After a spectacular few days in Florence, we headed to our final stop of the trip: Rome! If you missed our Florence trip post, you can read that HERE.
Rome is without a doubt, one of the most beautiful and historic places we have ever been to but definitely more touristy and crowded. Bryan and I made our first trip here in 2013 and have always talked about going back – and of course, with the kids! For the foodie, there are phenomenal restaurants and delicious cafes on just about every corner. For the history buff, I’m not sure it gets much better than Rome. Stepping into the coliseum, touring the Vatican, walking the Spanish steps, or tossing coins into the Trevi Fountain are just a few of the endless amounts of incredible history you can check out while in the city. We were told you could never see it all, and I think there’s some truth to that. We spent four nights in Rome this time (same in 2013) and I think we got a pretty good ‘feel’ for the city, but I’m aware we’re only scratching the surface.
Below you’ll find a summary of how we navigated “the Eternal City,” where we ate, where we stayed, and some activities that we’d recommend.
**Know before you go in 2025
The Jubilee (Holy Year) is taking place in Rome this year – it happens every 25 years, and is a Catholic event that will draw tons of people from all over the world. The city will be even more busy then usual!
How we got from Florence to Rome
Italia Rail – We had never traveled on this train service before, but it was very similar to the Eurostar. Easy to book, a very easy ride, and we’d 100% do it again. The train from Florence to Rome took about 90 minutes. They have almost 50 trains a day servicing this route, so lots of time options if you’re worried about timing. We were able to book 4 seats (Georgie on a lap) facing each other with a table in the middle – which was a very comfortable seating arrangement for our family.
The only trick to trains in Europe as we have experienced it, is getting your luggage onto the train. I took the kids and got settled, and Bryan was in charge of luggage. Needless to say, if you travel light, this won’t be an issue. With 5 people and a couple hundred pounds of bags, this is some work! If you’re at all concerned about this, I’d recommend hiring a porter (do this at your hotel, they will call and arrange if possible) to assist with loading. Bryan met a very nice man from Alabama on the train who helped load the last few bags – I love meeting people while traveling that are just so kind!
How did we get to and from Hotels and train stations?
There are a couple of ways to go about this with kids – depending on the destination, we usually travel with our Pico travel car seat from WAYB. They fold up super small and the bags they come in allow us to pack a couple of kids items for easy access (cups, blanket, a toy or two, etc). If we are getting picked up from an airport or train station, we’ll book a car service through Transfeero. It’s a nice piece of mind to have a car waiting for you when you arrive. When it’s just the two of us traveling, we’ll generally use uber, or grab a taxi.
The other way we’ll book rides while traveling is through the hotel. Most hotels we’ve stayed at internationally are great about arranging rides for our family. In our case, it’s important to have a gameplan ahead (ask about this a day or two before you need it) as we can’t really just ‘walk’ all of our kids and bags a couple of miles to the train station – as fun as that sounds!
In Florence, the hotel booked us a van to take us to the train station. Once we arrived via train in Rome, we had a car service pick us up and take us to the hotel. Sounds like some work, but it’s worth it in our opinion to have this all sorted out.
Our Hotel in Rome
We stayed at the Aleph Rome Hotel – Curio Collection by Hilton. We had never stayed here before, but the pictures looked beautiful and we found a room that more than fit our needs. The inside of the hotel is gorgeous, and was definitely a great way to relax after a full day of site seeing and pizza! We booked an “Aleph Suite” and were able to use our AAA membership for a discount. We find Rome to be a very walkable city, and never felt like we were too far away from anything – 10 minute walk to the Trevi Fountain, 12 to the Spanish Steps, 30 to the Coliseum but we stopped for a spritz or a snack both ways so it didn’t seem like it. The hotel was super clean, staff was very friendly, and our room was very spacious and perfect for all 5 of us. We felt like we were close enough to walk just about anywhere, but far enough out
This should probably be more towards the top of this post as it was easily one of the highlights of our whole trip – Eloise for sure! I’d recommend doing this towards the beginning of your trip so you can really get a feel for the layout of the city. You’ll see tons of historical buildings, statues, churches, neighborhoods, and learn more in a condensed amount of time from a tour guide than we ever could have hoped to on our own in a short time. All of this from the comfort of a golf cart, with an English speaking tour guide, and finishes at a local gelato shop which served as great ‘motivation’ for the kids to hang in there!
Probably the highlight for me was the Terrazza del Giancolo – it’s a spot Bryan and I had never seen before, and absolutely the best wide view of Rome we’ve ever seen. We wouldn’t have made it there without our guide, so this was a really cool bonus spot! We then made our way back down the hill through the Trastevere – I think we asked our guide to stop 5 or 6 times to take pictures, it was gorgeous. All in all, a really great way to see the city!
Food In Rome
With kids as small as ours at the time of travel, we do not schedule a ton of higher end, ‘planned in advance’ meals, especially in Italy. You can definitely walk the city, find a cafe without a waiter begging you to come in, and have a nice meal. Our kids loved the pizza and pasta at every stop! You really can’t go too wrong. We generally try to avoid restaurants with pictures of their food on a menu – usually means very touristy, as well as the pushy waiter outside. We have also found while traveling with kids in Europe, most places are super accommodating for kids.
All that said, this place was so good, walkable from the hotel, and came highly recommended from our hotel concierge. You can also book a table online, which we did, sat outside on a warm Rome evening and had an incredible meal. Melt in your mouth pasta (Bryan loves Cacio e Pepe), bread with meats and cheese, and lots for the kids to choose from. The coolest part of this meal is that the restaurant is also a wine shop where you can go with an employee and choose your wine for the meal. Bryan had so much fun talking through several different wine options based on what we were eating and ended up with a delicious bottle of Brunello.
Gelato – Giolitti’s
This place went crazy viral a couple of years ago, and for good reason – the gelato is SO good. There will be a line, it will be worth it to wait! It melts super fast because it’s made very fresh. We were all very happy with our ice cream this day!
Tips and Tricks
If you want to go inside the Colosseum, you need to buy tickets ahead. There are tons of different vendors, but we have always had good experiences with Viator. If it’s your first trip to Rome, I’d highly recommend going inside, it’s breathtaking for sure. We did not this time around, but still took some really fun pictures outside.
Trevi Fountain – the tradition of tossing coins with your right hand over your right shoulder is a must do! That said, you need some coins to do this! When you have a Henry, you need more than a few coins, ha! The gelato shops and markets right next to the Trevi are packed, and not super fond of people coming to ask for change and not buying anything. So, either buy a bottle of water and ask for coins back, or break your euro bill somewhere else before your Trevi Fountain day! Also, any blog you read will tell you this, but this fountain gets very crowded. If you can manage an early morning stop here, it’s probably worth it. If not, just be ready to be a little patient to get a good spot.
Strollers in Rome – honestly easier than Florence. A lot of the roads are strollerable and easy to walk on. Where it gets a little tougher is the crowds, like in any bigger city. It saved us a few times though as kids would take a nap between meals and sightseeing. We’ve traveled to Europe twice with this stroller and will be taking it for a third time next week. It’s compact, light and just travels well.
Favorite Kid’s Travel necessities:
Favorite Kid’s Activities/Toys to travel with:
I hope this post was helpful as you plan your next trip to Rome!
