Rome

One of the greatest follies of our trip was our attempt to do Rome in a day. Ha!! You can't do Rome in a week much less a day, so we only saw just a few highlights but we will definitely be back. Though I am afraid that if I take Raif back he will really never leave. He fell in love with the city and I can't say I blame him. We spent the morning just walking around and getting lost. What was amazing was that you would walk down some random little alleyway that would pop you out into this beautiful piazza that you would never know was there. Everywhere you looked was breathtaking architecture. They have seamlessly combined old and new.




(One of the random piazzas - not even on our map that we stumbled across on our way to the Pantheon)


(The kids in front of Trevi Fountain)



(The Pantheon - Greyson declared the marble floor the perfect skating rink and proceeded to skate around the whole thing. I think the hockey analogy was lost on most of the other tourists there.)

(Vittorio Emanuelle II - monument. One of the last ones to be completed in Rome - in 1911. Apparently the Romans hate it and think that it is large and gaudy. Can't say I entirely disagree.)

After lunch we hit the two biggies of Rome - Vatican City specifically St. Peters and then the Colosseum.


Vatican City and St. Peter's Square were amazing, though it was hard to appreciate with all those pesky tourists around! I was however, disappointed with the actual Basilica itself. While the architecture and the art was amazing, it just seemed so dark and gloomy and doom-y. It was just drearier than I expected.

Greyson, did find his highlight of Rome in the Basilica. Apparently due to the beatification process going on with Pope John Paul, his body is out for public viewing. 6 year old plus a 'real live' (his words) dead body. The boy was in heaven (no pun intended). The whole Basilica was treated to my son shouting "Quinn, come here!! You want to see this dead guy!! It is a real live dead body!!! LOOK!!!!!!"

I wish I (and the kids) could have appreciated the Colosseum more but it was our final stop of the day - after 8 hours of schlepping the kids across Rome (which by the way they did phenomenally well at) in the summer heat, I was tired and they were exhausted. When we got to the top and looked out I explained to them what went on in the Colosseum back in the day.

"Cool, people got eaten by lions and killed each other. Can we go home now??"


Thus ended our day in Rome, but don't worry. We will be back.