Visit Rome with kids

In this dossier, I share my experience and advice for preparing your trip to Rome as a family, based on our stay and your feedback on this magnificent city in Lazio. I was very impressed by the cultural richness of Rome and I’ve learnt a few tips to make your trip as enjoyable as possible, especially when you’re travelling with children, or even a baby.

First of all, I agree that 5 days is a short time to explore all the treasures Rome has to offer, especially with a family. The city is a veritable open-air museum, packed with historical and cultural sites to visit. So I recommend that you plan your itinerary carefully and make informed choices to make the most of your time here.

Look out for the Jubilee in Rome in 2025, an event that takes place every 25 years! It’s going to be packed!

>> Back to our guide : Latium with kids

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What kids will love in Rome: fun activities

Because visiting Rome as a family means seeing a lot of monuments and old stone and therefore risking your children’s despair, here’s a selection of family activities that are a lot more fun!

• Eating ice-cream: Italy’s must-do activity, whatever the season!
• Hear a cannon fire at high noon in the Travestere district
• Become a gladiator for a day: spend some time at this unusual school in Rome
• Have fun in the gardens of Villa Borghese: you’ll discover the Biopark, merry-go-rounds and pretty paths for children to let off steam
• Time Elevator
• Take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour: perfect for discovering Rome as a family, with young children
• Rome’s Science Museum: Explora
• Leonardo da Vinci Experiments Museum: a museum in the same spirit as the one we visited in Venice as a family.
• Immersive Rome at Roma World
• Discover the history of Rome in 3D
• Get lost in the Catacombs, more for teenagers

What to see in Rome with your family: our top tips!

Rome is a very big city, and you’re going to be doing a lot of walking and waiting. So I suggest you make a careful selection of the monuments you want to see and, above all, buy skip-the-line tickets so you don’t waste time buying tickets.

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Plan your trip in Italy

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Roma free visits

Parce qu’en famille, on ne peut pas toujours faire toutes les visites payantes, sous peine de partir moins souvent ;), voici nos découvertes de beaux monuments à découvrir gratuitement dans Rome en marchant avec les enfants… de loin!

How can you visit Rome with your family? Our tips.

On foot and by metro!

This is the best way to enjoy every little street in this superb city of Rome. The metro will take you quickly to the area you want to visit, and then you can explore it on foot. If you take the Roma Pass, all transport tickets are included in the pass.

Wear your best shoes!

My feet have rarely hurt so much, but the nasty gastro microbes were probably weakening me a bit. But we kept up a steady pace: about 8 hours of walking a day, including visits and walks.

Get up early

We were able to see the Trevi Fountain at 9am! Only ten or so people were there, whereas 2 days before, at 5pm, hundreds of people were jostling for position and it was impossible to get close to the water.

Roma Pass tips: Visits and transport for the whole family

In 5 days, it was impossible to waste time queuing, especially with children! Even if we got up early to be the first on the sites, there were hours of queuing to get into the main sites in Rome! To avoid this, I recommend the Roma Pass, which enabled us to avoid this inconvenience!

The Roma Pass is valid for 48 to 72 hours: you need to activate it on the morning of your first visit, as it will expire at midnight on the 3rd day of your visit.

Benefits of the Roma Pass:

• 2 free visits and the following ones at half price: we even had 3 free visits 😉
• completely free transport: metro, bus and train to Ostia,
• queue-cutting: a special counter for Roma Pass holders is available on the sites

Roma Pass price: around €35 per person (buy online to save time and avoid exchange rates): you need to plan at least 4 or 5 visits to make it worth your while and use public transport often – Not useful for children, who get free entry to practically all the museums!
>> More iinfos on Roma Pass.

There’s another Roma Pass at €97 which includes more monuments, but check which visits you’re really going to do with children, depending on how much time you have! I’m not sure it’s a good idea for a family, bearing in mind that children tire quickly! I’ll try to make a comparison!

Where to stay in Rome as a family?

I’ll tell you more about the hotel we chose, but here’s some information to help you choose your hotel.

Plus de bonnes adresses à Rome ici

>> Our post Where to stay in Rome with kids

Rome with baby advice: our tips

What baby equipment to bring: pushchair or baby carrier?

Stroller : be careful, the alleys in the centre are all cobbled; they shake baby up a lot. If you have a big 3-wheeled all-terrain pushchair, it will be easier. Like all metros, Rome’s is no exception to the rule: the stairs are easier to negotiate if there are 2 of you carrying the pushchair.

Large 3-wheeled pushchair – ideal on the cobbled streets of Rome and even better on the old stones of Ostia Antica! The underground is always tricky, as it is in every city in the world, but there were 2 of us and we carried the pushchair up the stairs!

Baby carriers: On certain monuments, pushchairs are not allowed, or even baby carriers for hiking are not permitted. Used to visit the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Forum. A pushchair would have been fine, but be careful in the Forum, which is paved with very old and large stones. We should also have used it to visit the catacombs, but we couldn’t go!

Cot: it’s best to bring your own cot to simplify your choice of accommodation. Not all are equipped.

Feeding baby in Rome – Infant milk, baby food:

Baby food is easy to find in any supermarket or even pharmacy, and there was baby milk available too. However, there wasn’t much choice of savoury foods, and only meat-based foods from 4 months. Nappies are also easy to find, they were Pampers.

>> Read also : 5 days in Rome with baby

How do I get to Rome as a family?

• By train: if you live around Lyon, the journey time by train is the same as by car. This avoids the fatigue of driving and allows you to arrive directly in the city centre – Book your train here
• By plane: the easiest way to travel to most French cities, but avoid a city-trip of just a few days and combine this visit with a trip to Italy to reduce your environmental impact – Book your plane here
• By car: easy from the Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur region, but be aware that Rome’s city centre is closed to cars, so I advise you to park your car in dedicated car parks. From our house (Serre Chevalier), it’s an 8-hour drive.?

How and where can I park in Rome?

Please note that the centre of Rome is strictly reserved for holders of a circulation card. As we arrived on a public holiday, it was possible to reach our chosen hotel on a road accessible by car. We unloaded all our belongings and then drove to a guarded car park where the car stayed for 5 days.

Parking in the centre of town is very expensive: €20 a day. A good idea: go and park near Roma Porta San Paola station, Partigiani car park: 5€ a day, then a metro ticket to get to our hotel on via Cavour, 2 steps from the Coliseum.

How long should you stay in Rome with children?

Visiting Rome as a family is very tiring – you have to walk a lot!

• 3 days: the minimum is a 3-day weekend. You’ll then only be able to concentrate on Rome’s main monuments, so you won’t have to rush around too much.
• In 5 days, you can go to Ostia Antica and visit a lesser-known district, Travestere, with your children. You’ll discover the Italian way of life and the famous charming little streets.
• In a week: tested by a travelling family whose testimonial can be found below.