Bioparco Rome Zoo in the Villa Borghese

Last Sunday, Astrid, my visiting aunt and I went on an expedition to Rome's zoo, the Bioparco located in the northern part of Villa Borghese. It was very crowded (I've been told that it's always crowded on the weekends but pretty empty during the week) but Astrid (aged almost 16 months) enjoyed watching the monkeys and other animals. It's the old fashioned kind of zoo with small pens for many of the animals (the giraffes and the tiger seemed to have the worst deal). But the kids all loved it and this could make a nice treat for children visiting Rome who are bored of all the museums and churches. Make sure you check out the baby giraffe - very cute!

Getting there: The Bioparco is located in the Northern part of Villa Borghese. By public transport take tram: n° 19 - fermata "Bioparco" or bus: n° 3, 52, 53, 926, 217, 360, 910 to Piazza Ungheria. You can also take the metro to Spagna or Flaminio (Line A) and walk through the park to the zoo (we took the metro to Flaminio and it was around a 15-20 minute walk to the zoo).

Entry: Adults are 10 Euro and children over a metre tall are 8 euro. Children under a meter tall are free (I don't like this pricing system which discriminates against us tall people and our children!)

Baby food when travelling in Italy

For parents travelling to Italy with a baby or toddler over 6 months, one question they will have is what to feed the baby.

1) Jarred Baby Food

Unfortunately, jarred Italian baby food is very different from American and Australian baby food. It tends to be very meat focused (including horse, ostrich and rabbit!) and it's difficult to find pureed veggies. Also, the pureed fruit which is available in jars almost always contains added sugar as do the baby 'biscuits' which Italian parents give their kids.

I recommend avoiding the baby food aisle altogether and going instead to the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket and looking for a little stand containing round tubs of pureed fruit. Look for the words "senza zucchero agiunto" (no added sugar) and check the ingredients for zucchero (sugar). This pureed fruit usually contains no added sugar so it's way healthier for babies than the baby food for sale at the average Italian supermarket.

My other recommendation is to look for the German baby food brands such as Hipp - which contain no added sugar or salt and have a much larger selection of pureed veggies. Hipp can be found at SMA supermarkets (there's a handy SMA right near Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome under Upim) and NaturaSi health food shops. At my local health food shop they also sell another German brand, Sunval, which does not contain added sugar or salt. You can also find German baby cereals at health food shops which are not as processed as the ones you get at the supermarket. You can mix purees with ricotta, grated parmesan cheese, plain yoghurt, very small pieces of cooked meat or fish or grated egg yolk.

2) Finger Foods

Babies who are ready for finger foods love plain spaghetti, mushy cooked veggies, pizza crusts and soft meats and these are usually available at any Roman trattoria or pizzeria (just ask the waiter if they'll bring you some plain spaghetti for the baby). Unfortunately, cheerios without sugar are not available in Italy (or at least I've never seen them) but I recommend rice cakes (gallette di riso) as a healthy, salt and sugar free snack for between meals. Other good finger foods include small chunks of parmesan cheese, pizza bianco from the bakery, bits of rice from the inside of a suppli (available at pizza a taglio places - make sure you remove the deep fried crust) and steamed veggies if you have access to a kitchen in Rome.

Top 6 Kid Friendly Foods in Rome

One of the reasons Rome is such a great place to visit with kids is that Italian food is nothing but kid-friendly. What kid doesn't like pizza or icecream? So here they are, the top six kid friendly foods which you can find on just about every corner in Rome:

1) gelato - there's a gelateria on just about every block in Rome and most bars also sell the mass produced version if you're desperate. Gelato is great as a refreshing reward/pick-me-up after a hard day's sightseeing especially in the warmer months. For adults (or children with discerning taste), my favourite gelaterias in Rome are a)the Fassi Palazzo del Freddo (which translates as Palace of Cold) on Via Principe Eugenio, 67 near Piazza Vittorio and around the corner from one of my husband's Bed and Breakfasts;
b)La Renardiere Di Nadine Renard at Via dei Serpenti, 28 in the picturesque Monti district of Rome;
c) San Crispino which has excellent gourmet (but quite pricey) gelato near the Trevi Fountain, Via della Panetteria 42, Rome 00187; and
d) La Palma, the gelato's a bit sweet but this is a fun, colourful gelato shop in a convenient location which kids will love. Near Piazza Barberini: Via della Maddalena, 20/23

2) pizza - what kid doesn't like pizza? Roman pizza is thin and yummy and comes either as a whole personal sized pizza at a restaurant (which can be shared if it's too big for a child) or by the slice at the many informal "pizza a taglio" (cut pizza) shops dotted over the city. Pizza a taglio makes a great lunch on the run and you can chose how much you want by the gram so no need to buy too much pizza for little stomachs. Our favourite pizzeria in Rome is Formula Uno in San Lorenzo (open only for dinner) but pretty much all pizza in Rome is delicious.

3) pasta Picky kids may not go for Roman specialties like spaghetti carbonara (bacon and egg spaghetti) or bucatini all'amatriciana (bucatini with tomato, pancetta and chilli sauce) but you can't go wrong with the always available spaghetti bolognese (called spaghetti al ragu here in Italy), lasagne, spaghetti with tomato sauce or simply spaghetti with a bit of oil and maybe some parmesan cheese on top. Most restaurant owners will be happy to oblige. Ask for a children's portion if your child is not a big eater.

4) suppli generally available in "pizza by the slice" (pizza a taglio) shops and bars - these deep fried rice balls with stretchy mozzarella cheese inside are beloved by children both Roman and foreign.

5) nutella What could be better from a kid's point of view than your parents allowing you to eat chocolate for breakfast?

6) Italian Chinese food Chinese food in Italy has more in common with small town American or Australian chop suey/chow mein than with the kind of food actually eaten in China. Be that as it may, all the kid friendly staples are available in the ubiquitous Roman Chinese restaurants, albeit with different Italianised names: involtini primavera (spring rolls), riso cantonese (fried rice), ravioli al vapore (steamed dumplings), pollo al limone (lemon chicken), zuppa wonton (wonton soup) and spaghetti di riso (rice noodles).

Cloth diapering/nappying in Italy

Cloth diapering has recently been enjoying a renaissance in the richer parts of the world: Europe, North America and Australasia, after a period of about 20 years during which almost all parents switched to disposables. According to an Indian friend, cloth nappies never went out of style in the developing world - pretty much everyone in India uses them and I suspect that the situation may be similar in other parts of the globe where Proctor and Gamble et al have yet to make inroads and most people wouldn't be able to afford disposable nappies anyway.

Like breastfeeding, cloth nappying is inexpensive, easy, simple and old fashioned. Needless to say, it's also environmentally friendly - especially in a country like Italy awash in overflowing landfills and piles of festering/burning waste. As with breastfeeding, however, the big multinationals have a strong vested interest in persuading parents to abandon age-old parenting practices in favour of their more expensive "modern" products -disposable diapers and baby formula, although, of course, these products do have their place. Baby formula, for one, is a wonderful food for babies who, for whatever reason, cannot be breastfed and disposable diapers are a great convenience for travelling.

In Italy, unfortunately, it seems that a huge proportion of parents use disposable nappies. I think that the main hurdle is that the ubiquity of disposable diapers and the endless advertising have persuaded many parents and potential parents that cloth diapering is a huge amount of work, akin to washing your clothes at the village water pump with only cold water, a washboard and some marsiglia soap, and a bit 'schifoso' (gross). I've had many, many people assume that I'm some kind of supermum (and/or completely crazy) because I use cloth on Astrid. While I was pregnant and collecting cloth nappies a lot of experienced parents assured me that I'd give up and start using disposables within 3 weeks as cloth diapers are "just soooo hard." In fact, I'm extremely lazy and about as far from supermum as is possible. It actually really isn't that much more work using cloth than using disposables and it's a hell of a lot better for the environment, your pocketbook and your baby's bum.

Disposable diapers are extremely expensive in Italy - probably twice as much as in the US on average although I haven't studied this in detail. If you'd like to do a quick calculation of the amount of money you'll save using cloth use this calculator Remember when crunching the numbers that disposable diapers are more expensive here as is electricity but that we tend not to use dryers making washing the diapers slightly more economical after everything is totalled up.

I started out while pregnant reading a US based website for cloth diaper users called the Diaper Pin. The site can be quite overwhelming as there are so many different kinds of cloth diapers available these days and so many different opinions. There were certain cloth diaper addicted mothers on that site who kind of scared me (no it's not necessary to spend $50 on a handknitted wool cover for your cloth diapers!) Another useful site for things like diaper folds and washing techniques is Diaper Hyena. To make life easier for anyone considering cloth nappies here's a summary of the different categories of cloth diaper available these days:

1) All in Ones or AIOs - these diapers are, as the name suggests, one piece nappies which include an absorbent part and a waterproof part similar to a disposable. I read on the Diaper Pin site that these diapers take a very long time to dry and since we don't have a dryer I decided to skip these.

2) Pocket Diapers - these are a great innovation especially for the parent looking for a disposable-like nappy. It consists of a two layer piece which either snaps or velcros around the baby's rear - waterproof on the outside and soft and water wicking on the inside (usually fleece). Inside there's a pocket where you can insert an absorbent layer - either microfiber (quick drying - I recommend it), cotton or bamboo (bamboo takes a long time to dry but it absorbs a lot so good for outings). I have several bumgenius, fuzzibunz and peapods (an Australian brand which I wouldn't recommend as they came apart in the wash) pocket nappies. The bumgeniuses are my favourites as they 'one size' so there's no need to buy more as the baby grows. The downsides are the cost (compared to option 3) and the fact that you've got to be careful with how you wash them and keep them away from diaper creams. I've found that they wash fine on hot with normal detergent, though, and I just use a fleece liner if I'm using diaper cream.

3) Absorbent cotton flat diaper plus waterproof cover - this is the workhorse of our diaper stash along with little pieces of thin fleece (called pile in Italian - buy it at any fabric store and cut into pieces) as liners. We use Indian Prefolds which I got on ebay. In the UK terry cloth squares seem to be the norm (I've never tried these). The big advantages are: they're cheap so you can buy lots - this is especially great during the newborn stage, they indestructible in the wash and they also make great burp cloths. We use PUL covers - mostly bummis (which are Canadian) and imse vimses (a Swedish brand). Disadvantages are -need to use snappis or pins (I like snappis better - they're flexible rubber grips), need for a cover, need for a fleece liner, slightly steeper learning curve for those who've never cloth nappied before.

4) Fitted diapers - such as the British Tots Bots, the Canadian Motherease nappies and the American kissiluvs. I haven't tried these but I've heard they're great for containing newborn poop (sorry, but this is a post about diapers!) The big disadvantage is that they cost more than the flat diapers and babies constantly grow out of them so you need to buy more. These diapers also require a waterproof cover.

We aren't cloth diaper zealots and we do use disposables sometimes: when travelling out of town, at night and sometimes when we're out. Especially during the newborn stage I noticed that we got a lot more huge leaks when using disposables (usually while I was nursing the baby so all over my skirt or trousers - yuk!) Maybe it was just our baby, but disposables just didn't seem to be able to cut it in the poo containment arena.

Cloth diapers are slowly making their way onto the Italian scene. Here are list of Italian and European stockists (if you're in Italy it's best to order from within Europe rather than the US as you won't need to pay customs.)

Italian sources
Babynatura
Ecobaby
NewBabyBerry
Bimbomarket
La Casa dei Bimbi

European sources
Imse vimse UK
Twinkle Twinkle nappies UK

I've also seen Poppolino cloth pocket diapers for sale at Natura Si if you'd like to check them out in person. They also sell handy flushable diaper liners.

Washing methods
A lot of the American cloth diaper sites recommend special detergents. These aren't available in Italy, unfortunately, but I've never had problems using regular detergents from the supermarket. Just keep away from anything containing enzymes or brighteners. The cheap stuff is best. For these instructions I'm assuming the use of a front-loader.

My tried and tested washing method for prefolds, PUL covers, pocket diapers (bumgenius and fuzzibunz) and fleece liners is as follows:

-flush poo down toilet after changing baby (you should be doing this with disposable diapers as well as it's not a good idea to put human waste into the garbage)
-store dirty diapers in a big plastic bin on the balcony. It really doesn't smell at all if you wash frequently - if smell is a problem there's plenty of advice on the sites I linked to above.
-when it's time to wash, remove inserts from pocket nappies and attach velcro to tabs on pocket nappy 'covers' and PUL covers. Dump everything in the washing machine. Rinse diapers - on my machine this function is called "riscaquo & centrifuga". After rinsing the diapers add about a third of the amount of detergent recommended on the bottle, the recommended amount of calgon and a few teaspoons of Napisan to the detergent dispenser. Wash on 60 degrees.
-Hang diapers to dry on clotheshorse. If there are any stains hang them in the sun which will bleach out stains in no time.

cross posted with my other blog

Children's concerts at Auditorium Parco della Musica

Another fun thing to do with kids in Rome - take them to the fabulous Renzo Piano designed Auditorium Parco della Musica for a series of children's concerts put on by the world famous Santa Cecilia Academy.

On April 19 (at 12), April 20 (at 10.30) and April 21 (at 10.30) a special concert for children aged 6-12 with the Santa Cecilia choir. Tickets are 7 euro for children under the age of 18 and 11 euro for adults.

On May 12 at 10.30, a special concert for teenagers (13 and up) "The Seven Magical Mirror Pieces" with the Santa Cecilia choir.

To order tickets call 199.109.783, or from outside Italy +39.06.3700106.

Keep an eye on the programme as Santa Cecilia puts on special concerts for children of various ages throughout the season and even does a special concert for babies in utero (and, presumably, their mothers!) from time to time.

The Auditorium Parco della Musica is in the Flaminio district of Rome near the Flaminio Stadium and Olympic Village. There is a special bus from Termini (Bus M) which goes directly to the Auditorium. Further options for getting to the Auditorium are here.

Casina di Raffaello - Children's Activity Center in the Villa Borghese

As the weather warms up, Rome parents' thoughts turn to Villa Borghese, the beautiful park in the centre of Rome - the city's 'green lung' similar to Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London.

My favourite place in the Villa Borghese to take a younger kid (aged 3-10) is the fabulous Casina di Raffaello, a children's activity center, playground and softplay area, in the middle of the park. The official website of the Casina di Raffaello is, unfortunately, only in Italian. The ludoteca offers inside play areas perfect for a rainy day including a softplay area (3 euro entrance fee). There's a kid friendly cafe, a toy and book shop and bathrooms for children as well as ever-changing displays (currently touchable and textured children's books) and events (theater workshops every Saturday and Sunday, arts and crafts workshops as well as reading of kid's books on the theme of disabilities).

Best of all, outside the Casina di Raffaello building there is a fun adventure playground which children of all ages will enjoy. No entrance fee.

The Casina di Raffaello is currently open Tuesday-Sunday from 10 am to 7pm and closed Mondays. From the 3rd February to the 31 March it is open 10-6 and from the 2 June to the 31 July it is open 10-8.

To get there, take the 116 mini-bus from Piazza Barberini directly to Piazza Siena in the middle of the park, where the Casina di Raffaello is located, or take the metro (Line A) to either Spagna or Flaminio and walk through the park to the ludoteca(map here.)

Stroller vs Baby Carrier in Rome

In a recent New York Times travel piece on travelling in Venice with a baby, the writer comments: "...woe to those who bring strollers: Venice is rife with bridges, and while we watched many mothers negotiating their Peg-Peregos up and down centuries-old steps, it didn't look like fun."

Rome and Venice, unfortunately, share many non stroller-friendly characteristics: both are ancient cities which derive much of their picturesque charm from higgledy piggledy cobblestoned streets. When you visited the cities pre-children you probably admired the beauty of these ancient quarters. When returning with a baby, however, narrow uneven streets containing closely parked cars become obstacle courses for prams and ancient staircases seem unsurmountable.

Before you cancel your Roman holiday and book a family trip to the airconditioned, drive through convenience of a suburban shopping mall, keep in mind that thousands of Roman parents (including us) manage to survive and even thrive in the city every day. The key is to plan ahead and come prepared with the appropriate baby equipment.

Although my Ergo baby carrier loving husband might disagree, there are some distinct advantages to using a stroller or pushchair(especially if it has big wheels) in Rome, particularly with an older baby. For one thing, when your baby weighs 10 kilos (22 lbs) or so like ours does there are limits to the practicality and comfort of a baby carrier for more than short errands. On the other hand, especially for a younger baby, it's hard to beat a baby carrier, such as the Bjorn or a sling, for breezing up and down stairs, public transport and lulling the baby to sleep as you walk around.

The jury is still out of whether to use a baby carrier or a stroller when visiting or walking around Rome -in fact, my husband always uses the Ergo carrier when out with Astrid whereas I almost always use our Micralite Toro stroller. My advice to anyone contemplating a visit to Rome with a baby would therefore be to bring both and see how you feel when you get here. At the very least, it's useful to have a stroller at the airport and baby carriers are easy to pack as they don't weigh much.

Advantages of a Baby Carrier in Rome

-you can handle stairs with ease
-no problems squeezing through closely parked cars
-no problems with cobblestones and potholes
-small babies will usually fall asleep
-close contact with the baby
-if you breastfeed, you can nurse the baby discreetly in the carrier

Disadvantages of a Baby Carrier in Rome
-it can get really hot here and a baby carrier can be pretty sweaty in July or August
-if your baby is big and heavy carrying her is hard work
-nowhere to put the baby apart from your lap for example in a restaurant. This can be a problem when the baby gets to the grabbing things from the table stage
-can be tiring on a long walk

Advantages of using a stroller in Rome
-not so hard on your back
-older baby can look around
-baby has a place to sit in restaurants or on the bus
-if you get a stroller with big wheels (we have the Micralite Toro but many parents here have other big wheeled strollers such as the Bugaboo) you can bounce the stroller up and down short flights of stairs
-cooler in the summer
-baby has a sunshade, raincover and other accessories

Disadvantages of the stroller
-stairs- Rome is full of them and there are few ramps. If you have a small wheeled stroller you'll need to carry stroller+child up and down quite a few steps
-public transport - if you have a small wheeled stroller getting it up and down steps into the metro will be a pain. With a big wheeled stroller (as noted above) you can just bounce the stroller up and down. Romans do invariably stop to help parents with strollers who need to carry it up and down stairs though. Some buses have a bar across the door preventing larger strollers from entering.
-cobblestones, tram tracks and potholes can be difficult to negotiate if you have small wheels
-cars usually park across intersections making it difficult to cross the street with a stroller.