Italy

Ciao from Rome

There was lots of excitement and planning leading up to our summer trip to Rome. Bookings were made, an itinerary was written and vain attempts were made to learn some basic Italian (my buying stamps in French did pay off as in Rome when I bought postcards in English she asked me if I wanted stamps in french and I understood!) but as the summer was proving to be phenomenal it was hard to leave the pool in the backyard, but it was oh so worth the effort...

because after a very easy train, flight, bus and walk, actually make that an extra long walk as we didn't realise we could cut through the train station we were in ROME. The extra long walk is a feature of a Herr F and Frau G holiday (more on that later) but not normally when we are lugging luggage after a day of travel. We found our hotel, ate a dinner bought from the tiny corner shop in the sparse kitchenette ie we ate out of cups, then we rested up in preparation for the fairly hectic 3 days we had planned in Rome. Waking up to these lovely colours, the talking on the street below and the cartoon "Ladybug and Miraculous" in Italian was treat. Except this photo is of the second morning when it wasn't pouring with rain and rumbling with thunder, and we didn't have tickets for 10am booked and I wasn't lamenting my choice to only pack one out of 5 of us a rain jackets...it wasn't me and how can someone who lives in Germany not be prepared for the rain!!!!!

Never the less we set off. First stop was to get train tickets. We already knew which train to get as our tour guide for the day the Mouse had had to find this out and had made us all learn what we had to look for. By splitting up to do recon in the Metro at Termini we found the really easy to use ticket machine, spent 5 minutes working out the most cost efficient tickets for our time here (turns out it was a single each time) and headed off to our guided tour at the Colosseum. It is always handy travelling with a historian with a range of ancient and modern knowledge and who in general has a really big and interesting brain but this time we had the full ensemble. We had kids who found out quirky facts and acted as our tour guides for a location each and Grandma added her art, literature and feminist perpsectives as well as her quest to photograph as many different SPQR motifs she could find. The kids thought this was great and were spotting them everywhere .

Luckily the rain stopped and the Mouse started our day of exploring with her tour guide.

As we were early and the security wouldn't let us in until 10  minutes before the tour we wandered around taking loads of cheesy tourist photos and I found 15 Euros which balanced out the last time I was at the Colosseum and got ripped off buying a pair of sunglasses. Note: we all already have sunglasses because I bought those before we left Germany.  

We don't do tours very often (we are total cheapsakes) but I thought it might be more interesting for the kids to hear about it from someone else. Our guide was an archeology student and she had a great accent and added the good stuff the kids liked including the term Vomitorium, she also really talked up the class/gender differences in terms of seating and just how regularly these bloody battles were held...twice every day!

Having warned the kids to be careful of touts we then showed that it is also helpful to use them as we decided we needed a sit down lunch somewhere cool before walking around the Palatine Hill. What do you do when you are in Rome, you go to a Scottish Pub for pizza. Then we spent a long, hot but incredibly interesting afternoon exploring the Palatine Hill just adjacent to the Colosseum where Grandma was our tour guide.

After a huge day we got back on the metro for the short, yet oddly long, slow and hot trip back to our hotel. This trip informed our somewhat misjudged journey home the next day that we all survived to tell the tale about but there were... moments. But before these moments there was finding the best Gelateria in Rome. Gelati was my area of expertise on this holiday. I had promised the kids lots of gelati, I had done background research on cost, how to order in Italian, what made good gelati and I wanted to find places that were asethically pleasing to buy and eat gelati from which, often meant walking a little bit further which is difficult to understand when you are hot and hungry. Over thought...I think not! Unfortunately I missed the first gelati experience due to a skull splitting headache but sent the crew off with explicit directions on how to find it and was there to hear just how good it was when they returned. We then became regulars for the next 3 nights. This photos is on the second day we visited with the full contingent after we survived the aforementioned misjudged trip home.

Before we could make the misguided decision to walk home instead of catching the bus on our second day in Rome we had to explore. On the advice of the hotel chap we started at Piazza del Popolo and wandered down the Via del Corso taking in the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Diney and Lego shops, because it is the kids holiday too (this is something we grown ups had to remember) and ended up at the Pantheon  It was a fabulous way to see these sights and coming out from the Metro into this huge, blazingly hot piazza was fabulous and awe inspiring.  

As well as SPQR signs we also were on the look out for Romulus and Remus statues

After I thrilled the crew with my Trevi Fountain tour guide (I now know my marble) these guys all threw a coin in as per tradition to ensure you one day return to Rome. We then continued on to the Pantheon with a stop for lunch in between. As we were staving and tired we followed the lead of the scout group in front of us and just found a spot in the shade of the buildings and ate our lunch. The cheese hadn't survived its time in the bag so it was pretzels and biscuits all round followed by gelati which was luckily just around the corner. 

It was so nice to walk into the Pantheon as it was beautiful and cool inside and we marvelled at the architecture and what an open roof meant when it rained.

The book cover for "Grug visits Rome"

Then it was time to head home. The bus stop wasn't that far away but on the other hand on the map it wasn't a massive walk and maybe we would see some interesting things. Wrong, well right, we did she interesting things but also wrong!!!! We all know that Rome is built on 7 hills but we forgot to take this into account when we made the decision to walk as working out how and where to buy a bus ticket seemed hard. And have I already said it...it was really hot. We were all going ok, hot but ok untill we took a 300m wrong turn and had to retrace our steps uphill. That was it for the kids and really the adults too but you can't all start whinging, sometimes you just have to carry on. After a frantic search for a loo, thanks to Rome's beautiful free flowing water taps with artistic porticos of angels and gargoyles and the beautiful internal garden of a nunnery that had an open door it looked like we might make it home in one piece. Then came the last hill and at the top we just had to stop as everyone was red faced and about to explode. So we stopped where we were and spent 15 minutes recuperating on the steps of a nice hotel then did the last 20 minutes home with lots and lots of promises of the biggest icecream money could buy.

So we made it home and after showers and a lie down we were all friends again. We celebrated that we hadn't killed Grandma or the kids with dinner in a very 1950s restaurant with wine, fizzy drink and then the promised gelati afterwards. Luckily the kids knew the term "the biggest icecream money could buy" was hyperbole and they were extremely happy with the medium cone becaue in Italy this means you can choose as many flavours as you want in the cone they will just be small portions. Realistically any more than 3 and you are ruining the flavour balance in my opionion. Normally we stuck to two. 

Our last day in Rome was a visit to the Vatican courtyard as it is kind of impressive and a "stroll" (really it was) to the Cat Sanctuary which was the place the Bear had choosen for his tour guide. He is 13 and wasn't keen to do research this time so as a lure I found a website with obscure Roman sites and said in exasperation we would go to anyone he chose. So, that is how we navigated a beautiful walking trip from the Vatican to the Cat Sanctuary when 3 of the 6 of us are allergic to cats.

Herr F drops a couple of impromptu facts.

Much standing was done by the fountain as the slight breeze blew a cooling spray on us. It was such a privilage to have my Mum along for the trip. She is an excellent traveller, a wealth of knowledge and a great Grandma. This was the first time Mum has visited us in Germany when the kids have been with us so now they have been able to show all the Grandparents our home town and experience travelling with them. 

Hadrian Castle was a change in architecture but I couldn't rally enough interest to go inside as the lure of a tree line river bank, a rest in the shade and tourist stands was too enticing.

Even the statues thought it was ridiculously hot! 

What I did notice was that lots of people still use paper maps to navigate around something that makes me so happy as I love paper maps. Herr F's walking tour that took us from the Vatican to the Cat Sanctuary was amazing (and flat). He lead us through winding streets, though vast piazzas and then we popped out right were we wanted to be so the Bear could give his tour guide, we could check out the volunteer organisation who look after the cats and we could catch the bus home (because we learn from our mistakes) have lunch and a rest before Grandma took us to the museum.

Everyone deep in thought.

Any questions?

I think he would have asked us to leave if he could have.

" Hey Mum, there are some saucy painting in there" was the quote of the day.

The Mouse was all about documenting the trip and she took great photos.

Then it was back to Termini to buy train tickets for the trip down the coast the next day, find a quick supermarket dinner, pack our bags and have one last gelato in this neighbourhood in Rome.