We stopped along the Appian Way to take in one of the old catacombs and peruse the old road. There were some amazing ruins along this stretch of road in addition to some still lived in houses. The catacombs were cool though Owen did get a bit freaked out in them once he realized they held bones. As it was late, we searched for dinner and luckily found a McDonalds. Now, McD's might not be your idea of good Italian dining, but the boys had done a lot in a few days so we let them choose...and the McDs we found was right next to a crap market. We looked through the crap, didnt buy any crap and then went to our hotel.
Our hotel was another F&F score and we settled in for the night to plan our assault on Rome the next day. We got up early (now Wednesday), ate a Nutella filled breakfast at a gas station and bought some transit passes. We took the bus about 20 minutes down to the Vatican and got off at the Vatican Museum. Since we were there bright and early, we breezed in, bought tickets and started walking through. Some of you might be surprised, but Brian rather enjoyed the Vatican and didnt blurt out insults or jokes at any time during our tour or walking through the incessant gift shops (none of which had the Pope hat that Brian wanted). Only my Mom was chastised for taking an inappropriate picture inside the Sistine Chapel. We went through the tour and walked back outside and the line to get in was huge. Score 1 for the early birds.
We walked into St Peter's square and walked right back out. Nice window the Pope has.
We walked across river and to the Pantheon which was stunningly cool. It had great scenery to it as well as good street musicians. There is no need to try the overpriced coffee or gellato shops there though. We had lunch in a small shop in one of the alley ways nearby....more wine and pizza for lunch.
We then walked down to the Colosseum and had a great view of ancient Rome along the way. A few more Euros and we walked through the Colosseum to learn about gladiators and what not. The Colosseum is fascinating as it is still falling apart and you can really walk through almost all of it. Really, really cool.
We also walked to the Forum and the old Roman baths where Hayden and Brian laid down under a tree for a siesta. The afternoon was getting cold and windy (still sunny) so we found some solace inside the subway and took a train up to the main Rome train station. We walked around the neighborhood a bit and finally ran into a nice Italian restaurant. The limoncellos this time were not very good.
We hopped back on the subway to ride out to the hotel. This involved a train out to a station (the boys were really dragging by now) and to catch a bus (#247) back to the hotel. When we got off the train, we found the right exit to catch the bus and went to the bus stop. By now, it's about 8PM and traffic is a stand still and the wind is howling. We waited probably 30 mins in the cold for our bus - this was the only time the entire week we were all frustrated. We then got on the bus and slowly crawled our way to the hotel for showers to warm up.
On to Pisa and the home of Ferrari the next day....
All the pictures are here and here.
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