Planning a family trip to Rome with kids for 6 days? Wonderful! In this guide you’ll discover a carefully curated itinerary with top attractions, fun activities for children, and tips on where to stay to be close to the most beautiful parts of the Eternal City. Rome with kids isn’t a challenge – it’s a real adventure when you know how to organize it properly.
For each day I’ve tried to give alternatives that fit different budgets and travel styles.
Six-Day Itinerary for Rome with Kids
- Day 1: Rome tour and the Piazza Navona area with or without a museum, dinner in the Piazza Navona area
- Day 2: Visit the Colosseum and gladiator school, dinner in Testaccio (you can buy Colosseum tickets here)
- Day 3: The Vatican and Villa Borghese gardens, dinner near Piazza del Popolo
- Day 4: Pasta-making class, Castel Sant’Angelo, dinner in the Monti area
- Day 5: Mosaic workshop in Trastevere, botanical gardens, dinner in Trastevere
- Day 6: Ostia Antica, Aventine Hill, dinner at your favorite spot in Rome
How to make the most of your time in Rome?
All the places and activities I’ve mentioned are worthwhile. However, you don’t need to do everything to enjoy Rome with kids!
Rome’s center is full of interesting things to see and you can easily fill your day just by walking around, eating gelato, and exploring. This will be especially easy if you find accommodation in the Pantheon/Piazza Navona area or in the Monti neighborhood. At the end of this page you can find our recommended places to stay for families, as well as our tips for getting around Rome with children.
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 1
Morning – I love starting my Rome stay with a city tour, so I can feel it out and see the highlights. I’d suggest the same for you.
A fantastic family Rome tour around the city’s main attractions is the golf cart tour from LivTours.
The golf cart tour is a fun way to see the city and a perfect solution for families with kids who may not be able or want to walk long distances.
With the golf cart you’ll get around, be outdoors, have a guide, and see the best of the city without stress: a wonderful start to your family stay!
The tour will show you Rome’s main attractions, including the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and more.
Budget-Friendly Alternative: if the golf cart tour isn’t your thing, you can choose a paid walking tour or take advantage of a hop-on hop-off bus tour.
Bus tours won’t be able to take you through the smaller streets and to Rome’s most beautiful squares, but they’ll get you close and can be a compromise between a walking tour and a golf cart tour.
Lunch – Lunch in the Piazza Navona area
Afternoon: Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is one of the most famous and beautiful squares in Rome and is located right in the city center.
This area has given Rome the name “open-air museum” and truly at every corner there’s something to see – “talking statues,” fun fountains, street performers, and more. This is also the area where the permanent “Welcome to Rome” exhibition is located.
This is a fun exhibition with 3D light installations and short films showing Rome’s history and main attractions: something that can be done on the first day in Rome with kids to inform them about the city.
There are several ways to visit this area. You can:
- Get “lost” and let the city reveal itself to you
- Create your own route by following our guide to the Piazza Navona neighborhood
- Participate in a self-guided treasure hunt with a guide – this is the most expensive but also the most fun option for kids. For this you get an iPad with instructions at the local Museo Mostra di Leonardo and follow on-screen directions to discover the city at your own pace. The hunt ends at the Leonardo Museum, which is a fun and interactive museum with Leonardo da Vinci’s machines that kids can touch and experiment with.
Dinner – in the Campo de’ Fiori / Pantheon area
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 2
The second day is a great time to “dive into” Ancient Rome.
Morning – spend the morning visiting the Colosseum, which is always an attraction for kids! The Colosseum is the most visited attraction in Rome and there are many places offering tickets to see it.
I’ve tried many of them and these are my favorite Colosseum tours for kids (these tickets are hard to buy but are a great way to see the Colosseum in its entirety):
1. LivTours – Colosseum Express Tour with Underground Access – a small group tour offered by one of my favorite tour agencies in Rome, which is oriented toward families with children’s needs.
2. Standard entrance tickets – if you want to visit the Colosseum at your own pace and have a limited budget, these are the tickets to get.
You can make your visit more interesting by downloading the paid Co&You and Parco Colosseo audio guide or by purchasing an audio guide on site. The same tickets with better cancellation options (and slightly higher price) are also offered at GetYourGuide.
Tickets usually include entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill: don’t forget to visit them too, as they’re exceptional!
Good to know: Colosseum tickets with timed entry are skip-the-line tickets! The only lines for ticket holders are for security checks, which are quick and can’t be skipped, and for those who want to buy tickets on the same day, which isn’t recommended (they’re not always available and the lines are insane).
Lunch – have lunch near the Colosseum. You have many pleasant and non-touristy options on Via dei Santi Quattro or on Oppian Hill right in front of the amphitheater.
Afternoon – head to Oppian Hill and let the kids run around/play at the playground for a bit while you have coffee with a view at the local pavilion. From Oppian Hill you get a beautiful view of the Colosseum, there’s a playground, and an entrance to Domus Aurea – Nero’s old palace, which is now underground.
After this break, grab a taxi and head to the gladiator school on Via Appia. This is a super fun, engaging, and memorable activity for kids and adults, as well as an opportunity to learn something new. The gladiator school is run by Gruppo Storico Romano, which also does historical reenactments, and is historically accurate.
You can find here >>> our full description and review of visiting the gladiator school in Rome with kids
Dinner – have dinner in Testaccio, one of Rome’s most famous foodie neighborhoods
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 3
On day 3 I’ve included a visit to the Vatican. Please carefully read the Vatican dress code before preparing for the day.
Morning: The Vatican – The Vatican is a must when visiting Rome, but can be challenging to visit with kids. The main reason the Vatican is so difficult to navigate with children is that the Vatican Museums are huge and always packed with tourists, all things that can mean kids find them boring.
>>> You can read my tips for visiting the Vatican with kids here. <
Here are my tips in brief: If you don’t want to tour the museums, you can easily fill a morning at the Vatican by visiting St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica, and climbing its dome. Entry to the basilica is free, but for the dome you need tickets, which you can buy on site.
If you do decide to tour the museums, I highly recommend getting a guided tour or a family guide at the entrance. Good family tours of the Vatican Museums are:
1. Early morning Vatican tour with breakfast – tickets can be purchased at the museum ticket office.
2. Early morning Vatican small group tour – tickets from LivTours.
Good to know: museum tickets with specific entry times are skip-the-line tickets, which can sometimes be quite long. All tickets include the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the museum.
Alternative: if the Vatican isn’t in your plans and you’re happy to just see the square, you can spend this morning at the nearby Castel Sant’Angelo, which kids love.
Lunch – have lunch in Borgo, the lovely neighborhood next to the Vatican
Afternoon – after a long day at the Vatican, my kids always need to let off steam in the park, so I recommend spending the day at Villa Borghese (Borghese Gardens).
The Borghese Gardens are a large park in central Rome with lots of space, playgrounds, a lake with rowboats, ducks and turtles, Rome Zoo, and the option to rent family bikes and pedal go-karts.
My kids’ favorite place in all of Rome!
You can find here >>> my guide to the Borghese Gardens
Rainy day alternative: if the weather is against you, you can instead go to the nearby Explora Children’s Museum.
See here >> additional ideas for rainy day activities in Rome suitable for kids
Dinner – take a short walk down from Pincio and have dinner near Piazza del Popolo. You can also hop on a tram or taxi to Lola Roma, a great family restaurant in Rome that’s just a few minutes away.
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 4
Morning – pasta-making class. Making pasta is fun for kids: besides seeing one of your favorite dishes come to life, you make it by mixing and working with your hands, which makes the whole experience fun and interactive.
The class we like is the one that also takes you near the attraction I recommend for the afternoon: Castel Sant’Angelo
Lunch – lunch is included in the pasta class as you enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Afternoon – Castel Sant’Angelo is Rome’s castle with lots of cannons and battlements, and one of the most kid-friendly attractions in Rome. The building has an interesting history and is fantastic to visit with kids, especially school-age ones who’ll love the cannons, cannonballs, battle walls, and peeking into the secret passage connecting the castle to the Vatican, il Passetto! If you can, stay until sunset: the view is stunning at sunset (there’s also a lovely cafe at the top!)
You can visit the castle with or without a tour. See here >>> our guide to Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome
Dinner – have dinner in the Monti area, characterized by beautiful cobblestone streets, many restaurants, and perfect for seeing the Colosseum at night, all lit up!
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 5
Morning – one of the nicest activities my daughter and I have ever done in Rome was a mosaic course. Mosaic is a traditional and very ancient art form in Rome and there’s no better way to discover how much work goes into Rome’s best mosaics than learning to make one yourself!
The best mosaic class in Rome is the one organized by Arte al Sole in Trastevere: unlike others, this class takes you to a real mosaic workshop and is led by a true craftsman who teaches you everything about the stone, where it comes from, and how to use it.
This is a fantastic activity for kids, but it’s not a knockoff to keep them busy for a while: this is real, super engaging, and truly inspiring activity that you’ll definitely enjoy.
You can read here >>> our impressions from the mosaic workshop in Rome
Lunch – the Trastevere area is full of wonderful places to eat. I recommend a light lunch to leave room for dinner, which I also recommend in this area!
Afternoon – the mosaic class is right next to Rome’s Botanical Garden, which is cool and kid-friendly. The gardens are large, safe, and beautiful and have a butterfly house that kids love!
See here >>> our guide to the botanical gardens in Rome
Dinner – just a few minutes’ walk from the Botanical Garden there are several excellent restaurants. One we love with the kids is Tonnarello, which is lively and attracts many tourists and has exceptional pasta dishes (and kids’ coloring supplies)
6-Day Rome with Kids Itinerary: Day 6
Morning – on day 6 I recommend leaving the city center and exploring Ostia Antica. Ostia Antica is ancient Rome’s port, and is now an archaeological park that’s so impressive it’s often compared to Pompeii!
Ostia Antica is great for kids and feels a lot like a park, but with the added bonus of being an ancient city!
You can read here >> our guide to Ostia Antica with kids
Lunch – the Ostia Antica archaeological park has a cafe/bistro, and you can also find restaurants in the stunning Borgo, just a few minutes’ walk outside the park, below the castle.
Afternoon – the train from Ostia Antica will take you back to Ostiense, which is an area that can be fun for kids to explore. I recommend taking a leisurely walk here, then climbing all the way to the top of the Aventine Hill.
Along the way you can see the Roman Pyramid (yes, a real pyramid!), and at the top you’ll discover the famous Aventine Keyhole, which offers a stunning view of St. Peter’s dome.
See here >>> our guide to the Aventine Hill in Rome
If you have energy, you can also go down to Circo Massimo and give the kids the Circo Massimo Experience, where they’ll see how the chariot stadium in Ancient Rome comes alive with augmented reality glasses!
Dinner – return to your favorite restaurant in Rome for one unforgettable last evening.