W. Cone

What do you recommend we do with our two kids in Rome? Ages 8 & 6

Rose

My boss just got back from Italy. She went with her husband and 2 kids aged 10 and 8. They said it was "better than Disneyland!" Apparently they really like the Catacombs just outside Rome. <BR>Sorry, that's all she told me!

Ed

Lots of interest for most kids. That presumes, though, that you get them ready. <BR> <BR>At those ages they're more than old enough for advance trip research (with a little help from Mom and Dad perhaps) and to participate in deciding what things the family will do. <BR> <BR>Our thoughts on entertaining kids in Rome at www.twenj.com/romekids.htm <BR> <BR>Ed

traveler

I took my 8 year old daughter to Rome last year (along with my 11 year old son and my 14 year old daughter). She loved all the simple thinks, especially practicing the few words of Italian she knew. Italians love kids and are very tollerent even when they act up. The 'free' tours of the Colliseum provided spooky stories that she loved. She also loved the horse and carriage rides; characters around the Campo di Fiori; all the fountains; taking her own pictures with a disposable camera; reading menus and ordering herself; watching the artists in the Piazza Navona; etc. She also began 'collecting' blown glass figuerines which gave her a shopping mission (they were very cheap). We're planning our return trip next summer and she remembers it all!! Have fun.

Char

Two summers ago we took our kids who were a little older than yours at the time. Ours loved everything - we did advance trip research with them so they had a frame of reference for what they were seeing. Things they laugh and remember: <BR>Gilato everywhere (they consumed every flavor). <BR>Having their portraits sketched at the Spanish Steps, <BR>The marguerita pizzas and how delicious and different they were from American cheese piazzas, <BR>All the cool bones in the crypt at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. <BR>The billions of lira were a big hit too. <BR>The Italian coins are so pretty they had neclaces made out of them when we got home. <BR>The also loved laying on their backs to look at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel and there is a cool Egyptian exibit in the Vatican museum - mummies you know. Hint: get everone their own earphones. The self guided tour is CD driven and it was fun for the kids to listen to a description of only the exibits they were interested in. <BR>The pictures they like the best are the goofy pictures they took of each other at monuments (Nick's arm inside the mouth of a toothy gargoile, Emily laying down in an empty stone crypt with her arms crossed - you know the ones). We all thought they were funny <BR>and creative. Have fun. We sure did!