Rome with kids

[ribollita]

Has anyone been to Rome with elementary age kids? Any suggestions? I’ve read blogs but nothing much seems of high interest for my kids’ ages other than colosseum.

We are flying out of Rome after spending time elsewhere in Italy (for 10 days, so plenty of museums and churches and other sites will be seen elsewhere) and I’m trying to decide how many nights (likely 2-3). My husband and I have been to Rome multiple times, really only care about returning to Villa Borghese, and want to design the rest around the kids. It will also be summer so hot.

[goldengirlz]

We did! We did the Coliseum tour and the Vatican, neither of which she was particularly jazzed about (she said she was scared of all the “violent” art — I guess my Jewish child doesn’t get much exposure to Christian imagery.)

Unfortunately, I don’t have any kid-specific recs since it was our first stop and we mostly took it easy due to jet lag (we have a nine-hour difference from the West Coast and it was legit.)

[ribollita]

Thanks- our first stop is a sleepy town where we can recover and relax!

I just found a golf cart tour which may be perfect in the heat and keep their attention.

[erbear]

We travel with our kids (8 and 10) a lot and have done Europe twice with them. My general rule is one structured museum-y activity a day, then a park or a specific kid thing for the rest of the day. That's been best for us.

[ribollita]

Nov 10, 2019 20:23:46 GMT -5 erbear said:

We travel with our kids (8 and 10) a lot and have done Europe twice with them. My general rule is one structured museum-y activity a day, then a park or a specific kid thing for the rest of the day. That's been best for us.

That’s our approach too. I guess I’m trying to figure out what the museum-y activities should be, LOL...

[mrspez07]

We planned a trip in 2018 that included Rome for a few days and had to cancel, but we booked a coliseum tour and gladiator camp through viator.com.
We were also planning a trip to see Villa D’este and Villa Adriana outside of town (on my wishlist but compatible with kids).
We also looked at spending some time in the Park with Villa Borgese in Rome, looked like lots of options there based on interest.

The boys were excited about the coliseum and gladiator camp and still want to go to Rome sometime based on the reading we did about it beforehand.
Someday!

[majesty318]

I don't have kids but am currently planning a trip to Rome. Things from my itinerary possibly good for kids:

Capuchin Crypt, or would it be too scary?
www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d254786-Reviews-Museum_and_Crypt_of_Capuchins-Rome_Lazio.html

Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary
www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d4416917-Reviews-Torre_Argentina_Cat_Sanctuary-Rome_Lazio.html

Any of the virtual reality archeological sites - Domus Aurea, Terme di Caracalla, Domus Romane, a few places included in the Roman Forum SUPER ticket

[tres3]

My husband took my oldest to Rome a couple years ago. He hired a private guide -- there are lots of under-employed History PhDs working in Rome as guides. My son thought it was great and my husband thought the guide did a good job making the coliseum kid friendly, etc. My son was 12 at the time.

One thing that we do for all our trips is trying to do some family movie nights with documentaries, fiction movies etc set in our next vacation so the kids have background knowledge before we get there.

[ribollita]

Nov 13, 2019 7:20:48 GMT -5 tres3 said:

My husband took my oldest to Rome a couple years ago. He hired a private guide -- there are lots of under-employed History PhDs working in Rome as guides. My son thought it was great and my husband thought the guide did a good job making the coliseum kid friendly, etc. My son was 12 at the time.

One thing that we do for all our trips is trying to do some family movie nights with documentaries, fiction movies etc set in our next vacation so the kids have background knowledge before we get there.

Thanks! My husband and I have taken tours from underemployed PhDs there, ha! My kids are younger but I do see some tours that seem kid friendly and will explore those, especially for the colosseum. Love the movie idea.

[dragon's breath]

We did the Gladiator School, and it was fun. Make sure to have the address (in Italian...) in case you need to get a taxi (we walked, got lost on our way, but had the address down, so we were able to get a taxi. Showed up a little late, but it was "off season", so we were the only people in our group anyway, and they didn't make a big deal out of it.)

We found it through viator.com, but this was around 10 years ago, so there may be more options for booking.

[ny96]

We took our then 4 year old there a few years ago. There is a giant park to the Northwest that has lots of kid friendly stuff. I can’t think of anything else that specifically was for him, but we made sure to get him gelato everyday.