Push wheelchair users. Rome & Naples (maybe Venice) with wheelchair/push chair?

Europe is increasingly aware about access but ancient roads and streets and stairs make complete accommodation difficult.
Venice being a series of islands makes it particularly difficult despite being completely flat.

Here are some resources about access Venice:
https://www.veneziaunica.it/en/content/accessible-venice
https://blog.wheeltheworld.com/wheelchair-accessible-venice-italy/
https://www.introducingvenice.com/traveling-with-a-disability
https://www.sagetraveling.com/Venice-Disabled-Access
And other locations you mentioned:
https://www.sagetraveling.com/florence-accessible-travel
https://www.sagetraveling.com/naples-accessible-travel

My dad was in a wheelchair for years so I have some frame of reference but we never braved Europe so I am extrapolating some here. Early on he used the wheelchair to avoid easy fatigue so he was able to stand and walk up short stairs or through an inaccessible doorway which opens up a lot of places that might otherwise have been off limits. If she can stand and walk to cross any bridges you might run into Venice should be pretty accessible but as you can see from the maps much of the city is accessible anyway.

It sounds like you considered instead getting wheelchairs locally and saving yourself the transportation issues of trying to take one. Check the forum since this has been discussed and I believe there was a reference to Florence providing free wheelchairs for all visitors to check out and return.

Regionale trains are often older and have stairs up into the trains but I would be surprised if Tenitalia didn't offer a list of stations and trains to help sort out the possibilities. The newer and more modernized fast trains are more accessible.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en/purchase/info_contacts/disabled_passengers.html
https://www.fsitaliane.it/content/fsitaliane/en/sustainability/people/social-commitment/accessibility.html
https://www.italiarail.com/station-services/are-there-services-travelers-disabilities

I will also say that everywhere I have been in Italy there is great respect for people with limited disability. Even just having a cane people will voluntarily vacate the "accessible" seats on buses and line dividers that make your walk longer are often removed and lines are avoided without asking. Even on the tourist packed vaporetto to Murano and Burano an instagram couple made a beeline for the last two open seats together - because they were reserved for elderly and mobility impaired - and they were quickly shamed out of those seats and had to stand for the rest of the trip.

Hope that helps, have a great trip,
=Tod

Tod

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I will be going through the links information this weekend. It is good to here people are generally welcoming and respectful of those in wheelchairs or similar.

I am feeling much more hopeful we can have a good trip even with using a wheelchair to fairly easily throughout the day.

Thank you!

Hi there, I'm wondering about how much you would be pushing a stroller on cobblestones in Rome and how tired you might get? (IMO Rome is tiring enough just getting where you need to go and dealing with the crowds.) David from AL says here in another post (scroll down to 9th reply by David) that his wife travels with a hight quality, foldable electric scooter she rides to the door of the airplane, it's folded up and ready for her when she disembarks, wondering if it might not be something to consider? - https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing/traveling-on-domestic-us-flight-with-wheelchair-or-knee-scooter.

My wife is mobility challenged and she travels with a high quality folding personal scooter. She rides it to the door of the airplane and then it's gate checked--to return to the door at our next stop. Upon arrival at the plane door, I fold the seat down and fold the handlebars down--and remove the battery. And I handle our carry on rolling bags too---requiring no assistance from anyone.
We're getting ready to make our 4th international trip this way--and one trip to Las Vegas. Anyone that's mobility challenged should look into these great scooters. It allows my wife to go to church and the grocery store, and it's a big part of our lives. We carry it in our trunk all the time. And with a 10+ mile range, I cannot keep up with her in airports.

About 20 years ago I rented one of the "new" electric scooter things here in the US then took it to Europe for my Mother's bucket list trip. It was a fold-up, like has been mentioned, and it was "new" pretty much everywhere we went. When she rode it up to the plane they had a big discussion on what to do with it but made a spot decision to fold it up and put it into a coat closet they had. We wouldn't have gotten that treatment nowadays. We had an argument with the Borghase Gallery in Rome. They had rules to keep "Battery driven" scooters out but it turned out those were batteries of the old lead-acid type. These were sealed Li ones and they finally let us in.

But I wanted to say that the trip was doable. I folded the scooter up and put it into trunks of taxis and the luggage area of trains. Mother could stand and walk short distances, much like your daughter. Those were all we needed to navigate our surroundings. The sidewalks/building in Paris, Rome, and Florence were fine. The only issue was the very small elevators in some of the places we stayed. One of them I had to send her up in the scooter while I took the stairs.

I was surprised at the courtesy I saw wherever we went. When I saw the line stretching down, and around, the block for the Vatican Museum I went to the front to ask the Guards if my Mother could wait there in her chair while I did the line. They then insisted on the two of us going right in. Several times incidents like that happened.

Hey OP, I just saw this mention of a 'secret' elevator inside the Victor Emmanuelle Monument in Rome that might be useful for you and your family. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/victor-emmanuel-monument-logistics. (Scroll down to Elizabeth's comment.)