Italy Part II: Roma

Day 1: Travel day from Cortina - Venice (bus) - Rome (train), 12 hours

Traveling for a year to different places means yes, you guessed it... a lot of travel days going from point A to point B. We love seeing so much this year but it often means we are moving to a new place every 2-3 days. These days are long and really test our patience, but they are part of the experience. Today we left Cortina in the Dolomites at 8:45am by bus and made it Venice by noon. Our train to Rome didn’t leave until 3p so we found a place to store our luggage and then walked around the city.

We loved the narrow walkways leading to little art shops, pizzerias, that pour out into preserved plazas that are big community meeting points. It was incredibly busy - so many travelers. Coming from the Dolomites we were not used to the crowds!

Our Rome train took off 20 min late so we arrived in Rome late at 7:30. We then had to catch the metro which got us to our stop at 8:30p near the Holiday Inn Express which is outside the city. We walked to our hotel in the rain with lightning and thunder. We were in Rome after a 12 hour day of travel and we. were. spent.

Day 2: The Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum

Rome! In route to our 1st tour, we had to make a stop for umbrellas as the forecast was calling rain. We used this opportunity to check out Europe's version of REI, Decathalon, that I'd been reading about on the Camino facebook pages. And it did not disappoint. Very affordable! We found some warmer gloves for Asha, a belt for me, and some sunglasses for Grandma, and of course, umbrellas.

We met our tour guide, Francesco, from Rome city tours and our group of 10. We toured of Palatine Hill on which Rome was founded, the Forum, and the Coliseum. We learned all about the legends and history of Rome from Romulus and Remus to Julius Cesar to Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. We were overwhelmed with all the information, history and how busy it was but we definitely appreciated being able to see these sites in Rome

We also stumbled upon an amazing indoor market - Eataly- that had all of Italy's finest cuisine. We tried focaccia, salads, avachinis (a fried risotto ball with spinach and pepper), gelato and delicious juices. We picked up fresh yogurt and granola for breakfast tomorrow as we have an early departure to tour the Vatican and Sistine chapel. Apparently there is one in New York!

Day 3: The Vatican Museums with Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica

Today we woke up extra early at 6:30 in the morning to be able to catch our trains and be at the meeting site to start our Vatican tour at 8:30 AM. Again we did a tour with City Tour's guide, Sylvia, who had given us a discount. Today’s itinerary was the Vatican museums that also house the famed Sistine Chapel. We started off in St. Peter’s Square as the meeting point and were given the history of the popes throughout the ages and the powerful role they played. Julius the 2nd started the Vatican's vast collection of art that was absolutely overwhelming.

Our favorite rooms of the museums were the marble zoo of different animals, the tapestry room especially the tapestry of Jesus, whose eyes follow you as you walk across the room, and the hall of maps, that today are still 85% accurate which is pretty impressive given that they were drawn in the 1500s century at the request of pope Gregory the 13th!

We like seeing the contemporary art donated especially the Matisse room, and of course the amazing Sistine chapel whose frescoes were larger and brighter than we imagined. They were recently cleaned in the early 2000s so the frescoes are bright with brilliant colors. We are not allowed to take pictures of the chapel unfortunately.

We loved hearing about the life of Michelangelo and how the Sistine chapel was his FIRST painting job in his life given that he was an architect and sculpture primarily up until then. He painted the chapel begrudgingly, at the request of Pope Julius the 2nd, and apparently one could not say no to a Pope. He painted The Judgement on the main wall of the Sistine Chapel in his 50s. We learned that Michelangelo lived into his 80s which was quite extraordinary for the time.

After our tour, we passed through St. Peters Basilica on the way out, the largest church in the world. We again, saw Michelangelo's tremendous art work - the Pietá, the statue of Mary and Jesus after he's taken from the cross, the most famous piece of the basilica and key sculpture of the Renaissance. As we exited out of Vatican City we came across the guards in their traditional uniforms. We learned that all guards that work in Vatican City must be from Switzerland!

After the Vatican, we were exhausted, and on the hunt for a good lunch spot. Luckily we found this amazing Indian restaurant called VegaFoods nearby. We all agreed the lunch of pakora, saag paneer, matar paneer, masala dosa, chapati, raita, mango lassi and chai, was the best of the trip!

We took a breather and just relaxed. Lunch gave us the energy to make it to the Trevi Fountain. It was teaming with fellow tourists but was worth the quick visit.

In the afternoon we were super excited to meet up with our good friends, AJ, Christina, and Jordy, who currently live in Philadelphia. They are in Rome visiting a college friend who currently resides here. We were so lucky to tagalong with their visit to the gardens at the top of Adventine Hill, known for it's amazing a lookout over the city. We saw a kids puppet show and ran through the park. It was nice to be out of the city crowds and back in nature for a few hours.

We went to Pico's Tex-Mex cuisine restaurant... yes, in Rome! We had nachos, Burrito bowls, and margaritas. We forgot where we were - were we in Philly? Baltimore? Rome?! Next of course we had to have gelato at otaleg. We tried out apple with ginger, stracciatella, fig with olive oil and cinnamon, and Gorgonzola. We do NOT recommend ice cream flavors involving cheese - yuck. We reached the hotel at about 9:40pm after a very full day, took showers and we were out.

Day 4: The Explora Childrens Museum, Cat Sanctuary, Jewish Ghetto, Rome by night

Today we slept in that very relaxed morning. Mom departs tomorrow so we got her bags ready also we packed all of our stuff to see if there are any items we could pass on to her to carry back to the states. It was great to have a somewhat chill morning. We secured tickets of the Explora Children's Museum for 1pm and made our way there after a lunch of pizza and avachinis.

We were pleasantly surprised by the interactive nature of this museum! They had great exhibits on water pumps, budgeting, code deciphering, the metric system, supply chain as well as an outdoor playground and zip line. We were impressed by the exhibit on stereotypes and the importance of keeping an open mind when interacting with others. There was an exhibit on occupations, budgets and the discrepancy in pay between men and women serving in different occupations.

On the way to dinner we stopped at a couple places. One was Rome's famed Cat Sanctuary that is in the ruins where Julius Caesar was assassinated and the ancient Senate chamber resided. Established in 1994, it houses the city's feral cat population with numbers at one point reaching 500! Today there are 89 cats that are fed and cared here for by volunteers.

Next we walked through the Jewish ghetto which was established in 1955 for the Roman Jewish population. At this time, Jews, and all immigrants, were considered outsiders by the Romans and were thus forced to live outside the city limits. This area in the flood plain along the Tiber River was alotted for the Jewish population. Though most of the old city has been torn down you can still find kosher bakeries, restaurants, and remnants of this resilient community's past while strolling through the narrow alleys.

We had a special treat for our last evening in Rome. We met our friends close to the Colosseum and enjoyed a nighttime view of all the amazing monuments. We got to see what Romans enduringly called the "wedding cake", Altara della Patria, a monument that commemorates the unification of Italy in 1861. We saw the Forum, and the Colosseum all lit up at night. We had our last dinner in Rome of falafel, hummus and tzatziki and pita. We said good night to Rome and came back to the hotel and got a good nights rest.

Day 5: Mom Departs, Capitoline Heroes of Olympus Percy Jackson Tour!

Today was departure day for Mom to go back to Texas. We had an early shuttle to the Rome airport which was crawling with travelers and Mom made her flight without a hitch. Mom is on her way back to Texas and we will miss her so much! We are grateful for our time together, and are so glad that she’ll be able to get home and rest after our crazy adventures together. Asha says we should continue ordering " a coke for grandma" when we go out for meals :)

On our last morning in Rome, we have the tour we've been most excited about - the Rome4Kids Heroes of Olympus Percy Jackson tour at the Capitoline museum, the oldest museum in the world! It did not disappoint. Our tour guide Marco led us through a scavenger hunt of all the great roman / greek gods and goddesses featured in Percy Jackson books. Asha has read the series and has a personal interest in mythology so has read additional books on this subject. Her knowledge is extensive, apparently! We loved talking about the gods and goddesses, their legends and roles in the books as they relate to Percy. These discussions helped us figure out the scavenger hunt challenge questions and tasks. We can't say enough about Marco! His energy was contagious and this was a favorite tour in Rome!

We met our friends for lunch, had one last gelato and then booked it to the train station to meet our train to Florence! Ciao Roma!