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When we set out to plan this vacation, I said, well, if we can do one "thing" a day, that will be good. But to be honest, I was secretly hoping that we'd exceed expectations... We're averaging one a day, good news is that it makes naming the highlight tourist places pretty easy to do. We're partial to letting kids sleep in or nap, which cuts into the traditional sightseeing time.
Day 1 - Saturday, April 10th
Gavin and Connor finally roused and we walked the 10 minutes to the Vatican - we can see St. Peter's Dome from outside the monastery where we're staying! We soaked in the atmosphere with all of the crowds around the piazza, but it was so crowded that we opted to pass on going inside. Instead we walked over to Castel Sant'Angelo which has a neat history of its own. They boys enjoyed running around and checking it out while Cici dined al fresco. There were some beautiful apartments on the top floors and a spectacular view of Rome from the top. That night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Opera recommended by Matthew from the Schellville Grill in Sonoma. The owner Fortunata welcomed us in when he heard we were sent by 'Matteo'. Turns out that was no small feat - the whole restaurant had been reserved for a party of about forty Americans, but he set us a table and treated us like family. He even toured Cici around the restaurant when our meals came so we could enjoy them! All of the kids enjoyed the live Opera singing along with the accordian player. Connor was getting into singing "Ole" and clapping at the end of each song. Nana, Greg, Connor and I really did enjoy the fresh pasta (yes Matthew, we had the bucatini - which was great!) but we had one casualty at dinner. Shortly after we got seated Gavin was so tired that he basically passed out. He slept sweetly with his head on Nana's lap throughout dinner, and didn't wake up really until we got back to our rooms... and then was up until 3 am! So much for mastering jet lag!
Funny thing too - when we introducing ourselves to Fortunata and waiting to get seated, we were chatting with one of the couples from the large group entering the restaurant. Turns out that they're from Southern California and have a son that graduated from Servite H.S. just two years below Greg!
Day 2 - Sunday, April 11th
I see that you can't cheat with the blog and write a few days later and have no one know you're not keeping up since the posts get shown in the order they were posted! I'll just fill in the details from Rome by editing this posting. So... Sunday morning the boys slept in again. The monastery has these windows with metal inserts that can completely block out any outside light, basically if you close them you have no idea if it is day or night outside.... Greg thinks they're great. I think they're terrible, since I definitely need input from the outside world that it's time to get up. The boys were feeling the same way (even Connor!) Unfortunately even once we coaxed them awake at about 11 am Gavin wasn't feeling too well. Usually when someone passes out cold at a restaurant and then pukes in the morning it's a sign of a party animal. In this case more likely the maleffects of jet-lag. He rallied though and we went out to brave the Rome Public Bus System. We successfully navigated our way down to Termini Train Station and caught the ATAC double decker sight seeing bus. The boys had fun riding on the top level of the bus as we tried to follow along with the sightseeing narrative which seemed a block or two behind our physical location. We were driven by Piazza Venezia, San Pietro, Quirnale Hill, Colosseum, Forum etc. We disembarked and walked down Via del Corso getting our obligatory selection of pizzas and gelatos (Thanks Nana!) on our way to Piazza dei Popolo. It was fun to people watch and Gavin and Connor loved sitting atop the Tiger statues that were part of the fountain in the center. Gavin even had to run back and say good bye to "Stripey" before we left.
That night we journeyed to Campo Fiori to dine al fresco at Baccanale. We went on the early side on the advice of Rick Steve since we had the kiddies, but that resulted in many of the restaurants (that he recommended) not being open for dinner yet. We found a lively place called Baccanale where the food was decent and the wait staff were excellent. The large tip we left at the end of the night was for both attentive service as well as baby sitting. One of the cute male waiters took a liking to Cici and he was playing hide and seek with her from afar. Later she kept flirting with him and he kept cracking her up - she was loving it! It seemed our whole corner of the restaurant was having fun with her, where other patrons were saying "Bye Cici" as they left. The boys weren't left out, they were treated to free gelato from our gracious server.
After dinner Greg loaded me and the kids in a cab heading home and took his mom on Rick Steve's night walk in Rome.
Day 2 - Sunday, April 11th
I see that you can't cheat with the blog and write a few days later and have no one know you're not keeping up since the posts get shown in the order they were posted! I'll just fill in the details from Rome by editing this posting. So... Sunday morning the boys slept in again. The monastery has these windows with metal inserts that can completely block out any outside light, basically if you close them you have no idea if it is day or night outside.... Greg thinks they're great. I think they're terrible, since I definitely need input from the outside world that it's time to get up. The boys were feeling the same way (even Connor!) Unfortunately even once we coaxed them awake at about 11 am Gavin wasn't feeling too well. Usually when someone passes out cold at a restaurant and then pukes in the morning it's a sign of a party animal. In this case more likely the maleffects of jet-lag. He rallied though and we went out to brave the Rome Public Bus System. We successfully navigated our way down to Termini Train Station and caught the ATAC double decker sight seeing bus. The boys had fun riding on the top level of the bus as we tried to follow along with the sightseeing narrative which seemed a block or two behind our physical location. We were driven by Piazza Venezia, San Pietro, Quirnale Hill, Colosseum, Forum etc. We disembarked and walked down Via del Corso getting our obligatory selection of pizzas and gelatos (Thanks Nana!) on our way to Piazza dei Popolo. It was fun to people watch and Gavin and Connor loved sitting atop the Tiger statues that were part of the fountain in the center. Gavin even had to run back and say good bye to "Stripey" before we left.
That night we journeyed to Campo Fiori to dine al fresco at Baccanale. We went on the early side on the advice of Rick Steve since we had the kiddies, but that resulted in many of the restaurants (that he recommended) not being open for dinner yet. We found a lively place called Baccanale where the food was decent and the wait staff were excellent. The large tip we left at the end of the night was for both attentive service as well as baby sitting. One of the cute male waiters took a liking to Cici and he was playing hide and seek with her from afar. Later she kept flirting with him and he kept cracking her up - she was loving it! It seemed our whole corner of the restaurant was having fun with her, where other patrons were saying "Bye Cici" as they left. The boys weren't left out, they were treated to free gelato from our gracious server.
After dinner Greg loaded me and the kids in a cab heading home and took his mom on Rick Steve's night walk in Rome.
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