Rome: Where All Roads Lead - Italy - page 80

Rome with Children
If you bring your children to Rome, don't expect kids' menus or high chairs.
There are few cities where children are more welcome (even at fancy restau-
rants), yet they are accommodated so poorly. Just bring with you almost
all they need (if you make a reservation for dinner, you must also reserve
the high chair, or seggiolino, since most restaurants only have one or two).
Children under 12 generally get in free to museums and sites in Rome.
There are a handful of parks like the Villa Borghese and one in Testaccio
with playground equipment, but they are laughable in comparison to what
you find at home. Still, kids are always welcome in the city, and recently
Rome has opened up a few venues just for them.
Explora (Via Flaminia, 82; % 06-3613776; www.mdbr.it; children 3-12
€ 7, adults € 6; reservations only Tues-Thurs at 9:30, 11:30am, 3, and 5pm,
and Fri-Sat 10am, noon, 3, and 5pm) is a new concept in Rome: a museum
for children. It was built out of an abandoned bus depot and has been a
popular spot for Italian families since it opened in 2002. The pavilion gen-
erates 60% of its own light from an on-site solar-cell plant, and a sophis-
ticated system of canopies utilizes the natural light to save even more
energy. It is a hands-on museum with sections called “Me,” “Society,”
“Environment,” and “Communication.” All the exhibits are in Italian, but
English-speaking kids don't seem to mind—it's fascinating to watch how
children can so easily communicate without a common language.
A little bit farther out of town, but well worth it for the kids, is the
Museo della Memoria Giocosa (Museum of the Playful Memory; Via
Vincenzo Coronelli, 24-26; % 06-24407777; free admission). This is a pri-
vate collection of toys assembled by Fritz Bilig, an Austrian who fled
Europe during Nazism. The toys are those that children growing up in
Europe between 1920 and 1960 played with, even during the height of
World War II. It is a museum that the kids enjoy, and in which many par-
ents feel nostalgic.
If you happen to be in Rome during the holidays, take the kids to the
Befana Christmas Toy Fair (Piazza Navona). It is a Christmas fair stuck in
time, with old-fashioned merry-go-round rides and a disturbingly thin
Santa Claus (Babbo Natale), who poses with the kids. There are rows of
stalls dripping with candies and Christmas goodies, in addition to
Christmas stockings and the beloved Befana witch, who still brings toys to
Italian children on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.
of the few green grocers in all of Rome who carries “real” orange pumpkins
around Halloween for the expats, and he won't sell you anything that isn't fresh.
On the perimeter of the market, makeshift stands sell new shoes, interesting
kitchen gadgets, and imported linens. The stores that circle the stands sell the