Rome (Days 1 and 2)

Technically we've been back in Utah for a week.  Back to school, back to snow, back to real life.  It's been an adjustment.  I think we are all slowly getting over jet lag and enjoying some time apart from each other.  Three months of constant contact was a bit much at times.  The kids all enjoyed their first day back to school (more on that later).  For now, I'm going to backtrack to our week in Rome.

I'm not sure a week of travel after our previous week of travel which was after 3 months of study abroad was the best idea.  We were all pretty tired and starting to feel ready to go home.  We decided to take it easy the first day, rest, and make our plans for the week.

Short flight from Marseille, France to Rome, Italy.

After a terrifying 2 1/2 hour taxi ride to the airport that included incredible traffic and a driver that kept falling asleep, we miraculously made it to the airport on time and alive.  We had a couple issues with security.  Libby had a full pat down and there was some discussion of how much juice we were allowed to carry on, which was only a problem because we had to carry on a piece of luggage we planned to check but found out we were only allowed to check one bag each.  Phew.  Once we were on the plane things went much more smoothly and we easily got through the airport in Rome (we'd heard horror stories about Italian airports) and took a taxi to our apartment.  

Waiting (with all our luggage) for the landlord to
 bring the key to the apartment.

Narrow street near the apartment.

 We found a little neighborhood restaurant and had some delicious pasta.  I'm sure they thought we were strange (or just American) to just order pasta which is served  more like an appetizer.  But we were too tired to care and it still cost 50 euros (once you added the water and bread, which is apparently not free in Italy).

 

We picked up some groceries and got settled in the apartment.  We learned from our trip to London that it worked best to eat breakfast at home, pack snacks, get lunch while we were out and then come home for dinner.  By dinner time everyone had their fill of walking and ancient sights and the kids needed some down time to hang out and rejuvenate for the next day.

Libby and Luke's room.  Isaac got the pull out couch.
The apartment was very nice and roomy.

On our first full day we walked along the river to Vatican City, about a 30 minute walk.  It had rained the night before and the river was overflowing. We even saw some minor rapids.

 We had prepared ourselves for a long wait at the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's.  As you walk up to the museum there are people all along the sidewalks asking you to sign up for their private tour to avoid lines.  We decided to chance it with the line and were thrilled to find no line - we kept thinking there must be a line somewhere but there wasn't.  We had also heard that seeing the Sistine Chapel was frustrating because of the crowds and the effort of the guards to push people through quickly.  One of the benefits of visiting Rome in late November is that we avoided most of the crowds (but not the rain).  The Sistine Chapel was very crowded (it reminded me of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles) but we actually found room on a bench and spent a few minutes just sitting and enjoying.  The rest of the Vatican museum was pretty amazing as well.

After the Vatican museum we had our first real Italian pizza for lunch.  Yum!

After lunch we went to St. Peter's Basilica.  We had to wait in line in the rain for about 40 minutes.  It is impossible to capture in our amateur pictures how amazing the basilica was.

First (of many) Italian gelato.

We had a very wet walk home.