I was having a quick look at what to do with children in Rome. I have two small children and as with other busy cities it's not easy to keep them entertained AND see something of interest to my wife and I. So...

Well I wouldn't say central Rome is that child friendly, but if you look carefully there are plenty of things to do. The Forum's boring  for them unless you've done good prep work. Ice-cream and pizza are a big plus but you can't make a holiday of ice-cream and pizza.

Here are some things we enjoyed or found successful.

1) The children's museum on the Via Flaminia just outside the Piazza del Popolo. It's called Explora and it includes various areas which the children can enjoy (mini supermarket, an ambulance, post office, and so on). It also has a good zip wire in the garden and a decent restaurant. Ok for half a day.

2) Ice cream and pizza of course.

3) Let them plan the next day's treasure hunt like searching for obelisks, fountains and the Pyramid. The Capucin monks burial is a little freaky too: thousands of bones in chandeliers.

4) Villa Borghese. it's big and has ric-shaws. Good spots for snacking and the zoo.

5) The zoo (Bioparco actually) has been relatively recently done up. A zoo is a zoo, but it's not bad. The train-bus tour is fun for them too. Ok coffee bar and good restaurant for lunch.

6) The view off the top of Saint Peters' dome was good and they liked the climb up the stairs (bit long and we would have preferred the lift).

7) We didn't do it but we were told you could go up in a hot air balloon in the Villa Borghese (the "Mongolfiera"). Not sure if it's still there.

8) Renting a place with a swimming pool helped: we took a half day out here and there to swim and splash about.

9) Comfortable shoes are a must!

10) Other venues according to the children's' own personal interests. There are various parks about some allow you to go boating.

11) Out of town has plenty of possibilities: swimming at lake Bracciano or at the beach. A relatively good mix of activities can be had if you go to Ostia (the Tiber's river mouth).

You can visit ancient Ostia with the houses and so on, a sort of Pompeii with streets etc. Good restaurant and so on. The new city of Ostia nearby is good for a little pedestrianised shopping along the sea front.

We used Internet for tips and a free city guide to help us condense our touring to the essentials without losing a sense of discovery. The accommodation help we found was in www.mariamilani.com.

where we pulled off a good timeline summary http://www.mariamilani.com/rome_timeline.htm which we stuffed into our pocket for reference when visiting antiquities and churches or simply to see the course of history.

Family Favourite: San Clemente church. It has amazing levels of history piled on each other as well as a Mithraic altar...

I think we spent a good part of our stay walking through the narrow, underlit Roman streets - without a plan in the evenings, just wandering from one piazza to another.

The Roman piazzas have lots of magnetism to them - San Pietro, Navona, Spagna or Campo De Fiori, to name only a few. Mostly, they're quite crowded all day long, but then, the Campidoglio, being one of the most beautiful (no wonder, that's Michelangelo's doing) is almost deserted. The problem is most of these just urge you to sit down with a coffee or a glass of wine and relax - when there's still so much to see..