5alive

I could use some advice on our trip to Rome this Christmas. Going with husband and three children, age range 5-10. We have flights and lodging already. We’ll be there 10 days not including arrival/departure days.

A little about us: I’ve been to and lived in Europe (including a previous trip to Italy), and my husband lived for several years in Asia. I’m taking Italian but am not fluent. We want this to be a good first experience for the children, so any tips on Rome with kids welcomed. I especially need help with the following:

I read about the Piazza Navona’s Christmas Market, and the decorations and papal blessing at St. Peter’s. Do you know of any other famous activities/sites/processions related to the season, in and around Rome?

Looking for a walking tour of Colosseum and some of the other ruins. (I read that Trajan’s Market might appeal to the kids more than the Forum). I've seen people talk about tours on this forum, but I am hoping for specifics. We need upbeat, some humor and/or some action stories about the people of ancient Rome; Roman mythology also of interest to the oldest child. If you’ve been on an organized tour, would yours fit that description?

Day Trips – I’m thinking of going back to Ostia Antica with the kids. A great place to explore and close to Rome too. Considering a second day-trip destination with strong medieval feel. Touring a castle would be ideal as this is a strong interest area. I’ve done searching on a lot of sites for this, and despite the name “castelli” in lots of names I didn’t see references to an actual castle when I read the description. Maybe I'm missing something you can all clue me in on.

I did come across a couple of candidates: Unfortunately, the castle at Sermoneta is closed the entire time of our stay. Bracciano also has an impressive looking castle and the castle’s own website is: http://www.odescalchi.it. (The pictures seem to open better with the Italian page than the English.) Has anyone been there or familiar with the town at least?

If not Bracciano, I also considered Orvieto – was recommended it for its medieval feel. I haven't been there, so would appreciate input on this one too.

Assisi – we drove last time and it was a long day. I would hesitate to drive because I remember a lot of mountains and even a trace of snow in March. I thought they might have a special Living Nativity there since that’s where the tradition started, but I haven’t read anything about it so far.

I appreciate everyone’s help!

sprin2

I've used the kid's journal available at www.kidseurope.com which should work with your kids' ages. Can't help with much else, but hope your trip is great!

5alive

one more try -- anyone?

Nicol

There is a book by Fodors called Around Rome with Kids (I got mine from Amazon) which has about 60 ideas sorted by age group. It also gives suggestions for good places to eat with kids near each one. We got several ideas from this, although a lot of them depend on summery type weather. We had cold rain every day, so a lot of the parks were out of the question.

If you get stuck on a rainy day and want an indoors activity, try the Rome Time Elevator. It is an amusing film about the history of Rome, and the seats move in a sort of 'virtual reality' motion. It is very expensive for what you get, though, and not a good idea if you suffer travel sickness.

The Cappucine monk's crypt is facinating in a macabre sort of way: it consists of underground chambers furnished with stuff made from monk's bones. My daughter actually thought this was quite cool.

It is worth spending a bit of time getting your kids familiarised with Michaelangelo and other famour Italian painters through books and websites before you go. That way, when you bump into a Caravaggio or whatever in a church they feel a joyful surge of recognition. And don't miss the Sistine chapel. All kids recognise that famous middle panel, and the trip through the Vatican museum to find it is a treat.

Grinisa

On Slowtalk.com I have a travel note entitled "Chills and Thrills in the Eternal City, http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/rome/chills_thrills.htm. It has some suggestions that my girls, ages 10 and 7, enjoyed. Also on Slowtalk.com I have a trip report, "Principesse Tour" which describes one of our trips to Rome over Easter vacation with the girls.

sandi_travelnut

Your kids may like the Christmas market at Piazza Navona but I was sorely dissappointed. It was full of really awful, plastic crap. Reminded me of carnival prizes. There was only one stall that was selling espresso cups and saucers with cafe logos on them for 5e each. I bought several of those.

Eloise

Actually, St. Frances of Assisi did the first living Nativity not in Assisi, but in Greccio, which is in the same Lazio region as Rome.

According to www.mappy.com, Greccio is 61 odd miles from Rome and the trip takes about an hour and a half.

As far as I can make out, reenactments of the living Nativity take place:

24 December, Christmas Eve at 10:45 p.m., followed by midnight Mass

26 December at 5:45 p.m.

6 January at 3:00 p.m. Epiphany procession followed by Nativity reenactment at 5:45 p.m.

But be aware that it is not a traditional Nativity scene: St. Joseph and the Madonna do not appear; the figures that do appear are St. Francis, the Franciscan brothers, the "cavaliere" Giovanni Velita, the lord of Greccio, and his wife Alticama.

Here is a description of the Greccio Nativity; the four scenes composing the reenactment are listed at the end.

http://www.presepi.it/trad_reg/greccio_en.html

And here is the Web site (with phone/fax and cell phone numbers) for Greccio:

http://www.prolocogreccio.it/default3.htm

They also seem to organize a national competition of Nativity scenes.

I would suggest that you call and get more details from them before you head off to Greccio.

Eloise

Oops: Make that first reference "St. Francis"; I know he was a man and not a woman...

suziem

Our family w/ 2 boys (then ages 10 & 12) spent Christmas 2002 in Rome.

One of the best things we did was a full day trip to Pompeii on the day after Christmas. With the St. Stefano holiday on the 26th we were concerned about what would be open so we choose that date for a day trip. We used a private guide through initaly.com. It was pricey BUT worth every penny/euro. We met our guide at the train station @ 7:30 am for our 8am train. He was a young archeology student who spoke perfect English and was terrific with our kids. Our tour price included everything for the whole day (train tickets, entrance fees, terrific lunch and all with an excellent private guide). We arrived in Pompeii by 11:00 or so. Pompeii was larger than we expected and we did a lot of walking. Bring a few snacks and water. There is nothing within the site other than a few drinking fountains. After the tour we walked to a local restaurant where we enjoyed an excellent meal. We were encouraged to order anything we wanted including wine and dessert. The meal was included in our tour costs. Then it was a short walk to the train station for the ride to Rome. We were back to our hotel by 6:30 pm. A full but very rewarding day.

Other things my kids enjoyed in Rome (in no particular order):

-The Cat Sanctuary
-1/2 day private walking tour (enjoyrome.com) of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and a few piazzas and churches we expressed an interest in visiting. We enjoued our guide, he was a young Italian art history graduate.
-Cappuchine Crypt
-San Callisto Catacombs
-Climbing to the top of St. Peters Dome
-Castel San Angelo
-Campo dei Fiori
-Piazza Navona Christmas market
A few words on the market: It's geared more for younger children, not teens or adults and very much like a carnival. Lots of booths selling candy, snacks & little toys. There is a carousel and some games. There are many stalls selling Nativity sets and figurines. It is very lively at night. My boys loved wandering through there and buying unusual candies. Lumps of coal (candy) were popular. We usually passed through the market at least once a day since we were staying near the Pantheon.

They didn't enjoy the Vatican museum much, partly due to the tremendous crowds and long wait to get inside. This was the only place on our entire trip to Italy where we experienced crowds. We didn't use a guide. Maybe it would have been better if we had. It wouldn't have changed the jam packed cooridors though. Plus we had already toured a few museums in other cities in Italy before we arrived in Rome. I think they'd reached their limit!

We couldn't get tickets for Midnight Mass but we went to the piazza anyway. There is first-come seating set up outside with large screen video monitors showing the mass. The mass is VERY VERY long. My younger one fell asleep before it was over. But we are glad we experienced it. Sitting outside was fine. Cool with a few sprinkles but not unpleasant. St. Peters square is full of people and it feels very special. It would have been easy to get a taxi back to the hotel. There were lines of them waiting but beware they were extremely expensive so we decided to walk. We were all tired but it was a beautiful night.

This trip was one of our favorite family trips ever. We felt is was a rewarding quality way to spend Christmas as a family. You'll have a blast. Let me know if you have other questions. Buon Viaggio.

LoveItaly

Hello 5alive. If you think your children would enjoy it you could take the train from Rome to Naples. Starting around the middle of December Naples has their famous chreche (sp?) fair. I would imagine you and your family will have a very special Christmas season. Best wishes.

itsv

5alive, we took our two kids then ages 7 and 11 to rome two years ago and had a great time. Here are things which I think made it great for us. 1. Hire a private guide as you suggested. We hired Danielle Hunt (I can't remember her company name but if you do a google search you should be able to find it). She spent the day with us and we did the roman forum and colossieum. She geared the tour for our kids, taught them games that kids would play during that time period etc, plus she gave us a list of great restaurants. I found that private tour guides were the way to go on our trip and our kids did not feel like they were bothering other people on our trip.
2. Get them books, movies etc. about rome or people from rome. For our 11 year old there is a series on romany mythology and ruins that I discovered on Amazon. For our 7 yr. old daughter, she read fiction books set in roman such as the time warp trio etc. Plus our kids started watching movies set in rome, e.g. roman holiday, some hilary duff movies, even ric steves.
3. Try to get tickets to a Papal Audience, our kids loved seeing the Pope and it is something they still talk about today.
4. Plan as much as you can and give them some free time everyday. Each day the kids could pick out one thing that they wanted to do such as visit a park etc. We had dinner reservations most nights and our kids liked that because they knew they would get feed without a hassle. Take them to La Tartuga (the turtle restaurant that everyone loves here on this board), the owners loves kids and really made our kids feel special. Get them audioguides for every museum etc, the kids will listen to them and worse case is play with the buttons. Our friends went with their kids to rome at the same time, but they had nothing planned and their kids had an awlful time while our kids appreciated their preplanning. Hope this is helpful.

5alive

Thank you, everyone, for lots of great ideas -- names, websites, new daytrip possibilities -- and more direction for the search. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before school starts and all the chaos.

Nicol, good to hear you liked the Fodor's Around Rome with Kids. I noticed it on the Fodor's site and was planning to buy it. For future readers of this thread, I'll mention that I bought the Italy with Kids (Open Road), and in my opinion, it is okay but not great.

Good call, Eloise, on Greccio. I will read through the websites you gave me and think on it.

SuzieM -- I do have a couple of questions for you:
What is the Cat Sanctuary?

Were your sons bothered by the plaster casts of the victims of Pompei? We have been doing some reading on Italy and tonight before I saw everyone's posts, we all watched a kids' video on Ancient Rome. They showed Pompeii including the casts, and this really bothered my 10-year-old. He totally understood that was the shape of a person at his/her death and at this point he does not want to go there. Since Ostia doesn't have the casts, he agreed on that one. (Interestingly Ostia was in the video too -- I recognized it -- but they didn't name it!)

The Christmas Market may be junky but it will probably be a relief to all the art and thinking they will be doing....

Thanks again!

eliztrav

Check out the Castel Sant'Angelo on the river and fairly near the Vatican. Great views from the top, and a little restaurant (we just had a cold drink, no food, so can't vouch for it). Fascinating history if you plan ahead. Also, might be fun to watch the old film Roman Holiday which features the "dance scene" on the river at the foot of the bridge (pedestrian only) leading to the Castel.

suziem

5alive- The cat sanctuary is a type of humane society organization for cats located in an archeological dig site on via Largo Argentina. Roughly between the Vittoria Emmanuelle monument & Campo dei Fiori. (It's written up in the 'Around Rome w/kid's' book). The adoption office is underground, but these stray cats, once they've been checked out, shots, etc. roam freely in this open 1 sq. blk area. They stay there because they are fed and lovingly cared for by this non-profit group. You can go visit the adoption site or just hang around the benches and wait for the cats to come visit you. They are literally everywhere, just waiting for some friendly person to pet them or to sit down so they can climb on their lap. We are big animal lovers and the beauty of this place is the uniqueness of the location and the fact that the cats are always around/open for visitors. We stopped by almost every day for a little as 10 min to an hour.

As for the body casts in Pompeii, my boys were not bothered by them. You would have to make the call for your own children. Pompeii is a HUGE site. You could conceivably tour the area and not see these; however there are several on display. If you had a guide you could tell them in advance to steer you away from the casts.