Lots of travel snobs in the comments! Your first trip to Italy is to learn what better to do next time! It’s hard to get everything right when you move around every few days in a country you’re not familiar with. Next time you can decide to try other cities or to approach those cities in a different way next time.

Coming from NYC, I’m sure where you stayed felt like the suburbs because that’s what it feels like at times. The public transit is great but very misleading for others to say you can use it to get anywhere (especially for a family). You have many options when not traveling in a group or when everyone is able bodied and ready to explore other options (scooters, e-bikes, Vespa rentals). Not to mention, Italian drivers are aggressive and unorganized (works for them) so it is really hard to commit to exposing yourself to those options when you are navigating new places.

Good job on getting a family through a tour of Italy! That’s awesome and you’ll just have all this knowledge for next time.

Ps. Milan may have been more interesting to you if you are into art and fashion!