Italy with a toddler using public transport

My hat is off to you to embark on this adventure. It will be a great memory for the two (three) of you.

I'll defer to others re: city recommendations. Just a comment on Venice - I would definitely not take a toddler there. You can literally walk off the street into the water at every turn. I very nearly did that due to inattention, and I'm all grown up.

With only 10 days and already including Venice, Florence and Rome, you really don't need or have time for another destination.

2 year old is a awkward age. More mobile than smart ( i.e., aware of danger) and at 25-30 lbs a real load to carry for all but a short time. When our kids were that age we were too poor to do that kind of travel, so have no pertinent advice to offer.

I'd also say no to Venice w a toddler. How about Florence, Pisa, (day trip or overnight) and Rome?

I tend to agree with the others, that perhaps Venice is not the best idea when travelling with a toddler. Some thoughts.....

Depending on flight availability from your area, you could consider flying inbound to Florence. It's a smaller airport and not too far from the city. I'd suggest at least three nights there, especially as you probably won't be up to full "touring speed" for a day or two due to jet lag.

From Florence you could continue south and spend a couple of nights in Siena (Tuscany). It's a very historic city and the Duomo is beautiful. An alternative would be a few nights in Orvieto (Umbria), which also has an interesting history, and it's only a short train ride from Rome. Spend the remainder of your time in Rome and fly home from FCO.

There are all kinds of possibilities but in the same situation, that's probably what I would do. Check the current Rick Steves Italy guidebook for lots of information on sights in each city, Museum opening and closing times, transportation, good hotels & restaurants, etc.

One final comment.... at the end of March the Cinque Terre likely wouldn't be too busy yet. The tourist facilities there that closed for the winter will be starting to reopen and you should be able to find a hotel without too much trouble, especially in Monterosso which is the largest of the towns. Travelling between the five towns is very easy with the local trains, and each trip is only a few minutes.

@KC and @doric8: thanks, I think Venice might be a miss then. We live at the coast so he is used to not being allowed to go into water, but I didn't consider that he could just fall in!

@joe32F: I hear that! We're in Europe for work for three months, and have a 10 day break. Originally from South Africa so no way we could do something like this with our currency if we weren't already there! Flights around the EU are so cheap if you are close by.

@ken: We are flying in from Amsterdam, so won't have jet lag at least. I really want to see Rome but also a bit of countryside. I'm definitely looking in to Siena and Orvieto, thanks for the suggestions! I have dreamt of visiting the CT but have read so many negative reviews of how overcrowded it is and don't want to contribute to a tourist problem. But will have a look at hotel prices, perhaps because it's not in the busy season we could make it happen. Thank you for the suggestions!

I am apprehensive about travelling with a 2 year old, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, so I am desperate to make it happen :-)

Venice is a bit of a stretch given the short time you have available, not because of the canals. Falling in a canal is probably less likely than being run over by a car in Rome. In 2023 there were 54 pedestrians killed in the streets of Rome, many of them children. Nobody drowned in the Venice canals (or was eaten by crocodiles).

Siena is slightly harder to get to via train from Rome - you'd have to go to Florence and change there, or take a bus to get there directly (big coach bus like Flixbus). That said, it's a wonderful city, and my daughter who was 3 at the time loved running around at the Piazza del Campo with other little kids when we visited. It is a smaller city than Rome, but if you want a true "countryside" experience, Siena isn't exactly that. But lots of options for excursions from Siena as well out to the countryside, even if you don't rent a car.

Orvieto is a smaller town, and you can take the train direct, and the funicular up into town. Once at the top it is a little flatter compared to Siena. Fewer attractions, and not much specific for children. Not sure it would hold your attention for more than a day or two, but could be a nice spot to hang out for a little while as a reprieve from the craziness of Rome.

In Venice last December we saw no toddlers on leashes, but many toddlers on tiny scooters.

I was a toddler teacher for many years and we took groups of toddlers (all aged two or under) for walks and on field trips (airport, museums, grocery stores, farmers markets, etc.), so what I know is that there are toddlers and there are toddlers. You know yours the best. When our own sons were one or two, they would have been fine in Venice or anywhere else --- no credit to us, they were just naturally sensible. Our two grandchildren, on the other hand, have gone to Italy (including Venice) twice with us for 5 weeks total, and they not only would have been wild and crazy in Venice as toddlers, but were pretty darn wild and crazy at 6 and 9 years old. They loved Venice more than any other place we visited --- they were there for a week.

In Venice, there are big parks, big open squares, cool narrow alleys, street musicians, towers to climb, vaporetti to ride up and down the Grand Canal, and many other child-friendly places. And all with no cars, no trucks, no motorcycles, not even any bicycles! Restaurants were fantastically child-friendly. Venice was crowded around San Marco and the Rialto bridge, as almost always, but we actually were in several areas all by ourselves (like Torcello in the morning and a beach and parts of colorful Burano and the eastern part of Castello and the Bovolo tower). Most places were totally reasonable, including the Rialto market.

All of the bridges except two have railings (and even our grandchildren were careful on those!). The bridges have stairs going up and down, so most parents I saw held their little kids' hands on the stairs.

If I were you, and considering that 2025 is a Jubilee Year and so Rome will be stuffed to the gills with tourists AND pilgrims, think about skipping Rome for this trip and flying into Venice and out of Florence. Easy to add Lucca or some other Tuscan town by train.

Oh, and another nice thing about Venice is that so much of the art is in situ, and this means you are not stuck in a huge art gallery with a tired, hungry, or bored toddler, but can walk into a scuola or church, see the art there and leave. But do go to the Accademia in Venice (maybe take turns) --- it has some of the best art in the world and is not crowded or huge (not like the Uffizi in Florence or the Vatican museums in Rome!).

Anyway, please reconsider Venice.

I have a colleague with three kids who traveled in July for work and fun. They went to Venice and loved it. Their kids were 2, 5, and 8.

I had convinced them to avoid Rome as it was hot and crowded when we went in May the year before.

@roberto da firenze: LOL for your canal comment! Shocking how many pedestrians were killed in Rome. My plan was as follows:
Fly to Venice - spend 2 nights
Train to Florence - spend 3 nights
Train to Rome - spend 5 nights
Fly from Rome
It is a very short stopover in Venice in other words, but it has been a dream to see the city. But as many others have noted, perhaps this is too much for such a short trip.

The only previous experience I can compare it with is a two week trip to France many years ago. I spent a week in Paris, and then a week exploring parts of Western and Southern France, spending one or two nights along the way and taking the train in between. While Paris is of course magnificent, I must say that seeing more rural parts of France was incredible too. So I am imagining doing a similar albeit shorter trip of Italy (and of course, with a toddler in tow it will be very different).

@bethb: Thanks for your suggestions! I was thinking of seeing a smaller town, and noticed now that Siena is perhaps too difficult given the long train journey. Ideally I would want to time a train ride with my toddler's midday nap, and not much longer than 3 hours. Orvieto looks lovely! The furnicular would be wonderful. Which other smaller towns would you suggest? Attractions aren't everything if a place is beautiful we can easily just walk around and look at buildings and nature.

@nancys8: Your post made me smile from ear to ear, THANK YOU. I definitely hear that! My toddler is more of a wild one, but he is quite good around water as it is part of his daily life to not jump into the river/dam/ocean unless we say he can. Toddlers on mini scooters sound too cute! Thank you for mentioning so many child-friendly spots, I am adding them all to my list! And yes, I think Venice is back. It sounds doable and if we're really struggling we can always take turns walking around while the other parent stays in a park ;-)
I didn't realise that 2025 will be Jubilee and to be perfectly honest had to google to find out what that means. I see now that an extra 20 million visitors might be a bit of an issue, haha. I have been dreaming of visiting Rome and I don't think I'll get another chance, so might have to brave the crowds even if only for 3 days. I've found a list of specifically important religious dates now so will ensure that we are not in the city on any of those days -- thank you so very much for this warning!

@BethFL: Thank you for the tip! I think people with 3 kids are probably just better at handling kids in general - they are so brave to have 3 in the first place! But if it can be done with 3, it should be okay with 1... at least my partner and I still outnumber our toddler ;-)

Time management, risk management and toddler-towing. As you feel sure you won't return it is understandable that you would want to see ROME. A trip like this should above all be accommodating to the certain rhythms and immutable needs of toddlerdom. Taking turns, perhaps even splitting up for a day or two, sounds like a good idea. Traffic accidents in Jubilee year Rome or streets made of water, crowded by vehicles, combined with bridges lacking handrails, in Venice. In amusement parks many rides are forbidden territory until visitors are at least seven years old, no matter how sedate and well-behaved the child, and for good reason.

Many people (among them Dr. Jordan Peterson, the psychologist) have over the years found that small children can only be reasoned with to a very limited extent. As the capacity for reasoned adult thinking simply has not developed yet, any visit to a restaurant is for all intents and purposes over when the time limit of a small child expires, which is absolutely fine as it is the way of the world. Falling into a crowded canal should be no problem for a two year old.

I wish you, above all else, safe travels!

You mentioned scheduling something around your child's nap schedule? With the jet lag and the major time difference, I think such efforts could be in vane. Just do your best. I remember many years ago being with grandkids in Hawaii, with a three hour time difference. The kids were up at 4:00am, and slept all through the beach time. You just do your best and punt a lot. Good luck!

I would probably do 3+3+4, in other words borrow a night from Rome and spend that night in Venice.

Your preference of course, but if you fly to Venice first, you'll be jet lagged and tired on that first day there. I also find Venice fascinating (I am from Florence but I was conceived in Venice so I might have a special attachment to it).

And yes, Rome is famous for running over and killing pedestrians. Almost 2000 pedestrians a year are run over in Rome. Of those at least one a week on average is killed, nearly 2/3 of which over 65 y.o., therefore watch out boomers in this forum!

@Cherryplanter: Thanks for the advice! Agreed of course, that one cannot reason with someone with an underdeveloped brain! We travel quite often by car and drive over 2000kms/ 1200miles over the course of 3 days. So we have some experience with dealing with boredom, time management, etc. But yes, as they get older, they become more opinionated and may not enjoy every day.

@Pat: Thanks! Luckily for me, we are only travelling from Amsterdam, so no time difference or jet lag and just a 2 hour flight. Oh my... that sounds like quite an experience! If nothing else I am sure the trip will be one to remember, for whatever reason :-)

@Roberto da Firenze: Thank you, that is a good tip. I was even considering skipping Florence and heading to a small town instead, but the train connections become quite slow if not travelling between cities. I am really leaning towards Orvieto now, it looks so beautiful!