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Published: February 19th 2012
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After being in Rome over the past week, I can definitely understand why Rome wasn't built in a day. While in the heart of Rome, I got the sense, that in terms of building things, it was either go big or go home. There were a lot of great things to see in Rome. We didn't have time to see everything, because of our time constraints and also for the fact that we were travelling with 2 small children. However, Isabelle and Myles were great travellers and we were able to do a lot while in Rome, even though we had to go back to the hotel each afternoon for Myles' nap. He gets snappy without his nappy!
Day one - Trevi Fountain (26 meters high and 20 meters wide) - This was a huge fountain that was absolutely beautiful. It was great to just listen to the sound of rushing water. The neat thing in Rome is that all of the fountains have safe drinking water. Just put your water bottle under a spout and enjoy refreshing water. In the heart of Rome, we noticed that there was quite a strong police presence. This was the case at the
Trevi Fountain, as there were always police walking around the fountain. Next, we walked to the Spanish Steps. These steps lead up the Trinita Dei Monti Church. Of course, I had to lug the stroller up all of the steps! I have to say that ancient Rome was not very well set up for strollers and/or wheelchairs. After the Spanish Steps, we headed to the Villa Borghese Gardens/Park, which is right above the Piazza del Popolo. The park was beautiful and huge - 148 acres. We strolled through the park and did a lot of walking this day.
Day two - Vatican. This was a great place to visit. We arrived to the Vatican at 8:30 am and we were trying to find tickets to see the Pope's address. After wandering around a bit, we found some tickets and then headed to an auditorium to be part of the audience when the Pope was giving his little sermon/blessing. The only thing was that this was a lot of waiting and sitting around for the kids. They were doing really well, but started to fall apart when the they had to repeat the same little message in all the different
languages of the people that were there. We stayed for Italian, French, English, German and Spanish and then we had to leave during the Portugese message. We don't know how many more languages were spoken after we left. It was neat to see the Pope, even though we aren't Catholic. After lunch, we did a tour of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. It was utterly amazing to see the grandeur of this Church. It was the nicest Church that I have seen - and definitely the biggest. One neat piece of trivia is that it is the Swiss Guards who are in charge of guarding the Pope. I was thinking about buying a Pope bobble-head. Would that be sacrilegious?
Day three - Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palantine Hill. I think that visiting the Colosseum was my Roman highlight. It was neat to be in such a large building/structure. I could have stayed in there for hours. We were lucky that we were able to see the Colosseum. It had been closed for a number of days before our arrival because of the snow that fell in Rome. It was quite cold in Rome, compared to the average
February temperature of 13 degrees Celcius. So, when we visited the Colosseum, that was the first day that it was open in a while. The kids loved the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill, as they were able to run around freely, climb rocks and collect rocks.
There were tons of people at the Colosseum. What is more, there were a whole bunch of street venders around the Colosseum. They were selling everything from sunglasses, to some sort of splat balls, glass cubes, scarves, moldable ball thingys, amongst other things. I can't believe that people buy this stuff. Chacun son goût.
There was just so much to see in Rome. I suppose that it would take a few visits before you were able to see all that you wanted to see. We definitely enjoyed our time in Rome and feel blessed to have the chance to visit so many new places. I forgot to mention that we also visited the Pantheon.
While in Rome, it seemed like most Italians wanted to bless Myles and Isabelle. While walking on the streets, people would often pat Isabelle and Myles on the head and smile at them.
Myles has taken
to calling T.V. choo-choo. He does this because there is a Dora episode that the kids watched called "Choo-Choo." Now, whenever Myles wakes up, he says, "Choo-Choo." This means that he wants to watch T.V. However, all we have is our laptop, so he has to watch shows on the laptop. He is already becoming a couch potato and he isn't even 2 years old.
Before leaving for Rome, I was able to take my class skating. This was one of the highlights this year for me with my students. My students loved going skating and it was the first time that some of them had even been on skates. They did well and they were helping each other out a lot. It was a great day before starting the week off.
Ever since being in Rome, Isabelle always wants to play airplane now. We sit on the couch, someone is the pilot, we use a skipping rope for a seat belt and then we lift off. We usually land in Italy.
I think that that is all for now. Back to school tomorrow.
Jarod
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