Rome with kids is fab! I took mine when they were 8 and 5. We stayed in a little guest house in a back street near Piazza Navone, so were able to walk to most things. We were on a mission to see how much we could fit into 2 days and 1 night (I get very cheap flights at work) but wish I’d planned longer. We went in May, and the weather was unusually cool for the time of year. We could have done with a bit warmer but I wouldn’t have wanted to be there in the full heat of summer.
Sights we saw in the brief time we were there included the Forum, the Colosseum, Pantheon, Castel Sant Angelo. We walked everywhere, so passed through places like Piazza Venezia (the wedding cake) Piazza Navone, and wandered down streets full of mad shops like the ones that sell priest clothes. There are still so many places to go back and see though, so we will hopefully get another visit there one day in the future.
We also spent a bit of time putting our hands in the Bocca Veritas, and watched an interactive movie on the history of Rome which was good. We had lunch afterwards and discussed the influential renaissance artists mentioned in the movie - da Vinci, Raphael, Michael Angelo, Botticelli - and how they were nearly but not quite the same as the Ninja Turtles, so why did we think that Botticelli had been replaced with Donatello, a lesser artist? And concluded that Donnie was a cooler nickname for a Ninja Turtle than Bottie.
We ate pizza, pasta and ice cream at every meal, which was my kids’ idea of heaven, and yes to looking down the back streets for better quality and value. The waiters treated my kids like royalty - Italians love kids.
This book helped give my kids some challenges whilst also providing lots of easily digested facts about Rome. It kept them looking out for things all the time. Highly recommend it.