My dad turns 80 this year, and he wanted to celebrate with a trip to Italy. It's a bit of a haul for us from Malaysia, but he kindly scheduled the trip when the girls and I had a week long break, so we made it happen. He rented a house for the whole family about an hour outside of Rome, and since our flight got in very late on a Saturday night, I figured the best thing to do would be to spend the night in Rome and drive out the next day. We also didn't want to waste being in Rome, especially since it was Elena's first time there, and Vivian didn't remember coming when she was three, so I booked us a private tour for the morning. I wasn't sure how jet lagged the girls would be, and I figured having a tour just for us gave us the leeway to go at whatever speed everyone was up for. The girls threw their coins in the Trevi Fountain, so they'll be back to see the rest of the city another time.
A driver picked us up at the hotel and took us to downtown Rome. Elena thought it was so cool to go backwards.
We met our guide in Piazza del Popolo. I took Elena for a quick rest stop, and Jeff and Vivian went into full photography mode. Jeff loves to take pictures, and Vivian loves to pose for pictures, so left unsupervised, they can take dozens. Jeff was especially proud of catching the bird in this one.
It is a lovely piazza, and we got an early start, so the lighting was interesting.
Of course, Jeff and Vivian can't resist a joke. They decided it looked like this fountain was spewing water onto her head.
After showing us all the roads that go to and from this piazza, our guide took us over to the Spanish steps.
We stopped to admire the fountain in front of them, and our guide explained that all the fountain water in Rome is clean and drinkable.
Elena thought this was great, so she went down and caught some for our water bottle. She drank it and pronounced it delicious.
Next stop was the Trevi Fountain, and the girls threw their coins in.
By that point of course, they were hungry, so we got them some gelato.
We got back in the car and drove around Rome a bit. It was a Mercedes van, and I really didn't think it was going to fit down some of the roads we went down, but it made it. We circled around Piazza Venezia, and he dropped us off in front of the "wedding cake", officially the Victor Emmanuel II Monument.
Behind it is the ancient Roman Forum, and the roads are closed on Sunday, so we walked around, and our guide quickly go us through the ticketing area.
It's a spectacular place. The girls were especially impressed by the cobblestones which were part of the original Roman road.
Our guide explained how most of the Forum had been underground until recently. The part we were walking on was the level of most of the city.
The paths of the Forum were quite a ways beneath us.
We walked through the Forum, led by our guide who gave lively explanations of the history of the various areas, what they were used for, which ones were temples to what, etc. She was very engaging, but she especially won our hearts by explaining what all the various herbs and plants were to Elena. Elena became her little apprentice and collected all the things she pointed out. One of the most interesting was capers which produce a beautiful flower I had no idea about.
Finally, we made our way all the way through and approached the legend itself, the Colosseum.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there. The line to buy tickets stretched farther than we could see. We felt very fortunate to have our guide who had our pre-purchased tickets on her phone. First, we took a picture outside.
Then, she led us through the entrance with no line.
She could tell that Elena was fading. She tried to entertain her by pointing out the pillar and an arch pattern that holds up the many floors of the Colosseum, but we all figured the best route was the most direct one. Our guide had a quick chat in Italian with one of the guards and got us in the elevator to the top, so that Elena didn't have to deal with the steps.
Viv got her photo op as well. She would have made a fabulous Roman Empress.
Our guide got one more picture of us with the Forum behind us.
We did a quick pass through the gift shop, and then we went down the stairs and across the street towards our lunch restaurant.
Some Coca Cola and pasta pepped Elena right up. The meal was included in our tour and it had the standard pasta and meat courses. We couldn't eat it all, but we did our best, and then we rolled back to the car. We said a fond farewell to our guide, and then the driver took us back to the hotel.
We had been pretty out of it when we arrived the night before, but before we left, I took a picture of the impressive mural in the lobby and restaurant area.
The driver waited for us while we picked up our bags, and then he dropped us off at the car rental section of the airport, so that we could pick up our rental car and drive out to Lake Bracciano to meet up with my family. Our time in Rome was short, but it was definitely a lot of fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment