Italy - My travel tips, avoid making the same mistakes I did!
Family trip with 2 kids in August 2026:
Venice: The Vaporetto is great, get tickets early in your visit and utilize it. Getting to your destination via a Vaporetto ride is a lot more fun than slogging over a million bridges in the heat.
Florence: If you don’t want to stand in the gigantic free entry line for the Duomo, go across the street from the Baptistry and get the Ghiberti pass (€15) for the Baptistry & crypt. To enter the crypt, you’ll actually go inside the main cathedral and you can walk around and see everything before heading down the stairs.
Naples: If traveling via train, do not arrive or depart from the Afragola station! It’s in the suburbs, and there’s no easy way to get to Napoli Centrale from there- taxis and even car services are impossible to book, we tried a car service and they cancelled on us- luckily we were able to change our Italo train tickets to arrive in Centrale. Pay a bit extra for the Italo train tickets that can be changed, it’s worth it. The Archeological Museum is wonderful, highly recommend doing it before Pompeii to give context to the ruins.
Pompeii: Definitely splurge on a guided tour, made a huge difference in our experience. There’s a nice cafeteria on site, so you can stay for a good part of the day. Take a water bottle, water fountains are everywhere
Herculaneum: Worth the visit, very well preserved ruins. Here’s the catch- the Ercolano Scavi train stop is not included on many of the regular Naples - Sorrento Circumvesuviana routes, it only goes every few hours. Tip: download the official EAV app, plan your route ahead of time- including park entry times- and if the Campania Express is a better fit for your schedule just go ahead and pay for it! We were stuck on the Ercolano train platform with a bunch of other tourists trying to navigate our way back to Sorrento after a train delay, with a station change we made it but it took hours in 100 degree heat. Wish we had just paid extra for the Campania Express tickets ahead of time.
Sorrento: It was a nice spot to use as our home base to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum- yes, Naples would’ve been easier and closer, but Sorrento was really unique. We stayed at an AirBnb that was near the train station and in a lemon grove, it was beautiful
Rome: Don’t rely on google maps for bus times, they weren’t correct- use the official sites / ATAC Roma app instead to show delays. Do a guided Vespa ride- so much fun! For Colosseum tix, I finally got them by switching to using my phone- without WiFi- after getting shut out on my laptop. Honestly there are so many amazing things to see in Rome that if you decide to skip the Colosseum, or just end up with the regular entry tix, it’s fine.
I packed a bunch of pants specifically for visiting cathedrals. In hindsight, I should’ve just packed a large silk scarf in my day bag to use as a cover up as needed. There were disposable cover ups for sale, and sheets at the Vatican. Get to the Vatican early for entry to St. Peter’s, the line gets long quickly
Hotel tip: If staying in boutique hotels, be aware that their check in times may be limited. We booked a “hotel” in Naples not realizing that it was actually a small, boutique place that didn’t have desk service after 7:00 pm, and our scheduled arrival was at 8:30.
What I’d do differently: 1) Take taxis from the train stations to our hotels. Trying to navigate public transportation with luggage in unfamiliar places wasn’t pretty, it was our biggest source of stress on the trip. Getting back via public transportation after we had the lay of the land was easy. 2) Pay for more private guided tours. The ones we did have were the highlights of our trip 3) For restaurants, don’t rely on Trip Advisor / Google reviews, the places that were highly ranked were full of tourists. Our best meals were the places recommended by locals. Have fun!