The best thing about traveling with school age kids is that those little crazies can handle a lot more than you give them credit for. I've been so pleasantly surprised that they handled the flight, crazy Roman traffic and another language without skipping a beat.
It also doesn't hurt that Italy is full of pizza and pasta so my carb loving kids are in heaven. My fears about international travel with kids are officially over. It's taken many years for us to do a trip to Europe with the kids but I know that I will be saving up my pennies again soon for a trip somewhere good.