If you want your kids to find joy in a history-laden vacation, here’s my advice: Give them swords. By the time my husband and our three sons reached Rome, the fourth major city on a whirlwind tour of Italy in May, museum-and-monument fatigue had set in. Our boys, ages 13, 11 and 8, tried to be game as we tromped from one ancient ruin to the next, but their enthusiasm flagged if we toured any site for longer than an hour.
My middle son looked so bored at the halfway mark of a two-hour tour of the Doge’s Palace in Venice that I handed him my phone and asked him to be our official photographer, hoping the job might cheer him up. He proceeded to take pictures of every penis and pair of breasts painted on the palace walls. The boys’ limited patience for Italian art and history was no surprise to me.
I knew when planning our first trip to Europe that I’d have to find activities that appealed to my triumvirate of sporty boys. Gruppo Storico Romano , which runs the Italian capital’s only gladiator school, fit the bill like a sword belt on Russell Crowe. Founded 30 years ago as a Roman historical society that staged gladiator shows, the club has for years offered ancient fighting lessons.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 people visit the school annually, according to founder Sergio Iacomoni. He goes by the name President Nero, a nod to the mad emperor who ruled from 54 to 68 AD. Our afternoon at gladiator school began with an Uber ride down the Appian Way, an ancient thoroughfare th.