Rome, Italy (Day 3)

Day 3 of our Roman Holiday took us all around Rome!  From one end to the other!  We started out back at the Basilica di Santa Maria, which is right on Capitoline Hill, next to Michelangelo's steps.  The kids and I started hiking up and counted over 100 steps!
 

The Basilica di Santa Maria was an unexpected treasure.  It was so beautiful inside with a gorgeously ornate ceiling and tons of glass chandeliers.  I love a beautiful church!  This was definitely worth the visit and was my favorite church in Rome (more on that later...)

Check out those chandeliers!  It's hard to see the ceiling's beauty but it was really pretty.

After our visit, we realized that we had forgotten our handy dandy Rick Steves book back at the apartment.  Boo.  So Todd dashingly dashed off to retrieve it.  Meanwhile, the kids and I went up to the top of the Terrace of the Chariots.  Here the kids were giggling about something and I happened to snap a cute pic of them as we waited in line.

The view from the top was breathtaking.  It's definitely the highest point in Rome.  This picture is looking westward toward St. Peters in Vatican City.

 

This is why it's called the Terrace of the Chariots.  There are a couple of statues like this up on the top.

This is the view looking to the southeast.  You can see the Forum in the foreground and the Colosseum in the background.

Looking north.

Todd totally missed the views, because we left the Terrace of the Chariots and met him down on the ground.  From there, we went down to the Mouth of Truth (or as the Italians say, La Bocca della Verita).  Legend has it, that if you are a liar and you put your hand in the Mouth of Truth, it will bite you hand off!  You can see my dear, sweet Natalie has never told a lie! ;-)

In this picture we are recreating the scene from Roman Holiday where Gregory Peck scares Audrey Hepburn! 

The church that the Mouth of Truth resides at, the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin is actually pretty neat.  I wasn't overly wowed by the inside architecture but it's small and quaint.  It was first built in the 700s, and then completed in the 11th century. It's undergone many renovations and feels kind of all over the place (especially with some baroque touches!)

The coolest part?  The skull of Saint Valentine!  Whaaaaat?????? 

For a small donation, you can go beneath the church and see Hadrian's Crypt, built in the 8th century.  The man of the same "Hadrian's Wall" fame in England, he kept many religious relics here.

Afterward, it was time for a late lunch, and we walked across the Tiber River to the Trastevere neighborhood, where my former coworkers Rich and Erin had recommended a restaurant called Da Enzo.  I don't think I knew how big this river was!

Walking through the narrow street neighborhoods of the Trastevere.

We saw these signs everywhere.  They were so funny!  The obvious sign means you can't drive down here, but then someone puts these stickers on it to make like a guy is carrying something heavy.  I hope he set his back properly before lifting!

I pretended like I was taking a picture of Grant, but I NEEDED to capture this lovey dovey couple next to us at Da Enzo.  So cute and disgusting and Italian, all at the same time!

After a DELICIOUS lunch, we walked across the Ponte Cestio (bridge) to Tiber Island (Isola Tiberina).  Once on the island, you then get back onto the mainland by crossing the Ponte Fabricio.  This bridge completely fascinated me!  It's the oldest Roman bridge in Rome, built in 62 AD!  And it's STILL STANDING!  WHAAAT???? Meanwhile in America, we have to replace bridges every 50 years.  Sheesh.

The next stop was way across town to the Spanish Steps. And wouldn't ya know it!  They were closed and under construction!  Well, I guess we just have to go back to Rome someday!

I know the children were SO DISAPPOINTED that they didn't get to run up the Spanish Steps, so of course, we had to compensate with gelato.  You can tell Natalie is super heartbroken over all of it.

To the right of the Spanish Steps is a house that John Keats and Percy Shelley lived in.  No big deal, just two of the most important authors of the 19th century!  John Keats died of tuberculosis in this house in 1821. We didn't get a chance to go in (we really try to avoid most museums with the kids) but Wikipedia says, "The museum houses one of the world's most extensive collections of memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, and paintings relating to Keats and Shelley, as well as Byron, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and others."  Definitely worth visiting on another trip to Rome!

A beautiful column dedicated to Mary's Immaculate Conception.   

On our way back to our apartment, we once again passed Trevi Fountain in the evening.  I love it all lit up and I love the light color of the water.  

But wait!  One more stop before we go home because we cannot go back to Germany without having gone INTO the Pantheon!   I love my new camera and how beautifully it captured the lighting here.

Built during the time of Caesar Augustus, it was completed by the Emperor Hadrian over a hundred years later.  Two kings of Italy are buried there, as well as the artist Raphael, but it is now used as a Roman Catholic church, which you can see the alter, above.

Grant, pondering the works of Raphael, who is buried here.

At this point, it's pretty much time to go home when your kid is tired enough to sit down on the floor of the Pantheon!  He wasn't crying... he was just really exhausted!

Rome, Italy (Days 1 and 2)

The kids were out of school for the week after Christmas (which was on a Friday this year) so we planned ahead and booked a trip to Rome for the week!  Rome is one of those cities that you need at least a week to spend in, if not more, to properly see everything, much like London and Paris. 

And we're off!  I think airplane family selfies are going to become a thing for us.

My dad was asking us to take pictures of the Alps from the airplane.  So here you go, dad! I find it difficult to travel with my kids on airplanes.  They really, really want to sit by the window, then they don't want to actually LOOK out the window the entire flight.  They really just want to play on their tablet or eat snacks.

We finally made it to Rome, and took a cab to our little neighborhood near the Piazza Navona.  Natalie brought her new Baby Alive, Lucy to Rome.  Love the street we are staying on with the umbrellas hanging over the street.  Which is kind of funny, now that I think about it because we didn't get a drop of rain the entire week we were there!

Now it's almost 2 pm and we are starving, so we went to a nearby restaurant for a Birra Moretti and some Caprese salad and pizza! Now we're talking!

After some lunch, we went out to start exploring Rome.  My children are obsessed with chasing pigeons.  I'm pretty sure everyone in Rome was annoyed by them.  They thought it was absolutely hysterical!

The Bailey family at the Pantheon.  We didn't go inside at this point because we were on our way to Trevi Fountain, so we just stopped for a moment to snap a few pics. And no, Rick Steves does not pay my 8-year-old anything to advertise his book!

Chatting with my friend Sara while we were there, and she said we HAD to visit San Crispino for gelato. OK, twist my arm!  Here we are making the TOUGH decisions.

This picture is only funny in retrospect.  Please note that we are all looking UP.  The entire trip, I kept reminding the kids to look up "because there's SOOO much to see!"  And then the proceeded to make fun of me for the rest of the week. 

Trevi Fountain in the evening with the God, Ocean in the middle.  (Many people believe this is Neptune, but it's not). 

 

Walking back to our apartment, we came across the ruins (which is now just a façade) of the Tempio di Adriano, which was built in 145 AD.  To which Grant promptly said, "This thing is three thousand jackpot years old!"  Correct, young sir.  Or something like that.

Rounding off day one with a nice bottle of Italian red!  Now that's what I'm talking about!

The next day, we wanted to hit the big highlights of Rome.  The first stop was Capitoline Hill.  Here's Natalie (with Grant and Todd in front of her) heading up the famous Michelangelo steps, or the "cordonata."  If you're like me, you probably would know them more for the scene in National Lampoon's European Vacation when Clark Griswold is chasing the man who kidnapped Ellen on his bicycle. In real life, they were designed my Michelangelo and lead up to Capitoline Hill. 

Here's Todd and the kids with the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius at the top of Capitoline Hill.  He's kinda famous.  This statue is actually a replica as the original (built in 175 AD) has undergone restoration and is now located in the museum next door.  It's pretty cool anyway.  Because he is shown here without any armor or weapons, he is thought to be a bringer of peace.

Things were all but peaceful when Natalie noticed that the backpack we carry was leaking water!  Time to take everything out and dry it off!  Oh you silly Griswolds!

Around the corner, still up on Capitoline Hill is the Mother Wolf with Romulus and Remus.  The story goes that Romulus and Remus (the twin sons of the God Mars) were abandoned by their great uncle to die by the Tiber River.  A she wolf found them and "adopted" them.  (Later a shepherd and his wife found them, so they didn't grow up totally feral, of course).

 

Heading down the backside of Capitoline Hill, you see one of Rome's many fresh drinking fountains.  The kids (and Todd) all drank from this one and filled up their water bottles!

Pretty much every picture we have of Grant from this trip looks like this.  Superman at the Roman Forum.

Coming down from Capitoline Hill, you get these amazing views of almost the entirety of the Roman Forum.

Walking around the Forum, the Basilica is most impressive.  Back in early Roman times, a Basilica was just a meeting place for politicians, such as city councils, as well as a Courthouse.  The lawyer is lawyering to Grant here.  At one point, this was MUCH bigger but earthquakes have caused some of its demise.

 

Behind a small façade, which Todd is looking at in the top picture is a little memorial to the (apparent) exact spot where Julius Caesar was burned and put to death in 44 AD (lower picture).  

Looking up toward the Temple of Saturn.  Saturn was the God of Wealth, so this served as the Treasury back in the day.

The Colosseum!  The Colosseum!

The Bailey's at the famous Colosseum.  (If you knew what it took to get this picture... Natalie couldn't work the camera at first, and then got frustrated, and finally someone offered to take our picture only to have a million tourists walk in front of us!)

I wasn't sure how this would show in the blog, but this is a panoramic shot of the Colosseum.

Interestingly, there are many corridors beneath where the flooring of the Colosseum used to be.  (You can see the flooring in the far background of this picture).  The lions, villains and other animals would be down here and then run up a ramp to fight on the main stage. 

The kids mastering the Roman bus system.  Looking cute too, I might add!

 red wine = gelato chaos

In the evening, after we were completely exhausted, we consumed a few bottles of wine and ran around looking for more gelato.  Oh we found some.

I promise we didn't give any to the kids though.  Just jacked them up on sugar.  The Baby Alive Lucy hanging out of Todd's backpack is a nice touch!   Stay tuned for more showing what we did on our big Roman Holiday! 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

If you've ever wondered, yes, Santa Claus DOES come visit the children even when they live in a foreign country! 

We closely monitored the man in the red suit's progress on the television via NORAD's Santa Tracker.  We even watched him come into eastern Europe!  (This however, was earlier in the day!)

 We went to church at Tower Barracks, only to find that it was actually at Rose Barracks.  Totally my fault for not reading it close enough.  So we sped down to Rose Barracks and managed to catch mass.  Afterward, we came home and continued our tradition of throwing reindeer dust on the lawn so that it would sparkle in the moonlight and Santa would be able to find us. 

This year, Santa was very lucky.  He got homemade cookies with frosting and the reindeer got carrots.  Unfortunately, I could not find Andes mint chocolates for use in my favorite Christmas cookie recipe.  After Eights weren't melting properly, so we bought a can of peppermint frosting instead. 

Sometimes they like each other. Or they pretend to so Santa will bring them presents.

Next, Daddy always reads 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  It was fun to see Grant get excited about it this year. 

Blurry because they were moving so fast yelling, "HE CAME!  SANTA WAS HERE!" As you can see, Natalie is airborne!

Grant hasn't even opened anything yet and he still gives this Christmas a big thumbs up!

Every year, Grant gets a Hess truck from Pop Pop. It's always one of his favorite gifts!

Warm Gluwhein and sour cream coffee cake. Yum.

The kids got little wooden put-together airplanes in their stockings, so we took them outside for a contest to see how far we could throw them.

Probably the best gift ever.  A new digital camera to chronical our travel adventures in Europe.  I took this picture of the Christmas Day sunset with my new camera.  Tomorrow, it's off to Rome!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Have nothing to fear my friends... we were able to catch the new Star Wars movie on the base, in English and in 3D!  I really enjoyed it, but it definitely had some surprises. I tried really hard not to read anything about it before I went to see it so that I would be surprised. It was still good for a few chuckles, too.

Nat decided she wanted to dress up - hey, this is great!  I bought that Halloween costume and now she gets to wear it twice?  Bonus!

THIS Princess Leia entered into a costume contest at the movie theater and wound up winning 3rd place and a $25 gift card to the PX!  She was super excited.

The whole family, including Grumpy Grant, ready to watch Star Wars. Everyone but Mommy is sporting their Star Wars gear.  Get with the program, Mommy!

These two clowns, after spilling a giant tub of popcorn on the floor. Pardon the darkness of these photos!

Get this kid some popcorn and some funny looking glasses, stat!  Yes, that will cure even the worst of moods.  I'm so glad we have a big theater and can watch US movies in English!

Pictures with Santa

Santa made a stop at the Graf PX for some pictures with the kiddos!

It makes me sad that they are almost too big to even sit on his lap!