IWS

Whilst holidays are for seeing the sights and enjoying the local delights, when travelling with kids I know you have to get back to the basics now and then. Our hotel in Rome states it has satellite TV - as such can I expect some of the channels to be in English or should we pack extra books and games? Thanks - Ian

missypie

I'd pack a book or two for them for sure - there are lots of children's books that relate to Italy. A deck of cards is always nice - doesn't take up much space. My kids brought game boys and IPods (I've been blasted by some on this board for this.)Do you have the game of "Password"? I don't know how old your kids are, but we have passed many long travel hours with that game. If you take the clue cards and the little holders out of the box and put them in a zip lock bag, it takes up almost no room.

As for your TV question - don't know what your hotel will have, but my kids sat and watched old Micky Mouse cartoons dubbed into Italian in Rome. They've watched cartoons in many languages in several countries (including Rainbow Fish in Arabic in Paris). A person who likes to watch TV will stare at it, whether or not it's in his or her language.

sprin2

I agree with missypie, kids will generally watch cartoons in any language and frankly cartoons don't requuire many words, relying instead on visuals.

I think you'll find portions of the satellite in English, but I'd also pack a couple of age-appropriate games and books. I'd also look up English bookstores in Rome and if there are home school stores. My kids love to pick up books when they travel and we've found some great ones at the English home school stores in Europe.

And missypie, we also travel with our gameboys and ipods.

travelatte

I'd agree with missypie, pack extra books,etc. My kids enjoy watching cartoons in any language while on vacation. They watched in Italian last year and in French on a previous trip. Our kids also enjoyed comic books in Italian and German. It made our car trips easier. As far as the gameboys, we took ours last summer and could not recharge them in Italy. We tried many converters and all over Italy. We are from the US, so maybe you will not have the problems from the UK. We finally were able to charge in London using the shaver outlet.

Have a great trip!
Travelatte

J62

In my experience when a hotel in Europe says they have satellite TV it means they offer just a handful of English news channels - CNN world, BBC, and CNBC - often nothing more. It does not mean they have the same 100 channels from DishNetwork or DirecTV that you may have at home.

missypie

Travelatte, we stayed in Rome, Florence and Venice and could only recharge in Florence. The apartment we rented in Rome burned out one thing promptly (even with adapter and converter), so we didn't try anything else. In Florence, we recharged cell phones and everything else. In Venice, even though the hotel had just opened last year and everything was new and beautiful, nothing would charge. Even when we plugged the chargers into outlets that we know worked, nothing at all happened.

travelatte

Missypie,
We tried in Venice, the Dolomites and Montepulciano. No luck. We rented apartments and also stayed in hotels. Our friends from England suggested the shaver outlet in London and it worked. Interestingly, there was a post maybe last year about the same recharging issues in Sweden I believe.
I wonder what is different in Florence. We may go to Greece next summer, not sure if things will recharge there.
Travelatte

Grinisa

I agree with the above--Rome hotels will have CNN International, Sky TV and possibly the BBC but nothing in English for children. Our girls enjoyed watching cartoons in Italian and even Italian variety/game shows. But we always packed some new books, magazines, small toys and games and of course Gameboy. For more ideas on traveling in Italy with young children, see my trip reports on Slowtrav.com entitled "Chills and Thrills in the Eternal City," "Principesse Tour" and the just published "Principesse Pursue Piatti."

Iregeo

IWS, funny story on this topic and a bit of a warning...

When my family visited Rome 4 years ago, my son was 11 y.o. He had a very difficult time adjusting to the time change and ended up watching t.v. into the wee hours. He very much enjoyed watching cartoons and kid type shows in Italian, which, to my suprise, turned into porn sometime around midnight! I didn't learn of this until lunch the next day when he filled us in on what he had seen the night before! Needless to say, my husband and I were shocked, but it was kind of funny! Happy travels.

sprin2

As for recharging gameboys -- we now own a UK charger and a European charger, purchased at game stores in York and Uppsala. Needless to say these chargers are constantly being borrowed by our friends for their overseas trips.

missypie

Next trip, I need to bring some "sacrificial" item to recharge, to see if it works before I burn out anything of value. (Maybe an old cell phone?) It's kind of scary to plug in relatively expensive electronics, not knowing what the result will be.

FainaAgain

I would get some old or inexpensive books, toys, and leave them behind for other travelers to use.

nytraveler

We have found that most hotels in Italy when they say satellite TV - unless they are quite upscale - mean CNN, Sky News and Sky Sports. Perhaps BBC.

If this is realy important contact the hotels directly to see what kind of variety they have.

Or they could try watching some Italian TV - it can really be a hoot - esp watching english language movies translated into Italian.

missypie

It's pretty interesting to watch even the English language news shows - the anchors don't all have perfect teeth, hair and looks. Do you think that they get hired for something other than their looks?