Hey everybody! It's been a minute and we've been on lots of trips, but none exciting or extensive enough for a post, so I'm so excited to have a big trip to fill you all in on.
We finally got to check "The Boot" off our list...2 years later. We'd originally planned out this trip for Spring of 2020, but with Covid, we weren't able to get over there until this year. Brian's dad even joined us! Bill's always wanted to go to Italy and his mom is not a fan of flying and offered to watch the kids while we were gone, so it worked out nicely...we had the best time!
The trip over went off without a hitch (just a bit of a delay while they were working on the windshield defrosters on the plane). We flew right into Rome and then took a train into the city and walked to our apartment right near Vatican City. I got a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen and big bathroom so we all could have a little space after a long day of travel. We met up with our host, dropped off our backpacks, and changed into cooler clothes before heading off to explore. Rome was totally packed with tourists and it was pretty toasty. We stopped at a café for cappuccinos, fresh squeezed orange juice, and omelets and then went into Vatican City.
As you can see in the photo above, Brian and his father have pretty similar style sense...some variation of blue, grey, or green solid shirts with some variation of grey, green, or khaki cargo pants/shorts. Totally unplanned and totally adorable :)
We saw quite a line at St Peter's Basilica so we decided that we'd check that off of our "to-see" list and about 2 hours later, we were taking the stairs up to the Dome. The stairway progressively got more and more narrow and we swirled counter-clockwise for what seemed like an hour. As we got up to the highest point, the walls slanted pretty severely and the spiraled stairs were only about 2 feet wide. We came up to a girl that was totally exhausted and gave her some fruit snacks and my water because there was no way that she could turn around and fight against the current. We passed her but didn't ever see her again, so hopefully she made it safely. The views from the top did not disappoint.
We even saw the tomb of the Apostle Peter
From there, we walked through the Basilica and then across the River Tiber for dinner at a little café on the street. Then it was back to the room for a shower, a load of laundry, and an early bedtime after over 24 hours.
Day one started with some old-fashioned exploring. I'd bought tickets for the Colosseum and surrounding sites, but we couldn't pick up our tickets until 10:00 and then our entry wasn't until like, 12:30 or something, so we just wandered around all morning.
We checked out the Alter of the Fatherland and the Pantheon and then picked up our tickets and grabbed lunch while we waited to be able to enter the Colosseum. I FINALLY got to see what everybody raves about with Italian pizza...I ordered a Mushroom, Prosciutto, and Mozzarella pizza and it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had. Well, we got a little carried away and then noticed that it was 12:20 and we were over a mile from the Colosseum, so I took off RUNNING through the city to get our tickets scanned while Brian and his dad paid for lunch and then got there as quickly as possible. Another reason to wear comfortable shoes while sightseeing - you never know when you're going to need to sprint a mile on an 80 degree, humid day in Rome. We all ended up getting in just fine and spent about an hour checking it out and it was pretty incredible.
From there, we walked through the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The grounds were beautiful and offered amazing views of the entire city.
The Arch of Titus is the first arch of it's kind. It was build in 81 AD. The other famous arches in New York City and Paris are inspired by this original.
On our way back to the other side of the river, we stopped at the Castel Sant'Angelo which is a round castle from the 2nd century.
On Day 2, we got breakfast and then went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.
We were in a bit of a rush to get back to our apartment and grab our bags before the 11:00 check out, but we made it just in time! We blazed through both in about an hour, which is kind of crazy. It was also quite crowded though, so I was anxious to just get in and get out and on our way to the country!!!
Google Maps was being kind of funky with the bus and train schedule and we ended up walking probably 5 miles just looking for the right bus stop to take us to the correct train station. Their train stations over there are no joke...they are several levels, restaurants...it's like an airport only way more chaotic and noisy and stressful. We ended up on the high-speed train to the airport to pick up the shuttle to the car rental company. From there we made our way to Pompeii!
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