When our kids were little, we had the good fortune to spend a week in Rome with our kids. We saw virtually everything there is to see on a family trip to Rome, but sadly they were too young to remember anything. On our most recent family trip to Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, we flew in and out of Rome. As a result, we had 24 hours in Rome with kids and we wanted to make the most of it.
Our 24 hours in Rome with kids were split between our arrival and departure days. If you have a full day in Rome with kids, I’ll give my advice at the end on how to most effectively put this itinerary together into a single day.
Nine years after our first family trip to Italy, our kids were now 10 & 12 years old. Here is how we spent 24 hours in Rome with our kids:
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Rome Street Food Tour
Evening of Our Arrival Day in Italy
One of the reasons we love travelling to Italy with kids is how easy it is to feed them. Like most kids, ours love pizza and pasta! While Italy is world-renowned for its amazing kid-friendly food, we wanted to dig a little deeper into Italian cuisine. Our flight into Rome landed early afternoon, so for our first dinner in Rome, we decided it would be fun to join a Rome Street Food Tour.
We met our tour group at Campo de’Fiori, the most famous food market in Rome. Even though it was Easter Sunday, the market was still partially open at 5 pm. After telling us about the history of Campo de’Fiori, our guide led us a few blocks away from the market to our first stop.
We were surprised that the first stop was a pizza place, but our guide explained that the dough was very special; they take 48 hours to make it. We tried two varieties of pizza: margherita and a local variety called Cacio e pepe.
The Cacio e pepe pizza is inspired by the classic Roman pasta dish.. The Romano cheese was very sharp and was unlike any other pizza we’ve ever tried. The other style of pizza we tried was a margarita pizza, which was also amazing, as the classics always are. As promised, the crust was incredibly good, it was crunchy yet chewy.
We walked the side streets en route to our next restaurant, stopping to discuss historical highlights along the way. Our next stop was at a little hole-in-the-wall where we got to try a variety of meat skewers. This place is known for its lamb skewers, but we also tried chicken as well. I’m not usually a fan of lamb, but the salty lamb skewers were quite tender and tasty. The chicken skewers were ok as well, but it kind of reminded us of Shake ‘n Bake.
We ducked into another pizza shop for our third stop, this time to try a popular street food snack called suppli. These delicious snacks are deep-fried rice balls with melted mozzarella and tomato sauce inside.
Our next stop on our Rome food tour was in the Jewish Ghetto, where we tried Carciofi alla Giudia, a deep-fried Jewish artichoke dish. Celine was excited to try it, but the rest of us were pretty tentative. In the end, we all tried it with varied responses. Celine and I really enjoyed it, but the kids weren’t too sure. At least they tried it, which is the biggest benefit of going on a food tour; it encourages them to try new foods while travelling.
Our final stop on our Rome food tour was for gelato. Our guide took us to a shop which makes their own gelato and we each got to choose our own flavour. Blackberries and strawberries were in season at the time, and our guide highly recommended those flavours. He was right, of the flavours we tried, those were the best!
The next morning we hopped on a train to Ercolano, where we began our trip to Pompeii with kids. In Ercolano we hiked up Mt. Vesuvius, and visited the ruins of Herculaneum (another town which was covered in ash, similar to Pompeii). About a week later, we returned to complete our 24 hours in Rome with kids.
Recommended Tour
We love going on food tours when we travel with kids. This Rome food tour was one of the best and allowed us to try many Italian dishes we had never heard of before!
Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum
Afternoon Before We Left Italy
The Colosseum with Kids
This morning, we returned to Rome after visiting the Amalfi Coast with kids. Our first stop was the Colosseum.
It’s always exciting to see one of the world’s most famous buildings in person. So, it’s no surprise that visiting the Colosseum was one of the biggest highlights of our 24 hours in Rome with kids.
A visit to the Colosseum entails following a set path throughout the building. The first floor viewpoints were limited in number and all very crowded. But this changed quite a bit when we visited the second floor of the Colosseum; there are significantly more places to stop and soak in views of this incredible building and get some family pictures.
We had Full Experience Tickets, which gave us entry to all the regular visitor areas as well as the Arena floor of the Colosseum. The Arena floor turned out to be our favourite part of visiting the Colosseum with kids, partly because it’s a break from the crowds, and partly because it’s an amazing experience.
Standing on the Arena floor allows you to picture the scale of the Colosseum in a whole different way. We got a sense for what the gladiators must have felt standing in front of a sold-out building. You get a true feel for how enormous the Colosseum is and how dramatic it must have felt in ancient Rome.
Sold Out Colosseum Tickets?
We decided to visit the Colosseum just a few days before our family trip to Italy, so we were disappointed to discover that all the official Colosseum tickets for our day were sold out. We were able to overcome this obstacle by booking this self-guided audio tour of the Colosseum. To be honest, we didn’t even use the audio tour, but it got us Colosseum tickets at our preferred time and date when they were otherwise sold out!
Palatine Hill
After our amazing visit to the Colosseum with kids, we continued on to Palatine Hill, which was included with our tickets. As with our first visit to Palatine Hill nine years ago, we mostly just wandered this area without much of a plan. After a highly structured Colosseum visit, having no plan was a big part of the appeal.
Palatine Hill doesn’t have any must-see attractions, so it’s a great opportunity to walk through some Roman history while enjoying some of the best views in the area. We enjoyed simply walking among the ruins and gardens at our own pace. We don’t love crowds, so after the very crowded Colosseum, Palatine Hill felt much more spread out and relaxed.
The remains here include the hill’s earliest settlements as well as the vast palace complexes built by Roman emperors over time. There were also some excellent elevated viewpoints of the Roman Forum as well.
Roman Forum
After thoroughly exploring Palatine Hill, our last destination of the afternoon was the Roman Forum. We loved slowly walking through the Roman Forum as it really felt like we had stepped deep into the heart of ancient Rome.
This large archaeological area was once the political, religious, and commercial centre of Rome. Walking through this area means passing the remains of temples, arches, basilicas, and government buildings that were once at the centre of Roman life.
We did a surprising amount of walking during our visit to the Roman Forum with kids. Again, it was nice to have the ability to free-roam after the rigid walking path through the Colosseum. You can wander through the ruins and imagine how busy and important this part of Rome once was.
As with Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum is not about a single star attraction, but more about the overall atmosphere of being surrounded by so much history. Some of the most recognizable highlights in the Roman Forum include the Arch of Titus, the Temple of Saturn, and the Via Sacra, the ancient road that runs through the site and once hosted triumphal processions.
For families, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum will likely feel a little less exciting than the Colosseum, but we still highly recommend visiting them. The Colosseum is the star of the show, but the other two help paint a complete picture of life in ancient Rome.
Trevi Fountain
Early Morning on Departure Day
Another must-do attraction during any visit to Rome with kids is the Trevi Fountain. To be honest, we tried to visit the Trevi Fountain on our arrival day, on our way to the Rome food tour, but it was too busy.
Granted it was late-afternoon on Easter Sunday, but the Trevi Fountain was overwhelmingly busy. Even the line to pay to get close to the fountain was excessively long, so we saw what little we could and just went on our way.
We could have stayed, but as I’ve already mentioned, we dislike crowds. And, we had a solid backup plan: get up early on our departure day and see the Trevi Fountain before the crowds.
Our backup strategy worked like a charm. We arrived at the Trevi Fountain at 8:45 am and it was a little crowded, but felt deserted compared to Easter Sunday. We were able to walk right down to the front row of the fountain and soak it all in. In my opinion, the Trevi Fountain is the single most beautiful structure in Rome, and perhaps the world.
If you want to visit the Trevi Fountain with kids, we strongly recommend you do as we did and get there as early as possible. If you’d like your kids to be more excited about visiting a fountain, perhaps buy them the Trevi Fountain Lego set before your trip?
Spanish Steps
After our great success visiting the Trevi Fountain without the crowds, we had some extra time to kill, so we continued to another of Rome’s most crowded attractions, the Spanish Steps.
We arrived at the Spanish Steps just after 9 am and they were virtually empty. Our kids took full advantage and raced each other to the top!
How to See Rome in a Day with Kids
Our 24 hours in Rome with kids was spread out over a few hours over several days. If you are lucky enough to have one full day in Rome with kids, here is how we recommend you put together your itinerary.
Get up early and head for the Trevi Fountain; delay your breakfast if you have to. Getting to the Trevi Fountain early, before the crowds arrive, is one of the best things you can do during your day in Rome with kids.
If you have the time and desire, the Spanish Steps are not far away and should also be reasonably empty at this early hour. If you are short on time, I’d recommend skipping the Spanish Steps as they are pretty boring for kids.
head to the Colosseum to see the most iconic building in Rome, and perhaps the world. Don’t make the same mistake we did: buy your official timed-entry ticket as early as possible. Use our trick of buying a ‘self-guided tour’ only if the official Colosseum tickets are sold out.
You should be done with the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill by mid-afternoon. At this point, you can either take a break or make your way towards the energetic Campo d’Fiori food market. Notable attractions you can see along the way are the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. If you’re up for gelato, try Frigidarium, we loved it nine years ago, and it was just as good when we came back!
To finish your day in Rome with kids, you can opt for taking a Rome food tour as we did, or cross the River Tiber and visit the Vatican Museums. Again, buy your Vatican tickets as early as possible!
Where We Stayed in Rome with Kids
On our first visit to Rome with kids, we had 7 full days, so we wanted to be in the heart of the action. With small kids, having separate bedrooms, a kitchen and laundry facilities were important to us, so we rented an apartment in Rome’s historic centre, near Piazza Navona.
For our most recent family trip to Rome, our kids were older, so we had different priorities. We wanted it to be close to the Roma Termini as we used this train station four times on our Italian family holiday.
We stayed in Rome on our first and last nights of our family trip to Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast and each time we stayed at the Hotel Marcantonio Roma Termini. We chose this hotel for its excellent location; it was about a 3-minute walk to the Roma Termini, and still within 20 minutes of the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum.
We also enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Marcantonio Roma Termini because of the family-friendly rooms. Our room had three beds, a queen and two singles. It also included a simple breakfast delivered to our room each day, which was a nice touch!
Follow Along on our Italy Family Holiday
We hope you enjoyed reading about our 24 hours in Rome with kids and found it useful for planning your family trip!
If you wish to follow along on our recent family vacation to Italy, our next stop was Ercolano (near Naples). If you are considering visiting Pompeii with kids, Ercolano is the perfect base to explore two very important sights: visiting the summit of Mt. Vesuvius and exploring the ruins of Herculaneum, another unfortunate village which was remarkably well preserved after the infamous eruption.
If you are interested in seeing where we went on our first family vacation to Italy, you can see our Italy family itinerary.
Our Travel Journal for Kids
Based on our family travels, our kids helped us design this Travel Journal for Active Kids! This engaging travel journal encourages kids to document their adventures, spark creativity, and stay entertained on the go – grab yours now on Amazon!
