Rome is a wonderful city that enchants both young and old, but sometimes it is difficult to meet the individual needs of each family member while on holiday.
The following itineraries present the places and activities that are best suited to curious little tourists by theme, and which can stimulate the awareness and participation of children and their families.

1 Museums and attractions

Museums

Explora - museo dei bambini (Children’s Museum)

Via Flaminia 80/86
Explora, a permanent structure for children aged 0 to 12, is located just a stone’s throw from Piazza del Popolo, in the area of the former Atac depot, whose redevelopment has allowed the creation of a space without architectural barriers, built with recycled materials.
It is based on the model of international educational museums for children in which the they can observe, touch and discover independently through play and socializing. There are interactive installations such as the supermarket, fire truck, vegetable garden, fountain, reuse, game of the wind, Small Explorers area, the area for reflecting and studying Equal Opportunities, Economy, emotions, environmental protection and much more. It proposes periodic activities and special events and has a bookshop, a restaurant, a cafeteria, and an equipped green area.

Casina delle Civette - Villa Torlonia

Via Nomentana 70
As the result of various architectural interventions carried out between 1840 and 1913, the building took on its current appearance in the 1920s thanks to the architect Vincenzo Fasolo, working on behalf of Prince Giovanni Torlonia. Thanks to the contribution of well-known artists of the time such as Cambellotti, Paschetto, Bottazzi and Grassi, the Casina was enriched with floor mosaics, stuccoes, majolica tiles, wall paintings and especially Liberty-style stained glass, with various owl-related decorations which gave the building its name (“civetta” in Italian means owl). A fabulous place that can win over both adults and children.

Leonardo da Vinci Experience

Via della Conciliazione 19
An engaging multimedia itinerary of over 500 square metres hosts a collection of 46 new machines and 22 faithful reproductions, in original size, of Leonardo’s most famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. A fascinating journey among educational paintings, mechanics, projections, holograms and audio, divided into five thematic rooms which will thrill visitors of all ages.

Museo Leonardo da Vinci - Il genio di Leonardo

Piazza del Popolo 12/a
The exhibition aims to document the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, inventor and engineer, through the exhibition of models that interpret his original projects. The machines on display are from the most diverse sectors, ranging from flying machines to war machines, from mechanical devices to civil engineering; the itinerary is enriched with reproductions of his drawings and projects, as well as various didactic panels and multi-medial stations for in-depth study.

Vigamus - The Video Game Museum of Rome

Via Sabotino, 4
The first Italian museum dedicated to videogames with collections of games, consoles, vintage cars and unique pieces, temporary exhibitions on some of the most famous games and over 30 stations to play the best videogames of today and the past. In the VR Room, visitors can experience the thrill of wearing the viewer and discover what it means to immerse themselves in the virtual world of their favourite video game and observe it from the eyes of the protagonist.

Stadio di Domiziano

Via di Tor Sangugina 3
The archaeological area of the Stadium of Domitian is located about 4.5 metres below the current level of Piazza Navona and houses the remains of the large masonry stadium of ancient times. The space was recently opened to the public and offers thematic exhibitions on the location’s history
and ancient Roman sporting activities, shows and traditions, as well as more detailed activities, visits and educational workshops for both the young and old.

Memoria Giocosa Bibliomuseo - Museo storico didattico di giochi, giocattoli e memorabilia del '900

Via Marco V. Coronelli, 26
The museum was born from the collection of the Viennese Fritz Billig, with almost three thousand tin toys built between the 1920s and 1960s. Open on Fridays and Saturdays, it also offers a thematic library service on the history of toys and street games, pop-up books on fairy tales and tin toys of comic characters. Also on display is a large railway landscape with stations, overpasses, level crossings, shelters, houses and bridges on which four trains run on electric rails.

Scientific museums

Museo Civico di Zoologia

Via Ulisse Aldrovandi, 18
The Civic Museum of Zoology was founded in 1932 and has an impressive 5 million preserved specimens, ranging from mollusc shells of a few millimetres in size up to a 16 metre-long whale. The museum’s new exhibition path is based on biodiversity in the animal world. The variously themed rooms, which also include multimedia and multi- sensory tools, allow visitors to learn about different animal forms and understand their origin and adaptations to multiple types of environments.

Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico ‘Luigi Pigorini’

Piazza Guglielmo Marconi 14
Founded by the paleoethnologist Luigi Pigorini, the Museum was inaugurated in 1876 in the building of the Collegio Romano, and then transferred to its current EUR location in the seventies. The museum is organised into two sectors, with one dedicated to Prehistory and the other to Ethnography; the halls are equipped with didactic and plastic supports, reconstructions, graphic devices and multimedia and digital tools that provide rigorous scientific information while also managing to involve and intrigue both child and adult visitors.

Museo del Pleistocene – Casal de’Pazzi

Viale Egidio Galbani, 6
The history of the Museum begins with the discovery of an elephant tusk in 1981 during the urbanisation of the Rebibbia area, which set off an archaeological investigation. More than 2,000 animal fossils have been found in the ancient redevelopment of the river basin, belonging to species which are unimaginable today in the Roman countryside - including the elephant, the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros - as well as 1,500 limestone artifacts that bear witness to the contemporary presence of humans.

Technotown – Ludoteca tecnologico scientifica

Via Lazzaro Spallanzani 1
A unique and avant-garde centre in the panorama of Italian edutainment projects, since 2006 it has been housed inside the Villino Medioevale, a characteristic early 20th-century architecture building. The young guests learn to interact with sophisticated technologies through games and experiences with highly educational content, including three-dimensional projections, group games, and virtual and interactive realities. It offers exhibitions and workshops for girls and boys aged 12 and over, creative factories and numerous activities dedicated to science, technology, ingenuity, art and mathematics, including electronic music, photography, 3D printing, cyanotype and more. Among the many new features, it hosts the first Podcast House in the world, where you can immerse yourself in the universe of digital audio content.

Planetarium and Astronomy Museum

Piazza Giovanni Agnelli, 10
Housed in the Museum of Roman Civilization, the Planetarium welcomes you with new cutting-edge technology, immersive experiences, appointments for all ages and the astronomical show Planetarium: return to the stars. Thanks to the new Sky Explorer software, it is possible to "enter" the sky and navigate in any direction of space and time, admiring the Earth, the Moon, Mars and the brightest stars, including galaxies and nebulae.