Rome, Italy

Posted on November 21, 2023  •  24 minutes  • 5037 words

So pleasantly surprised with Rome! I had been once before…I was 23yo, it was a very hot July and so crowded. I felt very unwanted by locals and without the internet to guide me, I kept picking terrible restaurants that seemed to always be trying to charge me for something I didn’t order. I had no desire to go back! But when our friends told us they were going to be there and asked if we wanted to meet, I figured I could suffer through it. Lesson learned…go to Rome in November! Lovely weather, no huge crowds (well, the Colosseum felt busy), easy to get a table at highly rated restaurants and not being there during peak tourist times, I didn’t feel unwanted. Kind of like Rome now. :)

We got to the slip for the bus we needed and the line was long. As the bus pulled in and I tried to count the seats and people ahead of us, it wasn’t looking good. The ticket guy ended boarding when we stepped up, but said another bus was coming in 10 minutes. I didn’t have much faith in this, but it did show up. And being first in line, we got to sit in the front of the bus…so my stomach was happy. Sam made up math problems for half the time for Ben and the other half, Ben and I chatted about what we wanted to see and Sam and Max pretended they were driving the bus. They were right behind the driver, who luckily had earbuds in so didn’t have to listen to the kids’ engines revving.

Traffic was not good, but it was fun looking around. Ben got excited when I told him there was another country just right past that street or behind that building. We got off by the Vatican and had a 14-minute walk across the river to our place.

Our host met us there to give us the keys, yet being so early, we couldn’t stay as it hadn’t been cleaned yet. Kinda a bummer because we were really tired, but we needed food anyways. Our place was in a great location, surrounded by small alleyways, that a times had scooters cars barreling down them. Terrifying with 3 kids sometimes, yes. Cute, yes also.

We started wandering to a plaza that popped up on google maps and found a pizza place on the way. Fast and yummy, just what we needed.

We kept wandering and found an old church to peek in…I know, big surprise in Rome. Kids found out very quickly that there are a LOT of churches with giant domes. Finally, we came into Piazza Navona and the kids immediately found a gelato place. We all got some and sat by a fountain to enjoy it.

We walked down the plaza to another fountain…another thing we found a ton of in Rome. Kids loved that there were birds sitting on the statues’ heads in the fountains.

Energy was low, but we still had another hour until we could go back to the place. So we did what we do best, we wandered the streets. I found a shop where I got 2 wool/cashmere sweaters, we bought burrata for dinner, found another church (this one with tables made of mirrors to make seeing the ceiling easy, although it was kinda dizzying) and got some stuff at a supermarket to go with the burrata for dinner and breakfast stuff. We even found our first good looking avocado in 4 months!

We finally made it back and I collapsed. Kids went right to making a fort with the excess of blankets and pillows and I had some quiet reading time. We did an early dinner of burrata with tomatoes, basil and olive oil, beets with balsamic vinegar and olives…served in egg holders that Sam found. I had a glass of wine that I think was left by the previous tenants. Yay!

Did we miss our Italian burrata? Yes we did!!!

It was a bit chilly and it really felt like a cuddle on the couch movie type of night, so we did some Netflix Italy searching on the TV and decided on The Grinch. I had never seen it; Ben had seen it in school. Pretty cute and kids were ecstatic that I let them watch the whole thing in one night. Bedtime was simple after that. Dan was going to arrive at 8:45pm (plus passport control and taxi) and I thought I would stay up, but when his flight got delayed, I wasn’t so sure. I also decided to watch a movie, The Holiday, that I had never seen and write about Belgrade…with some wine. I lovely chill evening, but couldn’t quite stay up…partly because I figured the kids would be up early. Dan got in around 11:30pm. I barely woke up to buzz him up and say hi.

The reason we decided to come to Rome was that Ben and Sam’s preschool friends (brothers also) were going to be there on a family trip. We parents kept is a secret, so after breakfast at home, we planned to walk to the Colosseum. I kept stopping in the 1 block to their place to talk about what we were going to do. Then the kids were confused why we were just standing on the side of the road (in front of their place waiting for them to come out). I had excuses. Dean and Glen walked out and we were expecting a bit of excitement, hugging, running to each other and they ALL just stood there and said hi. Um, Sam, want to go say hi do Glen? Then it sunk in and they were excited to see each other. Parents seemed to have bigger hugs for each other. Anyways, 2 minutes later they were in sync and loving being with each other. Kids walking and holding hands, random hugs, constant updates, it was great. Christina had put in the time and effort to get Colosseum tickets with the extra access and that was the first thing we planned to do, as it was a timed entry. On the way we stopped for pastries and coffee, finding a great place on one of the little streets.

While the little streets are fun to look at, they are stressful with 5 kids! Cars and scooters zipping around, no sidewalk and cars parked the full length. It felt like a summer night as kids riding your bike in the street when you constantly have to yell ‘CAR!” Only this time it was ‘SCOOTER!’.

Dan led us and we were booking it, not knowing if we had to get in to the minute that our tickets said. ‘Look kids, but don’t stop…we’ll see it after’ was said a lot on the way. Seriously, ruins everywhere you look…unless it’s a church or pizza shop.

Kids holding hands or animately telling a story melted my heart. Continually fast walking behind our trusty guide.

We go there on time-ish. Max and I had different tickets because I thought the underground area would be a bit gruesome for him, from what I remembered 20 years before. Well they barely looked at the tickets, saw my wad of passport and then didn’t want to bother looking at anyone’s ID and we were in…all with little green stickers for the full experience, which we all weren’t sure exactly included. We walked around, marveling at it all.

Sam was expecting a man fighting a lion, but handled the disappointment rather well. Probably because he had Glen. Note: I had explained to Ben more in depth what happened there back in the day, but with Sammy, I left it as man vs. animal.

And traveling with friends, easier to get nice photos of the parents. Ben’s photos are getting straighter, but just not there yet. :)

It is a complete engineering masterpiece. Even with only seeing part of it still standing, it just blows your mind. Looking at the massive stone blocks, stone stairs, bricks and everything else added with all it’s mass…it’s SO much weight. If you don’t have a Geotechnical Engineer on a residential project in California, the CBC allows 1500psf of bearing pressure on the soil. Meaning in a square foot you can have 1500lbs, no more. Pretty sure the soil here was over by a factor of 10 (or more) yet no massive issues. My only assumption is that the soil was all compressed uniformly-ish and so it settled evenly-ish. It makes you think…is the 1500psf a bit conservative? Even with having a Geotechnical Engineer on the project AND having great soil, the highest value I have seen was 4500psf…still way under what would be required for the Colosseum or really any of these ancient stone structures. We wandered around the center and then went upstairs. More views, more photos and more amazement.

We planned to headed back to street level to find the way to get down below, but found out that required an even extra experience ticket that we didn’t have. We felt we had seen what we wanted to see and we went out. Walking around just out of the Colosseum there are just more and more things to see. We were right at Palantine Hill so we decided to check that out too. More ruins to blow our minds and amazing views with the green grass and the bright blue sky.

It was a bit hard to figure out what exactly you were looking at, and Dan did his best to dictate from an online map/Wikipedia, but in the moment it didn’t matter. It was all cool and we were loving walking around and taking it in, without too much info. And it really didn’t feel like there were that many people. Sure you always saw some, but you could always get the view you wanted and had plenty of space.

Kids found sticks, go figure, and at one point were more interested in drawings in the dirt or playing tick tack toe that we figured it was time to go.

Looking at my watch, I knew the hangriness would set in soon, so I started passing out lots of nuts and half a fruit leather bar to each kid…focusing a lot on Sammy. We kept trying to leave, but then we’d find something else to see. Dan found an underground area that we figured we should check out since we didn’t go down below in the Colosseum.

To be honest, I was okay with that though. I remember from being there 20 years ago, that it was quite honest and gruesome below. It’s one thing to know what happened, but it’s another to still see remnants of what happened and/or graphic drawings. I don’t know if it’s the same as before, but I remember being disturbed after.

In Palantine Hill, as we kept trying to leave, we kept walking past more things to see!

We slowly made it to an exit and Dan had a restaurant queued up on his phone. As we walked there, we saw that a lot of other people had the same idea. We found a back up and it was great. Kids were hungry so I pulled out a pouch of pencils and asked for a picture of their favorite thing they saw that morning to be drawn on the paper place mat.

It worked and food came fast. Pizza, 1 liter our house wine, prosciutto with melon and salad produced happy kids and happy adults. Our family was doing okay, but our friends must have been so tired/jet lagged, but they wanted to power on! We were by the Trevi Fountain, so we headed there, walking down alleys and past gorgeous buildings. You could see the crowd before the fountain, but it was striking nonetheless.

Even with all the people, we were able to walk right up to it and have space to really look at it.

We counted statues, made comments about the statues and enjoyed it all for a bit. Made out way back up the stairs, from the lower part of the fountain and headed to the Spanish Steps, since we were still in that area.

We had promised gelato for trouper kids and they were asking constantly. We said when we get to the steps, we’ll get some. This was a financial mistake as one scoop was 7 euros! Oh well, lesson learned. Kids were on cloud 9.

After ice cream we walked across the street to the base of the steps and to be honest, they felt like a huge let down. I don’t know why exactly I enjoyed them before so much, maybe because they had flowers on them, but really just a staircase. I’m not sure of the historical significance, yes I should google it, but beyond that, nothing super special. It’s a staircase, right?

We climbed to the top and the kids counted the steps on the way down. Shockingly they agreed on the number of steps…124. The internet says differently after googling it. :)

We were all feeling tired so we decided to start heading back, swinging by the Pantheon since it was kinda on the way. Pace was seriously declining and when we got to the Pantheon and saw the line to buy entrance tickets, we all decided that pictures from the outside would suffice. Quick photos and continued on.

Along the side of the Pantheon, kids had to climb up on every wall possible. Everyone should have been so tired at this point, but the kids little energy levels seem to shoot up anytime they see something they can climb or a ledge they HAVE to peer over.

We finally made it back and we all headed to our respective AirBnBs for some down time before meeting back up for dinner. All the kids wanted to see each other’s’ places so we said we’d swing by and pick them up for dinner so we could pop in. Dan and I crashed on the bed, Dan actually fell asleep, and we let the kids wreak havoc in their room with fort making. Max got bored and wanted a chai, so I slipped out and drank chai with him in the kitchen. Sam and Ben joined and I was able to sneak in some journal writing time with some snacks to make it to dinner.

We went to their place and were standing in their courtyard when we thought…huh, our place is kinda like right there. Huh, we have 4 windows that are shaped like that. (The left window had a light on). Ben, did you turn off the light in your room or the living room? My room. That’s our place 2 floors up! Excitement ALL around! What are the chances? We knew were where close when we booked the places, but this is cool.

We composed ourselves and walked about 4 blocks to a place Christina had picked out. It was just barely warm enough (or should I say just barely not too cold) to sit outside. It was right by a courtyard, and eve though we couldn’t really see the kids through the hedges, they just couldn’t stay still so we let them play over there after ordering and until the food was going to come. Adults, maybe wary at first, felt good about the decision when our prosecco game and we could enjoy it in peace. Dinner was great! I got a pasta with cheese and black pepper sauce, Ben got a soup that was a bit thicker than he had wanted, all the other kids got pasta. Everyone ate well.

We didn’t make it a late night by any means, but did say the kids could verify the windows were ours when we walked back. We waved from our windows down to their courtyard and planned to message each other when we were up in the morning. Told the kids to brush their teeth, yet somehow this was found and toothbrushes were still dry.

We were up around 7am and had some yogurt for first breakfast. It was still early and if they were getting sleep, I didn’t want to bother them. Kids were writing (more) and sending paper airplanes down for their friends to find when they finally got up.

I waited until 8:30 to message, but no response. We figured we’d go out exploring but stay close. We got coffee and pastries right across the street. ALL were a hit and when Max picked out the one he wanted, the guy said ‘best choice!’ and a woman drinking coffee said that one was the best. It was a bun filled solid with icing…what’s not to like?

We sat outside as Dan painstakingly cut the 5 pastries all into 5 pieces each. Happy kids, but now hyped up on sugar kids. We thought going to river and walking along it would be a good place for the kids to have some place to run off their energy.

It was nice to be by the water, but not the prettiest of rivers.

We walked a few bridges down and decided to pop up at the Castel Sant’Angelo. It was a massive structure looming over us as we walked up.

With still no word from our jet lagged friends, we decided to go in. A bit of a different feel than some of the perched on the top of a hill castles we’d been seeing, but SO cool in a different way. Also very different aggregate used in some of the lower construction that hadn’t been worn smooth, nor had the grout been worn away.

We started down, which we found out was the site of the original mausoleum that was there before the castle was constructed.

We then walked up a long ramp, out of the mausoleum.

We seemed to just slowly be making our way up as we walked through and around the perimeter of the inner castle. We would walk under areas that looked like giant trap doors above. Kids loved this and trap doors made it into their ghost stories we told later on in the trip.

There were rooms off to the side with things to see. The kids always love the swords and helmets. Max found ’the biggest sword he’s EVER seen in his life!’ He loves this line. REminds me of my dad saying ’that’s the best margarita I’ve ever had’, which I find hard to believe. Really, 90% of the ones you have are better than any one before? Probably more goes to memory, but I love that he believes that. It’s a good way to live always thinking what you currently have is the best. Max is following in his grandpa’s footsteps…with swords, NOT margaritas!

We saw some cool ceiling designs in the exhibit rooms. Sometimes you do wonder…what were they thinking?!?

Kids found a grate and had to see if it was a trap door. I think just a grate, but they were convinced…I mean, we were in a castle so I get it.

We finally made it to the top and were rewarded with amazing views of the whole city. You could see so far! It occurred to me, there were zero sky scrapers! And I mean zero! I don’t think there was a building over 10 floors. There had to be an ordinance that didn’t allow for it (we think we figured out why later that day). It definably gave Rome a nice feel without giant towers everywhere. Cheers to Rome for that. And with skyscrapers starting in the mid 1880s, thanks to the invention of the (electric) elevator, this must have been a decision made a long time ago. Kinda funny to think about now as I write this, because we figured out the reason and it’s a bit obvious being in a very catholic city. So here you have it…the tallest building in the area.

And another one. Ben being very excited he could see anther country.

Kids loved the seagull as we have our family joke dating back to Monacco when Ben excitedly says ‘Mom! Look a seagull!’ when there was so much more to see. Yes, let’s travel all this way to see a seagull Ben. :)

While we were at the top, we received contact from our friends! It was 11:30am and they finally woke up! We planned to meet at a restaurant by the Vatican for lunch and then into the Vatican after. We started making our way down and Max found this bust, runs over to it and says ‘Look! Uncle Roy! It melts my heart how much he brings up Uncle Roy and to be fair (sorry Uncle Roy, if you are reading this) it does kind of look like him. Good call Max.

Having some time before meeting them, we poked our heads in more side rooms. The detail that is put into so many things just blows my mind.

We continued to take our time, did a quick lesson in Roman numerals as they are everywhere, clearly. Max found a Max sized door, yet Sam had to join for the photo. This is happening more often now…or Sam will request a photo be taken of him doing something or with something. This coming from the kid who used to refuse photos. Well, that still does happen.

The place I picked got amazing reviews and (again) we found out why. There was barely any seating, but I pushed for waiting it out even though Dan was VERY hungry…aka grumpy…but kids were all fine and once we ordered and things felt like they were moving along, 1 of the 2 tables opened up outside. We got the kids around it and then the other tabled opened up too. Seats for everyone! I grabbed a beer for Dan, which always helps. Food was awesome! We got pizza and pasta and a couple kinds of these battered and fried rice balls. Delicious!!!

Stomachs filled, we headed to St Peter’s Square. I had remembered finding the vastness of the square pretty cool before with all the columns and what felt like hundreds of statues way up top. The blogs I read on the internet had prepared us for 2hr waits to get into the basilica, but we figured we’d check it out. There was a line but it looked like it was moving. Thaun took 3 kids to hang in the square, Dan took 2 kids to the bathroom and Christina and I waited in line. It moved so fast, we had to let people go by! Maybe 15 minutes total? Another reminder to never go to Rome (or Italy for that matter) in the summer. We were thrilled to get in (meaning through security) so fast!

We walked up the entrance and were even able to take a family photo +1 with space. Seriously, not crowded!

We walked around and then into St. Peter’s Basilica and holy crap! Yes, I said ‘holy’ when describing a church. So massive! Everything about it was over the top…everything! It really is impossible to explain the vastness of it with words of photos.

Sam introduced our friends to his new favorite type of photo, but everyone seemed to be confused by the countdown timer this time. These facial expressions, by no means, express what they were all feeling!

Kids had so many questions, but mainly ‘where does the Pope stand when he talks?’ There were lots of options but then we found the carved wooden platform, that was actually a carved person for each leg to be the winner.

Or was it the platform more in the middle that had more carved wood and a roof?

It really is hard to grasp the level of detail that was put into this building…and the money! Looking up at how high the center dome was, it hit me…that’s why there are no skyscrapers! You can’t go building a tall building and insult God! We stayed for a bit, just staring and commenting on everything. We finally headed out and tried to get to the Gardens of the Vatican. We thought we could get around the side, but then Dan figured out we couldn’t and it was actually part of the Vatican tickets. Not feeling a strong urge to deal with lots of people to see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums, we thought we’d go find a park for the kids. We have been in some cities with parks on every corner. Yes, this seems to happen when we are trying to get somewhere, but we hadn’t passed one yet in Rome. Dan and Christina found out, which happened to pass a coffee shop Dan wanted to go to. Dan turned off and we continued on a few more blocks.

We found the park. A bit run down, but surprise surprise, kids didn’t care. There was also an assortment of wheeled vehicles for the kids to choose from and ride around.

It was nice to just be able to sit and have the kids entertain themselves. We stayed for a bit, but the sun was going behind buildings (short ones) and we decided to head out. Dan thought he had the route picked out, but the roads we were going to take turned out to be private roads. Then he thought he found another route but there was no sidewalk, nor shoulder and it was too fast and windy of a road to risk with kids. So, we stumbled through a park hoping for an outlet, but at the end, we ended up walking a bit back and around.

It became quite funny, every turn not working out. Spirits still seemed high and all the kids seemed to care about was if ALL the kids could come back to our AirBnB this time. We took them all back and gave Christina and Thaun some non-kid time. Really it was kind of non-kid time at our place as all 5 kids were feverishly making paper airplanes, testing them and only bothering us when they ran out of paper.

Christina and Thaun came back and the kids reluctantly decided that they would come with us for dinner. Dan picked a great place not too far away, but still lots of small streets and scooters flying by, but to add another obstacle, it was now very dark. Colder tonight, but we still braved the outside…and there were heat lamps ready to go. We did a kids’ table and an adults’ table instead of having them move tables all around and it was perfect. Kids did some scheming and drawing with some origami added in.

A creature of habit when it comes to food, I ordered the same thing I ordered the night before…I mean, I wanted to compare them. We saw food go by to other tables and did some ordering that way too. Some Aperol Spritz and prosecco to round it out our Italian Thanksgiving dinner. Kids were hungry as we didn’t hear much from their table.

After dinner the kids decided we HAD to get gelato for our last night together. Dan and Thaun went in search of the tiramisu Thaun and Christina had gotten earlier and Christina and I took 5 very excited kids to get gelato. My kids love lemon gelato. Not sure why, but they do. I find it a bit annoying as I don’t like citrus in desserts, so when I need to ‘help’ them because it’s dripping, I’m just not super happy about it. Anyways, somehow my kids talked it up so much and 4 of the 5 kids got lemon. Max was the lone holdout.

As we ate our gelato and tiramisu, we all went around and said what we were thankful for this Thanksgiving. I made the rule that you couldn’t use what someone else had said, yet each kid really wanted to say what a previous kids said. It’s true, we are all thankful for being with our friends in Italy….and for gelato.

Quick walk home and plans for meeting in the morning for pastries.

Max woke early and asked for chai. I love that he and Ben love it.

We went back to the same place (Dan had a quick meeting with students) that we went to the day before. Ate a lot, said our goodbyes, promised the kids sleep overs back in Gilbert in 8 months and went back to pack. Of course, right when we walked in our place, they went to the window to see their friends below. Ben seemed to be the only one upset that he was saying by to his friend, so when he got invited down for the last bit, I said sure.

All packed and ready to go, the last 4 of us walked over to get Ben and say goodbye again. We hopped on our taxi and headed to the train station.

At the train station, we found out our train was 5 minutes delayed. 5 minute delay, I’ll take it. We headed upstairs to the bathroom where after we sat and looked down on all the tracks. Kind of cool to see the trains come in and out.

We started the game of guessing which track ours would be on while we finished up the last 2 pastries from that morning. Max picked the same one from the day before and it was about the size of his head.

We waited and waited and waited and finally, 14! Train was leaving in 8 minutes, so we walked down, though the automated ticket control and onto our train.

I had picked our seats to have a table, which is such a bonus for train rides. And the extra bonus, it was a fast train! 250km/hr or so. We all loved that and the fact that it was just a little over an hour trip.

Having only backpacks, it really makes walking everywhere so much easier. Departed and walked the 20 minutes to our place for an early check in.

Even on the short walk, we got to see cool parts of Naples.