Southern Italy with kids: Rome

Ok, so first bit of advice when traveling with kids: Go with Airbnb.  You can get 2 rooms for the price of one when traveling abroad which gives you some much-needed space, access to a washing machine (usually), but most importantly: you have access to a mini-kitchen which means that you can eat breakfast (as long as you hit the grocery store within hours of your arrival), when your kids wake you up at 4am cause they are jet lagging and hungry.  Otherwise, you're probably going to have to wait until the hotel serves breakfast at 7am(most of Asia) or 8am (Italy).  And those hours can be pretty painful with hungry kids. 

(The place we're currently as I write this post is a beautiful apartment right on the Anfiteatro in Lucca, a medieval walled city between Florence and the coast in Tuscany.  It's about 130USD a night and 2 bedroom, 2 bath, just remodeled and lovely.)

But this blog post is supposed to be about Rome. 

My advice:

Get ready to walk.  Leave the stroller at home.  Just start early when the kids are ready to walk (mostly run) around the colosseum and before the crowds hit hard. 

Don't try to do too much in one day.  leave a lot of time for gelato (and coffee) breaks and involve the kids in the planning.  Before getting on the plane, stop at the library at home and get some books about the history of Rome.  Keep the kids on an ongoing hunt for Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf all over the city.  They'll be more invested.  

Also, don't spend too much time in Rome.  It's a big city with tons of history and very cool, but for the kids, it mostly boils down to lots of walking, lots of people, lots of heat and dust, and there is SO much more to Italy than Rome.  There. I said it.  Let the negative comments abound.  I'm sticking by my experience. 

But still, we loved our few days in the eternal city.  We opted out of the Vatican this time around but instead spent time biking in the Vatican gardens.  We were conscious of trying to do too much.
Day 1: Colosseum and walkabout.
Day 2: Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Boca della Verita (and catching up with some Italian friends).
Day 3:  a very hot day at the Vatican gardens and Castel Sant'Angelo

Aliana couldn't take it - she was too worried about her sister's hand.

We broke up the day with some dancing in the piazzas

And spent some time cooling off in the churches.  The girls love sacred spaces.

At last, some time with our Italian friends who swept the girls away at just the right moment.

Trevi Fountain - they wanted to jump in.  It was a hot day. 

Spanish Steps. Managing a few smiles...

We definitely hit it at the wrong time of the day. All the girls wanted was to get gelato and head home.  It was hot and we were still jet-lagging.  So we climbed to the top and hopped on the Metro back to our apartment.

At Castel Saint'Angelo - Important info: there's a cafe at the top of the castle.  It has gorgeous views of the Vatican and even more importantly, sandwiches, gelato and prosecco (!) We made it to the top just in time.

Rome is truly stunning.  Especially when you're not jet-lagged or traveling with kids.  Even then, it can still be fabulous. Just don't make your whole trip to Italy about the big cities.  Especially when traveling with kids.  Make sure you get out and see some of the other amazing sites of southern Italy.  They are closer than you think and breathtakingly beautiful. 

From Rome, we took a train down to Naples to pick up our rental car for the Amalfi coast.  (don't try to train it through Amalfi with kids.  Rent a car.  I couldn't stress this enough.  You can see so much more, stop when you need for bathrooms or gelato breaks, and it's so much easier with luggage).

The train was from Rome to Naples easy and fun and allowed us the opportunity to head over to the famous L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele,  about 12 min walking from the Naples train station.  (just hold onto your kids as you cross the street - we live in Jakarta, which has arguably the worst traffic in the world but still, walking from the Naples train station to a pizzeria down the street made our hearts race a bit....)

After leaving our suitcases (for the entire summer) off at the deposito at the train station, we got to the pizzeria just after it opened and there was already a line out the door so we took the ticket we were handed and waited for a table.  Turnover was quick and the results delicious and absolutely worth the wait and the walk. 

Umm....yep.  This place lives up to the hype.  Incredible pizza napoletana at cheap prices.  

After filling our bellies we headed back to the station to pick up our rental car, took a deep breath and braved the drive out of Naples.  After 5+ years driving in Jakarta, we were pretty prepared for madness, but we were still happy to get out of town and on the highway.  The drive down to Amalfi was pretty quick.  Around an hour and 1/2.  And beautiful.  But I'll save all of that for the next post.