Looking for the best 7 days in Italy?
Below is our 7-day itinerary for our trip to see Italy with our teen.
While there are so many parts of Italy to love, we focused this one-week Italy on creating a Northern Italy itinerary, as the North is the perfect introduction to the country.
Full of art, architecture and adventure, Italy is truly the perfect place to travel as a family.
As budget travelers, Italy offers so much for so little cost.
The country offers free museums for students under 18. And of course, there are the fountains, statues, and monuments throughout the country’s great cities that require no admission and are worth the cost of the trip alone.
But where to go, how long to stay, and what to see? You can spend time planning your own week in Italy with teenagers or you can just steal our itinerary.
Of course, 7 days in Italy is not enough. But with this itinerary, we promise you will see enough to check that bucket list.
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How to Travel Around Italy
For us, Europe is always about the train. We prefer trains over flying for so many reasons and have lots of tips for using public transit with kids.
One of our main reasons is that train stations are much more centrally located in cities. Take Rome for example. In Rome, the airport is 50 minutes outside of the city center. But the main train station, called Termini, is just 15 minutes from the historic center.
Central Stations are also the heart of the city and many like Antwerp’s Central Station can be downright stunning.
We also love train travel over plane travel because it is fast. Travel by train is even faster than airport travel because you do not need to allow time to check in, go through security, take off your shoes…you get the idea.
A high-speed train from Florence to Rome is 1 hour and 30 minutes. You can’t beat that on a plane.
There are several train companies that operate in Italy. We chose Italiarail, which is the North American booking agent for Trenitalia, the national rail service.
Within Italy, there are other private carriers, but we found the best rates and most timetable options with Italiarail.
When traveling by train you decide both the type of ticket (super economy, economy or base) and the class (executive, business, premiere or standard). For this type of ticket, we always choose the super economy as they are the cheapest. But be aware with super economy you are not allowed any changes to your ticket.
As for the class, typically we also chose the standard level class. But on our most recent trip, the cost for premiere class was the same as standard class so we took the upgrade. Bonus.
Premiere class means you get a snack and a drink, which is really lovely after a long day of sightseeing. Each city has a few stations so below are the names of the stations in the center of the city. You will want to use these.
7 Days in Italy: Our Itinerary
Days 1-2: Milano
Our 7 Days in Italy started in Milan. To be honest, we hadn’t planned to see Milan.
Our initial itinerary included flying into Venice and out of Rome. However, as budget travel, flying into Milan saved us several hundred dollars a ticket. And since the train ticket from Milan to Venice was only $46 per person, we added the second-largest city in Italy to our trip.
Milan was a stopping place for us. We arrived in the late afternoon on Day 1. And our train to Venice the next day was at 3 p.m. At yet, with just under 24 hours in Milan (including a big long sleep to ward off jet lag), we still managed to see:
- The Mercato Centrale of Milan for dinner
- The Duomo
- Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II
- National Museum of Science and Technology
Where to Stay in Milan
Selecting a place to stay right near the Central Stations means you have quick access to a train to Venice and are within a few minutes walk to the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.
If you are only in Milan for a night, we definitely recommend grabbing dinner at the Mercato Centrale. Yes, this is the train station. But the train station was remodeled in 2021 and now it is full of dozens of artisan food stalls and wonderful drinks.
Tarra Luxury Suites is just minutes away from the Central Station. The 1-bedroom apartment also has a sofa bed for your teen. The suite has a small kitchen so you can have breakfast in be heading to grab your train to Venice.
Need a 2-bedroom for a bigger family? Numa I Loreto has a 2-bedroom apartment that sleeps up to 5. This highly rated apartment is also near the Central Station and everything you want to see in Milan.
Days 2-5: Venice
Oh, Venice. As conscientious travelers, we have been made aware of the issues of Venice, the biggest being daytripper tourists who don’t actually spend money in the city.
And yet, I can’t imagine a 7-day trip to Italy (especially Northern Italy) that did not include time in Venice with your teenager.
Matthew and I had been to Venice as a part of our honeymoon trip. But this was the first time for our son.
If you haven’t been, you’ve likely seen pictures so you already know: Venice is magical. As a young couple, we just spent our days in Venice walking the streets and falling in love.
However, this time, with our teenager in tow, Venice was a place of beauty and action, including:
- Kayaking with Real Venetian Kayak
- A Glass Making Workshop with Ferro Toso
- A Day of Art at the Gallerie Accademia, Venezia and the Peggy Guggenheim Museum
Regardless of how you feel about Venice, it is certainly a place to make memories.
One of our best traveling with teens tips is to add adventure to your itinerary.
Kayaking in this magical city will be something we remember for years to come.
The opportunity to make and take home our own glass jewelry at the glass-making workshop with Ferro Toso, means we got to take a little bit of Venice home with us.
Where to Stay in Venice
If you are looking to stay in a more residential area of Venice, consider staying at Al Redentore Di Venezia. The property has 1 and 2-bedroom spacious apartments with full kitchens.
Al Redentore Di Venezia is on the island of Guidecca, which is just 300 meters and one vaporetto stop from the main islands.
The beauty of staying on Guidecca is you have a beautiful view of San Marco, while being one stop away from the crush of tourists.
Day 5: Florence
Florence is a great day trip on your train ride from Venice to Rome. We left Venice by train around 7:30 in the morning and arrived in Florence a bit before 10 a.m.
This day was all about architecture and art, both things our teenager is super interested in so in our 7 hours in Florence we hit the high points:
- The Uffizi (hint, for both the Uffizi and the Vatican especially, it is easy to get sucked in with the whole skip-the-line thing. However, post 2020, most museums instituted specific entrance time to their tickets So don’t pay more than you need to. Just get the tickets directly from the museum’s sites in advance of your trip.
- La Galleria Dell’Academia Di Firenza
We booked our train from Florence to Rome at nearly 7 p.m. If I did this trip again, I would actually take a train around 5 p.m.
There is more to see in Florence so we could have made more of our time. For example, we could have chosen to go inside Florence’s Duomo, the Santa Maria del Fiore, instead of just admiring it from the outside.
However, we have learned over the years that O can only take in so much in a single day, and even as a teen, 2 significant sites per day is his limit. And if I am completely honest, ours too.
If you follow our 7-day in italy itinerary, 5-6 hours is plenty of time in Florence.
Day 5-7: Rome
We loved Rome. You could easily spend all of your 7 days in Italy in Rome. There are so many things for teens to do in the Eternal City.
Full of energy but also antiquity and history, Rome is one of our favorite cities as a family.
And of all the cities on our 7-day itinerary, it is the one to which we are most likely to return.
We also saw the sights around Rome on bike so if you are looking for a unique way to city the Eternal City, we got you covered. So in our two full days in Rome, we packed in a lot:
- Renting Bikes from Bikeology to See all the Sites of Rome
- The Colosseum and Forum
At this point in his education, O is considering a career in Architecture so the Colosseum was really important to him. We spent nearly an entire day exploring the site.
Again, this is another place to get your tickets in advance. If you don’t get tickets, guides will be waiting at the entry with advanced tickets. But of course, you pay a much higher price for those tickets and take a risk at the quality of your guide.
We opted for “full experience tickets” that allowed us to have two days at the site–although with only 2 full days in Rome and so much to see we didn’t return for the second day. The f
Full experience tickets also allowed us to see both levels of the Colosseum and go into some additional sites at the Forum.
Again, for O the “full experience” was really important and it only cost a few dollars more. If I didn’t have him with us, I would just get the regular ticket
- Friday Night Tickets to the Vatican Museums including, of course, the Sistine Chapel
Visiting the Vatican Museum with your teen requires an entire post. But for now just let me say if you are planning to go to the Vatican Museum and you are in Rome on a Friday night from April through October, go then.
Where to Stay in Rome
If Giglio Penthouse with Terrace is available, then you must book it. This top rated 2-bedroom apartment is steps away from Campo de’ Fiori and within half of mile of the city center.
The terrace at Giglio Penthouse will make this stay one of your favorite stays during your 7 days in Italy. Spend your last night in Italy watching the sunset on your Roman terrace, reflecting on an amazing trip.
Conclusion: 7 Days in Italy
There is so much to see in Italy.
If you are taking your teen to Italy for the first time, our 7 days in Italy is the best introduction to this rich and lovely country via its most iconic cities.
If you have more time in Italy, add time in the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is 5 coastal towns in Northwest Italy, all connected by a walking trail. The towns of the Cinque are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and for good reason. They are stunning.
However, even with one week in Italy, you will absolutely see so much.
With the right balance of activity, art, history, and architecture, these 7 days were the perfect way for us to reconnect as a family and marvel at the beauty that makes Italy la dolce vita.
