toddler activities in rome

[aprilv]

Hi Rome Mamas--we are excited to be visiting rome in march! our ds will be 17 mos old, and we are staying in the hilton hotel in the middle of downtown rome. can anyone suggest any good, toddler friendly activities, parks, restaurants, etc in that area? thanks!

[RomanGoddess]

Can't say that you will find that much specifically for very small children in Rome. You may want to visit the Casina di Raffaello in the Villa Borghese. There is an outdoor play area that he might like. Other than that, to tell you the truth, when my daughter was that age, she just like all the steps everywhere (like at the Spanish Steps and at the Vatican) and she LOVED the little entrance ramp at the Pantheon.

The restaurants are super child-friendly. No worries there.

Oh, and don't forget to stop for gelato artigianale every afternoon. He will no doubt love that, too.:wink

[aprilv]

thanks for your reply! climbing steps will be fun for him- and tiring for me, i'm sure!
glad to hear we'll be welcomed everywhere!

[Kanga]

We were just in Rome and a friend of mine took us to the Explora, which was a hands-on museum perfect for kids from about toddler age to maybe 6 years old. Lots of practical life role playing kinds of stuff. I'm not sure I have the spelling right, but you should ask around for it. They also had a great play area outside, although the structures were a little advanced for a toddler.

Also the lake in the EUR was fun for our kids when they were toddlers... lots of traffic free green space to explore.

Also Piazza Nuovo had pretty good assortment of children's entertainers. We always took a long break there when exploring down town. And just around the corner the Cul De Sac is a perfect restaurant to taste bits of this and that. My kids especially like the meatballs.

Mostly just take a toddler pace and you'll all have fun exploring.

[RomanGoddess]

Explora is great but it is not quite in the under-two age bracket. I found that when DD turned two years old, she was only just old enough to really enjoy the place. There is of course also the zoo (in the villa borghese) but not sure that you really want to come to Rome to visit a zoo.:innocent