One last time...

On Tuesday, we (me, the kids and Grandma) went to Rome, one last time. Pat hadn't seen the Vatican yet and I was more than happy to go. So off we went, using our train shortcut, beating the heat and the tourists...if feels good to be in the know for a change...

Gwendolyn and her chariot...

We found the Metro (the boys favorite) and then made our way to Piazza del Popolo (the people's square)...

With it's obelisk with hieroglyphics...just pretend it is a vertical pic...

On to the Trevi Fountian...you have to remember to throw in a coin...that way you will return to Rome...or as the legend goes. The boys relished this and even a sleeping Gwen (with mommy's help) managed to get one in...

And a fun, but hot train ride home...

I have to be honest, as far as things that tourists see, there is not much left in Rome that I haven't gotten to. Being so close and having a local train has been a highlight of our time here. Rome has been hot, gritty, and crowded at times, but we also have been able to see so much more of it! How people live here, what they like to do, and almost, be treated as a local. What an amazing experience that I am very thankful for.

Have a wonderful and cool day!

Ciao a tutti!

Rome, again...

On Saturday, we (me, the kids and Tobin) went to Rome. Tobin had been there only once and we had seen the Ancient Roman sites...so back we went to catch a few sights before our departure...which is quickly approaching. Once again, we take the train into Rome. This is my fourth time on the train and it was shockingly empty. I could actually see the sign that showed which stops were next.

A side note: The train station in Rome is called Roma Termini...this is because all the trains come into it from one direction and stop...end of the line. Well, our train comes in from the north and circles the city on the west side and swoops into the termini (this means that the train is actually heading north or back to Montalto...the train then has to back out of the station). Well, as the train circles the city there are a number of stops in the various neighborhoods of Rome. Usually we take the train to Termini and then walk or take the Metro to where ever we are going.

So, back to Saturday...we are headed to the Vatican...long train ride, a long walk to the Metro, and a Metro ride to the right spot, then another walk...I notice the next stop is Roma San Pietro. Could that be St. Peter's Square? I break out my handy maps and Tobin found the station and we jump off the train. It was a quick 4 block walk to St. Peter's! It only took 4 trips, but what a short cut! I felt like a local! We got there before all the tourists, in the cool part of the day, there was NO line!!!! Go us!

St. Peter's Basilica...notice the line as we are leaving the square...

Walking along the same route as I went with the kids, here is Ponte San Angelo and Castel San' Angelo...

The Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona...

The Pantheon...

Sorry for the duplicate pictures, but some of them were better than the last time I went through. Here is something new...more Roman ruins...

This is the Victor Emmanuel Monument...like the tomb of the unknown soldier...

Trajan's column and some churches...

Trajan's Market...

A quick Metro ride...

And we find ourselves at St. Paul's Basilica...Tobin's favorite so far (you have to ask him why)...

The inside of said Basilica...

And because we are such cool locals we walked through one of the neighborhoods and found another train station to go home on...and Rome's only pyramid...

So there you have it, another crazy adventure through Rome! We even got home in time to make dinner! It is kind of nice to finally start to feel like we know enough to be even more adventurous in our exploring...beyond the 'normal' tourist stuff. I think I will make it to Rome one last time...Pat hasn't seen the Vatican yet...but now I know the short cut!

Ciao a tutti!

Via Appia Antica...

Last Saturday, we ALL went to the Appian Way. It was pretty cool, but certainly not what I expected! It is an actual road that people drive, work, and live on...right in the middle of town! Not at all what I was expecting. But we certainly had a good time, great weather, and a nice walk.

The Appian Way was the first and greatest Roman road. It was built in 312 B.C. and at one time was 430 miles long (most of it completely straight) from Rome to Brindisi (where ships sailed to Greece and Egypt). The road itself is lined with christian catacombs. In ancient Rome, law stated that no one could be buried inside the walls of the city...Romans preferred to be cremated, which left christians, who chose to be buried because they believed the return of Christ was close at hand, to find places for their dead. Some wealthy christian landowners offered their land and they built series of tunnels and tombs under the ground (up to 5 layers deep) called catacombs.

The whole gang on the road...

Parts of the Circus of Maxentius (a chariot race course)...

The road itself and I think that is wheel ruts in the stones...

In the area leading into the catacombs...

The catacombs...apparently I wasn't supposed to take pictures...Oops!

We had lunch in this LOVELY park under some orange trees, Case was helping out his brother and sister on the teeter-totter...

This was our last outing with Uncle Shannon...she flew home that day (well, at least boarded the plane for Amterdam that day)...we miss you!

Have a wonderful day!

Ciao a tutti!

A walk across Rome...

This is one of my favorite adventures thus far in Italy (aside from going to Venice with Tobin). I just don't get many opportunities to just take the boys (who are older and more 'bribe-able') to do more 'grown-up' things. I truly enjoyed Rome, my boys, and the adventure, never mind it was in the 90s and humid, we just had a super fun time!

We spent the day walking across Rome...I am so impressed with the boys, having good attitudes despite being hot and tired...finding several TIs certainly helped, and gelato will make any day better, and mommy even got to do some shopping...a GREAT day!

Our first stop was Castel Sant'Angelo. Roman law stated no one could be buried inside the city walls, so Emperor Hadrian built this great big circular tomb. For nearly 100 years emperors were buried there, it was a prison in the dark ages, and eventually it was connected to the Vatican as a handy place of last refuge for threatened Popes. The boys enjoyed the castle, we found a great spot to rest with a magnificent view of Rome and a cool breeze...and the local TI with a map for everyone! Here is a pic from Ponte Sant'Angelo...

The fortress/castle from the inside...don't you just love those 2 helpers...

We continued on...hot and sweaty...I can't say that I ever thought I would drink from a public fountain (like the bubbling over kind), I got over that quick and learned to truly enjoy the ice cold water freely flowing...a quick wash of the face and you are ready to go again!

We managed to find Piazza Navona...an oblong shaped square with 3 impressive fountains (the middle one was by Bernini)...we ate gelato, washed off in a fountain, strolled through the artists booths, and found another TI...

I managed to stumble onto the Pantheon, totally by accident, but fun none the less. It is the only wholly intact roman building...it is pretty impressive...

Inside the dome, while it is much shorter than St. Peter's...it is 3 feet wider at the base...

We 'mosey-ed' on...if one can mosey while sweating and dragging 2 tired kids...bribing them with the possiblity of finding one more TI (which I never did by the way) and found the Trevi Fountain. It was quite impressive, crowded and huge. Of course, I forgot to toss in the obligatory coin into the fountain...silly me...local story, if you toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain and you will return to Rome...need to get back there...

Then we managed to find the Metro, got on the 4 o'clock train, meeting back up with Shannon and made it back home to Montalto. Not bad for one day's work! While it wasn't that important to the boys and, frankly, they won't remember, I will always treasure the memories of this special day. The boys did wonderfully, we had a good time, the boys had their maps from the TIs, and I had some wonderful memories to bring home...

Ciao a tutti!

Ancient Rome...

, Just a quick warning...this is an extremely long post...but then Ancient Rome deserves much attention! As you may have figured out, Saturday is our major exploring day...mainly because Tobin is off work, we have a vehicle, and everything is open for regular italian business hours (with the exception of banks which are only open in the morning on Saturday). Well, this past Saturday was the italian's Labor Day! Apparently everything just shuts down...if the lines in the food stores were any indication of what was to come...we bought lots of food on Friday!

We decided to brave the holiday and go to Rome. We certainly picked a great day to go! We got on the train in Montalto (apparently, they have these Birg tickets that are all inclusive...all train, metro, and buses included to and from Rome for one day...I feel like we made out like bandits...then they (the folks at the local Tobacchi that speak some english) said that even Case didn't need a ticket).

The kids were so excited about the train ride and were beside themselves once we were onboard...it was a double decker train and we got to sit on top (due to Labor Day we were basically the only ones on the train to begin the ride with...as we got closer to Rome it got more crowded, but it also got later in the day...we were on the 7am train!). Here is super excited Fuzz on the train...


We got off at the Termini station...well, you kind of have to because it is the end of the road/track!...then we walked through Rome to the Colosseum. My impressions of Rome (based on the short walk from the train station to the Colosseum) is that it actually reminds me alot of NYC. I was certainly expecting more along the lines of what one sees in the movies...more of an old feeling to the town, more quaint, more exotic, or something. The buildings were certainly beautiful and I always love to walk around in a city, but I certainly was NOT afraid of a pickpocket...frankly, I would have liked to see them try (my NJ is coming out) and finding the Colosseum was not difficult. I was shocked by the amount of grafitti on everything (not necessarily right in Ancient Rome but the outlying areas were covered...I haven't seen that much in a long time!

We arrive at the Colosseum and all of the streets around Ancient Rome are closed to car traffic...I wasn't sure what we were walking into but apparently they close off the streets and MANY Romans come down to walk the streets. It was very crowded...people were everywhere! I was afraid of being packed in the sites, but it really wasn't too bad. Apparently, all the people there were more interested in walking about and chatting with friends than seeing the sites...good for us! Well, we were in luck! Only for May 1st, the cost of going into the Colosseum was only 1 euro! Go us!!! Usually, the cost is 12 euros per adult and something less for kids, but on this day it was only 4 euro for all of us...my inner bargin-hunter was jumping for joy!

Here are the boys on a Roman road outside of the Colosseum...take note of the very large rocks that are used to make these roads...they are NOT made for strollers! We brought the stroller for Gwen and that was almost our downfall. Rome was not built in a day and it was not built with strollers in mind...think lots of stairs, large boulder streets, and gravel...thankfully, my stroller is well built...it made it and with minimal damage, but we did have to carry it up and down many staircases!

Here is the Arch of Constantine...this is just outside the Colosseum (the Colosseum is just to the left of this picture)...the arches are certainly one of my favorite parts of this adventure...they are quite the sight, large and relatively in good condition...

We then entered the Palatine Hill Area...just a note for those of you who may someday come for a visit...to get into the Colosseum, there is a combo ticket with the Colosseum and Palatine Hill...buy your ticket at Palatine Hill...there is a MUCH shorter line there...we just zipped in, whereas at the Colosseum you might stand for hours...

This is the Stadium of the Palatine...this is a long flat oval-type area that they say was used as a large garden...

After walking around the Palatine hill area and visiting the museum bathrooms, we meandered down into the Roman Forum. At the entry is the Arch of Titus...

I have a large number of pictures of all the ruins, but because (1) I am not sure what all we looked at/took pictures of and (2) not all the most exciting parts of our adventure, we will just have this one pic of the Temple of Saturn...by this time it was already really hot and the kids were loosing interest...on to the highlight of Ancient Rome (at least for me)...

My favorite part, by far, was the Colosseum...well worth my 1 euro to get in! It is a truly amazing structure. I think that once you are standing there and look at how large it is and remember that it was built thousands of years ago...truly amazing!

While the kids didn't understand exactly what we were looking at, I figured they would really enjoy this picture when they get older...

An outside few of this spectacular building...

Even with the 3 little kids (and one in a stroller) it only took about 1/2 a day to do that...we then took the Metro (think Subway) to Garbetella (one of Rome's neighborhoods) and we visited with our neighbors from Montana...amazing! The Lindquists actually live across the street from us in MT and we met them in Rome! What fun! A great refreshing visit in the hot of the day! We even had our first Italian Gelato! Looks like someone was enjoying it...

We got to meet the Lindquists daughter-in-law (Amelia) and granddaughter (Ocia) who actually live in Rome. Looks like Gwen has found her first friend in Italy...the 2 of them were certainly cute together...

Then back on the train home...we finally saw our first conductor, it was just minutes before our stop in Montalto, and apparently, Case does need a train ticket! We went all day and NOW they tell us we needed a ticket! The conductor let us go, but he made sure we understood that the penalty for not having a ticket is 50 euro! Yikes! For a 3 euro ticket! Oh well, next time he gets a ticket for sure! As expected, Clayton fell asleep almost as soon as he sat down...so much excitement for one day...

I hope that you enjoyed our adventure...I am sure to share more tomorrow!

Ciao a tutti!