Fun for all the family at hundreds of museums around Italy

More than 550 museums around Italy are celebrating the second edition of the annual Giornata Nazionale delle Famiglie al Museo on Sunday 12 October. The national family day at the museum is designed to promote the country's cultural institutions as an enriching and welcoming place for children, and throughout the day each museum will provide a programme of games and educational activities.

The nearly 40 participating museums in and around Rome include the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (GNAM), the municipal modern art gallery on Via Crispi, the French Academy at Villa Medici, the MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, and the Capitoline Museums.

Children will be able to send postcards to their counterparts in other cities, telling them about their day, while organisers will also reveal the "child-size museum manifesto" describing an ideal children's museum as drawn up by families over the last year.

The event's mascots are animated characters Mati and Dadà whose cartoon will be broadcast the preceding evening on Italian children's television channel Rai YoYo, and is aimed at helping kids aged five to eight to understand artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Michelangelo, Van Gogh and Rembrandt.

For full details about the event, in English and Italian, see website.