The next day we drove to Rome without a hitch (Jim made sure he knew where we were going, except that we ended up driving down a pedestrian only street. Whoops!) and arrived in the area of Trastevere, which is where we were staying. It’s very charming and bohemian and less touristy than other parts of Rome. There are delicious bakeries and gelato, a small square, yummy restaurants, lots of little shops with fun jewelry and clothes and pastry shops.
Gelato in the square at the very popular (with the girls) fountain:
A chat with Pinnochio:
We pushed our luck a little bit on our first night after wandering around the local Piazza di Santa Maria and eating gelato, by crossing the river and visiting Piazza Novono, which is beautiful and full of fountains and people trying to swindle you out of your money. A man blew bubbles at Evie and then handed her a toy, which presumably we were to pay for, so we had to take it away from her and give it back to the guy who insisted that we buy it. There was a several minute grapple, back and forth, as he kept handing it to Evie who was crying because she wanted it and then it was taken away. A nasty trick! But we prevailed and the swindler didn’t get our money.
Trastevere is also the site of a very hopping bar scene and we were lucky to be across the street from one of the loudest and most raucous bars of all! Sleep was not something that we got a lot of in Rome, what with the all night party across the street and the all night sweating that we did when we finally closed all the windows combined with the early morning in-house wake up committee. Next time we will do the city first and then the country.
On our first full day in Rome, we were out the door by 9 and headed across town to
The Forum, which are well preserved Roman ruins. In Rome, there are ruins all over the place, constantly
being excavated and renovated. We
went to the Coliseum, where there were throngs of people and a line an hour
long to get in…so we just enjoyed it from the outside and took some pictures
with a cute gladiator and then weaved our way past and up Vittoriano, which is
a monument built for the first King of Italy and which also houses the Unknown
Warrior (an unknown soldier from WW2) with an eternal flame. The girls enjoyed
running up and down the monument, until Evie was asked by a security guard not
to hang on one of the cordoned off parts…drama ensued! After she stopped crying, we weaved our
way to the Pantheon, which was full of the devout and more. And then, tired and hungry, we
straggled our way back across the city to our neighborhood for lunch and what
we hoped would be a nap by both of the girls (no luck with that. Evie was ‘just
not tired.’)
Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera on our visit to the botanical gardens which were near where we were staying. They were also full of ancient fountains and plants from all over the world and it was a nice, peaceful way to spend the late afternoon.
On our final day in Rome, our 8th anniversary, we headed to the Vatican. On the way there, we walked along the river and met other Americans and people from all over the world who were also en route to visit the home of the Pope. Luckily Jim had the foresight to get us tickets ahead of time, so we were able to go right in...when we finally got there! The Vatican is HUGE and it felt like we were walking for miles just going around it to get to the entrance. And once we were in, there were still hordes of people, but not so many that it was unbearable, unless we were walking up a staircase or having to squeeze through a tight doorway.
With two small children in tow, lingering in the enormous and overwhelming Vatican was not a priority, so we tried to focus on the things that we loved as we rushed through. I'm not sure I LOVE this gold globe-like ball thing, but it was impressive...and shiny.
Even the non-Michelangelo ceilings in the Vatican were incredible. (We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel and we weren't supposed to talk, but no one--besides us-- was really paying any attention to either of those rules and the security guards were busy shushing everyone and yelling "NO PHOTOS! NO PHOTOS!" I'm sure God was ok with people enjoying themselves and appreciating great art, but rules are rules).
There was an amazing hallway full of ancient maps, which got Jim and Evie very excited:
And when Millie woke up from her long, hot nap, she enjoyed herself, too. Outside of the Vatican, we were able to refill our water bottles and enjoy some uncensored time during which the girls could be free and silly. And then we walked down to see St. Peters up close. The lines into it were ridiculously long and after a full day of Vatican, we were fine with the view of the outside.
Back in our hood, we celebrated our anniversary with some Bellinis and fresh squeezed orange juice, which soon went crashing to the ground into a million pieces. Evie and Millie proved to be great breakers of glass wherever we were in Italy. And the Italians still loved them and brought them replacement orange juices, despite their bull in a china shop mentality. Luckily, Jim and I had finished our Bellinis before the disaster.
Before our super romantic anniversary dinner with the girls, Evie took this picture of us:
And it was actually a lot of fun having our last delicious Italian meal with them. After all, they are a very important part of our relationship, so why shouldn't they celebrate with us?
I think it's safe to say that we were all depressed to leave Italy, despite being lucky enough to be going back to someplace as wonderful as London. I hope that we'll get to go back many more times!
