is there anyone living in the cassia, tomba di nerone, rome area that has a teenager. we have just arrived.

Saw your post. Do have a teenage boy or girl? What grade? What school will they go to in fall? We have been here a year from USA; son started at AOSR but is now going to Marymount--much better school, atmosphere, attitude. He will graduate next year. We live in Olgiata but he has friends all over; however, most of them are gone for the summer or will shortly leave.

thanks for your reply. I have a daughter, she is only 14yrs. We kept being told that there are loads of english and americans near the cassia area however i am hoping that they ahve just all gone away for the summer or my daughter might get very lonely. She will be going to the new school on the via camilluccia in sept. I am just being the worrying wart of a mother.

I had never heard of "The New School" but, again, we are American and made the mistake upon arrival of placing our son in AOSR school. I must say we are thoroughly pleased with the school he is in now (Marymount) and he has had a better experience there--he had a really tough time adjusting when we moved here even though we routinely move every 2 to 3 years and had lived overseas before. The school seems like it'll be a nice one for your daughter.

My recommendation is to try to keep her busy until school. As you live on Via Cassia, it's not difficult to catch a bus or train into town--tourists will start to arrive in droves. Locals will start leaving for their holidays, freeing up the roads for us expats to practice our driving. There are many expat groups in the area and the school is perhaps your best chance at developing friendships with fellow expats. However, having said this, if you want, I can pass your info to a fellow Brit living in Olgiata with older teenagers, boys I believe. Her kids go to St. George's and she may be able to help you out with your settling in a bit better than I can. Even though I just recently met her myself, she seems like a real nice/helpful person.

Until the start of school, just remember there may be times your daughter wishes she were still home--completely normal. Look at this time as a period to connect with each other on another level. Worse comes to worse, there's always cheap ways home for a weekend.

If there's any other information you need about the area, please feel free to ask, whether it be where to see movies, grocery shopping, etc. I will try to help. Until then, welcome to Rome!

Thanks for you reply. Would you know where in the city centre of rome is the best shopping area to take my daughter? Also I want to be able to drive some of the way into the city and then short bus maybe. I know it is impossible to bring the car in the centre but is there somewhere close by i could drive and park and then explore as we are not really getting to see around the centre of rome. I did one touristy day and we were exhausted with 2 bus rides and long waits for buses and it has kind of turned us off going there which i dont want to happen.

Unfortunately, I do all my shopping outside of Rome at Porta di Roma, Buffalota exit on GRA--big mall with all kinds of stores in it. With regards to parking in Rome, you can either park at Via Aurelia train station--one train ride into center or you can park in garages around Cipro. We, ourselves, don't drive further in as parking is a headache. However, come next month, my husband says it'll be pretty empty downtown as locals go on vacation. Last August was the last time he drove into the city and he was able to find plenty of parking near the Colisseum. With regards to sight-seeing, you can purchase tix on-line now for some of the major sites, therefore bypassing the lines for entry. They may have certain times you can enter the sites though so you may want to check it out yourself. Hope this helps and, again, feel free to ask me about anything here--if I don't know the answer, I will tell you so. Have a good day.

Thanks, next week i think we will have a go at driving to the train station you mentioned and go into the centre on a train. Will let you know how we get on. It is great to have someone to ask these silly questions to.

No problem; the only silly question is the one not asked. I'm glad there is this website as it's made me feel good on a few occasions and there's so much good info here. Good luck on your excursion and don't forget about what I said about buying tix on-line (Vatican and Colisseum are two place I know of that offer this); gotta let me know how you get on.