Well we just got back from Roma and it was amazing! We started booking this trip in October a low cost airline over here called Ryan Air was running a sale and we got our tickets for 20€ each round trip! We had no problems printing our own boarding passes, or traveling light so we had no extra charges after the fact either. I was pretty nervous about it, I had in my mind some discount airline with old crappy planes that were dirty and rude employees but it was a VERY nice 737 both ways and all the people were great. I thought it was a very pleasant experience and we will definitely take advantage of their amazing prices again soon!
Our flight was only about 1.5 hours which was nice since the last flight we were on was like 10 so this was a welcomed change for us! We booked a room very near Termini train station which is the main station in town so we just hopped on a shuttle bus and headed there. Once we arrived it was a 5 minute walk to our hotel.
The hotel itself could have been way better, the neighborhood was a little iffy but we just stayed in after dark and the room was 4 twin beds, a 15 inch tv and a bathroom. Nice and clean though and very affordable so I guess when you're ballin' on a budget, you can't be too critical. After we arrived, it was dinner and bed. Got to rest up for the day ahead of us!
Saturday-
First thing we did was walk over to Piazza della Repubblica, it was right around the corner from us and it's really beautiful. I can't believe how beautiful all the buildings are there.
From there we just got in a cab and headed to the other side of Rome, we had ancient Rome on the agenda for the day. Once we were over there, the Colosseum was the first thing we wanted to do. This was Chris' major to-do and he was really excited!
It was awesome, it's so crazy to stand inside and think about how old everything is!
Afterwards we went out front and had the Rome right of passage known as getting ripped off. Note: Always ask how much before anything else. We let Kory take pictures with this guy dressed as a Roman Gladiator and didn't ask first. He charged us 20€! But, of course we had already taken them and I'm not really good with confrontation so we paid it. I felt like we should ask another one of the Gladiators what the price was and he informed me that it's just for tips...so yeah, lesson learned.
After we finished that, and Chris talked me out of my funk from getting ripped off, we headed to just walk around and see what we could find. We were having a decent day weather wise so why not!? We ended up walking through the Roman Forum, a couple other archaeological sites, watching some pretty cool street performers and finished up with a visit to the Monumento Vittorio Emanuele II.
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| Feeding the birds ridiculously expensive, stale Pringles. |
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| Lunch! Food pretty much was our bargaining chip with the kids, every time Kory started whining or acting up we basically just stopped to eat...there was a lot of eating going on. |
It was an exhausting day so we headed back to the hotel to rest! Only to get there and realize that it was only 2pm...so we rested a couple hours and let the kids zone out on Italian dubbed cartoons and then decided to see if we could find anything cool to check out nearby. We went right around the corner and found the Museo Nazionale Romano, Terme Di Diocleziano. This was a great museum with tons of amazing statues and sarcophagi (and the most bomb vending machines that were so cheap we may or may not have used all of our change and stuffed our pockets with snacks to take back to the hotel..Hey! Snacks and drinks are expensive in Rome!)
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| Kory thought it was crazy that they used to use all of these tools to write with and he just uses a pencil! |
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| Collars that the Roman prisoners wore. |
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| Amazing details. This is an urn. |
Sunday-
My big want to see was Capuchin Crypt. I don't know why and Chris loves to tease me for it but I am completely fascinated by things like this. I thought it was spectacular. It was the most interesting thing I've seen in person and I could have spent hours in there. When the monks moved into Santa Maria Della Concezione dei Cappuchini in 1631, they brought with them 300 cart loads of bones from deceased friars. Needing somewhere to put them all they arranged them in decorative motifs nailed to the walls of the crypt. As it was such a desirable place for monks to be buried because the dirt was brought over from Jerusalem, as time went on and more monks were buried they would exhume the body of the longest resting monk and add it to the motif. There are 6 rooms and they contain the skeletal remains of about 3700 bodies.
(Just as a note, you can't take pictures inside the crypt so these are not my pictures. I bought the book afterward and these are from that.)
From there we headed over to Trevi Fountain to toss some coins and ensure our safe return to Roma!
After that we went over to the Pantheon. If you ever go to Rome, do not go to the Pantheon on a Sunday, they're holding Mass inside and you won't be able to go in. We went, couldn't get in, and then doubled back after our next stop and still couldn't get near it. It was still nice to see from the outside, and the fountain in the piazza was of course beautiful.
Then onto another one off my list of things to see, The Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona. This fountain was one of the alters of science from Angels and Demons, which is still one of my favorite books...so I was pretty excited and yes, as my husband pointed out, book nerd I am.. Now, not only is it a spectacular fountain, the piazza was beautiful, the sun was out and there were the nicest street performers! It was a great stop! Oh, and we finished it up with some Gelato so it was really a great stop!
This was our whole planned day and we finished up about 1 so we were really hungry and pretty tired so back to the hotel again for some rest and recharging. After that we headed to Santa Maria degli Angeli a church in thePiazza della Repubblica. It was close and looked really interesting from the outside. We were shocked walking inside though, it was so amazing.
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| The Meridian Line |
That was pretty much it for us. We chose not to go to the Vatican this time. It's farther out and weather was very hit or miss. Next time though!!! The rest of Sunday pretty much consisted of this....
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| Cuddles... |
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| Harper being crazy... |
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| The kids beating up their dad... |
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| More Harper being crazy.. |
...and pizza, which we ate for dinner every night... So yeah, that's our Rome trip!
