Rome Trip Part I

Day 1: We flew into Rome Friday (October 22). We had arranged for a driver to pick us up from the airport because we didn't want to haul our luggage and tired kids around an unknown subway and bus system. I figured the hired driver would be a more relaxing introduction into our vacation...what a crazy idea. What we didn't realize when we arranged for the driver is that people in Italy are completely crazy drivers and our driver was no exception. He sped, weaved, zig-zagged and merged into oncoming tourist buses until we reached our apartment. I was never so happy to get out of a car!

Our apartment was fine. Three bedrooms, a full kitchen and bath. Traveling with children is so much better when you have an apartment to come back to and relax. We headed to bed looking forward to the days ahead.

Day 2: Saturday we woke up and looked outside at the beautiful day and decided to head straight for the main attraction...the Forum and Colosseum. As we had imagined, the boys enjoyed running around the Forum and climbing all over the fallen structures. The Colosseum was also fun because we had told the boys beforehand about gladiators and lions and they were excited to see the underground tunnels that all the performers would have walked through to get into the arena.

Trajan's column.

Townsend hanging around the Forum

Hyrum and I in the Colosseum

After the Colosseum we hiked up to Palatine Hill which is believed to be the first residence of the citizens of Rome. The area was covered with ruins of elaborate houses and the boys loved exploring the ins and outs of every door they came to.

When we were through exploring Palatine Hill we took a very long walk to Bocca Della Verita, or the Mouth of Truth. Legend has it that if a liar sticks their hand into the mouth of truth it will be bitten off. The boys were excited to try out this legend. Emerson said, "I'm going to tell ten lies to the mouth of truth and then put a stick in it's mouth to see what happens." I thought that was pretty clever of him to come up with that plan. When we got there we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes while other tourists took photo ops with the mouth. It was finally the boys turn and they eagerly reached their hands and arms into the mouth at which point they both said, "mom, it's a fake!"

The Mouth of Truth

We were done walking for the day so we took a bus to our final destination, the church of San Clemente. This was on our "to do" list because you can purchase tickets and then walk down a staircase through time. You begin in the 12th century with the modern day church. A flight of stairs brings you down to the 4th century where you can explore the excavated ruins of another church. One more staircase brings you to the 2nd century AD to the remains of a Mithraeum church and school. This was very cool for the boys, they loved exploring the dark passage ways and running up and down all the different stairs.

Day 3: We took the subway to the famous Trevi Fountain. On our way we stopped in a bakery and I bought the most delicious treat ever. It was like a ho-ho from Heaven filled with yummy cream and wrapped in chocolate...mmmm. We tossed a coin over our left shoulders into the fountain which means we'll be back to Rome someday. The boys loved climbing on the outside wall of the fountain and Julian LOVED splashing in the fountain.

Julian at the Trevi Fountain

Next we were off to climb the Spanish Steps. Our guide book , Rome with Kids, suggested you have your kids stand up on the steps in the crowd and take a picture. Then when you get home play your own version of Where's Waldo. See if you can find Townsend and Emerson in the photo. We had the boys count the steps on our way up to see who got closest to the number of steps, 137. I believe Townsend counted 136.

Can you find the boys? Hint: you can click on the picture to enlarge

After the steps we had a long walk to the Borghese Gardens. It was wonderful to step into a peaceful quiet green space filled with trees and other plants after being in the craziness of Rome's streets. We enjoyed lunch under the trees with our own private fountain. The boys liked chasing after the birds. Julian wanted to pet every dog that came past us, he really likes dogs. After lunch we went to the Galleria Borghese which is an art gallery inside the gardens. WOW, I knew that Bernini was a famous sculptor and I remember learning about him in my Humanities classes at BYU but I was still in awe of his talent as we walked around this museum and saw four of his most famous sculptures.

Bernini's David

After dragging the boys through a museum we rented some go carts for them to cruise around in while we walked through the garden enjoying the beauty.

The boys pedaling around the park

We left the hilltop garden and walked down to Piazza del Popolo. This was a wide open square for the boys to run around in. The boys had been keeping track of how many Egyptian Obelisk's they could find and Piazza del Popolo helped them add one more to their list. We quickly ducked into the church of Santa Maria del Popolo for a quick look at Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter. A quick glance at these treasures is all we could hope for with three children and we were soon on our way.

Piazza del Popolo

You simply can't visit Italy without having at LEAST one gelato a day!

One more long walk to our final sight of the day, the Capuchin Cemetery. This was probably the boys highlight of the day. There were five rooms filled and decorated with the bones of old monks. They covered the ceilings and walls. The bones were made into shelves and chandeliers. Some of the bones were set up like people wearing the long brown robes of a monk. It was pretty spooky in there but the boys really liked it.

Spooky huh?