Rome with Friends!

And there is STILL MORE of ROME!!!
We were very lucky to find that two other famies from our Expat community were also in Rome.  To keep the kids a bit more interested in all of the history, we decided to meet up for some guided touring.  The Barnes family has three children the same ages as ours just they reversed things by having a 6th grade Girl, a 4th grade Boy and a 2nd grade Girl!  The Catao family has a fourth grade girl and a seventh grade boy who is involved in scouts with Jacob.  It was a great balance.

Monday
Monday morning, our tour guide collected each of us in a large van for a driving tour of Rome which would include a stop at the Colosseum.  A stop at the very quiet, since it was still before 10am, Spanish steps for some photos before driving across Rome as our guide told us more about the history of the city and pointed out various buildings.  Our first destination was the Colosseum.  We made our way into the most iconic building in Rome and had the advantage of our guide to lead us through and explain what we were seeing.  The kids were even paying attention. 

Family Photo

Ready for the Gladiators

After our tour of the Colosseum, we continued our driving tour of Rome which included a trip up to the highest point to catch the noon cannon firing.  From here you were able to look across Rome.  From there we went back down to the Capitoline Hill.  Our guide showed us the Roman Forum and helped us try to understand even more history of this amazing city. 

Our group parted now that it was lunchtime, setting off to see more of the city in further detail.  Some had not yet been to the Parthenon and others were looking forward to a trip to the top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument.  We headed off to find lunch! 

Self Portrait!

Cameron angle...

After lunch, we went back to the ancient ruins of Rome to explore the Roman Forums.  Armed with audio tours by Rick Steves on our ipods, we walked through the ruins trying our best to understand the meaning of all the rubble.  Cameron was armed with a camera and actually took some really great photos of the rubble that actually included family members!  Something that I often don't manage to do.  The sun was warm which meant that we would soon need some gelato too.

After the Forum, we made our way over to the Castel Sant Angelo.  First we stopped at San Ignazio.  This church has a trompe l'oeil ceiling that makes it appear it has a dome when it really does not.  Cameron sat there looking at it and refused to believe that it was not a real dome.  There was no way to convince him otherwise, so we continued on our way armed with gelato to help us get to the castle! 

The Castel Sant Angelo was fun to explore and because it was Cultural Week our entry was free!  Bonus! 

From there we had to continue walking around Rome.  Stuck in a van for most of the morning, we had to step it up if we wanted to walk seven miles again!  We wound our way to Piazza del Popolo and rested our weary feet.

I was quickly being worn down by complaining from four of the family members.  From there we agreed to find an early dinner.  A restaurant near the Spanish Steps fit the bill.  Of course we still had to walk back to our apartment, but pizza and pasta fortification made it a bit easier.  93 steps up and we crashed into bed.

Tuesday
The kids were thrilled that we just had to walk a block and a half up the road to a taxi stand to catch a ride over to our early morning tour!  We met up with the Barnes and Catao families in front of Saint Peter's Basilica.  From there we met our guide at the Vatican Museums.  She did a great job of keeping the kids interested in what we were seeing and showing us some great connections between the art in the museum and the painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.  We had met early so that we could get into the chapel in an early group at 8:30am.  It was nice to be able to sit and reflect on what we were seeing without large crowds.  After the chapel and the museum, our guide led us to the basilica and we had the opportunity to see St. Peter's.  It was amazing, of course! 

Saint Peter's Square...empty at 7:45am!

Vatican Museums with our group

The Dome in Saint Peter's Basilica

At this point, we went our separate ways.  Our family was ready for lunch.  Hmmm, what should we have for lunch today?  Pizza!  of course! and beer!

 After so much walking over the previous three days, my family made me promise not to drag them all over Rome again in the afternoon!  From Vatican City, we made our way back across the river and through Piazza Navona.  We found some gelato to keep us going and then up the Grand Staircase by Michaelangelo to the Capitoline Museum.  From this museum (free entrance since it was Culture Week) we had an amazing view of the Roman Forum.

Gelato...mmmm what flavor today?!

And I thought Jacob had a Big Head!

Jacob with Sophocles in the room of Busts! (had to write that...)

From here we agreed we had seen A LOT of Rome and that we felt sated with history.  We actually headed back to our apartment for a short siesta before dinner.  After all of the sightseeing we had done, it was much deserved.  After that we found dinner at a really nice restaurant near there that had a notably Tuscan menu besides pizza and pasta for the kids!  Steve and I enjoyed roasted potatoes and an amazing roasted chicken.  It was a great way to end our stay in Rome.  We would be heading south in the morning.