Roma--4 days

Welcome to the Appian Way, one of the oldest roads into Rome!
The Appian Way is lined with Christian graves, since they could not bury their dead inside the city walls.
This is my mom standing outside the doors into our apartment building.
The back side of our building...we hung Jack's bibs out on this line to dry! There was also a young man across the way who would sing and play along with various Ricky Martin songs every afternoon...quite to our delight...as he was not good, but very enthusiastic; it was very humorous.
Our market was across from this church, just a few blocks from our apartment. We would take Jack's stroller (minus Jack) and fill it with groceries for the walk home.
The Arch of Titus
Looking down on the ruins of the Roman forum from Palatine Hill.
More ruins...Caesar's tomb, the Celestian gardens (in front) and other amazing things!!
Palatine Hill (I did not get any good pictures up here...this one does not do it justice at all!!! This is so small it was probably a servant's quarters or something...)
Looking up at Palatine Hill.

The Colosseum





This would have been under the arena floor, where they kept the animals and prisoners and gladiators.
VERY old brick.
The next two pictures are of the line to Vatican City...and in both pics the line continues to wind around corners, out of the picture. We were in line for at least 1 1/2 hours!

Getting bored in line...
We all wore these little headsets for the tour...but Dad fell asleep during the explanation of Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel.
St. Peter's Basilica.
St. Peter's Square
Eric, in St. Peter's Square

We made it to Rome around 11 pm and the lady was waiting for us in her car, bless her heart! We followed her into the building to find this charming little apartment, with a kitchen!! We loved this place . . . we stayed here for four days. My sister and Jonathan met up with us for the last 2 days. It was about three blocks north of the Colosseum, so it was a great location as well. The first day was spent catching up on our sleep and letting Jack get a good nap, going to the local grocery store, driving by the ancient ruins, and doing laundry at the Laundromat. Not the most exciting day; we wish that we had done more, but we were so exhausted from the last few days that I think we were all a little burned out.

The next day we got a slow start as well, as my parents spent most of the morning returning the car (had trouble because the papers were in the stolen wallet) and trying to make phone calls to their bank. I swear this could be a Chevy Chase vacation movie, with all the mishaps. My poor dad spent SO long on the phone, trying to work out the money thing . . . during the first phone call they were about to tell him where he could pick up the money and his phone card ran out. He called back and amazingly got the SAME person! As she told him the name of a bank it got really loud by the pay phone, so he leaned in to hear her better, and hit the receiver button…hanging up AGAIN! I think he almost went into cardiac arrest at this point. See the picture I put in this section—his expression says it all. Anyway, it all worked out—he found the bank, but it took my parents half the day. They also stopped at the Appian Way, the first main road into the city; this road is also lined with many Christian graves, since they could not bury their dead inside the city. We wanted to go so bad but just couldn't make it (somehow everything takes longer with a baby). Eric and I finally decided to walk around a bit so we just went down and walked by the Colosseum, various other ruins, and then down to Palatine Hill to look around.

Later that night my sister and Jonathan arrived at the apartment just as my parents arrived, so we all went down to the Colosseum together and made it just in time for the last tour – amazing! It was so weird to be there, especially after seeing that movie, “Gladiator” (one of my favorites!) and also reading some books that took place during the height of Rome.

After this we took taxis to a different part of the city for a “night walk”—we had this great guide book that mapped out a mile walk of some great sights and restaurants. This was one of my FAVORITE meals of the trip…they had amazing salads, and the pasta was, of course, delicious. I don’t remember the names of all the monuments we passed, but there were a couple fountains that were pretty impressive. Oh—and we walked by the Pantheon. My pictures didn’t turn out because it was too dark, but it was very surreal to see it. We got a little lost and finally ended up taking a taxi home, but not before . . . enjoying some more gelato (I know…not a great way to get rid of my baby weight!).

The next day we all went to Palatine Hill for a tour. I had never heard of this before our trip, but this is the first palace in Rome. In fact, the word palace comes from this place. It was very impressive; apparently each ruler that lived here wanted it to be more impressive, so they all added on to it . . . it was humongous! It was so interesting—there are places where you can still see the marble floors, and if you pour water on them the colors come out; our guide said that you could tell which lands they had conquered by the color of the marble, since it all comes from different regions. SO many interesting stories here. At the end of the tour we were overlooking the Roman forum and other ruins just west of the Colosseum. Ancient baths, churches, the burial place of Caesar, the gardens of the celestial virgins . . . I was so fascinated and thrilled to see world history right before my eyes. Supposedly the prison that the Apostle Paul was held in is among those ruins, but I forgot to ask our guide about it. Next time . . .

Later that night I cooked an authentic Italian meal (only because all the ingredients were bought in Italy)—it was very yummy. We sat around this tiny table, and had such a great night catching up on all of our travels. Much later that night, my sister watched baby Jack while Eric and I went to the Spanish Steps . . . in the rain. But it was nice to have a little date in Rome.

Our last day, we got up at 7 or so (very early for us) because we had to be at Vatican City by 9 to meet our tour guide from the previous days (she was so great, we followed her around!). We stood in line for about 1 ½ hours (again, not so good on my back, with Jack asleep in the Bjorn!)—see the pictures of the line . . . those pictures go end to end . . . and on each end the line goes around the block! It was worth it, though. We first walked through the museum . . . we all had these earphones on, and so as our guide talked with microphones she didn’t have to yell . . . which was nice—also guaranteed you would hear her. We saw some amazing works of art . . . especially the Sistine Chapel. Wow! You can’t take pictures, and you can’t even talk (I was so embarrassed because Jack chose this quiet moment to let us know that he was VERY HUNGRY . . . so as we are trying to enjoy the ceiling (and not fall over as we lean back) we are also rapidly mixing a bottle on the floor, trying not to get trampled.

Then we moved on to St. Peter’s Basilica . . . words cannot describe how beautiful and stunning this is . . . just amazing. Unfortunately we did not have very much time here, as we had to get back for our flight to Paris. So we did a quick run through, literally (so hard not to spend more time here!!), and then out to St. Peter’s square. I remember seeing this in my Art History textbook, and also on the TV when they elected Pope Benedict (the day we brought Jack home from the hospital). We took a taxi back to the hotel, frantically packed up all our stuff, headed for a bus station, to take us to the airport.

This also proved to be a major headache . . . we had SO much trouble getting on the flight: too much luggage (a plane ticket cost about $60 or so and they were going to charge us over $200 for our luggage!), my sister's ticket was booked in her married name, but her passport was still in her maiden name . . . argued over and over with the airlines and finally had to pay $60 to change her name on the flight list. In the end things were so crazy (they would only accept credit cards for the luggage—imagine that!! My sister and Jonathan's cards had also been frozen because they were using it overseas . . . so ALL we had was my debit card and some cash . . . none of which they would accept) so they finally just waived the fee and looked the other way. We took a nervous flight to Paris (the landing was so shaky, the passengers actually applauded when we landed, which kind of summed up our experience) Oh my.

Read ahead for the ending of our adventures...