Italy with family

It would help if you specified how many days - not including arrival and departure - you’ll be in Italy.

Welcome

Can you tell us how many nights for this trip, how many nights in Italy?
Do you have dates? Flights booked?

Your plan is fine. Nothing wrong with skipping Rome, just be sure to take advantage of any chance to visit in the future.
I would skip AC on first trip to Italy but that is me. I love Rome.

Good that you are flying IN to Venice.
Where from? Arrival time? How long is your flight?
Venice should get 3-4 nights- great place to get over jet lag.
Check out Row Venice.

A 3 night stay in just 2 full days in location.

Florence deserves 2 full days/3 nights- add a night for every day trip
Siena- 2 nights or longer if you will visit other hill towns (are you willing to rent a car?)

AC- where exactly? needs 4 nights- takes good part of a day to get there. Know your transportation to/from.

Fly to MUN from NAP- arrive 2 hrs preflight- figure this part out- if early am flight you should be in Naples night before

Munich- 3 nights?
Fly home

15 nights -5 locations- I would try to drop one location

Venice 3
Florence 4 or 5- 1 or 2 day trips Siena, etc
AC 4
Munich 3 or 4?

Anyway- good plan.
Need to know how many nights you have.

Skipping Rome is like skipping the main course of the meal and being happy with a salad and soup.

Rome is amazing and deserves several days to see. Not only the ancient Roman sites, but St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel are special beyond belief.

Suggest skipping the Amalfi Coast and do Rome.

My kids have an opportunity to travel abroad to Rome in two years, so
that’s why we’re skipping,

Well OK then; given that you'll likely have a crack at it in a couple of years, it's perfectly OK to skip Rome this time. That one can consume some serious time if interested in its wealth of things to see so I'm all for not cramming it into your current itinerary. Plan on giving it the time it deserves on a future trip. :O)

Christine has asked for some information that would help people to weigh in on your other questions, such as how many nights in total you have for this trip. Can you help us out here?

The reason why we are thinking of skipping Rome is my kids are supposed to do a study abroad trip in Rome in two years. We are just planning right now and not 100% sure how long. We are thinking 14-16 days. My teens are dying to see the French riviera, but we don’t have to go to AC in particular.
We do have our tickets flying into Venice, but we do not have a return flight yet. We have friends in Venice and friends in Munich so these are two places we must go. One of my kids wants to go into interior architecture, which is why she wants to see Florence. Trying to figure out how we can see a little bit of everything. (Leaving May 27, 2026. )
But I know that’s really difficult to do. Appreciate all the advice!

I think this would check-off all the interest you listed:

Venice 4 nights
Cinque Terre 3 nights (replacement of the AC)
Florence 4 nights
Munich 4 nights

In Cinque Terre, stay in Riomaggiore or Vernazza, as they are the most scenic, great for teenagers.

We are looking at a 15 to 16 day trip. Thank you for your advice on this!

If your kids are doing Rome on a school trip as a teacher who takes kids abroad I can tell you they won't see much. Half the time the tour companies are denied entry to the major sites. If I were you I would give them the real experience and then when they go with school (if that is what you are referring to) they can just enjoy being back in Italy. With that being said, I agree with the others and say skip AC on your first visit and stay in Northern Italy. There is so much to see and do between Venice and Florence that depending on how much time you have you may want to just leave it there. If you do have plenty of time then definitely see Rome. Florence and the surrounding area is worth a full week let alone Venice, Verona, Ravenna, etc. So much to do in that area. Either way enjoy!

If your kids are doing Rome on a school trip as a teacher who takes
kids abroad I can tell you they won't see much. Half the time the tour
companies are denied entry to the major sites.

I'm sorry but this sounds like a poorly planned trip.
Did your group have timed entry/pre-purchased tickets to major sights? Almost all require that these days.
My daughter has taken student groups to both Spain and Italy and they always have their tickets in advance, have never been turned away.

Following up on Christine's post....
It sounds like the issue is expecting a school group to just walk into some of the major attractions without the required advance reservations? No, that's not going to happen for ANY tour group, school or not. Looking strictly at Rome, here are the requirements for school groups to visit some of the biggest of the biggies (Colosseum/Forum/Palatine, Vatican Museums, Galleria Borghese):

https://colosseo.it/en/2023/05/tickets-groups-school/
https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/organizza-visita/tariffe-e-biglietti/biglietto-ridotto-scuole.html
https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/en/visita/gruppi/

That said, the Erika's offspring won't be traveling to Rome for another couple of years, and may or may not be visiting the majors on their own or in a group as part of their university education (I am assuming uni/collage as both will be 19 at that point.). If it's school, their instructors will be making the proper arrangements.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with skipping any particular city on a trip. My first trip to Europe was a full summer right after I graduated from college. I went to Italy but not as far south as Rome. Geographically, it didn't fit well with the rest of my itinerary. Rome isn't going to go away.

I write this as someone who spent 20 days in Rome a few years ago and had a great time. (If you were flying in and/or out of Rome, I'd encourage you to see some of its sights.)