The Best of Rome
The Colosseum, illuminated at night
Rome is a dynamic city that brings history to life like no other. Ancient Roman temples, Egyptian obelisks, Renaissance palaces, Baroque churches and world-famous works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Bernini all jostle for space, while 2,800 years of ancient and urban myths, legends and anecdotes embroider every nook and cranny of the place with a colourful tapestry of politics and pleasure, entertainment and art.
Ancient Rome
Re-create a day in the life of an ancient Roman by starting off with a tour of the digitally re-created Roman domus (house) below Palazzo Valentini, then go fantasy shopping at Trajan’s Markets and make-believe bathing at the Baths of Caracalla. Imagine watching a gladiator fight at the Colosseum, experience the splendour in which the Roman emperors lived by exploring the ruins of their palaces on the Palatine Hill, then admire the frescoes and mosaics from their luxurious homes in the Palazzo Massimo.
Explore the temples and basilicas of the Roman Forum, and see the Temple of Vesta, where girls had to keep a sacred flame alight on pain of death. Experience the virtual reality of a Roman villa at the Baths of Diocletian or delve into the strange world of Roman funerary practices on the Via Appia Antica and at the Pyramid of Caius Cestius in Testaccio. Find out about Roman drains and toilets at Crypta Balbi. Make a couple of day trips: to Ostia Antica to explore the remains of a provincial town, and to Tivoli to see the ruins of Villa Adriana, the refined country retreat of Emperor Hadrian.
Rome in a weekend
To get the most out of a family weekend in Rome, stay at a hotel in the centro storico, so that you can see everything on foot. The areas around Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Campo de’ Fiori, the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere are ideal bases. The digitally re-constructed Roman houses below Palazzo Valentini, a short walk from the main sights of the ancient centre, serve as a good starting point for many children. On a brief visit it might be better to see the Colosseum from the outside only, or to book a child-friendly tour in advance. If there is no time to visit the Roman Forum, take a lift to the top of Il Vittoriano, letting children see what buildings they can identify. If there is time, there are four frescoes of a garden, on the top floor of the Palazzo Massimo, almost guaranteed to impress kids. Piazza Navona with its Bernini fountains is the most extravagant of Rome’s Baroque piazzas. Nearby, take in the ingenious Baroque church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, and paintings by Caravaggio in the churches of San Luigi dei Francesi and Sant’Agostino, before heading to the Pantheon. The morning market at Campo de’ Fiori is a good place to buy lunch and watch Roman street life at its liveliest. Cross the Tiber, either at Ponte Sisto to see Trastevere, or at Ponte Sant’Angelo to see Castel Sant’Angelo. A weekend does not really leave time to see the Vatican Museums unless you book tickets in advance to see the Sistine Chapel first thing in the morning, but a walk around St Peter’s, followed by a climb to the cupola atop the dome, will give great views over the whole of Rome, as well as into Vatican City.
Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, Piazza Navona
Rome season by season
Spring and autumn are without doubt the best seasons to visit Rome. For the most part you can expect clear skies and sunshine, without it being too hot. Holy Week is a special, although extremely busy time to visit, culminating in the pope’s address on Easter Sunday. Summer can be very hot, but more and more Romans tend to stay in town during August rather than making the traditional escape to the seaside. There is a summer festival, Estate Romana, with a series of open-air concerts and films at Villa Adriana and other locations around the city. In the last two weeks of July, Trastevere holds the Festa de’ Noantri, with processions of a statue of the Madonna, street parties with local food and wine, and fireworks. Keep sightseeing for early and late in the day in Tivoli. August is really only practical if you have a comfortable apartment or a spacious hotel room where children will have plenty of space to play. Air conditioning is not standard in Rome, but thick-walled old buildings do stay relatively cool.
From around mid-December until Epiphany (6 January) there is a lovely Christmas market in Piazza Navona.
Rome on a budget
Mercifully, much of what will appeal most to kids about Rome is free – pedestrianized piazzas, elaborate fountains, mazes of alleyways and the wide-open spaces of the city’s parks. Entrance to most churches is free – some of them have world-famous paintings and frescoes, ranging from Caravaggio’s Madonna dei Pellegrini with dirty toenails in Sant’Agostino to the optical illusions of Sant’Ignazio’s ceiling. Children under the age of 6 and EU residents below 18 are allowed free entry to most museums; women enjoy free admission on International Women’s Day and the Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday morning of the month. The Roma Pass is valid for three days – it includes free public transport, free entry to the first two sights visited and discounts at most major museums and sights.
Families on a budget could consider staying in small apartments or in simple B&Bs – most of the apartments and some B&Bs have cooking facilities – saving the expenses of eating out at every meal. It is becoming increasingly common to find hotel rooms supplied with empty fridges rather than minibars – perfect for preserving picnic supplies. Simple trattorie where families could eat a plate of pasta apiece and come out with change from €40 still exist – although these days most of them are off the tourist track.
Frescoed ceiling in the church of Sant’Ignazio
Contemporary Rome
Rome celebrated the beginning of the third millennium with a Holy Year, following a massive restoration drive in which scores of churches and palaces were cleaned and recovered. The city not only began the 21st century in the best shape it had been in for years, it took a step into the future by commissioning several key cultural buildings from cutting-edge architects of international repute. Renzo Piano’s Auditorium Parco della Musica is a world away from the dusty concert halls of the past. Exuberant and non-elitist, it has a year-round season of concerts for children at weekends, and is as much a leisure venue as a concert hall, with restaurants, shops, a playground and even an ice-rink in winter.
A couple of blocks from the auditorium, Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI is a dramatic and compelling building on a human scale that does much to demystify contemporary art, the power of its architecture drawing visitors around and through its galleries, accompanied – in the case of children – by a Nintendo DS multimedia guide, which allows them to take photos. Spanning the Tiber, just beyond MAXXI, is the new Ponte della Musica, a cat’s cradle of a footbridge of tubular steel; while in the Nomentana area is Odile Decq’s radical conversion of an old Peroni factory into the MACRO art space. This fun building even has illuminated, colour-changing bathrooms. Its glorious roof entrance terrace was created to acknowledge the numerous roof gardens created by Romans atop the neighbouring buildings.
Virtual reality technology has transformed the experience of understanding and imagining ancient Rome. Underneath Palazzo Valentini, the ruins of two Imperial houses are restored to their former glory using computer-generated projections; Rewind Rome and Time Elevator use 3D film techniques to bring Rome’s history to life; and at the Baths of Diocletian, the Museo Virtuale di Via Flaminia opened in 2012 – essentially an interactive computer game in which kids can take on an avatar and, virtually, rewrite history.
Green Rome
Owing largely to the Renaissance popes and princes who left the city with a belt of country villas with vast, landscaped estates, Rome is one of the greenest cities in Europe. Villa Borghese, closest to the centro storico, is not only the largest green expanse in central Rome, but its villas hold some of the city’s finest museums, making it an ideal destination for families who want to combine sightseeing with a day in the park. Perhaps the city’s most evocative ruins are the ones surrounded by green and shaded by pines – such as the Palatine Hill and the Baths of Caracalla – while a walk along the lava slabs of the Via Appia Antica, or a picnic among the arcaded aqueducts of the Parco degli Acquedotti is the perfect way of taking in a bit of culture and getting a good burst of country air at the same time. Rome’s two largest parks, Villa Ada and Villa Doria Pamphilj – a little distance away from the centre, but quite easily accessible via public transport – are extensive enough to give visitors the calming sense of having arrived at a place that is far removed from the madding crowd of the city centre.
Gastronomic Rome
One of the great pleasures of Rome is its food, a feast that is as much a pleasure for the eyes as the mouth. At breakfast, café counters are laden with icing-sugar dusted cornetti (croissants), sugared, deep-fried doughnuts and other pastries oozing custard, jam or chocolate; while for lunch, it is possible to have a filled panino in any of the city’s numerous delicatessens. Also widely available are local snack specialities such as supplì (deep-fried rice balls) and pizza bianca (white pizza bread, usually stuffed with ham and cheese). Children may also enjoy picking and mixing their own hot lunch or dinner at a tavola calda – a distant descendent of the ancient Roman thermopolium – where ready-made hot dishes are laid out on a heated counter. Rome is, of course, famous for ice cream, and you and your children are likely to be tempted at every turn. At Fassi (Via Principe Eugenio 65, 00185; 06 446 4740), in northeastern Rome, they have an old-fashioned ice cream-making machine on display and you can enjoy gargantuan sundaes at the elegant parlour of Café Giolitti (Via Uffici del Vicario 40, 00186; 06 699 1243). For an alternative, seek out one of the now rare grattachecche kiosks that sell shavings of ice grated from a block and served with fruit juice, fruit syrup and sometimes chopped fresh fruit. One of the most famous of these kiosks is Sora Mirella (Lungotevere Anguillara, corner of Ponte Cestio), in Trastevere. Other traditional street foods include pots of fresh fruit salad and, in summer, slices of coconut or watermelon sold from little wagons; while the smell of roasted chestnuts fills the air in late autumn.