Planning a trip to Rome with a family is a great idea! Rome is a beautiful, safe, walkable city where most people speak English. The food is reasonably priced and awesome.
So what are you waiting for?
Where to stay in Rome with a family?
AirBnb
We are a family of 6 who stayed in an airbnb. The cost of hotels for 6 people was double what the airbnb cost. Plus in the airbnb, we had room to spread out, a kitchen to cook in, a large dining table and a nice sized living room. It really was a home away from home. I highly recommend family travel this way.
Beware – thoroughly read all the reviews on the airbnb website. Not all airbnbs are created equal. Some are beautiful, others are shared spaces or can be less than clean. I would only choose an airbnb that has many good reviews.
Hotel
This is the traditional and less risky way to go, especially if you are a smaller group. Most European hotel rooms only sleep 2 possibly 3 to a room. They are also usually much smaller than the hotel rooms we are used to in the US. But there is a front desk to help you with all of your requests and often a restaurant in the hotel.
Which Neighborhood in Rome is best?
The blue line down the middle is the Tiber River.
The most central areas in Rome that you can walk everywhere from are on the east side of the Tiber: Spanish Steps, Navona, Trevi, Pantheon, Campo de Fiori, Via Veneto, Quirinale, Roman Forum, and Colosseum. All of these are nice safe walkable areas. Navona, Spanish steps, Pantheon, and Campo de Fiori all have small winding cobblestone streets with small white lights everywhere and tiny shops and restaurants – and are less crowded than the more touristy areas or Trastevere.
We enjoyed shopping along Via del Corso in Campo de Fiori, and we stayed in Navona which was a 6-minute walk to the Vatican and less than 20 minutes to most other places.
The Roman Forum, Colosseum and Trevi are crowded tourist areas with many restaurants and shops. They are beautiful areas that have sidewalks and street lights but are just more crowded.
On the west side of the Tiber, Prati is a nice area with upscale shopping. Trastevere is the “hip” area with graffiti everywhere, many restaurants and wine bars and small curvy cobblestone streets strung with tiny white lights. Trastevere only gets busy in the evenings, then it goes until 3 in the morning. Both of these areas are totally walkable to the rest of Rome, it is just 10-15 minute walk further.
Where to Eat in Rome with a family?
We never had bad food anywhere in Rome, so honestly, you can’t go wrong. However, some places are better than others, and some were more expensive than others.
We used recommendations from friends, trip advisor, yelp and google reviews. They were all pretty accurate.
We also found that restaurants that had workers outside trying to lure you in were less satisfying than those that were full without any advertising.
Some of our favorite cost-effective restaurants were:
La Tavernetta 29 by Tony in Trastevere: amazing chicken parmigiana and penne alla vodka! and wonderful house wine. We actually loved everything we ate here. We ended up eating there 3 times, and I would go back in a second if I could. It was also very reasonably priced.
Inside view of La Tavernetta 29
This huge plate is the chicken parmigiana – covered in wonderful cheese and great sauce
That’s Amore Restaurant near the Spanish Steps: small family-friendly restaurant with wonderful staff and service. Chef Fabio even came out to greet people. Everyone in our group of 8 enjoyed their food. We had a wine recommended by the waiter that was the best wine we had on our trip. Everything we tried here tasted great and it had a nice happy atmosphere.
Side view of That’s Amore from the street
Inside view of That’s Amore
O’Pazzariello in Ponte: a tiny place that you would easily walk by, but since it was near our airbnb and always full, we gave it a try. Wonderful! It is very reasonably priced. The house wine was our 2nd favorite wine in Rome. The Appetizers: friti misti, rosemary focaccia, suppli (rice balls) were all great. I ate carbonara and also enjoyed it.
Inside view of O’Pazzarielo
Pasta to “Take Out”
There are small “hole in the wall” places all over Rome that sell “fast food” pasta. They usually have 4-7 types of pasta sauces listed on a board. Prices are usually 5 euro for a take out container of pasta. The 2 places we tried were both great. For this price, it is worth a try. My kids got 2 servings from one container. I ate the whole serving. 😔
This is the menu from Pasta Imperiale on the Via dei Coronari in Ponte that I went to twice. You pick a pasta shape and a sauce, prices at 5 and 6 euro.
Gelato
Gelato is an Italian past time. Everyone eats it. Our favorite gelato place was the Gelateria del Teatro in Ponte. The gelato was amazing! There were many many flavors that were made with real ingredients (strawberries, coconut, raspberry, pine nut, fig….) They also sold chocolates, cookies, pastries. There is a sitting area in the back of the store. We came here 9 times! 😂 It was also reasonably priced.
Gelateria del Teatro, Rome; Photo: Divento.com
Pasticcerie (Bakeries)
We were told by many people that the best bakery would be Pasticceria Regoli near the Colosseum. We went twice and both times it was closed (many places are closed over Christmas and New Year’s). So we ended up across the street in Bar Pasticceria Enoteca D’Amore. It was very good and reasonably priced, but very tiny, so we took our food to go.
McDonald’s
Surprisingly, McDonald’s has done very well in Rome. Our kids were dying to check one out. The menu is basically the same as in the USA, but it has a much nicer McCafe. The one we went into near the Vatican was packed. The McCafe was a separate area with a large pastry selection of Roman specialties (no apple pie here!). It seems that many Italians go straight to the McCafe and skip the main part of McDonald’s. They also have touch screen ordering in many languages.
What to see on a trip to Rome with a family?
Vatican / Sistine Chapel / St Peter’s Basilica
St Peters is the largest Catholic basilica in the world. It is free to enter, but the security line to get in can take up to 2 hours.
We booked a “Skip the Line” and “Privileged Entrance” tour. Many companies offer this tour, we just happened to choose The Roman Guy. (The Roman Guy Vatican Skip the Line Privileged Tour) Our tour guide Agata was awesome. I didn’t realize at the time how good this tour would be. We went through a short security line just for private tour groups that headed straight for the Sistine Chapel one hour before it opened to other tourists – so it was basically empty! We also went through a back entrance directly into St Peters without any lines. If you can afford it, this is the way to go. The tour was 3.5 hours long. Our kids were exhausted, but it was still great. Bring water bottles with you and eat breakfast first or you will have a cranky group.
Beware: Much of the Vatican is not handicapped accessible.
Final Judgement by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel
The ceiling in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo
St Peter’s Square with the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the background
Main Altar in St Peter’s Basilica; Photo: Holy Land Tours
Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini
“Church of the Bones”
Photo credit: TripAdvisor
This is definitely a “unique, one of a kind place”.
It is a beautiful Catholic church built in 1626 with a crypt underneath. The church is free, but the museum and crypt are about 8.50 euro pp (worth it!).
In 1632, Cardinal Barberini who was a Capuchin ordered that the remains of thousands of Capuchin friars be exhumed and transferred to the crypt under the church.
The crypt contains the remains of about 4,000 friars.
The crypt is divided into 5 chapels dimly lit by a little natural light and a few small fluorescent lights.
The crypts are decorated with bones in a macabre artistic way. Honestly, it is hard to describe. It sounds crazy, and whoever did the “artwork” must have been some crazy artistic genius. He made light fixtures, coats of arms, wallpaper, pictures, scenes – all from thousands of human bones.
I was worried my 10 year old would get upset, but it seemed more like weird art than bones to him, so he was okay.
Pantheon
Outside view of the Pantheon. Photo Credit: MentalFloss.com
Inside view of the Pantheon
Open Ceiling of the Pantheon. Photo Credit Viator.com
This is a former pagan temple built in the first century by the Romans that was converted at some point into a Catholic church. It boasts the largest unreinforced cement dome in the world.
It is free to visit and no tour guide is needed. There are plaques throughout the building and a video that explains a lot about the building.
Spanish Steps
Photo Credit: CNN.com
A sloping staircase of 138 steps that has a church at the top: Trinita dei Fontana. The steps overlook a Bernini fountain: Fountain of the Ugly Boat.
Almost every street around the Spanish Steps has cute shops.
Colosseum / Roman Forum / Palatine Hill
Outside the colosseum. Photo by Tripadvisor
Inside the Roman forum
View of Palatine Hill when looking up from inside the forum
We took an official tour of these 3 places. We were told that the Colosseum is the most visited building in the world. I believe it because it was very crowded. It took a while to get through the ticketing area and then through security.
The tour was interesting. I enjoyed the Colosseum and Palatine hill. We took a 3-hour tour which was way too long with kids. The kids were begging to leave by the end. Take a shorter tour or go to Palatine hill on a different day. Palatine hill is actually huge, and I don’t think we saw a quarter of it.
We used the tour company: Get Your Guide. I won’t recommend it because I don’t think it was handled well. Our group was over 30 people. We spent way too much time waiting for people to catch up.
Roman Catholic Churches
There seems to be a church every 1 to 2 blocks in Rome. Some stand out, others blend into the surrounding buildings. Most don’t look overly impressive on the outside, but they are all beautiful on the inside. The inside of the Catholic Churches tend to be very ornate with many statues, paintings, carvings and a lot of gold. We were here at Christmas, so they also all had beautiful nativity scenes as well. All are free. I recommend any of them to visit. You won’t be disappointed.
One interesting church is Santa Maria Della Pache near Piazza Navona. It is not easy to find and not crowded, but is filled with beautiful artwork. It was built in 1482 and contains Raphael’s Sibylla fresco as well as many other pieces of art. It also has a lovely cafe attached to it that we really enjoyed (served alcohol as well – doesn’t every place in Rome?).
Fresco by Raphael of the Sybil prophecy.
Piazzas of Rome
Piazzas are basically large open spaces throughout the city. Most of them have at least one fountain in the center, some have more than one. The fountains tend to be ornate and look great in pictures. Surrounding the piazzas are usually cafes and shops.
Piazza Navona is a large piazza with 3 fountains, one of which is Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers. There was a Christmas market there when we were visiting with many cute stalls selling souvenirs and food. There was also a puppet show (so Italian!).
Piazza Navona at Christmas time
Piazza Venezia is a large busy area where many streets intersect. The old Venetian embassy (Palazzo Venezia) sits along one side and has a beautiful quiet park with a fountain inside it. St Mark’s (San Marco) Church, the patron saint of Venice abuts the Palazzo and is also beautiful. The Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II (first king of Italy) is the huge building with many ornate statues on it that you can see from many places in Rome.
Monument to Vittorio Emanuelle II
Inside Venezia Plaza
Pompeii Day Trip
We decided to do a single day trip to Pompeii from Rome. You can go on your own to Pompeii by taking a train from Rome that connects in Naples or you can take a tour. We opted for a tour.
I read many reviews and picked the tours that sounded the most interesting. They were priced at about $190 pp for approximately a 12 hour day. We are a family of 6, so the price came to $1,100.
I then found reviews of private tours that were actually cheaper for us because they had flat rates vs a per person price. So we choose: Rome Private Excursions. We were not referred by anyone, we just read the online reviews. It turned out to be our best tour! We were picked up at our airbnb and driven to Pompeii in a Mecedes van by a nice and knowledgeable man named Max. We were met in Pompei by a tour guide (Fabio 😂) who specializes in Pompeii, then we were driven to Positano and Sorrento for a wonderful lunch (price not included). The trip was relaxing and interesting. I would highly recommend doing Pompeii this way if possible.
Street in Pompeii
Trevi Fountain
I am listing the Trevi Fountain because it is the iconic fountain that every tourist takes pictures of in Rome.
However…. It was the most crowded place we went to in all of Rome. It was actually unpleasant, and once we got a few quick pictures, we left. Every street leading to the fountain is also really crowded.
So go once, keep your belongings closely held to your body, get your picture, and never return.
Trevi Fountain
Have an Awesome Trip!
Ciao!
Great article! I liked what you said about going to the Trevi fountain once and never returning 😂
Pompeii is amazing…. To see those people frozen exactly as they were when the volcano irrupt it is just staggering to the eye. However as you know those with young children should be forewarned of the “graphic imagery.”
So glad you had a good time!