Friday, June 6, 2014

Rome

Jet lag was hard on the kids (and Ken). I think I would have slept soundly if everyone else hadn't been up half the night. The first night Naomi was up from 2:30 am - 6:00 am and Julius was up from 4:30-6:00. So everyone was sound asleep when Grandpa showed up at the apartment at noon! Oh well...what can you do? Night 2 was no better so everyone was pretty tired by day 3. But we pushed through and still saw everything we hoped to see in Rome.

We were all so excited to see Grandpa!

Julius working on legos.

The kids got a kick out of this little thing. One seat.

Our first view of Vatican City.

St. Peter's Dome in the distance

Crossing the Ponte Degli Angeli (Bridge of the Angels)

Behind us is the Castel Sant Angelo (Castle of St. Angelo) which was originally built as a tomb for a Roman Emperor.

Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

We waited in a big, long line to get in. It's so HOT in Rome. The forecast did not look this hot when I checked it. But the kids were hanging in there. And by early evening the weather is lovely.

Swiss guard at the Vatican

Inside St. Peters

Pieta

(Descent from the Cross)

by Michelangelo

Inside St. Peters

The Dome of St. Peter's designed by Michelangelo.

Does Ken look tired?

The Vatican

Boca De La Verita

Mouth of Truth

I had shown this to the kids so they really wanted to see it. It will bite your hand off if you tell a lie!

As we were walking up to take the picture Julius kept asking me if he was a liar? I think he was a little nervous. And poor Naomi slept through it but we stuck her in the picture thinking later we could convince her she was there. So far it's worked.

Walking towards the Colosseum

Our first glimpse from the back

And it's covered in scaffolding!! Strike one Rome.

Roman ruins

Dad says the first time he came here maybe 40 years ago...it wasn't gated off you could essentially just climb around on everything and he did. Not anymore.

An early Roman shopping mall

Walking up Capitoline Hill

Playing around a square designed by Michelangelo on Capitoline Hill

Square designed by Michelangelo

Victor Emmanuel Monument

(The last king of Italy)

More gelato

Trevi Fountain

The kids really wanted to throw a coin in so they were sure to come back to Rome. But this was as close as we could get. The whole thing was gated off because they were fixing something. Strike two Rome.

Fine. We'll just get more gelato.

We cruised back past the Pantheon on our way home.

Still big.

Piazza Navona

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Rome

We were only in Rome for 2 nights and we rented an apartment very near everything. It was a 10 minute walk or less to the Pantheon and the Vatican. Maybe 20 minutes to the Colosseum. We got to Rome the day before my dad arrived so we had a driver pick us up at the airport and take us right to our front door. All went smoothly. Waiting at the front door.

The street we stayed on. Our apartment was on the left.

We walked down the street to find some lunch. It was really hot out and we were REALLY tired so we went straight back to the apartment.

The kids had to nap. Ken and I tried to stay awake but we dozed off for a while too. When we woke up we were feeling so much better and decided to walk to the Pantheon.

It's so big!

Naomi headed straight for the drinking fountain.

Back for more.

Our first taste of gelato. Naomi won with a mystery flavor. We figured out later it was orange but it was a creamy orange...so good.

Walking home.

On Our Way To Italy

On our way...

Luckily we only had to take 2 flights. Salt Lake to Philadelphia and Philadelphia to Rome.

The kids could not have been better. They were perfect actually. They watched movies and played on the first flight. Naomi even napped for the last hour. We had a 3 hour layover in Philly but found some lunch and a cute children's play area where we spent most of the time.