Posts: 3872
First: 11/26/2009
Last: 4/8/2012
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Since you are arriving in Rome with a 1 year old, I suggest you first book yourselves into a comfortable apartment in Rome and do some leisurely sightseeing. You might find one of those backpacks where a child can sit up on your shoulders the best for moving around easily. Rome is a busy place, with lots of traffic, but you will quickly catch on that there are many car-free piazze and car-free streets where you can stroll and let your child run around a bit. While Rome's museums are too vast and formal for a toddler, you can sightsee in churches and see tremendous art, as well as visit places like the Colosseum and the Forum, or the Baths of Caracalla (which are very grassy and breezy). There are fountains and great window shopping, and plenty of kid-friendly food.
After that, in April, you could consider renting a car and booking an apartment on a farm that also has a restaurant on-site somewhere a bit north of Rome, or I would consider heading to Sorrento by train and using public transportation to visit islands, Pompei and Naples. You might find the staircase-ridden Amalfi coast not much fun with a toddler, and the bus rides to and from can induce nausea. But if you wanted to take a ferry to the Amalfi for a peek at the coastline, that might be fun.
if you'd rather be on a farm with a car, you can head a few hours north or northwest to the Maremma area of Tuscany (which faces the coast) or in the area of Tuscany just south of Siena, or to Umbria somewhere around Panicale/Assisi/Spoleto. If you wanted to stay in the Maremma area, you could take a train from Rome to Grosseto or Civitavecchia and rent a car. If you want to stay in southern Tuscany or Umbria around Panicale, you can take a train from Rome to Orvieto and rent a car there.
The area of the Maremma has lots of farm animals, birds and untouristed towns. It will be too early to swim but you can still go to the seaside for a seafood lunch and some enjoyment of the shore. Further inland, Tuscany just south of Siena is the iconic landscape made famous by photographs, of rolling hills, vinyards, castles, cypress trees. Its popular for scenic driving and shopping. If you head into Umbria, the landscape gets less hilly (and therefore less time consuming to drive) and you have some spectacular sights of artistic interest.
Hard to choose for someone else, but all of it is enjoyable. You also have the option of simply getting on a train and visiting Florence for a few days, or Bologna or Naples if you are more urban people. These are magnificent cities. Venice is also within reach. Italy's fast trains make many things plausible, but with a 1 year old in April, isolating yourself in steep rural areas, by the sea or in the mountains, where it may also rain, probably wouldn't be as much fun as flatter areas with things to do if it rains. And Venice, with its many staircases and open canals without guardrails, would be a challenge with a toddler.
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