The Vatican

Even though we are not Catholic, we wanted to visit the Vatican during our trip. We read many different guide books and ask family who had visited for their tips. Then we ignored them and did our own thing. On the way to St. Peter's Square many people approached us to try to convince us to hire them as our official tour guides. They promised we could skip the long lines to buy tickets if we would just hire them.

The only long line was security and the groups had to go through that also. Once past security, the line divided into two - one line for tour groups who already had tickets and the other to buy tickets. 85% of the line was part of a tour group and the line to buy tickets was short and fast. Don't forget to check the dress code before you attend. We did see some women wearing sleeveless shirts who were not allowed to enter St. Peter's Basilica.

We also looked at the official schedule before deciding which day to visit on. The day after we were there, the Pope gave a live speech so they were setting up chairs in order to prepare. Also be sure to follow the rules for photography and while it should be obvious, respect the traditions and expectations especially once inside the Basilica.

From inside the Basilica there was a little section off to one side that had a doorway that led to some steps going down. We watched a few people go down there and decided to follow. Most people didn't even seem to notice this doorway as they were only looking up. I highly suggest looking up, by the way it's amazing from an art perspective. Just don't forget to look everywhere else as well. We followed these few people and ended up in the crypt. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was interesting to see the different tombs. At the end of the crypt we ended up outside and there was a line of people paying to go up in the dome. We didn't even know that was an option and just had to do it. They give you many warnings about the number of steps and making sure of your health and comfort with heights before going up.

So here we are inside the Basilica at the top of the dome. We are now looking down on everyone many stories below and this is a great place to see the detail in the mosaics on the walls.

From there we had the option to go back down or to go up. Not really sure exactly where up would lead us, we decided to go up. They weren't kidding about the stairs. There were a ton of stairs. Many were crazy steep and they had put in a rope to help people pull themselves up. Once again, our kids were amazing and walked all of it without complaint. It was crowded and there weren't places to stop and rest on the way up or down. So once you started you needed to continue.

This was the view from the top. Amazing. Worth every step. It's difficult to tell from the photo just how far up we are. If you look at the first photo you see a  set of columns on top of the dome. We were standing above those. This gave us a view of all of the Vatican property as well as the surrounding areas of Rome.

After the amazing views we started the climb back down. This was many floors down on the same level as the dome. This was the first chance to rest before going down the rest of the way. At this point the kids ask if we would give them some water. So we sat in the shade for a few minutes before continuing on.

After our surprising trip to the Basilica, we headed over to the Vatican museum. All of the books and our family told us about the long lines here. We were told you must get here early - hours before it opened - because of how crowded it is. When we got there, we didn't find any line. It was midday and we literally walked right in. There was no security line, no admission line, and until we got close to the Sistine Chapel there wasn't even a crowd. Yes, there were people everywhere but no one got in the way and there was plenty to see and do without feeling herded through.

Once we got close to the Sistine Chapel it was more like herding. As in many other parts of our trip to Italy, the people just loved kids. People in line with us were playing with the kids and entertaining them the entire time. I have never seen so many high school age boys happily interacting and playing with toddlers. They weren't trying to impress the girls around them, they all seemed to really enjoy kids. That helped the waiting time fly by.

Once inside the Sistine Chapel spend a few minutes just taking it all in. They are strict with their photo policy and were constantly getting on to people for not following it and we saw them make a few people delete photos. This is one place I want to take the kids when they are older and can appreciate the art as being more than just "pretty."

Daily Life in Rome

There are only so many things you can plan on and research. Some things just happen. This post is a mixture of what we planned and things that just happened.

Our hotel was close to the Roma Termini. This made it easy to take our stuff from the train to our hotel when we first arrived. It also made it easy to catch a bus to all of the tourist stops. Sure, we could have paid a lot more money and taken one of the many tourist buses. But at 1 euro per person per way (our kids were young enough to be free), this was much cheaper. The city buses also stop at all of the tourist stops and our hotel stop was simply the terminal. Even if we didn't understand a word of Italian, we could have gotten around with no problem. It's not like we would miss the Colosseum just by looking out the window after all.

Just walking down a neighborhood street we saw this. Apparently they had just finished redoing the facade of this house. Now I want giant faces around all of our windows.

A little farther down that same street, this family started out of their house. The little girl and sweet daughter took one look at each other. Then they embraced like long lost friends. As they chatted in two different languages, the adults just looked on laughing.

At one point we got lost. We couldn't figure out which way to go. We had been walking longer than we expected. It was raining. I had opened the map so many times it had disintegrated in the rain. We eventually decided to take a taxi back. Not remembering the name of the street our hotel was on, we just told the driver to take us to the train terminal. She didn't complain about walking, but the moment we sat down she was out and didn't wake up until the next morning.

The next day he wanted more nap, so he pretended to sleep in my arms. I'm always up for a good cuddle. It didn't last long before he wanted to walk on his own again.

This was a small cafe we stopped in. We just might have let the kids eat pizza every single day we were in Italy. We also brought along dried veggies which they ate for snack every day. See that large sidewalk just behind me? That's a street. Not just a small side street for motorcycles, there was a city bus stop just out of view. When a car or bus came along, everyone just stepped to the side or in a doorway so that there was room.

 

All of the glasses were real glass. No kids cups or plastic to be found. Luckily the wine glasses had handles that made them easy to handle. The kids loved using the adults glasses and after a few times, I learned to relax and just trust them not to drop.

Historic buildings all around, fountains in the plaza, and people everywhere. When my kids hear music, they decide to dance in the street (literally). If I had just an ounce of their energy I think we would all be better off.

Da Vinci Museum, Rome

One of the things we didn't plan on doing, but decided to make time for was a visit to the Da Vinci Museum in Rome. It was centrally located, we had a coupon, and I'm kind of a nerd. Luckily it was a hands on museum and it was empty other than us, so we got to do everything for as long as we wanted.

Sweet son was thrilled to find this "crane", but this was one of the few things he wasn't allowed to play with.

Pulleys, gears, wood and ropes - this was heaven for kids who want to learn how things work.

The war machine - you couldn't go inside, but it was fun to look at.

Do you see the look on his face? We didn't need to explain how it worked. 

He could see it and control it and what more could a kid want?

She exclaimed, "It fits together like alligator teeth!"

 There were many more exhibits I'm not including photos of. This is not a huge museum, but it was fun. The kids loved seeing the swimming fins (they actually had a full sized mannequin in water).  Just about the time you forget you are in Rome, they have a cut out in the floor so you can see the ruins this building was built on top of. Most of the current buildings were built on history.

 

This was their absolute favorite. Simply turn the handle and it plays music! They watched exactly how it works and then ask wonderful husband to make them one for home. You don't always get what you want though.

The Colosseum

After a busy morning at the forum, we headed over to the Colosseum. This is just such an iconic place and you can feel the history still living, if that makes sense to anyone other than me.

 

 You can walk around the outside and take photos anywhere. This is the spot everyone seems to agree is the best. You can see some of the repairs that have been done to keep it from crumbling even more. Turns out they built it near a fault line.

 Many of the stairways inside are closed to keep visitors safe. Others are still open and we toured the entire place. Be careful because some of the steps were more than half the height of my kids. These aren't modern day steps by any means.

 Behind us you can see the interior of the Colosseum. They have part of the floor removed so you can see everything that was going on under it. These rooms contained stage equipment, rooms for the animals, and rooms for the humans to prepare for the performances. They even built elevators using counterweights to get everything from one level to another.

My little gladiators.