So on Thursday Dan came home from work and said, "Hey, do you want to go to Rome this weekend?"How could I say no? And so off we went to Rome again!
Meet Matt and Courtney.
Oh, sorry. Here they are a little bigger...although slightly blurry. I apparently didn't take any quality pictures of them all weekend long. Oops!
Matt and Courtney were our weekend road trip warriors who joined us for this impromptu trip to ancient Roma. It was their first time so we acted as tour guide at the Vatican Museum and Colosseum. (Sorry for the disgraceful lack of historical info, Matt and Courtney!)This "Rome: Take 2" trip was a much more relaxing and easy-going experience when compared to our whirlwind "See Everything Famous in One Day" trip that we had done when we first arrived in Italy.
We booked a great hotel that turned out to be just down the street from the US Embassy and...the Hard Rock Cafe! It also happened to be just 2 doors down from the bookstore that sells books IN ENGLISH!!! We basically had an all-American weekend in Rome. We spoke English, ate Hard Rock burgers and Burger King french fries, and bought books that don't require translation. It was fabulously luxurious!
This is our hotel, the Hotel Imperiale. It was on a fun , not-too-busy street that reminded me of Paris.
We decided against a tour guide this time around at the Vatican Museum and it proved to be a lot more fun sans guide.
Here is some of Dan's before and after work at the museum.
Dan was especially pleased to find this mummy since we didn't see it the last time around.
I broke the rules again inside of the Sistine Chapel and took a few more clandestine photos while the guards screamed "No photo!" every five seconds. Naughty me.
Excuse the underside of my chin, but this is what happens when you don't exactly know what you're shooting at.
This time around, on this very hot summer day...Dan and I took Jackson up, up, up all 554 steps to the top of the cupola (dome) of St. Peter's Basilica.
Part-way up the stairs, you get to walk out into the inside of the dome and get a bird's eye view down into St. Peter's.
Jackson admired the mosaic work on the dome walls.
The view from the top was truly amazing. Did I mention it was hot and that there were 554 stairs?
Here is some video from the top.We tried to take Jackson's 15 month Watch Me Grow photo out in front of the Vatican but Jackson kept running away from his giraffe and toward everything else. He had a lot of energy after being carried up 554 steps. We, on the other hand, did not.
At the Colosseum we were happy to get a family picture with Jackson AWAKE this time!
And for the first time, we got to tour the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. (Last time it had closed early and so we had to miss out.)
Some other "firsts" for us on this trip were things like taking the Roman metro.
Seeing the Spanish Steps (and carrying Jackson in his stroller up those steps).
Seeing Rome and the Colosseum at night...
Jackson kept trying to sneak into the Roman Forum after hours. Dan had to run after him a couple of times as he sprinted toward the Arch of Titus.
We also had never seen the Trevi Fountain before and were shocked to see the mob of people surrounding the striking landmark.
We squeezed through the mob to get this photo of "the two of us." It was the best we could do.
Ah, it was a wonderful time of American-ness and Roman-ness blended perfectly together!
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