The Vatican and St Peter's Basilica

We had originally planned on doing the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica all in one day but when we went around to the line to St Peters and saw it wrapping around the circular piazza, almost the entire circumference we decided to come back the next morning which was perfect! We had pre booked our tickets on line for the Vatican Museum which assigned us a time slot for entering and allowed us to skip the LONG line and go right in. I think it cost a nominal fee so it was well worth it. We decided that the main items of priority in the Vatican Museum was the Hall of Maps and the Sistine Chapel. If we saw more great and if not we would be happy. We didn't want to wander around and then have screaming, tired kids when we got to the things we wanted to see.

The staff at the Vatican were so accommodating and helpful with guiding us to elevators, helping us carrying strollers up the stairs and just really great. We walked down this hallway towards the Sistine Chapel first.

We couldn't take pictures inside The Sistine Chapel....it was really dark, crowded and I was slightly overwhelmed with the two kids so I don't feel like we really got to inspect each and every fresco and truly take it all in. It was beautiful and took your breath away. I have been reading more and more about the massive restoration work and some of the complaints raised about the severe processes used and the possible affects on the colors and shadows. It was amazing to see how every single surface has beautiful works of art on it. 


We then made our way to the Hall of Maps which was amazing! I loved seeing all the maps on the walls and the ceiling was incredible.

We then got completly lost and somehow managed to get back to the Sistine Chapel area we managed to see more than we planned including some amazing tapestries. We took a break at the cafe and then found our way out. We stopped and sent postcards to G and Papa from the Vatican Post and then headed out.

Most people go down the circular stairs to leave but since we had the strollers we were treated to the most luxurious elevator I have ever seen. 

The next morning our first stop was St Peter's Basilica which took my breathe away. Peyton was really interested in where we were and was full of questions which I loved. 

It was such a wonderful moment when I was explaining to her Michelangelo's Pieta. I didn't get a picture (so here is one off Wikipedia) because I was enjoying the moment of explaining the crucifixion and the Virgin Mary and just seeing the awe in her eyes was amazing. I loved answering her questions and bringing the bible to life through a masterpiece that Michelangelo created. It was a breathtaking piece and is one of the greatest pieces of art I have seen. 

The rest of the basilica was equally as beautiful and we just took our time walking around and taking it all in. We went by the bronze statue of Saint Peter. Peyton wanted to stand in the line to touch his foot and while we were waiting was asking questions and soaking up who Peter was, what he did and it was wonderful and a moment that I will forever treasure.

St. Peter's Basilica was probably my favorite thing we saw during our time in Rome. Not only was it was beautiful but the moments I shared with Peyton and what I pray is a continued curiosity and amazement at who Jesus was and the hope we have in his death and resurrection.

Colosseum and San Giovanni in Laterano

The colosseum was the one place that John had to visit and was so excited to go to. You could see the excitement in him when we walked past the day before. So, first thing we did the next morning was go and visit the colosseum. We are so glad we had tickets because the line even early in the morning was long. When we got in we were pleasantly surprised to find that they had elevators! And even better was that they were willing to let us use them! 

Here is the view from the upper level. It was hard to try and explain to Peyton what it was, I just game up that it was a place where they had wrestling matches and sometimes they wrestled animals. She was not all that impressed.

John LOVED the colosseum and I was moderately impressed. I could appreciate the grandeur of the structure and how amazing it must have been in its day and how much of it still stands today. It really bothered me how many lives were lost there and how people viewed it as sport so I think that had something to do with it. It was impressive...more so to my manly engineer but I could still appreciate the beauty, size and feat it was to build.


We wanted to go to the Mamertine prison where Peter was imprisoned but I saw a sign the day before saying it was closed for renovation and we didn't manage to go around a confirm if that was true. So, instead we walked to two churches nearby. One was the Church of San Clemente which is famous for all the various layers underground. It is built upon several different churches and one of which was a first century Christian meeting place. However my traveling companions were tired and not on their church entering best behavoir so John stayed outside while I quickly looked around the main church and skipped the underground.


We then played around in the courtyard to let off some energy and headed off..

The main church we wanted to visit on this day was Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano which was Rome's first church and the home of the Popes until 1305. There are six papal tombs inside and is said to also have the heads of St Paul and St Peter. 

We took turns entering with Peyton as Graham was in a rather screaming, excited mood and each of us was amazed. It was beautiful! 

What was really impressive was the statues of Apostles and Evangelists around the nave. They were all so large and beautiful. 

It was well worth the effort and we are glad that we added it to our intinerary. I loved explaining to Peyton the mosaic of Jesus in heaven and the significance of Paul and Peter and seeing her reaction to the beauty of the basilica. 

Meet...our new stroller...

So, we quickly realized that we messed up big time by only bringing one stroller with us to Rome!

The whole time on the cruise we were fine with one because we didn't have that much walking to do and everything was much closer together. The first day we walked to try and find some warmer clothes and John ended up having to carry Peyton everywhere. We were both frustrated. Then the next morning we were going to try again and within 3 minutes of leaving our hotel Peyton was telling us she wasn't going to walk. John complained, picked her up and the whole way it was constant complaining between John and Peyton. I was tired, hot and saw five more days of this and decided that we would either take turns looking around with one kid at a time or we needed a solution. We were finding that it was hard to find a taxi whenever we wanted and about the time we were down with the Palentine and were both tired from carrying kids, dealing with whining we decided to go and figure out a way to get another stroller. We walked some more, found a store and then Peyton had to go to the potty so we left without looking at the strollers. We headed back to the hotel and look online for a baby shop. After naps we took a taxi and found a smallish selection of strollers, talked, discussed and bought one. 

Not exactly the purchase we were looking to make but I can't not tell you how much easier this made our trip! So much more enjoyable! I really appreciate John doing this for us because it made such a difference and we had fun the remaining days of our trip! By the way, the only reason I am carrying Graham was because we were contemplating buying some sort of inline double if it was available so we didn't have to deal with carrying two strollers up and down stairs so we didn't bring our stroller. When they didn't have what we saw online we bought this one....but I had to carry Graham home! 

So....advice to parents of more than one child...when traveling to Rome bring a stroller that has enough seats for all children and be prepared for your stroller to get destroyed. Our umbrella stroller that we brought with us (not the one in the picture) was destroyed. It barely pushes and feels like it is going to fall apart! But it worked and the rest of our trip we didn't have to hear anymore complaining about walking and everyone could nap whenever they wanted to which to us was money well spent!

Roman Forum and the Palentine

Our first full day in Rome we planned to do the Roman Forum and the Palentine. The day before was our first real day which we spent getting off the cruise ship, waiting in the rain and cold for our driver and heading to the hotel. Once settled at the hotel we realized that we were not prepared for rain and cold which was forecasted again that week so we headed out to find some warmer clothes. We got incredibly lost, were miserable but we finally found some store, found some food and hoped that the next day would be much better!

We walked from our hotel to the Roman Forum/Palentine and it was a long walk but a beautiful day! We passed through Campo de' Fiori which is a square just across the river from our hotel. We walked through there almost everyday. On the weekends there is a busy market, in the evenings there are lively street entertainers which were a blessing when trying to entertain kids during long dinners and best of all there were many restaurants that served food earlier in the evening! We ate at one twice and it was delicious!

We made it to the Palentine. We did the Palentine/Roman Forum first mainly because the line is MUCH shorter than the Colosseum and you can buy a combo ticket for all three that is valid for two days. So, we did the Palentine/Roman Forum and then the next day was able to pass all of the lines and walk straight to the front of the Colosseum which was perfect!

The Palentine was interesting....kind of. John was in love with all of Rome and the ruins and I just got bored after awhile and had a hard time picturing all of it. I did love how restful the whole Palentine area was and the beauty of the trees and feeling of seclusion from Rome.

The Roman Forum was more ruins but some impressive arches. Peyton loved that this arch was the arch of Titus. She liked that it was the same name as our dog. 

A beautiful sunny...and eventually hot day in Rome! We headed back to the hotel after this as we agreed to keep things easy and not do too much in one day. It was the perfect amount of things to see and after naps we went out and explored some more and ate dinner. And we bought a stroller....more to come on that....

Naples and Pompeii

Our last port on the cruise was Naples and for us we made a trip out to Pompeii. This was another reason we picked the cruise itinerary that we did. I have always wanted to visit Pompeii since I learned about it in elementary school. Something about it fascinated me and even after visiting, it still fascinates me.


One thing we didn't realize beforehand but glad it all worked out was that we arrived in Naples on a Sunday which meant everything was closed. So, if your plans were to wander around the shops you would have been dissapointed. But Pompeii was open so we headed towards the train station to begin our adventure.


We decided to take the train as we didn't want to pay a crazy amount of money for a taxi and didn't want to be stuck with a cruise tour. We started walking to what we thought would be a close train station and which turned out to be a pretty long walk. Along the way we came across a family who became our life savers for the day! It was a husband and wife with there three grown children and their spouse who were on a different cruise line celebrating one of the son in laws graduation from medical school. The dad spoke fluent Italian and Swahili...the kids spoke Spanish and they were so helpful. They just told us to tag along to the train station, helped us get our tickets which turned out to be somewhat confusing even if you have someone who spoke fluent Italian, helped us on the train and provided nice conversation and a welcome distraction for the kids. They all had one or two children at home so they were all missing their little ones and kind of shocked that we were traveling with ours. We finally made it to the train station and we parted ways...so thankful for their help!

I LOVED Pompeii. I loved that it was so preserved and so easy to imagine life there. I loved how big it was and how you could spend weeks in there. I could imagine how amazing it was when they discovered it. As you can imagine since we had our two little travel companions we didn't see everything but we got a good feel of Pompeii. And since we didn't want to upset our kids, we also stayed clear of the plaster casts of the bodies and anything else that showed what happened to the people there.

This was the view as you walked into the main gate of the city.

Mt. Vesuvius in the background. Seeing it and knowing the history of the city made it so much more imposing. It wasn't until we were on the train that I realized we were so close to an active volcano that could have erupted! Granted it is one of the most monitored volcanoes in the world and we would have much more warning but it was still crazy to me!

Peyton inside one of the homes. It was really crazy to walk down the street and see the houses and stores along the sides in a perfect line and with openings where the doorways would have been. You really got a feeling of what the life was like. 

What was also amazing to me was how well preserved some of the mosaics were especially being outside. This was inside one of the houses and shows Alexander the Great. It was beautiful and so well preserved. 

In addition to the mosaics, the frescoes were still so rich in their colors. It shocked me. I loved going inside a random house and finding something like this. It was so big and like a maze that you never knew what you would find when you turned the corner.

Me and my traveling companion. He wanted to be held towards the end and we tried him on my back for the first time and he loved it. It was much easier to carry after I got him to stop pulling my hair.

My tired crew ready to head back to the train and back for some naps. We were exhausted from this day and felt it for several days later. The walking, lifting the stroller up and down and the heat. It was a long day!

We got back to the train station easily and actually ran into the same family from before so we all had a laugh. We were surprised that we all finished at the same time granted they did see more as our group tended to need more breaks. We got back to Naples easily and then walked back to the boat. Graham fell asleep on my back and was pretty out and by the time we got back to the boat I was EXHAUSTED from carrying him. He was so heavy and we figured I carried him for about 5 miles total!

It was a wonderful day and I am so glad we got to experience it!! A great last stop on our cruise. The next day we docked in Rome and the second part of our adventure began....