For a wonderful day with the kids when in Rome, do go to zoo, it is excellent. There are multiple well created areas at the zoo, with many interesting and active animals.

And the favourite of our kids? The guinea pigs (we have a few back home), bunnies etc at the “petting zoo”/children’s area (could not really pet, but still, domesticated animals), by far.

But we did also enjoy all the giant turtles, crocodiles, bears and (of course) wolves. And do remember to visit the reptile house.

The zoo has many places to stop over and have a little rest, although during the weekday and early afternoon when we visited, many of the cafes and kiosks were closed. But at least one was open and we could take a moment in the shade and have some water and ice cream.

URL	www.bioparco.it
Phone	+39-063608211
Address	Viale del Giardino Zoologico 1, 00197 Rome, Italy

Barbie. The Icon.

So when we were in Rome, we decided to take in a few exhibitions and one that caught my eye was the unlikely combination of Barbie and Mucha at the Complesso del Vittoriano.

The girls were thrilled to go to the exhibition and I have to say that shown this way, the Barbie dolls were rather impressive.

There was a much wider and varied set of dolls that I was aware of. Not sure hoe many of them were unique pieces, but still, all very interesting.

There were even some dolls made to look like famous women, like Marilyn Monroe, Cher and Liza Minelli. All in all the show, though rather brief, was well put together and an enlightening view into the world of Barbie.

Alphonse Mucha

Pairing Mucha with Barbie was a juxtaposition I would not have thought of, but moving from the slightly plastic world of Barbie towards the beautiful paintings of Mucha was a smooth one.

The Mucha exhibition showed a much more deeper dive into the material shown, with long descriptions about the artist that opened a whole new view to his work.