Enjoy a weekend in Rome.

Taking place on the 31st October, this popular celebration of all things eerie and occult is generally folded in with Italy's traditional All Saint's Day holiday on the 1st November. This year Halloween falls on a Thursday, but don't worry, there should still be plenty going on in Rome over the weekend. So leave the ordinary world at home and get ready for some fiendish fun.

Dressing up for Halloween in Italy.

While Halloween might not be native to Italy,  the country has a rich history of costumed events and masked balls. Therefore you should have no problem finding places to rent or buy some scary Halloween looks. Fancy dress shops like Roma in Maschera and Estro Costumi in Travestere offer a colourful roster of angels, devils, clowns and movie characters. Plus there are professional makeup salons like Studio 13 in Piazzo Cavour, where you can get yourself painted as a zombie, vampire or other denizen of the night.

Top places to celebrate Halloween in Rome.

Once you're all dolled yourself up in your Halloween costumes, what you need next is an equally creepy backdrop. Luckily, Italy's capital city has no shortage of places to satisfy a taste for the macabre. Among Rome's spookiest sites is the Capuchin Crypt on the Via Veneto. The walls of the crypt are closely packed with the bones of almost 4000 friars,  so this isn't for the faint-hearted. If you're feeling brave, explore more underground cemeteries with a visit to the Catacombs on the Via Appia Antica.

Halloween Rome events.

Many of the nightclubs in Rome's Bohemian Travestere and Monti districts put on fancy dress extravaganzas to celebrate All Hallows – try venues like Lanificio 159 and Fiddler's Elbow. The Hard Rock Cafe on the Via Veneto and Irish pubs like Finnegan offer long-established Halloween parties for tourists. Likewise, lots of restaurants serve up special menus over the weekend. Or for something more uniquely Roman, look out for “Risto disco” (dinner and dance) events at clubs like Factory and the Maxxi in Roma Nord -a chance to tuck into some tasty pumpkin and bacon risotto before a night of wickedly hot club mixes.

Halloween weekend in Rome for children.

Our top tip is the Bioparco for endangered species in Rome's Zoological Gardens. Against a backdrop of skeletons, headstones, cobwebs and witches' cauldrons, visitors can enjoy magic shows, face painting and up-close experiences with some of the zoo's more horrifying and repulsive creatures such as tarantulas and scorpions. Plus kids have a chance to prepare some toothsome pumpkin dishes for the hungry lemurs. Or try a visit to Rainbow Magicland, Rome's biggest theme park in the Valmontone district.

Inject a touch of film magic into your Halloween break.

One unmissable stop on any visit to Rome is Cinecitta World, a theme park celebrating Italian cinema and named after the famous film studio where many of the greatest Italian directors made their masterpieces. From 5th October to 3rd November, the theme park gives itself over entirely to horror. There's an inferno roller coaster, a haunted house, and movie sets coming alive with mummies, zombies and ghosts. Not to mention you can take part in high-tech interactive shoot-em-ups based on Assassin's Creed and other franchises.

More Halloween vacation ideas.

For the night owls among you, companies such as Dark Rome offer night time tours introducing you to the city's most bone-chilling legends, ghost stories and gory chapters of history – just don't expect to get much sleep afterwards. Personalised Italy is another company providing a similar tour by car or Vespa. If you're a film buff, it's well worth looking out for screenings of classic movies by the likes of Dario Argento and Mario Bava, the masters of  “giallo”, Italy's unique brand of slasher thriller. To learn more, pay a visit to Profondo Rosso in the Prati district, a store dedicated to this stylish genre.

Book your Halloween holiday in Rome.

Whether you're on a family vacation or a getaway for two this All Hallows Eve, Gruppo UNA has accommodation in Rome to suit your every need. Chic and stylish inside and out, UNAHOTELS Decò Roma is well located for all the clubs, bars, parks and landmarks that are likely to fit into your Halloween plans. Giving you all the more scope to make the most of one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in the world at this haunting time of year.