Where to go in Rome...



Where do you begin when you visit Rome? One of the European cities with the richest histories and home to so many places to visit, I found it challenging to decide where to begin. Hence, a bit overwhelmed, was perhaps the best way to describe my feeling as I started to do the research and planning for our 3.5 day stop here. The funny thing is despite Rome being such an important city I never put it on the top of my must visit list and maybe it was for that very reason of feeling overwhelmed when I thought of it! I also remembered enough about the city from my history classes to maybe be a bit less intrigued by it than many other European cities that remained and/or continue to remain a bit more unknown to me. Yet at the same time I knew I would regret it if we didn't visit it and so we tagged it on as the second of our three city November vacation.



Spanish Steps... almost always busy

After an uneventful flight from Athens late on Monday afternoon, it seemed to take forever to get to our hotel as we had to take a 45 minute train from the airport to the city center and from there hop on a subway line to get to our hotel, which was located just a short walk from the Spanish Steps. We quickly learned that the Rome subway system is not at all stroller friendly as we broke numerous rules that said no stroller here nor there, but nearing the end of the day with several pieces of luggage and a tired child we just wanted to find the quickest way we could to get to the hotel. And although we had suspected prior to visiting that such an old city would not be stroller friendly, we quickly confirmed that in addition to the subway being difficult we found ourselves on cobblestone after cobblestone street with small sidewalks and hence even more unfriendly. Yet lucky for Emma, she definitely likes the carrier more than the stroller. And lucky for us we were hoping to work on strengthening our back muscles during our trip so it was a win win for everyone!




Amazing to finally see the Coliseum in person

Our first full day in Rome was dedicated to hitting as many of the large, must-do sites as possible and with an early start, strategic planning, gorgeous weather and a happy baby we were able to do just that. We started with perhaps the place that comes to the forefront of most people's mind when they think of Rome: the Coliseum. There was a good reason it is so famous, it is absolutely incredible. From there we meandered through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill before needing to find a lunch break. We decided to make a focused effort on finding a good spot for lunch everyday as dinners seemed to be turning into takeaway food in an effort to be back at the hotel and keeping Emma's bedtime routine as consistent as possible. As a result we utilized one of our favorite tour guides, Rick Steve, whom we often refer to for trip recommendations. And our lunch on both our first and second days were great as a result. Day one was a small wine bar with great daily lunch offerings and day two was what else but a family run Italian restaurant with delicious and very reasonable homemade pastas.





Stunning



Family photo outside the Coliseum



Family photo inside the Coliseum



Such an impressive structure, here's a look inside...



I loved these trees that were all over the city!



The Roman Forum

Il Vittoriano - very impressive monument at one of the busiest
intersections in the city

After getting refueled we strolled along one of the major thoroughfares in Rome, by what seemed liked historical building after historical building. Between the size and age of these buildings I was reminded again of just how important this city was to shaping life not only throughout many other parts of Europe but around the world. We eventually found our way to the Pantheon and onto Trevi Fountain with a very important stop for ice cream along the way. Needless to say by that time we were pretty well exhausted and feeling content to call it a day.



Panthenon



Trevi Fountain was touristy as I expected but still quite beautiful



Photo in front of the fountain

Did you have any idea of the size of what you were ordering?



Goofing around after a day of sight seeing...
do you see any resemblance between Steve in the previous photo and Emma here?

Day two we shifted gears and left "Rome" altogether as we headed to Vatican City, which is still technically inside the city of Rome, but it is actually the smallest independent state in the world with a population of about 800 people and size of 110 acres. It was Wednesday, which is the Pope's one day a week dedicated to making a public appearance in St. Peter's Square. We considered trying to go and see him but based on hearing that you may/may not have an opportunity to see the Pope very close up, that it is often difficult to hear his message, and knowing that Emma may not be excited about standing/sitting in a large crowd for an extended period of time we decided to pass and instead take advantage of one of the least busiest times of the week (because all the crowds are waiting to see the Pope) to visit the Vatican Museum. The museum was filled with much more history and artifacts than I had anticipated, but it was obvious that for us as it is many other people that the crown jewel was seeing the Sistine Chapel and simply spending time in awe of the amazing work done by Michelangelo (unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the Chapel). After spending the morning in the museum we made our way over to St. Peter's Basilica in the afternoon. It quickly became clear that only a few other churches we have seen in Europe come close to rivaling St. Peter's Basilica in size and splendor. To top off our day we walked the 300+ stairs to the top of the dome (yes I got to carry Emma) as well to take in the views over Vatican City and much of the city of Rome. And of course our day was completed by plenty of good Italian eating... pasta for lunch, gelato for an afternoon snack, and pizza for dinner!



Ceiling inside part of the Vatican Museum



Front of St. Peter's Basilica

Inside St. Peter's Basilica. Photos don't do justice to its size.

Altar inside the Basilica

St. Peter's Dome



View over St. Peter's Square from the top of the dome of the Basilica




St. Peter's Square



Dad's travel buddy for the afternoon

Feeling that we had seen the headline sites on our first two days by the time we made it to our third day we had to decide where to head on our large list of more "minor" sites. For the morning we decided to visit the church of San Giovanni which we had read some considered to rival St. Peter's. I'm not sure it could compete in size (while still being much larger than most any church in the U.S.), but the details in the decor were absolutely beautiful. From there we made our way to the outskirts of the city and visited the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. It was an interesting comparison to what we had seen in Vienna a month earlier. These specific catacombs in Rome were thought to be the original burial place of Peter and Paul. But similar to many of the other catacombs throughout Rome it is thought that most people buried there were done so as a result of overcrowding and lack of burial space throughout the city, and perhaps for persecuted Christians to bury their dead in secrecy. In Vienna, one of the main reasons for the catacombs was the Black Plague where there simply was not time to provide a proper burial for all the dead and so they were quickly piled into the catacombs.



Impressive ceiling in San Giovanni



Outside the Church of San Sebastiano with Catacombs below

Although there was still so much more to see the next morning meant we were headed out on the train to Venice. We felt we got a good sampling of the city and who knows perhaps we will be back one day to see more of it. Well actually, while I can't speak for myself, I guess Steve and Emma will be back because they did throw a coin over their shoulders into Trevi Fountain, which is supposed to mean you will come back again someday to visit. I guess only time will tell if it's true!



Reading bedtime stories all over Europe, this one in Rome...



...eating them too :)

Maybe they'll be back one day!