The 3 best museums for children in Rome
On the cover, the Explora18 play area created at the Explore in Rome © Explora Photographic Archive
By playing you learn, it is now well known. To bring children closer to art and culture, what better occasion to put this old universal saying into practice than to bring the little ones walking around museums. Especially during the holiday season, when they create the occasions and events dedicated to them. Thanks to fun activities that come to life inside palaces and manors, children will be able to free their creative ability. The didactic experience thus becomes an integral part of the exhibition, in which each little explorer will learn new attitudes through play. Attitudes and creativity that Explora, Palazzo delle Esposizioni and Villa Medici in Rome they lend themselves more than ever to stimulating with their initiatives, capable of involving the whole family as well. Let’s start the tour right away!
The Team Game-Circular Economy set-up at the Explore in Rome © Explora Photographic Archive
EXPLORA – CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
Even the capital, like Milan, has its own children’s museum. A few steps from Piazza del Popolo, there is Explora to observe autonomy, touch and discover in full play and sociability. It is a place where the little ones can get close to interactive displays on science, environment, nutrition, engineering, robotics, mathematics and sustainable development. Among the novelties of 2021, Explore 18, a space created to celebrate the museum’s 18 years and composed of five exhibitions dedicated to color, architecture and history. For the more experienced explorers there are also several food for thought, such as Team play, a path formed by eight workstations reached by gears, pipes, wheels and mechanisms to deepen all the phases ofCircular economy, or permanent installation Meetings of forms, a large magnetic wall on which to find many colored shapes.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
PALACE OF EXHIBITIONS
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the largest interdisciplinary exhibition space in the historic center, has a rich program designed to accompany families and children in reading the work and discovering contemporary themes and extravagances. In addition to the exhibition Touch the beauty. Maria Montessori Bruno Monari (until February 27, 2022), the next appointments are: the animated visit Phenomenal! (December 19) for girls and boys aged seven to 11 and the workshop Hand to hand (December 28) to experiment with shapes, surfaces and alphabets first hand and discover together the power of matter. Precious too Art shelf, a library specializing in international art publishing which collects more than 2,000 titles, many rare and unobtainable, of important names in the world of illustration and art and which, since 2010, is part of the catalog Libraries of Rome.
MEDICINE VILLA
Immersed in a splendid garden, Villa Medici is a Renaissance jewel full of masterpieces as well as the seat of the French Academy. Saturday 18 December, the illustrator Louise Mezel will present the new book to the little ones Roland Léléfan the artist, interspersing a visit to the complex with a reading of the famous elephant to discover Villa Médicis, its park and the artists who live there. The event inaugurates the resumption of educational visits in French and Italian for families with children aged five to 10, again available every Sunday. The Sunday appointment will transform into great explorers of works of art: equipped with notebook and pencil, different participants look for young animals and fantastic creatures made of materials. The activity will be interspersed with games, clues and moments of artistic creation for a great adventure among treasures and mythological stories that are hidden in Villa Medici.