Does any other country have as many names for children as does Italy ? First you are a creatura (a “creature”), then a bimbo or bimba, then you are a bambino or a bambina, then you are a ragazzo or a ragazza.

Does any country have as many ways to make a child feel welcome ?

Taking off in Viterbo

Insider’s Italy’s children clients are made immediately aware of how Italians make children feel : valued.

In front of one of the most celebrated landscapes in Tuscany, after an Insider's Italy Walk

Children in Italy are from the beginning treated as real, precious people, whose needs and desires are of paramount importance.

The world stops for children in Italy in a way that it does not anywhere else we know.

Tag at Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient port city

Italians bend over backwards for children, with waiters bringing high chairs before you ask for them, keeping bread baskets consistently filled with bread sticks and focaccia, proposing succulent, healthy children’s menu offerings (and bringing them well before adults’ dishes), often cheerfully cutting them up for young diners. Waiters lift small children up to admire the dessert table. Storekeepers often have some little present to hand a younger child. Vendors in open markets offer children tangerines and figs. All across Rome, children are given complimentary slices of fragrant white pizza.

I was lucky enough to be an Italian child, born in Rome.

Me in Venice, in 1967

My son and daughter are having an Italian childhood.

On the terrace, Amalfi

And when they were born they joined our family staff, as they have participated in every single but one of our research trips. Nathan Louis began his Insider’s Italy travels at the age of three months, with a week in southern Tuscany. Isabel started her travels at six weeks, to the southern Riviera and Lucca.  Our research trips occur generally every two to six weeks and are Italy-wide. Through necessity coupled with interest, we have become experts on planning child-friendly, upscale Italian travels.

Dancing among the lentils and wildflowers at Castelluccio

With the ease that comes with familiarity — my own memories of childhood Italy-wide travels —  I have a real feel for what children, teenagers and young adults will enjoy.

Testing out an Insider's Italy walk designed for children near Atrani

I am required to make continual discoveries that will delight the young

At the Tarquinia museum

..and consider how to make travels easy and enjoyable for their parents.

Studying 9th century mosaics in Ravenna

We use docents and guides (for tours, workshops, classes, walking, bicycling, cooking adventures) throughout the country — from Venice to Sicily and many places in between.

Our beloved guide Francesca in Florence, whom all children love so much

We book each one of them personally.

With our guide in Florence at the Opera del Duomo museum, a children's favorite

When there are kids in the party, we personally tell them about the children, including their ages and their special interests : our guides and teachers plan experiences that go far beyond children’s expectations.

Insider’s Italy kids learn to make frescoes in Florence

Mosaics in Ravenna

Pressing grapes in Lazio to make into wine

Renaissance paper in Orvieto

How to make gnocchi in Amalfi

Making gnocchi in Amalfi in a private family cooking class

How to make extra virgin olive oil (hand picking and pressing olives, and then sampling the minutes-old oil)

Insider’s Italy children learn how acqueducts are constructed…

The Acqua Vergine in Rome

By climbing on them.

The 21st century child and 19 century BC aqueduct

We provide the experiences that will make for memory after memory, substantial, remarkable experiences for a child to remember all of her life.

Our Insider’s Children’s Reading List and children’s language program suggestions help kids prepare too for their Italian adventures.

Choosing art supplies in Florence, for a day of painting and drawing

We book hotels/inns/villas directly only (and have stayed in or know intimately every accommodation we book.)

One of our favorite villas for families with children

Hotels we most often book by number, often choosing particular rooms for their suitability to families with children.  Nathan Louis and Isabel also make me consistently aware of the appropriateness of our villas and hotels to families with children.

“What do our children eat in Italy ?”  Insider’s Italy to the rescue on this one, with oodles of detail on how to find and request child-delighting delicacies on any restaurant menu, and what other wonderful sources to explore for picnics, snacks and treats — including our own favorite organic goodies (and where to find them.)

Isabel and her organic Insalata Caprese in Tuscany

And we simplify the lives of our clients with children.

Sampling superb gelato on Lake Bracciano

So many of our travelers — most of all, perhaps, busy parents — are over-scheduled, overstressed, overtired  – and don’t have the time to undertake their own research. Our new Ultimo service is of special value here — all you need do is buy your air tickets — as we meticulously tailor plan every detail of your trip, working around your interests and preferences.

Children love Paestum for the archeology, the opportunity to run around so freely or for the world's best mozzarella ?

Parents are delighted to delegate travel planning to an expert who will take into account the interests and needs of every traveler.

“Should I take a stroller to Venice ?  If so, what kind ?”  ”My daughter is eight, is she too young for the Cinque Terre trails ?” ”Is the Amalfi coast suitable for an infant?”  ”What can I show my teenager in Florence that will really engage him ?”  Insider’s Italy has the responses to all of these. Either we have confronted the situations ourselves as parents or I can draw for answers into the archives of my own youth.

Running through the Baths of Caracalla in Rome

One of our clients’ children wrote  : “You may not quite remember me, but almost nine years ago my parents used your service to plan what still stands as the most memorable trip my family has ever taken. Although I was only twelve when we spent those incredible eight weeks in Italy, it was then that I fell in love with the country, everything from the culture to the language to the food. I have since studied Italian in college and returned to Italy twice on my own. I traveled to Tuscany on a high school program in 2001 and spent the summer of 2003 in Florence studying Italian.”

Posing as an Etruscan

Thanks to this young woman’s parents, with whom we co-planned an Italian itinerary, one young woman’s life was changed.  We recently planned her suprise engagement party — in Rome.

Meeting the Befana

It was always my hope to have children in Italy.  To have them with us as we make our discoveries is an experience beyond any I had hoped.

And then to share those experiences with other children and their parents is for me one of the great joys of Insider’s Italy.

Having taken my cue from Rome children, I was over-dressed this morning at 7 when I slipped down the hill into old Rome to see what wonders nature had deposited on my birthplace city.

Colosseum looking towards the Arch of Titus and Roman Forum

Marcus Aurelius surveys his city

Arch of Septimius Severus at the northwest end of the Roman Forum

Arch of Constantine and the Palatine

Arch of Constantine

Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine

Temple of Venus and Rome in the Roman Forum

The chilly centurion

Circus Maximus looking toward the Palatine

Circus Maximus

San Giorgio al Velabro

Temple of Hercules Victor

Arch of Janus with San Giorgio al Velabro in background

The Tiber Island

Four faced Janus sculpture on the Roman bridge onto Tiber island

Sant'Angelo in Pescheria with little snow crown

Theater of Marcellus looking towards the Capitoline

Pussycat paw prints at the Cat Sanctuary at Largo Argentina

Massimo at the Largo Argentina Cat Sanctuary

After decades of calling the Victor Emanuel Monument the “Typewriter Left Out in the Snow” it was gratifying to see the Typewriter actually out in the snow.

The Typewriter Left Out in the Snow

The Campidoglio steps are cleared of snow. The steep Ara Coeli church steps have already been cleared

The drip drip drip of fast melting snow was the metronome for me as I lowered my jacket zip centimeter by centimeter, till soon I was jacket free (gloves and hat were also shed.)

On my return home however, over a lusty lunchtime lentil soup, this began..

The drama continues !  Sleds out, hats back on, and off we go once again into the capricious Roman winter of February 2012….

 

 

Here we are again, preparing for Il Blizzard.

Il Blizzard is the new word of the moment, screaming from newspapers and television and radio weather reports.

Isabel searches for Il Blizzard

As the word is new to many Italians, newspapers thoughtfully translate it as “big storm”.  Romans now conjugate the verb ironically — for example, while looking out at the dark grey sky (with temperatures well above freezing), say : “blizzardiamo?” (shall we blizzard ?) As we use our car almost never, the mayor’s edict — till noon on Saturday — that all drivers use chains or snow tires means to us not a whit.  In any case, we have neither chains or tires. Most Romans have neither. Almost no one is driving.

While our 67 terrace pots (geraniums, lemon trees and other delicates), inside now for one week, quietly turn yellow in our dining room, we are, as are tens of thousands of other Romans, off to food shop. As we walk to to the market, we step on sodden Carnival confetti…

We look around hopefully for signs of the 30 centimeters (12 inches) Mayor Alemanno has promised us this time around (therefore no school for the fourth day this week.)

No snow.

This time the hardware store has helped us be prepared, and is selling snow shovels.

I stop at the market to see what is what, and smell that lovely odor of wood smoke : the merchants have made a little fire to keep them warm on this damp day.

The little fire to warm hands on a damp day

I also find the usual remarkable collection of seasonal delights.

Guido selects for me some little winter salads that he picked this morning from his garden.

Guido selects the winter salads - from his garden

The romanesco artichokes, local, have at last arrived !

My beloved puntarelle, a perfection of a winter’s-day salad.

Vincenzo, my legume man, who is also a supplier to the American Academy Sustainable Food project, reports brisk business in lentils from Pantelleria, dried fava beans (to accompany ciccoria, chickory, sauteed with garlic and hot pepper), dried figs and every variety of bean for soups.

Also mushrooms (from just outside of Rome’s walls), he reports…

and walnuts (Vincenzo sells Italy’s best, from Piedmont.)

At the local COOP, our neighbors are busy shopping.

I ask the manager what they are buying : “quintali e quintali di pane !  Non puoi imaginare quanto pane stanno comprando.  Anche la pasta.  Ma quanta pasta !  E i pomodori pelati, e’ una cosa eccessiva! ”   (Hundreds and hundreds of kilograms of bread.  You cannot imagine how much bread !  Also pasta.  Also plum tomatoes in excessive quantities !)

If and when the snow arrives, we will slide down the hill to the Pantheon, and marvel in the snow falling throgh the oculus. And hope again for the delight of seeing Rome transformed — if only for a few hours, and if only by an inch or two.

And if it does not snow we shall just eat.

Vincenzo in the market comments : "che macello questo blizzard !" (what a mess this blizzard is !)

Rome is magical under any circumstances.

Rome is still deep in the thrall of its rare snow.

Saturday as the noon Janiculum noon-time cannon sounded

I visited my favorite lions in the world today, in Piazza del Popolo, to see if the snow had melted from their flat, granite heads : it had.  The Pantheon however is still wearing a frosty little cap around its dome. Romans march about in their Moon Boots, and the city still wears its festive air. Everyone listens to the unfamiliar crunch-crunch of their feet, with snow beneath, in those sunless alleys where the snow still stands. Nathan Louis, nine, takes advantage today of the second day off from school and goes sledding, down a shadowed, icy hill below Villa Borghese, and food stores and markets, if open at all, have run exceptionally low on produce, milk, pasta and meat.  The polemics between the Civil Protection and Rome’s mayor, Alemanno, are firey and confused, and all the rage in the papers.  The top headline of Il Messagero blares : “Rome between Marvel and Chaos !” Alemanno has declared the city in a state of “catastrophe”, continues to insist that we travel only in cars with snow tires or chains, and has just now announced the third day of school closing, despite the fact that the snow is nearly all gone from all road surfaces.

A Frosty Marcus Aurelius and his Horse on the Capitoline Hill. What snow is left is in a small mound in the foreground.

Thirty two degrees fahrenheit (0 centigrade) at the Pantheon. A few puddles at its feet and a small white powdery crown on its dome are the relics of the Saturday snowstorm

It seems that everyone is talking about what they are cooking and eating — on the train today, across town (which stopped for long and unexplained pauses) I overheard people on their cellphones, asking : “hai comprato la ricottina ? mi serve  la ricottina !” (Have you got the ricotta ? I need the ricotta !) and “oggi a pranzo i tagliolini, hai capito ?” (the <egg pasta> tagliolini, do you understand ?) While I was purchasing Parmesan today, three people in line ahead of me (all men) were buying polenta. Always interested in these things, I asked them how they would be preparing it. One told me he would be preparing it with gorgonzola for himself, his wife, their grandson, and their dog.  The second said his wife would be cooking it most likely with sausage and a tomato sauce. The third said that his mother was from Venice and would be grilling it, and they would have it with melted fontina. I bought some too. When the next snow flakes start to fall, which is predicted for tonight, I will see how the spirit moves me, as I take out my copper pan and big wooden spoon.

The Snow Emergency continues in Rome.

It was our plan to be in Venice this weekend, on a little research trip, but there was an uncharacteristic nip in the air and the weather bulletin spoke — initially we were all skeptical — of snow.  Snow !  There had been no real snow in Rome since January of 1985, and before that no snow since the 1970s.  I remember — I was close to three — the memorable snowstorm of 1965, which brought 40 centimeters (15 inches) of snow to city center Rome, inspiring my father to create some of his legendary snow sculptures on our terrace.

Snow in Rome February 1965

Rome’s mayor Alemanno called off all school on Friday, and the children thus lay in wait for the first flakes.  Which in fact was nearly all drizzle, with a small amount of snow.

Awaiting some action on Friday

While our strawberries were still ripening on the terrace, and an elegant little eggplant still hanging on the plant, Rome’s Il Messaggero urged us to take in our frost-sensitive plants, so we shepherded in 57 pots — the lemons, geraniums, lantana, plumbago and everything in smaller pots — turning our living room, hallway and stairwell into a grand greenhouse.

Living room turned greenhouse

And so we went to bed last night.

And awakened to…

Can it be ?

Mamma Mia !

These children had never seen anything but a flake or two of snow in their city.

What they saw was this :

The Terrace this morning

The mayor announced that Rome was in a state of “catastrophe” and that we should all take shovels and start to clear snow.  We do not own a shovel.  Those neighbors who for one reason or other felt the need to use cars today were attempting to clear paths for themselves with mops, brooms, children’s sand shovels and windscreen scrapers.

We did have an appetite, however, picqued by the close-to-freezing weather.  Thus, after a hot chocolate at our beloved Dolci Desideri

.. we were off

Monteverdevecchio Verde street

through a city without a visible snow plow, and where our friend Dario, owner of our favorite restaurant, emerged with a tablecloth-apron round his waist, to announce that he did not remember seeing snow like this since the 1960s.

Dario remembers the snowstorm of 1965

Through the gateway of Villa Sciara

Into a winter wonderland

And into a winter wonderland.

Never have we seen our neighborhood park, Villa Sciara, so full.  It literally resounded with an air of greatest festivity !

Magnolia in the snow

The Laurel Walk

Umbrella Pine

SPQR

Making a snow angel

As the children toboggoned on their bottoms down a steep hill with palm trees as obstacles

We gazed in wonder at the view before us.  It was close-to-impossible to leave it, familiar old Rome with its magical dusting of snow.  Most remarkable of all was the Pantheon rimmed in white.

The Pantheon and Campo Marzio Close Up

And when at last we turned back towards home, we found more festive Romans pouring into the park.

More festive Romans pile into the park as we depart

A copper polenta pot caught our eyes, on display at the local hardware store.

Once home, some of us cooked polenta, while others made a snow-lady.

The snow-woman with the herbal features

Lunch was soon served.

Lunchtime

A little snow as an antipasto.

Cin-Cin ! 

Cin-Cin !

With warming polenta of course to follow.

The polenta arrives !

Eccezionale !

We plan trips that we feel are the most interesting independent adventures in Italy.

Amalfi at Twilight

We will guide you to this quieter Renaissance square in Florence

Rome, Florence and Venice are the cities that you continue to visit most frequently, but as ever, we plan your days there with meticulous care to keep you away as much as possible from crowds and areas of unsustainable tourism.

A quite unique way of looking at Florence's Duomo dome

We make excellent use of docents in each of these cities, and work into your itineraries sights and neighborhoods of exceptional interest that are off the beaten path.

With a specialized children's docent in Rome

With our Ultimo service we undertake all restaurant bookings with a special focus, if you wish, on smaller, family-run osterie and trattorie that provide a Slow Food philosophy.

Slow Food favorite in Florence

Slow Food favorite in Veneto

In Venice we coordinate a half or full day’s private adventure on an historic, flat-bottomed Venetian boat that will take you to locations in the Lagoon and archipelago where no ferry or water boat can ever go.

Ten delightful California clients this summer swam from a little island within sight of Venice in clear and beautiful waters, this after a magnificent, entirely seasonal lunch served on board (seafood fished that morning.)

In Florence we lead you to Renaissance gardens not in guidebooks.

Our Favorite Florentine garden, off the beaten path, never crowded, even in summer

… to the Vasari Corridor (not usually open), up scaffolding to inspect 15th century frescoes that are under meticulous restoration, to processions in historic costume..

Recreation of the Procession of the Magi in Florence's Piazza della Signoria on Epiphany Day

…and to the stores, markets and pastry shops that Florentines love and patronize.

The most Florentine of all street markets, a local affair, at Santo Spirito

In Florence for children we integrate special children’s workshops (fresco making, dressing up in Renaissance costumes, exploring Palazzo Vecchio in the company of actors who play the role of historic Renaissance figures.)

Fresco making workshop

We include workshops in which you will taste new artisan gelato flavors and learn what makes a great Italian ice cream.

What is the difference between gelato and ice cream ? Learn the answer.

How many travelers know about the top floor of the Museum of the Florentine House ?   It is very difficult to see, but every Ultimo or Completo client who would like to visit it can do so easily through Insider’s Italy.

We keep you away from the crowds and show you our Insider's Venice

In Umbria you learn to hunt a truffle and how to make Renaissance paper.

Private workshop : making Renaissance paper in Umbria

You pick olives and make extra virgin oil in Tuscany.

On the Amalfi coast and Campania, you discover how to make the best mozzarella on earth.

Our youngest clients – and sometimes their parents too –  dance through wild flowers.

Dancing through the poppies and flowering lentils near the Marche border

Insider’s Italy travelers visit towns most have never heard of.  These destinations are often called the highlight of their trips.

When San Gimignano (population 7000) receives close to 50,000 visitors a year, why add to the onslaught when there are towns of equivalent interest elsewhere that we shall guide you to — and where you will not see anyone who is not Italian ?

This town, like San Gimignano, is magnificently walled and full of medieval towers

Rovereto, one of our favorite of all cities (Trentino Alto Adige)

Rome is my home, and the most exciting and overwhelming of all Italian cities.  I try to show it to you through my eyes, combining an intelligent way of visiting the essential, better known sites with a special entree into those magical places that you will not find on your own.

The Baths of Caracalla, one of my single favorite places in all of Rome

How to begin planning for 2012 ? Start with our no-obligation survey.  We will be back in touch very quickly with our preliminary ideas, ready for your review.

Here’s to joyful travels ahead in Italy this year.

Marjorie, at the beach at Terracina