buy all over the place during your trip.

Good Friday is April 16 and is also my son's 12th bday
Easter is Sunday, April 18
Easter Monday (a holiday in Italy) is, of course, Monday, April 19.

A couple of small corrections?
Good Friday is April 14 in 2017
Easter is Sunday, April 16 in 2017
Easter Monday is April 17 2017

Apr 8. Arrive Rome. Train to Florence (5nts)
Apr 10. Pisa
Apr 11. Siena
Apr 13. Train to Rome (5nts)
Apr 14. Good Friday
Apr 15. Pompeii
Apr 16. Easter Sunday
Apr 18. Depart Rome

More detail using the above as a basis.

Apr 8. Arrive Rome. Train to Florence (5nts). Walk around and get oriented in Florence in the afternoon/evening.
Apr 9. Visit Florence
Apr 10. Day trip Pisa+Lucca
Apr 11. More visiting of Florence
Apr 12. Day trip: Siena
Apr 13. Check out of Florence hotel. Mid/late morning train to Rome (5nts). Walk around and get oriented in Rome in the afternoon/evening.
Apr 14. Visit Rome
Apr 15. Day trip: Pompeii+Naples
Apr 16. Easter Sunday in Rome
April 17. More Rome or day trip to Orvieto by train. On Easter Monday taking a short family trip out of town (gita fuori porta=trip out of the city gates) is an Italian tradition, so there might be many Romans visiting Orvieto that day.
Apr 18. Depart Rome. Taxi to FCO (Terminal 5. Do not forget this detail. Tell the taxi you are leaving from T5)

Do not worry too much about the busyness of the Easter weekend. The only inconvenience we've experienced was one Good Friday or Saturday-before-Easter (cannot remember which it was but I think the latter) when St. Peter's closed at 14:00 while our visitors were in line waiting to get in. If they had gone in the morning as I suggested instead of after lunch, they would have gotten in.

Do get your flats booked ASAP, though, for best choice. And make a reservation for lunch on Easter as the restaurants are very busy. I like the restaurants in the Ghetto on this holiday. It's business-as-usual there.