Rome, Italy - April 2016

Rome!  Our final destination on our tour de' Italy!  

Back on the train and into the coloring... A quick 1 1/2 hour trip and we were in Rome! After landing in Rome, we took a quick taxi to our hotel which was in the heart of the city.  After lots of research, we chose this location because of it’s proximity to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon, among other things.  We figured none of those sights would require a tour guide, so if we were close, we could explore them on our own and at our own pace.  We did not however realize just how close we would be to the Trevi Fountain.  With the windows open in the evenings, you could hear the splashing of the water, not to mention the hordes of people passing by.  Both girls loved sitting up in the windows of the apartment people watching.  They got lots of smiles and waves as they observed all the happenings on the busy streets. 

Yep, in Italy too... Annelyse really liked her pink hat.
We couldn't help but wonder if she was trying to emulate an American 

With many of the museums and sights being closed on Sundays we opted to jump right into our exploration of Rome.  A new friend I met while working in Italy recommended a lady tour guide for the Colosseum!  The sheer magnitude of the place was incredible.  We learned lots of neat facts, some of which appear to have stuck with the ladies.  Loralye was most impressed by the fact that the reason only half of it is left is the result of an earthquake.  It was also interesting to learn that the Romans had no intention of maintaining structures, building, etc.  In fact, part of the reason the Colosseum was destroyed by the earthquake was because people were pulling iron the out of the walls and foundation to build other stuff.  Later in the trip, we learned that a large majority of what we saw in the Vatican Museum, was pilfered from the Colosseum.  The idea of recycling was very prevalent back in the day apparently!

In front of the Constantine Arch... They were very excited to learn that Aunt Connie's "real name" was Constance... and decided that her name was the girls version of Constantine.  Loralye then said... "this is Aunt Connie's arch?!? That's so COOL!" 

View while waiting in line to go through security... 

Trying to visualize what it use to look like... They were quite fascinated by the fact that animals were kept in the basement and hoisted up via rope elevators to fight the Gladiators!!  

All the holes are where they pulled out 'support' to reuse for bigger and better creations!  Quite intimidating walking underneath these structures knowing that the infrastructure has been compromised.  

"The Basement"... the large oval was covered and below is where the animals were kept. 

The girls didn’t have many comments during the tour.  The tour guide did try to show them pictures of what things use to look like to give the a better visual.  It is quite difficult to try and imagine such a grand place when all that’s left is rock and rubble.  Those rocks and rubble of course were very appealing and the girls managed to smuggle a few out in their pockets.  The things that they find ‘cool’ always baffle us!  

Standing next a marble column.... please pardon her overwhelming excitment! 

Finding ways to keep ourselves entertained
during the immensely painful tour of rubble. 

After the Colosseum we headed over to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  The Roman Forum is a rectangular plaza surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorate the city's great men. Located in the small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations.   All of this translates into complete and utter boredom for two of the four of us.  

Trying to lift one of the marble pillars 

Observing an ongoing excavation... explaining that they are still digging deeper to discover older civilizations seemed to peak their interest.  For about 2 minutes. 

Running through the gardens.

As the tour guide walked us through this area, Annelyse asked her if she was familiar with the Boboli Gardens in Florence... The tour guide was shocked.... Guess they are getting something from this experience, even if it just looks like shrubs and a place to run!

Fashionable, even in the most boring of places! 

This was a captivating view!  

While walking through the place, it too is hard to imagine what it used to look like 2,000 years ago, but lucky for us there were some gardens and hedge mazes that the girls could run through and burn off some energy.  One of the funnier moments is when they spotted an orange tree.  Quickly we realized they have only been exposed to colder climates, because neither of them believed us that they were real oranges.  We got the same reaction from some lemon trees at the hotel in Tuscany as well. After a long day of learning and touring, we were all ready for some pizza, pasta and a good night of rest!

The Roman Forum 

Our sunny's just before the sunset! 

Double Trouble

Everything here is big... 

After the tour and many requests for smiles, we rewarded the girls with some more gelato! 

Making wishes in the Trevi Fountain 

The next day was a scheduled "down-day"... no tours, no planned activities, nothing.   Just walking and exploring and likely eating a lot along the way.   The girls are so excited when we tell them we have nothing planned... probably should reconsider itinerary planning given that feedback.

Anyway,  we were steps away from the Trevi fountain so we made several visits and tossed a small fortune into the fountain, which surely has guaranteed a return trip to Rome!  Thank you ladies! 

The Pantheon... only a pic on the outside... 

In front of one of many fountains... 

The little Tour Guides in action! 

All of the tours and sight-seeing definitely left an impression on the ladies.  Several times throughout the trip, the girls put their hand up and started to give instructions on where to go, who to follow, what things are, etc. They even took it upon themselves to make flags out of forks and of course, lead the way.  

  

Bubbles in the square! 

I think the guy with the bubbles was using a fishing net and ultra-concentrated soap to create these massive, bubbles...GENIUS!

More ice cream! 

The Spanish Steps... under construction, so no decent pictures

Yep, gelato for the 2nd time in one day... you know, we had to try as many kinds as we could.  Opted for blue this time! And of course managed to get it all over the shirts we had just bought and insisted on putting on three minutes before this picture was taken :)   We always come home sticky... a definite family tradition!  

Another stop at the fountain to make some more wishes before heading to the Vatican!!  One of the perks of being so close to was that our personal alarm clocks helped us get out there by 7:00 am.  We had the whole place to ourselves!  

Our last day in Rome, I had planned a tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.  I knew this place might be a stretch for the girls, so I found a private tour, which started an hour before the place opened to the public, figuring  if we had the run of the place, it would be easier to hear all the fun facts and history. 

Antoniella, our guide, was absolutely wonderful!  She made the 3 hour tour of a very overwhelming place interesting, informative and fun! The girls adored her and the feeling was mutual!  

Lo and her "Ciao Bella" purse outside the Vatican walls... she HAD to have this purse and every time someone said "Ciao Bella" she would say "do you know that means 'Hello Beautiful'... I have a purse that says that?!?" 

Our little sweeties outside St. Peter's Bascillica

We make friends fast... hand in hand with Antoniella (and the purse)

The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513).  We refereed to it as "Statue Row"

Gallery of the Tapestries:  Representing the life of Christ are based on designs by the school of Raphael, but  were woven in Flanders, where the best weavers could be found. They were commissioned in the 1500’s.

While the paintings looked like they were surrounded by plaster, the plaster details were in fact painted! 

While we weren't "Art Lovers" in Florence, the Vatican Museums were beyond incredible... even the girls just kept spinning around saying "WOW" 

The Glamorous Lady touring the Vatican

The Pope's transport... very similar to Cinderella's

The Infamous Pope Mobile

The Trevi Fountain left an impression, we had to throw coins in EVERY fountain we came across.  Russ and I were totally fine with this because everytime they tossed the coin in, they would shout... "Now we get to come back to Italy!!" Hopefully they want to come back with us :)... 

She really takes this wishing thing seriously... she would get perturbed when we told her to hurry up and throw the coin in.  

I know, lots of art ... really, these paled in comparison to the Sistine Chapel, but were remarkable!  No pictures or talking allowed in the Sistine Chapel... so I hope those all those wishes come true and we get to come back to see it again! 

The Infamous "Leaf"

The picture here has its own story that no caption would do justice.  OF course, no trip with Loralye would be complete without a penis conversation. And I couldn't think of a more awkward place to have this type of conversation than in the middle of the Vatican Museum.  Loralye is a lady with PHENOMENAL attention to detail.  While walking through the museums, she noticed that instead of her typical male statue observation (around the groin area) she found a perfectly shaped leaf.  Of course she wasted no time in asking our expert guide Antoniella "Why those guys have a leaf over their penis"... again, that extra money to be alone in a religious place, which has an amazing echo, was priceless... and totally suited for the penis conversations that were about to ensue.  Antoniella, proceeded to explain that because this was a church, the Popes didn't think everyone's junk should be hanging out. (I may have paraphrased here a bit).  

So, in an effort to have show some modesty, they cut them off and replaced them with leaves.  Without skipping a beat, Loralye asks "Did they keep the penis's" to which Antoniella replied, "Actually yes, they are drawers, labeled with which statue they belong to." To which Loralye, replied "Can we go see them?"... While Antonilla was amazing, even she wasn't prepared to take the girls to the room of penis's.  Bless this woman's heart.  Needless to say, we were saying Hail Mary's and Our Fathers for the duration of the tour.  

St. Peter's Bascillica

I asked 'my angles' to stand under these angels... not the perfect picture, but truly reflective of their true selves and all the reasons they might need to spend more time in church!

A Swiss Guard 

We looked for the Pope in his window... but he wasn't home :(

Annelyse is really into countries and was geeked to be visiting the SMALLEST country in the world. Of course, we had to commemorate the visit by sending post cards back to the states , complete with a Vatican Post Office stamp.   There were so many cute postcards, but both girls picked a very candid photo of the Pope.  Annelyse was sure to include in her message to Grammy Jo that the guy on the front was the Pope.... you know, just in case. 

The apartment had a great view of a bustling street which permitted lots of people watching! Each evening the girls would park themselves up in the window and make observations about all activity below! One night a guy dressed like the Pope who was trying to shake peoples hands but wasn't "having much success"... I almost let her go down there and give him some money and a good hand shake, but he packed up and walked away just before our soft hearts got the best of us. He was there often so we caught him another day... more to come on that with pictures below...

The Jerky Pope... after we gave him a donation, he told us it wasn't enough and asked for more... Seriously?!? 

More window viewing... must have been lots of good stuff to see out there! 

Bedtime in Italy gave way for some new traditions. It started innocently one evening with Russ bopping Loralye on the head with a pillow, of course this "innocent" action resulted in a full-blown pillow fight. It was such fun, that each and every night for the duration of the trip, someone instigated a brawl. The hysterical laughter was great fun, but it sure was tough to calm them down after all the face smashing and body slamming. Not to mention they were all sweaty and their hearts were pounding when all was said and done. This lead to the other new tradition... "Fill in the Blank Bedtime Stories". Back home, we read with the girls each night before bed. Being away, we didn't have access to any books, so we typically fill this time with stories about the day. With two ladies wound up tighter than rubber bands, asking them what their favorite part of the day was after the pillow fight usually elicited the response "the pillow fight!!!" Which then got them both untucked, bouncing on the bed, chanting, 'pillow fight, pillow fight, pillow fight'... so much for settling down. So, to keep things interesting, I started asking the girls questions and then using their responses in a story. For some reason, they thought these were the greatest stories and continue to ask for them. I must admit, the first few were fairly easily to string together, but now I am starting to run out of ideas... 

It was a whirlwind 10 days with so many funny memories, speckled with some history and lots of family time! By far this was our most favorite country and I hope we will make it back again sometime soon!  Until then!

Ciao Ciao!