Day 2: Rome

Wow.  I am speechless.  What a city.  Talk about sensory overload.  Everywhere you look, there’s something to see.  Every street, every building, every door, every window.  There is no end to the excess, and it’s all just beautiful and grand and enormous and completely over the top. I am in heaven and don’t know where to look first. So the day started bright and early.  We were up before 6 AM after a pretty good nights sleep. We caught two cabs to the Vatican as the cab driver refused to take all 5 of us in one cab (I think he could sense we were new to Rome).  I couldn’t stop gasping at every turn. We met our tour guide “Alessio” (who knew everything about Roma) along with 2 loved up young Brits, a very chatty fellow (gay) from Brisbane and a family of Americans.  They were all just lovely and so nice to the kids, which made for an awesome start to the holiday after such a long plane trip the day before.  So, what does one say about the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican and St Peters Basilica?  I think it’s just one of those places you have to visit to understand the experience.  Not having studied history at school, I really had no idea just how ornate and intricate and detailed so much of the art, walls and the statues would be.  It was fascinating and special and I think it will be a highlight of our trip.  We were fortunate to be in the Sistine Chapel at 9AM before the crowds, so we sat and said a prayer together for “Nanna Bellew” (according to Zachie) which was pretty cool.  The tour lasted for quattro ora and the crowds grew as the morning went on.  Apparently they have around 25,000 visitors a day, so you can imagine how busy it was in parts and how stressful that became with three kids being swallowed up by moving lines of people.  Thank god for the built in “babysitters”.  We were done by 11.30 AM and sadly it was just too bloody hot to stand around outside and soak it all up.  Worse though, the Pope was giving a mass that afternoon at 3pm but there was just no way we were hanging around in that blazing hot sun with no shelter and jetlag kicking in.  We grabbed a cab and headed to one of the suburbs our guide had recommended for pranzo.  The cab driver took us to his “friends” restaurant patroned by locals only. Pizza for the kids, which was covered in a beautiful sugo and prosciutto. Rick and I over ordered. Typical. We feasted on zucchini flowers, fried prawns (whitebait chips), fried anchovies (more like sardines), deep fried fritto misto that wasn’t so great, buffalo mozzarella and proscuitto.  It was lovely but I felt a little fried by the end of it.  We strolled along the gorgeous streets of Travestere and found a gelato shop pretty quickly.  Sublime, the kids were in heaven. It was everything you’d dream it to be.  With no map, we kept walking, and walking and walking. We finally stumbled upon a food van and ordered a round of lemon slushies and beer, and sort refuge in the shade. A taxi miraculously appeared, and we were saved. The driver told us it was 41 degrees and it certainly felt like it.  Back home for a rest.  Rick slept, the kids played Lego.  I paced.  I was on a high and itching to get out, so I went for a little walk around the shops near our apartment but again it was all too hot.  Night time came, and we headed out for a beer in a piazza down the road with a view to the colosseum.  Ah this is what I came for.  But within minutes the wheels fell off and we called it a day.  The kids were out within minutes of hitting the pillow and we weren’t far behind.  What an awesome start to Roma.