ITALY - general advice please.
 

Hi:
I've booked flights to Rome for the final two weeks of the World Cup next July for myself,wife and our two boys ( 13 + 11 ).They had a great time watching Euro 2008 in Spain with the football crazy locals so we decided to do it again in the home of the holders.
Other than that we have a blank page and I haven't been to Italy in years.
I suppose we're looking at something for all of us with some travelling rather than two weeks in one location.
Does anyone have any suggestions for where the kids may be amused during the day finding kids of their own age and Mum and Dad can amuse themselves in the evening with some decent food and wine.
Any type of accommodation including camping would be considered.
Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received.
Thanks.

If you're okay with camping, I stayed at Camping Tiber this October for 5 days, as part of a 31-night 1000-mile long self supported cycling trip across the country. It's located at Prima Porta, a ten-minute commuter train ride from the Flamino metro station, at Piazza Populo, a very convenient place to start your explorations of Rome. In terms of accommodations, they had a pleasant shaded area for tents, and the nicest, cleanest, newest-looking bathroom/shower house of any that I saw across the entire country (and I stayed at around 20 different campsites). For about $20.00 a night (this was for 1 person+tent, yours will be more but still reasonable), it couldn't be beat.

I'm not sure what you mean by this statement. Do you plan for your boys to meet and hang out w/Italian boys the same age? IME, this will not happen.

Most Italian cities will have large screens set up in public areas to accommodate group viewing of the game; this is esp. true if Team Italia makes it to the finals

Don't count on this happening. Last time Rome hosted a championship match there were no public screens and alcohol in the center was banned all day - even in restaurants! Maybe some smaller towns will have screens but the main ones may try to discourage large gatherings.

Hosting the match is a very different thing.

A Few Days in Cinque Terre
 

Since you're looking to do a bit of traveling and not stay in Rome for the entire two weeks, I would suggest making a trip north to Cinque Terre. If you haven't been there before, it is a beautiful area where you could enjoy the outdoors, hiking between the five towns and spending some time at the beach in Monterosso. If your boys enjoy the outdoors this would be a great place for them to have fun at the beach and you and your husband to enjoy some wine from the region in a quaint restaurant at night (the local wine is actually quite good.)

You might look at the Youth Hostels. www.hiusa.org

It is not unusual to find family groups staying at them. Several have family rooms. Evening meals can be really very tasty.

Romelle