Oh - I totally missed that. The Rome apartment is in a convenient location, all the others - not so much. (The Paris one 'could' be semi-OK but depends on the exact location)

You might consider buying an Ambassador from Waverly Labs. Great translation device, seamless, enables conversation!!!

Consider visiting Herculaneum/Ercolano instead of Pompei. Smaller, more “approachable”, closer to Naples.

Thank you for the advice. Staying in an area as you describe doesn't sound like a place we want to stay. Even though it may take a bit longer, perhaps if we take a taxi to the Circumvesuviana rail would make a reasonable alternative.

Planning places to stay, when we've never been to these cities is a complex puzzle to solve. Thank goodness for google maps. My main priority in reserving was that they were close to public transportation/metro/tube lines, reasonably close to places we want to visit, and good sleeping arrangements.

This actually sounds like a great idea. My daughters love finding unique items at thrift shops here. No doubt they would enjoy doing some shopping there. LOL... I would be worried we would need to pack an extra (empty) carry on bag for bringing it all home. :lol::lol:

Since you are staying in front of a metro station, the reasonable alternative would be taking the metro to Piazza Garibaldi and transfer to the Circumvesuviana rail.

Things that you knew if you purchased a guide book about the cities you are going to visit. On LonelyPlanet.com you can buy single chapters of their guides in PDF, you don't need to pay for the full book about Italy.

For instance, it seems you are visiting Pompeii and not Herculaneum because you have only heard about Pompeii, but most kids like Herculaneum more. A guide would provide a good description of both.

For your days in Rome I recommend doing a small group tour. When we took our then 14 yr old son we used Context travel and did their Ancient Rome tour one day and a Vatican tour another. Well worth the money spent, the guides were both PhDs and so knowledgeable. The young woman who guided the ancient Rome tour made the whole place come alive for us with her descriptions. contexttravel.com

I love to shop when I travel so my tip for your girls is to pack a small lightweight foldable duffel that they can use on the return journey.
I second the poster who said take off your expensive watch in Naples, also don't wear expensive jewellery on the street there, highly visible designer bags etc.
We loved the Archeological museum there and also did a walking tour there with a local woman which was a fantastic way to see things we would not have even known about.

We did Pompeii and Herculaneum on the same day, Pompeii as morning and a bit into the afternoon, luncha t a stand just outside its gates, then the Circumvesuviana to Herculaneum, two hours there, and the day was done. Pompeii has the parts of a city that can survive a volcano (the "bones"), Herculaneum was buried in ash preserving it, so there are buildings with wood and frescoes preserved (the "flesh"). The best recovered art is in the Archeological Museum in Naples (the "soul.") If there is any way to do all three, do so.

As for shopping for second hand clothes in Paris, one place saved the day for me when I had forgotten my raincoat and umbrella and ended up in Paris for a 10 day rain spell. I picked up a raincoat in my size for 20 euros. Here is a current list of thrift stores in Paris:
https://secretsofparis.com/shopping/...t-shops-paris/
The Secrets of Paris website is very useful, by the way.

"My main priority in reserving was that they were close to public transportation/metro/tube lines, reasonably close to places we want to visit. and good sleeping arrangements. "

Your London location does not really fit that criteria. Depending on where it is exactly in relation to the Oval, it could be reasonably close to one of two tube stations, each only on one tube line Vauxhall - the Victoria Line, or Oval - on a pretty far south section of the Northern Line. The oval isn't near/walkable to any sites. -- well 30 to 40+ minute walks could get you to Tate Britain, Buckingham Palace, or the Eye - those sorts of places.

Surely you could find the sleeping arrangements you need in more convenient locations.

According to google maps, kensington palace, tower of london, buckingham palace, the shard, big ben, the eye are all within 30 minutes by either bus or tube (that includes walking time). It also lists the vauxhall as a 10 min walk and oval tube station as a 4 min walk. The average price right now for an airbnb for the time we are there is over $600 per night. As mentioned in my first post, our stays, flights, and trains are booked. I am good with where we are staying. If we find it to be a bad location after our stay, we will make note of it for the next time we are fortunate enough to travel through these cities again.

I greatly appreciate all the many helpful suggestions. You guys have given me and my wife a lot to think about for this trip. Please keep them coming. Like I said before, the planning of this trip has been really enjoyable so far. I have learned so much about these cities already and can't wait to actually be there.

There is a stretch of cool vintage shops along the via Mezzocannone in Naples, across from the main university--centrally located.

OK -- you came for advice but have pushed back on most suggestions offered. This truly a dead horse so I'll just quit beating it.

(I've never paid anywhere near $600 per night for a 2 bdrm flat in London)

"According to google maps, kensington palace, tower of london, buckingham palace, the shard, big ben, the eye are all within 30 minutes by either bus or tube (that includes walking time). It also lists the vauxhall as a 10 min walk and oval tube station as a 4 min walk. "

Google may well tell you that but IME the reality can be very different (I live in London for part of the year). Google times for public transport are usually ok where there are no changes involved but where you need to change bus or tube lines I would allow some additional time when planning excursions where you do have to change. Especially where you have fixed entry times or want to avoid the queues e.g. Tower of London.

if you enjoy walking, rather than change lines, a longer walk, particularly when north of the river, will often be as quick or quicker and has the bonus of maybe taking you past stuff that you would otherwise miss.

A better way to gauge time and distances than google maps is the London transport planner. https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

You can also put the citymapper app on your phone - very useful if you are in one part of town and want to get to another part of town..
https://citymapper.com

The obsession among many travelers with "packing light" mystifies me. Unless you are backpacking around the world and staying in youth hostels (with limited funds even for public transport), why would you straiten yourself to travel in dirty clothes and daily underwear washings in the bidet? Is it to save on checked baggage fees? Surely they are annoying, yet when you consider that airline tickets today are (adjusted for inflation) the cheapest they have ever been since the Wright Brothers, this can't be such a big concern for most travelers. At any rate many if not most airlines now also charge for a carry-on bag, the difference in price being marginal.

Is it to save on schlepping? Modern suitcases (especially bags with four rollers) are all pretty easy to push or pull along, whether small or large. Not a big difference.

Maybe it's about saving time at the carousel? If you're traveling internationally, by the time you get through the line at immigration control, your checked bag has likely descended from the bowels, so no time wasted there.

Maybe one worries about lost luggage? The electronic tracking of bags these days makes it highly unlikely that your bag could disappear for more than 12 hours.

Finally there is the more basic degradation of walking around in the same frumpy outfit every day. I will grant that many people these days (perhaps too many) don't give a whit about their personal appearance and what others may think of them. They are wrong, but I allow them the right. For me however, I try even when touring to spend at least a few moments in my room that morning considering how my appearance might bear on others. And after a day of tromping around, I look forward to putting on, at the very least, a fresh shirt (ironed) before going to dinner.

As for wearing dirty clothes on the return trip, I hope I shall never sit next to that person on the plane. Should he be wearing a sleeveless tank top in the middle seat on a transatlantic overnight flight, I shall be certain my bad karma has been paid for, in spades.

MaxAlexander, I won’t quote your whole post, just say that your thinking is exactly like mine. I do not pack heavy because I don’t need a lot, don’t want a lot to pull or push around if we take trains, or end up on a small plane with restrictions, etc. but I also don’t like sitting around in airports watching luggage or doing laundry if I do not have to, and I do not want to wear old, throw away clothes on vacation. I liked the times when porters were outside terminals and checked bags as we took them from the car. I like to feel free and unburdened with stuff.
I don’t like pulling luggage onto a plane or lifting it to the overhead. It always seems odd to me when people say they are taking only a backpack on a trip to Europe where they are planning to stay in hotels or apartments. In “olden” days when suitcases did not have wheels and young travelers were sleeping on trains or camping out, it made sense. If one is returning to a hotel room at night, no need to be a pack animal. All very personal though, and I don’t care if others wish to carry everything with them as long as they do not bang their stuff into me as they get it on and off planes. That is sometimes an issue with larger backpacks. People put them on and do not realize how big they are when they turn around and smack people around them.

One bit of advice for the OP. We have never had an issue with lost luggage going to Europe, but we always pack one change of clothing, plus, of course all medicines, in carry on. Just in case, we also put a few extra things in a packing cube or zip lock in the other person’s luggage. If one is delayed, we have enough for a couple of days.

The one carry on and one small personal item baggage limit allows stress-free travel later on trains and subways/metros during the trip. Rollers don't go up or down stairs easily, either. If you want to fly home in clean clothes, just pack one more shirt etc. I use the cleanest of the dirty clothes without odorous offenses being committed.

"Maybe one worries about lost luggage? The electronic tracking of bags these days makes it highly unlikely that your bag could disappear for more than 12 hours."

Ask the thousands and thousands of people who flew through LHR just after Eunice a couple of weeks age, or during the BA IT outage last week . . . Many of them STILL don't have their luggage. In fact there was one point where they weren't even letting anyone approach the carousels and they were told to just go home or continue their journey, and BA would contact them when they might expect to deliver the bags.

And I have never (ever) flown in dirty clothing -- give me a break (!)

I pack light is because it is sooooooo much easier. Easier in airports, easier on buses, easier on stairs, easier on trains . . . But mainly because I don't need more stuff. I travel a lot - trips that include hiking, and/or formal events and/or cruises and/or winter weather and/or summer weather . . . if one packs 'smart' with mix & match and layers, they can get 20+ unique outfits out of a rollaboard. Many people pack everything trying to cover every 'what if' situation. I don't play the what if game.

(As a hobby, I've taught packing classes for several years - to 15,000+ people so far - and I've received hundreds of cards and e-mails thanking me for the game changing help)

The Hotel Piazza Bellini, great location in the heart of the Centro Storico, offers a couple of apartments that might work for your family, https://www.hotelpiazzabellini.com/e...-studio-duplex. The hotel will call a taxi for you with a guaranteed rate.

We stayed there bon_voyage, good recommendation; we loved the neighbourhood and it's only a few minutes walk to the Archeological Museum, among other things.

I'm another one with MaxAlexander, there is no benefit to me to only travel with a carry on bag. Depending on my trip I check a 22 or 24 inch bag and have a small roll aboard (made by Knomo) which is slim enough to roll down the aisle between the seats, doesn't take up much room, can go under most seats if it has to, yet still has lots of room inside for a change of clothes, shoes, my iPad, chargers, jewellery etc. I like to dress well no matter where I am so a lot of thought goes into what to bring so I'm not overpacked but still have variety and different things to wear at night out for drinks and dinner.