We’ve been in Italy over a month now and I have come to rely on the welcome relief of turning a corner to find a Citta’ del Sole toyshop. 

It’s not that we’ve been buying lots of toys – although their colourful array of quality toys is always tempting – but because in every shop, whether in Milan or Venice or Florence or Rome, there is a table set up with a train set to play with and ride on toys that children are not discouraged to touch. 

If you are travelling in Italy with small children I strongly suggest you look out for the white awnings that mark a Citt’ Del Sole shop. It gives children a bit of playtime and breaks up the sightseeing, refreshing both them and you to continue with the exploration of whichever Italian city you are in. In the shop we recently visited in Rome, apparently the second shop that opened back in 1972, they even had little chairs around the train table for the kids to sit at and wooden scooters to whizz round the shops on.