Italy with Kids: The Complete A-Z Family Guide (2026)

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We did not plan to fall in love with Italy this deeply.

The first time, our eldest was 18 months old and we rented an apartment in Porto Recanati, on the Adriatic coast, for a month. No tourist trail. No agenda. Just local markets, afternoon passeggiatas, and the kind of slow days where your toddler wanders a medieval piazza while Italian grandmothers take turns holding her hands.

Then in 2024 we came back, this time with two girls, ages four and six months. Three months in Pistoia, Tuscany. Chianti on weekends. A farmhouse where the girls met heritage pigs. Natural thermal springs. The best pici pasta of our lives in Montepulciano.

And then came the north. Ten days in Ormea, a medieval mountain village in the Val Tanaro where we cried a little when we left, and where we are now bringing other families through ROOTS.

This is the whole thing in one place. Every region we know properly, every town, every stay, what your kids will actually eat, what to pack, and how to sequence it. This is the guide I wish someone had handed me before our first trip.

Why Italy Works So Well for Families

Italy is not a destination you have to survive with kids. It is one of the few places where having small children makes you more welcome, not less.

• Italian children eat the same food as adults, just simpler. Nobody will raise an eyebrow at pasta al burro for your toddler. It is on every menu and on every Italian child’s table.
• It is the best country in the world for a baby starting solids. There is nothing better than taking a baby to Italy when they are just starting to eat. Italian food is so flavourful, fresh and varied that little ones who are just discovering taste have an extraordinary experience. Every meal is an adventure.
• Kids are genuinely welcomed. Every trattoria we walked into welcomed us immediately. Staff will find a high chair. Strangers will talk to your children.
• Distances are short. You can go from Adriatic beach to medieval hill town to alpine valley without a single long-haul internal flight.
• The unglamorous regions are the good ones. Le Marche, Piedmont and inland Liguria give you real Italy at a fraction of the Tuscany price, with almost no crowds.

The trade is real too, and I will be honest about it throughout. Cobblestones are brutal with a stroller. Dinner starts late. A lot of the best places require a car. None of it is a dealbreaker if you know it going in.

Getting There and Getting Around Italy With Kids

Flights

Flying into Rome is often the most affordable entry point, and two or three nights there first is a great idea. Do your wild touristing: the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, all of it. Get it out of your system. Then slow down and take a train or a long-distance bus out to the regions where the actual trip happens.

👉 Find family stays in Rome

Trains

For longer distances between regions, trains are excellent and genuinely fun for kids. Trenitalia is easy to book online. The high-speed trains between major cities are smooth and fast, and a train day is infinitely less stressful than an Italian city parking day.

👉 Book trains across Italy on Omio

Buses, and one thing nobody warns you about

Long-distance buses in Italy require car seats for babies and small children. Plan for it. This catches families out constantly and it is not something you can talk your way around at the door.

Driving

Most of the destinations in this guide are better with a car. The villages are spread out and half the magic is the drive between them. Italian driving is more confident than chaotic, and the mountain valley roads are well maintained. With a car you get to stop at the roadside truffle market, the valley swimming hole, and the village sagra you stumbled across.

If you are travelling slowly and flexibly and staying put in one base, the train is perfectly sufficient. If you want the farms, the hikes and the tiny towns, rent the car.

👉 Compare family car rental rates on DiscoverCars

The cobblestone reality check

Cobblestones are everywhere in Italy and they are relentless. Bring the most compact, one-handed-fold stroller you own, and bring a carrier for the old towns. In places like Cingoli, we left the stroller in the car entirely and used the carrier. Everything we actually travel with is in our Amazon shop, and the full kid-gear list is in Worldschooling Supplies (ages 2 to 8).

Le Marche: The Adriatic Coast Italy Forgot to Tell Anyone About

2021 · Porto Recanati base · Our daughter was 18 months old

Le Marche sits on Italy’s Adriatic coast, east of Tuscany and south of Venice, and it remains almost entirely unknown to international visitors. The coastline is beautiful, the food is exceptional, and the medieval hilltop towns are exactly what you picture when you imagine Italy, minus the crowds and minus the Tuscany price tag.

We based ourselves in Porto Recanati, a quiet coastal town with a wide sandy beach, a good supermarket, and the kind of place where you exhale properly within 24 hours. From there, everything is a day trip.

👉 Find family stays in Porto Recanati

The eight towns worth your day trips

Ascoli Piceno. The most beautiful piazza in Italy, built entirely in white travertine marble. Get the olive ascolane, deep fried stuffed olives that are a local specialty. Your kids will ask for them every single day for the rest of the trip. Stays in Ascoli Piceno

Grottammare. A medieval hilltop village above and a relaxed beach town below. Easy, beautiful, and perfect for half a day when you do not want to commit to a full outing.

San Benedetto del Tronto. Proper Italian seafront. Great promenade, a working fish market, and excellent gelato.

Porto San Giorgio. A charming harbour with a castle right on the waterfront. Perfect afternoon stop.

Cingoli. Known as the balcony of Le Marche, with views across the entire region. Leave the stroller in the car and use a carrier in the old town.

Recanati. Birthplace of the poet Leopardi, with incredible views out toward the Apennines on one side and the sea on the other.

Macerata. A real Italian city and university town. Great food, zero tourists. One of those places where you feel like you actually live in Italy instead of visiting it.

Ancona. The regional capital and port. Worth a day trip, and useful if you are connecting onward by ferry.

Why Le Marche is the best region in Italy for babies on solids

The food variety here is extraordinary, from Adriatic seafood to mountain cured meats, all of it prepared with local ingredients and none of it fussy. If you are travelling with a baby who is just discovering food, this is where I would take them. Look for vincigrassi, the local lasagne, which is rich and mild and demolished by toddlers.

Tuscany: Three Months of Slow Living in the Hills

2024 · Pistoia base · Ages four years and six months

Pistoia was our base, and it is one of the most underrated towns in Tuscany. A perfect medieval centre, an excellent food market, quiet enough for the kids to wander freely. Half an hour from Florence, half an hour from the mountains, and almost no international visitors. We loved it, and I would base there again over Florence every time.

👉 Find family stays in Pistoia

Lucca. Rent bikes and ride the entire top of the ancient city walls. It is completely car-free inside. Our kids were obsessed, and it is one of the rare Tuscan towns that is genuinely easy with a stroller. Stays in Lucca

Montepulciano. A hilltop town with food that will ruin you for anywhere else. The best pici pasta of our lives. The park at the top is gorgeous, and the atmosphere near Halloween is genuinely magical. Stays in Montepulciano

An agriturismo weekend. We spent a weekend on a local Tuscan farm learning about Cinta Senese pigs, the heritage breed behind some of Italy’s most exclusive cured meats. The girls loved the farm animals. We ate and drank everything from the property and had a family BBQ. One of the best memories of the whole trip, and the kind of thing that costs less than a mediocre hotel.

Natural thermal springs. Free, warm, and completely surreal for kids. Tuscany is full of them and they are one of the great cheap thrills of travelling here with children.

Viareggio: soft sand and a beach built for little kids

If you want Tuscany plus a proper beach, Viareggio is the one. The sand is soft, the water is shallow and clear, and it has held a Green Flag for being child-friendly for 17 years running. The Art Deco promenade is all gelato and flat, easy cycling. Pick a lido with shade and facilities, or spread out on the free beach (spiaggia libera). Let them run at Parco dei Bambini, see the giant papier-mache floats at the Carnival Museum, and tag on Pisa and Lucca as quick day trips.

👉 Find family hotels in Viareggio

How we made three months abroad actually work

Boundless Life is a coliving programme for location-independent families who want to test-drive living abroad without dealing with the logistics alone. They handle accommodation, workspace and community, so you arrive and immediately have a village of other families around you. Our kids had playmates from day one. If three months in Tuscany sounds impossible on paper, this is the mechanism that makes it possible.

👉 Join Boundless Life with code MARTOR31

Chianti: Stay and Cook With the Family Who Actually Lives There

One of the most special things we can recommend in Tuscany is not a restaurant or a wine tour. It is a family.

Majla and Marco have lived in a tower villa on the Chianti hills, within sight of Florence, for over 30 years. Their family has called this building home for six generations. The tower dates to 1146. During WWII, Majla’s grandfather risked his own life to hide Jewish families and Partisans inside these walls. Today they welcome guests from around the world in that same spirit of openness.

“Many lives were saved in this house. Today we welcome the world.”
Majla and Marco, sixth generation

Stay in the tower villa

Think high ceilings, panoramic views over both sunrise and sunset, a wood-burning Swedish stove, and a reading nook built into what was once a fireplace. A century-old garden. Florence visible from the windows.

Honest note: the spaces have a loft layout with niches rather than proper bedrooms. Full of character, limited privacy. Perfect for families who do not mind being close, less perfect if you need a door between you and the baby.

You can book it three ways, depending on your family size:

• 👉 The Tower (sleeps 4+1)
• 👉 The Penthouse (sleeps 4+1)
• 👉 The Tower and Penthouse combined (sleeps 8+2, ideal for two families travelling together)

Cook pasta with the family

Majla has been running pasta making classes in her Tuscan kitchen for over 28 years. It is a two-generation family experience in the same kitchen where the family has always cooked. You learn to make pasta properly, and then you sit down and eat it together. Over 40,000 guests have passed through this kitchen. Many come back. Some become friends.

👉 Book the pasta experience with Accidental Tourist

If you take one thing from this entire guide: message Majla and Marco. Tell them the Torreliers sent you.

Piedmont and Liguria: Ormea, the Mountains, and the Sea

Ormea: the village that stole our hearts

Ormea sits at the top of the Val Tanaro, right where Piedmont leans into Liguria, tucked into the Ligurian Alps. About 1,600 people, 736 metres up, chestnut forests and mountains on every side. It is not on a single “Italy with kids” list. We spent ten days there and cried a little when we left.

Narrow stone streets. A 15th-century church with Romanesque frescoes. The Pizzo d’Ormea rising up behind the town. Cows roam the surrounding pastures freely and the local gelato is made from their milk, so you can actually taste the difference. The local wine, Ormeasco, comes from the high Arroscia valley vineyards.

What we actually did with the kids:

• A morning at a working dairy farm. We watched the cows milked, learned why they get moved above 1,200 metres for the summer and how that changes the milk, got our hands into the cheese making, and then walked into town and ate the gelato that started as the milk we had just seen. My girls have eaten a thousand scoops of gelato. This is the one they will remember, because they met the whole story behind it.
• Hikes that work with little legs. Sentiero delle Vallette is a 4km loop through chestnut and conifer forest with big views back over the town. La Balconata di Ormea is a long balcony trail where you pick a stretch rather than doing all 40km, and it passes the Piccolo Canyon. Sentiero dei Castagni is the chestnut trail, around 9km.
• The castle at night. After dinner in the old town we walked up to the ruins of the Castello di Ormea in the dark. The town glowing below, the mountains black against the sky, the kids half spooked and half thrilled. Do this.
• The wine bar where the whole town shows up. Our kids ran around with the local kids while the grownups actually talked. After a few nights, we got to be part of it.

Where to stay in Ormea. Majla and Marco host families here too, in the village itself:

• 👉 Casa Piccina, a cozy mountain village retreat (sleeps 4+1, and where we stayed)
• 👉 The Speakeasy, a romantic alpine nest (sleeps 2+1)
• 👉 A family getaway with a scenic terrace (sleeps 6+2)

Read the full Ormea with kids guide and our day trips from Ormea (Garessio, Pieve di Teco and the real Italian Alps).

Bogliasco: the pastel fishing village that skips the crowds

Everyone piles into Cinque Terre and Portofino. Bogliasco is the antidote. A tiny pastel-coloured fishing village on the Ligurian Riviera, just 13km east of Genoa, yet completely off the tourist radar. A small valley meets the sea in one of the most photogenic spots in Italy. The pebbled beach is small but perfectly formed, a medieval bridge crosses the stream in the heart of the village, and the Sentiero Liguria coastal path passes right through.

It is the perfect contrast to Ormea: slow beach days, fresh seafood, and all the colours of the Riviera.

👉 Find family stays in Bogliasco

What Your Kids Will Actually Eat in Italy

The best thing about feeding kids in Italy is that Italian children eat the same food as adults, just simpler. Nobody will raise an eyebrow at pasta al burro for your toddler.

Everywhere in Italy

• Pasta al burro. Butter pasta. Universally available, universally accepted.
• Pizza Margherita. No explanation needed.
• Gelato. Non-negotiable, multiple times daily.
• Bruschetta. Toddlers demolish it.
• Supplì and arancini. Fried rice balls, and the single best portable snack in the country.

Le Marche

• Olive ascolane. Deep fried stuffed olives from Ascoli Piceno. Kids become obsessed.
• Vincigrassi. The local lasagne. Rich, mild, delicious.
• Fresh Adriatic seafood. Grilled and simply prepared, perfect for babies.

Tuscany

• Pici pasta. Thick hand-rolled spaghetti. The version in Montepulciano will change your life.
• Pappa al pomodoro. Bread and tomato soup, perfect for little ones.
• Bistecca Fiorentina. For the parents, after bedtime.

Practical eating tips nobody tells you

• Italian restaurants typically open for dinner at 7:30pm. Either go right at opening, where you will be the only ones there and that is perfectly fine, or shift nap times on the days you want to eat out.
• Always ask “Avete un seggiolone?” for a high chair. They will always find one.
• Menus are often in Italian only. Most places have pictures, and staff are always happy to help you order. Point and smile works.
• Many small-town places are cash only. Especially agriturismos. Carry euros.

Packing for Italy With Kids

The stroller question

Italy has cobblestones everywhere. Do not bring anything bulky. You want lightweight, one-handed fold, and something that handles uneven surfaces without shaking your baby’s brain loose. Bring a carrier as well for the medieval old towns, because there will be days the stroller simply does not work.

👉 Everything we actually use is in our Amazon travel gear shop.

Kids’ clothes: pack light and shop there

OVS is an Italian clothing chain in almost every city and town. Beautiful, affordable children’s clothing at half the price you would pay at home. We always bring the minimum and shop there. Your kids will come home with an Italian wardrobe and you will have saved a suitcase.

For the flight

Italy is long-haul from most of the world. Our toddler flight essentials list has rescued more than one flight for us.

Travel insurance

We never travel without SafetyWing. It covers the whole family, works in every country, and is genuinely easy to claim on. For a longer trip to Italy, especially with babies, it is essential.

👉 Get covered with SafetyWing

For a village stay

Heading to Ormea or anywhere rural? Our Italy Village Trip Essentials list is everything we packed for slow travel in Piedmont.

Every Family Stay in This Guide, in One Place

These are the homes we know personally, all hosted by Majla and Marco. They are direct links, not affiliate links.

Chianti, Tuscany (a tower dating to 1146, within sight of Florence)

• The Tower · sleeps 4+1
• The Penthouse · sleeps 4+1
• The Tower and Penthouse combined · sleeps 8+2

Ormea, Val Tanaro, Piedmont

• Casa Piccina, a cozy mountain village retreat · sleeps 4+1
• The Speakeasy, a romantic alpine nest · sleeps 2+1
• A family getaway with a scenic terrace · sleeps 6+2

For everywhere else, Booking.com Italy is what we use, and Trip.com is worth cross-checking for family rooms.

How I Would Sequence It

These are routes built from the places above, not a packed itinerary. Italy rewards families who do less.

10 days: Tuscany, done properly

Rome for two nights to get the big sights out of your system. Train to Florence, pick up a car. Five nights based in Pistoia or in the Chianti tower, with day trips to Lucca and Montepulciano and one agriturismo night. Finish with two or three nights in Viareggio so the kids get beach time before the flight home.

Two weeks: mountains and sea

Fly into Turin or Nice. Drive up the Val Tanaro to Ormea for five or six nights, including the farm morning, one long hike and the castle walk. Drive down to Bogliasco for three or four nights of slow beach days and seafood. Then either finish in Genoa, or carry on to Chianti for the pasta class and a few nights in the tower.

One month: the version I would actually do

Pick one base and stay in it. A month in Porto Recanati taught our 18-month-old the piazza by name. Three months in Pistoia is the reason my kids ask for Italy by name now. If you have a month, resist the urge to see four regions. Rent an apartment, find the market, let the kids be regulars somewhere. That is the whole trick.

Italy With Kids: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best region in Italy for families who want to avoid crowds?

Le Marche and Piedmont are the two we would send you to first. Le Marche has medieval hill towns, wide sandy Adriatic beaches and exceptional food without the Tuscany prices or crowds. Piedmont, where Ormea sits, combines alpine scenery with world-class food and wine, tiny medieval villages, and a genuinely slow pace that families find immediately restorative. Both have almost no international tourist infrastructure, which is precisely the point.

What is the best age to take kids to Italy?

Any age works, but the one we would single out is a baby who has just started solids. Italian food is so fresh and varied that a little one discovering taste has an extraordinary time, and Italian restaurants make it easy. Toddlers do brilliantly in the piazza-and-gelato rhythm. School-age kids get the most out of the farms, the hikes and the castles.

How do families get around off-the-beaten-path Italy with children?

A rental car is essential for most of it. Public transport connects the major cities well, but the smaller villages and valleys that make Italy special require your own wheels. If you are basing in one town and travelling slowly, trains are perfectly sufficient and honestly less hassle than Italian city parking.

Are agriturismos suitable for families with babies and toddlers?

Most agriturismos are exceptionally family friendly: outdoor space, farm animals, simple food children eat readily, and hosts who are often running the property with their own extended family in residence. They typically accommodate cots and high chairs without issue. The tradeoffs are that they are rarely air conditioned, Italian summers are hot, and they are usually cash only. Always call ahead with very young children.

Do Italian buses really require car seats?

Yes. Long-distance buses in Italy require car seats for babies and small children. Plan for it before you book, because it is not something you can negotiate at the door.

Is Italy expensive with a family?

Tuscany and the famous coastal towns are. Le Marche, Piedmont and inland Liguria are not. Staying in one apartment and cooking from the local market, shopping for kids’ clothes at OVS instead of packing them, and travelling in June or September instead of August will change your total dramatically. We have written the honest numbers on how families actually afford to live abroad.

When should we go?

Shoulder season. June and September give you Italy without the August crowds and without the August heat. August is when Italians themselves go on holiday, so small towns can be half closed and coastal towns are packed.

Go Deeper Into Italy With Kids

• Italy with kids: 4 off-the-beaten-path towns most families miss
• Ormea with kids: the Italian mountain town that stole our hearts
• Day trips from Ormea: Garessio, Pieve di Teco and the real Italian Alps
• Florence to the Italian Alps: an off-the-beaten-path family road trip
• Slow travel in Italy: the real north, and where to stay in Ormea
• Moving to Italy with kids: what nobody tells you about small-village life
• What is worldschooling? A real look at 10 slow days in an Italian village
• Can you really buy a house in an Italian village for €15,000?
• Italian village grants 2026: what is real and what is not
• Summer camps across Europe for kids

Want to Live This, Not Just Visit It?

Ormea, like so many beautiful small towns in Europe, is fighting not to fade away. Young people leave. Shops close. And then you meet the ones who stayed, or who came back on purpose. There is a forestry school here, one of only four in all of Italy. There are young women a valley over building restaurants from nothing against everyone telling them it will not work.

These towns are not dying for lack of beauty. They are waiting for people to show up and care.

That is why we built ROOTS: ten days in a 700-year-old village in Val Tanaro with a small group of families, living in the village rather than visiting it. Cooking with the nonnas. Kids in local classes. Real community, not an itinerary.

👉 See ROOTS Italy at www.bravefamilyroots.com

What family travel insurance actually costs

We never travel or live abroad without it. Here is the live price from SafetyWing:

Xoxo, Marae: your travel mom bestie
www.bravefreetravel.com

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For everything we actually travel with for kids ages 2 to 8, browse our Worldschooling Supplies list on Amazon, curated from real trips to Spain, Italy, Japan and Peru.

Planning a village stay or heading to Ormea? Browse our Italy Village Trip Essentials on Amazon, everything we packed for slow travel in Piedmont.

Affiliate disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, including Booking.com, Trip.com, GetYourGuide, Viator, DiscoverCars, Omio, SafetyWing, Boundless Life and Amazon. If you book or buy through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Airbnb links are direct links to the homes we have stayed in and are not affiliate links. I only recommend people and places we truly love.