Italy Family Holidays & Breaks

Best Italian Cities and Islands with Kids

• See our guides to the great child-friendly Italian cities of Rome and Venice. 

• Check out Sicily, Sardinia and Elba. As well as fabulous stretches of sand, these islands offer delicious food and great exploring – you can climb volcanoes, try your hand at a little archaeology and visit some fascinating castles.

Naples and Campania with Kids

• Have a family city break in Naples, an often shabby but exuberant, life-affirming city in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, with a warren of ancient Greek streets in its historic centre. Highlights include the National Archaeological Museum with its Roman treasures gleaned from nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum, plus the remains of a Roman market and some Greek ruins under San Lorenzo Maggiore church.

• Venture up Vesuvius, in its own National Park with walking paths and wildlife including lizards, whipsnakes (harmless) and geckos, to peer into the crater of this still-active volcano. There’s a bus that takes you nearly all the way, then a short trail, or you can hike all the way up.

• Don’t miss part-buried Pompeii. Ghoulish-minded kids and adults alike are fascinated by seeing how people were struck down in the middle of their daily lives when Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. It’s best reached by the Circumvesuviana train from central Naples. See our feature on a family trip to Naples, Pompeii and the other fascinating archaeological site of Herculaneum (Ercanolo) with its preserved skeletons.

• Take the boat or narrow-gauge railway from Naples to Sorrento, popular for its architecture and luxury hotels, its limoncello (made from the lemons grown on local terraces) and its sea cliffs. This is also a good base for visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum, and for boat trips to Capri.

• Explore the iconic Amalfi Coast stretching from Sorrento to Paestum, home to the famous resort towns of Amalfi, Positano and Ravello and some medieval cliffside fishing villages that have earnt it World Heritage status. Walk or bike the Amalfi’s mountain paths (the most famous is the twisty-turny Footpath of the Gods) and go sea-kayaking. Local mozzarella factories offer guided visits and tastings, while at the old paper-making centre of the Valle dei Mulini (Valley of the Mills) you can swim beneath waterfalls.

• Admire the magnificent Doric temples at Paestum, a major Graeco-Roman city originally known as Poseidonia. Its modern town is now a popular resort with long sandy beaches. 

• Head even further down the coast to Palinuro, famous for its caves, including the Blue Grotto (which you can visit by boat trip), and its Blue Flag beaches.

• Discover the volcanic islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida. The most popular, Capri, has another Blue Grotto, plus sea stacks dotting the impossibly blue waters, ruined Roman villas and chi-chi shops and cafés. Ischia is best known for its dramatic Aragonese castle, gardens and thermal spas, while Procida (see our feature on an Italy holiday including Procida) is much quieter, with an authentic vibe and good beaches.

Puglia Family Holidays

• Discover the region occupying the heel of Italy’s famous ‘boot’ and the coastline north of it, Italy’s longest. The largely agricultural region of Puglia (Apulia) produces nearly half of the county’s olive oil, as well as much of its wine, in a sun-drenched landscape dotted with silvery olive groves.

• Visit Puglia’s Neolithic tombs, Gothic cathedrals, intriguing trulli houses, and the gorgeous beaches and forests of its Gargano Peninsula (Promontorio del Gargano) with its limestone cliffs, chalky grottoes, fragrant maquis, primeval forests and charming seaside resorts Vieste and Peschici. Within the Parco Nazionale del Gargano you can take guided walks and Jeep, quad-bike and mountain-bike tours.

• Hop aboard a ferry to the Tremiti Islands, also in the National Park. Named for the many earthquakes in the area, they're surrounded by dazzlingly clear Adriatic waters.

• Back on the mainland, don't miss the Baia delle Zagare, a stunning beach named for its scented orange blossoms, with impressive sea stacks just offshore.

• Make a beeline for the white-sand beaches of the Salentina peninsula, the actual heel of Italy, strewn with olive trees and vineyards and home to the Alimini Lakes (Adriatic Coast), Porto Selvaggio (Ionian Coast) and Otranto harbour. South of Otranto, the Punta Palascìa lighthouse stands on Italy's easternmost point.

• Don’t miss Alberobello with its iconic World Heritage listed trulli  – dry stone huts with conical roofs. Some are rented out as self-catering cottages or B&B accommodation.

• Explore the regional capital Bari, especially its medieval quarter, Bari Vecchia, where you can stroll along the waterfront on the old city walls. In Bari province, check out the spectacular Castellana Grotte calcite caves.

• Wander around Lecce, the ‘Florence of the south’, with baroque architecture to ogle and great places to sample rustic local cuisine.

Tuscany Family Holidays

• Soak up the detached beauty and laidback charm that drew the first tourists to this region of rolling hills, olive groves and vineyards. Several Tuscan cities and towns are world famous for their art, architecture and culture, especially Siena, Florence, Pisa and Lucca, but just as important are its festivals and its superb food – the Slow Food movement was born here.

• Have a family city break in Florence, the heart of the Renaissance and still boasting unrivalled art and architecture. The best things to do in Florence with kids are a trip down the Arno, an extended gelato stop, a stroke of Il Porcellino (a bronze fountain of a boar), a carousel ride or three, and a run around the Boboli Gardens with their statues, ponds, fountains and grottoes. With older kids and teens in Florence, take in the Uffizi with its Botticellis, Michelangelos and Leonardos, the Museo Leonardo da Vinci with its working machines, the Duomo with its glorious city views, and the Museo Galileo science museum.  

• Head west for a look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in that city's Campo de Miracoli – it's a genuine marvel no amount of photos can prepare you for (you have to be 8+ to climb it; in high season, book well in advance). The other must-see in Pisa is the Navi Antiche, where you can watch excavation work on 11 Roman shipwrecks discovered in marshland once occupied by Pisa's harbour.

• Discover Lucca just north-east of Pisa, the only town in Italy still fully surrounded by its walls, dating from the Renaissance. You can bike along them – hire shops have adult–child tandems, trailers and baby seats. You can also take a look at the mummified body of St Zita in its glass shrine in the Basilica di San Frediano, while the golden 13th-century mosaic on its façade is also extraordinary. And don’t miss the Piazza Anfiteatro, oval-shaped because its medieval houses were built within the remains of a Roman amphitheatre. 

• Head for the Versilian Coast, also north of Pisa, where the best seaside resort is Viareggio with its private stretches of beach, some with play equipment and small seawater swimming pools against a backdrop of Belle Epoque buildings and mountains. Also worth seeing is medieval Pietrasanta with its marble and bronze monuments and workshops with live demonstrations.

• Go hiking, caving and horse-riding in the Apuan Alps parallel to the coast, and discover the Garfagnana region adjoining the Alps to the east – wild, wooded and full of wiggling hillside roads, with chestnut forests roamed by wild boars, porcupines and the like. Highlights are the Grotta del Vento (Wind Cave) formations and the donkey-backed Ponte del Diavolo near Borgo a Mozzano, named for a legend that that Satan intervened to finish its tricky construction. See our feature on a family foodie holiday in the Garfagnana.

• Explore the Tuscan coast sweeping down from Livorno to the Maremma, popular with Italians – especially the 150km of white beaches and clear water of the lovely island of Elba and the Parco Regionale della Maremma with its deserted beaches amidst a landscape of pine trees, with spectacular birdlife, walking trails, bike hire, horse-riding and canoeing.

Umbria Family Holidays

• Avoid the summer crowds of much of Tuscany by heading to the beaches and pretty countryside of neighbouring Umbria, home to breathtaking Assisi with its enchanting Basilica of San Francesco and lovely views, the medieval hill town of Gubbio set against the wooded slopes of the Apennines, and Perugia, the sweet capital of Italy, with its chocolate museum (and festival, usually in October), walled old town, medieval palace with a museum of regional art, and Gothic cathedral.

• Get active: outdoorsy things to do in Umbria include climbing, canyoning, river rafting, tubing, hydro-speeding, paragliding, fun at treetop adventure parks, hiking (perhaps with donkeys), archery and mountain-biking in a natural bike park next to the Marmore Falls, the world's tallest man-made waterfalls, created by the Romans. You can also go caving in waterfall caves.

• Enjoy the small beaches at Lake Trasimeno with its watersports ranging from row-boating to wakeboarding, windsurfing and kitesurfing, and visit Isola Maggiore, one of three islands on the lake, with its 15th-century village.

• Visit glorious Orvieto, perched up on a sheer cliff, with a cathedral, an underground city and local Orvieto Classico tastings.

• Discover Todi, one of the prettiest hilltop towns in Umbria, with a lovely central square, impressive cathedral and medieval public buildings.

Family Holidays in Abruzzo

• Check out this other lesser-visited region of Italy – one with spectacular mountainous landscapes full of wildlife (deer, chamois, wild boar, wolves and even a small number of bears) and several National Parks in which to spot them.

• In Abruzzo's gorges, spot ancient hermitages hewn from the rock of cliffsides, and take wonderful walks through meadows of wildflowers, picnicking beside sparkling streams. 

• Tour L’Aquila the regional capital, with a great castle to visit and a spooky connection with the number 99: there's a fountain with 99 spouts (or almost), there used to be 99 churches and 99 piazzas, and the town-hall bell still chimes 99 times each evening.

• Amble around the smaller but very pretty medieval town of Sulmona with its shops selling colourful displays of floral arrangements made entirely from confetti (sugared almonds). 

• In winter, ski at a number of Abruzzo ski resorts popular with locals (see below for more about family ski holidays in Italy)

Family Holidays in the Marche

• Wander the steep streets of Urbino,  the ultimate Renaissance town, and sit in Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno and watch the passiegata while the kids treat its travertine square as a playground.

• Discover the white cliffs of the Monte Conero peninsula, exploring the public footpaths on the Monte and admiring the Napoleonic fort and Romanesque church at Portonovo.

• Visit the Marche's southern Adriatic resorts of San Benedetto del Tronto and Grottamare outside high season and you'll have the beach almost to yourselves. Don't miss the lighthouse at nearby Pedaso, or the family hiking trails in the Sybillini National Park.

Family Holidays in the Italian Lakes

• Head for this freshwater alternative to the seaside, part of the Lombardy region. Lake Garda is especially good for family holidays, with 120 beaches, water sports including windsurfing, sailing and canoeing, activities such as horse-riding, mountain-biking, treetop adventures and easy hiking on the eastern and western shore, the theme parks Gardaland (Italy’s largest, with its own hotels) and movie-themed Canevaworld, and the Acquasplash Franciacorta water park.

• Visit interesting spots around Garda including Riva Del Garda, a 19th-century resort on the lake’s north-western tip, with pastel-painted hotels, lovely views and enough gelaterie and pizza parlours to keep any child happy, Il Vittoriale, a fantasy villa on the western shore, Sirmione with its medieval castle and maze of Roman ruins, Desenzano, also with interesting ruins, and the other castles at Torri del Benaco, Malcesine and Vallegio.

• Discover Lake Como, which many think the most beautiful of the Italian Lakes, surrounded by tall peaks that rise almost from the water's edge. You can travel up the lake on an old-fashioned steamer, swim in its clear waters or head to its hills for outdoor activities. Good bases are Menaggio, for hiking, swimming, cycling, water-skiing, mountain-biking, horse-riding and golf, and the long-established resort of Bellagio, where kids love jumping off the pier into the lake. Up the mountain from Bellagio, Jungle Raider Park has zip-line, rope courses and cave tours.

• Venture to Lake Maggiore, second-largest of the Lakes, with more hiking, mountain-biking and watersports. Base yourself at lovely Stresa on the western shore and catch a little ferry to the Borromean Islands, three of which are open to the public – Isola Madre has heavenly gardens and a vintage puppet theatre inside the Palazzo Borromeo.

• Explore the smaller lakes – Lago d’Orta is probably the best, nicknamed ‘Cinderella’ by locals, with gentle waters and a famous island–village, Isola San Giulio.

Family Holidays in Emilia Romagna

• Enjoy the delights of Riviera Romagnaola, a stretch of sunny beaches with stylish facilities,

• Tour the capital Bologna, which is full of historical interest, especially if the kids are studying the Etruscans, as well as having an ice-cream museum with workshops and lots of venues where you can also learn to make pasta and other Italian dishes (Bologna is Italy’s culinary capital, nicknamed ‘The Fat One’).

• Make a beeline for 'Motor Valley', home to several famous racetracks and luxury car manufacturers, as well as car museums – our favourite being the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena.

The Italian Dolomites with Kids

• Don’t miss this awesomely beautiful area declared a Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO, with one national park and several regional parks. They are spread across the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Veneto and Friuli–Venezia Giulia regions.

• Climb some of the region’s via ferrata network – protected paths created in World War I – and maybe walk the long-distance ‘high paths' (alte vie). They take about a week to cross, with stopovers in rifugi (huts). Other activities in the Dolomites in summer, spring and autumn include climbing, base-jumping, paragliding and hang-gliding.

• In winter, come to the Dolomites for skiing. Canazei is a particularly family-friendly resort, offering good, high beginner slopes but also linking on to the spectacular Sella Ronda circuit around the red-rock crags of the Dolomites. See our feature on a Dolomites family ski holiday enjoying the Sella Ronda.

Family Ski Holidays in Italy

• As an alternative to the Dolomites, head for the family-friendly Italian ski resorts of Courmayeur or Breuil–Cervinia in the Aosta Valley, at the border with France and Switzerland. Cervinia has Italy's best snow record and access to its highest lifts. From here you can ski to Swiss resorts including Zermatt.

• For more on skiing in Italy with kids, see our Family Ski Holidays in Europe page.