Travel To Rome Italy

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The Eternal City has been going strong for millennia, so there’s no end of things to do with kids in Rome! Stroll through timeless favorites – piazzas, gardens, museums, crumbly ruins every where you look. The must do’s – the Borghese Gardens, Sistine Chapel, Colosseum, but while in Rome, do as the Romans do: have a picnic, and the kids should try every flavor of gelato.

Tip: Don’t miss our top picks for children’s books on Rome, recommended by the staff of Travel for Kids, see below.

Colosseum and Roman Forum

Centro Storico – Pantheon

St. Peter’s and Vatican Museums – Sistine Chapel

Borghese Gardens

Old Appian Way Park – Catacombs

Ostia Antica

Around Rome

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
National Roman Museums (Museo Nazionale Romano) – The National Roman Museums have four locations, each with a different focus – the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Palazzo Altemps, Terme di Diocleziano, Crypta Balbi.

Of the four museums, the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme has all the truly great stuff from Classical Rome – marble sculptures of the gods, figures of mythology, statues of famous Roman emperors and their wives (check out their hairstyles and fashion), so realistic you feel like you might meet these people on the street.

Churches – Churches abound in Rome, huge cathedrals, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, eighteenth and nineteenth century churches, churches tucked into the edges of small piazzas. When you pass by one of the many churches, stop in for a brief look, there’s always some interesting sculpture, frescoes, decorated floors and ceilings.

One church with unique appeal for kids is the church of Santa Maria della Concezione (Via Veneto). First check out the saying in Latin on the church, “Here lies dust, ashes, nothing.” But the real attraction is the Capuchin cemetery, a chapel decorated with the bones of 4,000 monks, lamps made out of bones and wreaths of skulls. (Yet another place to earn bragging rights.)

Carriage rides – In earlier eras, Rome was filled with carrozze, horse drawn carriages. You can take a carriage ride around town – pick them up in the piazza by St. Peter’s, the Spanish Steps, or the Pantheon.

Trevi Fountain

Fountains – Everywhere you turn, there’s another fountain in the center of a piazza. Sparkling water gushes and rushes over bigger-than-life sculptures, the fountains in Rome aren’t wimpy trickles. Look for fountains in the Piazza Barberini, Piazza della Republica, Piazza Navona, Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, Piazza della Rotonda next to the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, fountains in the Borghese Gardens. Tip: If your kids like to draw, bring pads of paper to sketch the fountains.

SPQR manhole covers – Most of the manhole covers in Rome are stamped with the letters SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus, “the Senate and the people of Rome.” While you’re walking down the street, keep your eyes peeled for this ancient motto of the Roman empire.

Take the tram around Rome – Pick up the #3 tram for a ride through Rome, on Viale delle Belle Arti (in front of the Museum of Modern Art) in the Borghese Gardens. A 40 min. ride takes you along the park, through Roman neighborhoods, past ancient walls and aqueducts, right to the Colosseum. You could get off there, or keep on going, past the Circus Maximus, up the Aventine, to Piazza Porta S. Paolo and the Tiber River. (At the Tiber, just get off and take the #3 tram going back to the Borghese Gardens). The tram goes slow, it’s pleasant and relaxing, the perfect things for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Roman Aqueducts – The Romans built aqueducts to bring water into town for all those baths and public fountains. The Goths wrecked most of the aqueducts in the 6th century, but parts of the aqueducts remain, scattered throughout Rome.

Aqua Claudia
The most impressive remnants are next to Via Lemonia (Parco degli Acquedotti, in the Parco Dell’Appia Antica), in the southeast suburbs of Rome. To get there, just take the metro to the Subaugusta stop, and walk four blocks west. Here you can run around the amazing high arches of the Aqua Claudia, as well as the smaller Aqua Felice.

There’s a shorter section of aqueducts at Porta Maggiore in the city center. Take the metro to San Giovanni, walk down Viale Carlo Felice. You’ll see one of the ancient gates, and sections of the Aurelian wall, plus a long grassy areas, and a small playground. Keep walking to Porta Maggiore, which has another ancient gate, and sections of the Aqua Claudia and Aqua Marcia.

Fun food –

The most fun food is ice cream, gelato, and Rome is chock full of “gelaterias,” ice cream stands. Delicious flavors to choose from – ten kinds of chocolate, honey, raspberry, lemon, melon, strawberry, crème caramel, marron glace. One friend said, “My son had four cones a day, chocolate, vanilla, lemon and coconut.” Whenever you need a break, order up a gelato.

Shopping –

Have fun shopping for figures of Roman legionaires and gladiators, miniature colosseums, wooden Pinocchio figures, brightly colored alabaster eggs, colorful jewelry and purses.

Tips –

Archaeologia Card – The Archaeologia Card is good for 7 days, and provides entrance to nine sites – the Colosseum, Palatine, Baths of Caracella, four National Roman museums, and two sites on the Appian Way. It’s money saving, and most importantly, with the card, no waiting in lines with the kids to buy tickets for the Colosseum. Purchase the card at any of the nine sites (buy the card before you tackle the Colosseum).

Mondays in Rome. Most museums in Rome are closed on Monday, so don’t get caught unaware. On Mondays, plan to go to the Borghese Gardens, the aqueducts in the suburbs, the Appian Way, or take a day trip outside Rome.

To get around, the bus system is good, plus the metro. Buy a day ticket for unlimited rides on buses and the metro. Pick up a copy of the Roma Metro-Bus map at any newsstand for information on which bus to take to specific sights.

Rome Caput Mundi, Rome the ageless City. A different city around the world because of the absolutely opposite styles of art and life that manage to live side by side there: Imperial Rome and Baroque Rome, sophisticated Rome and working-class Rome.

Rome has a long and tempestuous history. No other city had the attention center of the world for such a long period. The city more loved of the Roman Empire, lavished with architectural jewelry by her emperors, but also often seized raided and destroyed. Also fires and earthquakes left their scars, but each time the eternal city recovered from her injuries.

Rome’s history is strongly related to the history of Europe. Not just the Roman emperors, but also medieval emperors and kings like Charlemagne or Otto I saw Rome as the true seat of power. They confronted the new rulers, the popes for the supreme power. It was the dispute about who was the true representative of God. Both emperor and pope claimed to be true inheritors of the Roman Empire.

It is said that one life is not enough to get to comprehend Rome. Maybe you’ll require about ten, as much as the countless stray cats that also occupy the city, but a week will do for a first introduction. At each corner of each street there’s a story to tell. Thousands of stories together tell the history of a three thousand year old city. Two weeks may be enough for a hasty tour through most everything; a month would be better. Fortunately, Rome (population 2.900.000) is compact enough to skim the best in three (full) days, and if you have more time we guarantee you will find delightful and fulfilling ways to use it.

The most impressive features in Rome comprehend the Trevi fountain (remind Anita Ekberg in the classic scene in La Dolce Vita) and the Spanish Steps, the Roman heritage sights such as the Pantheon, the Colloseum and the Forum Romanum, at least some of the world famous churches such as Il Gesu, S. Giovanni in Laterano or Sta. Maria Maggiore. Make sure not to miss a stroll through the Vatican City with the incredibly huge St. Peter’s Cathedral and the unrivalled Vatican Museum.

The eternal city of Rome has thousands of years of history under its belt. From the Colloseum of Roman times to the Renaissance art of the Trevi Fountain to the modern Stadio Olimpico, there is something for everybody’s interest. Rome hotels can be booked online, like the Hotel Morgana.