We spent one week of our summer vacation with our wonderful friends Theresa and John in Rome, Italy.
We spent our first full day in Rome at the Vatican, the smallest country in the world(!) We first toured the Vatican Museum and Alexi and Mateo got to experience the Sistine Chapel for the first time ever.
The ceilings in the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica are so ornate and beautiful.
We ascended to the very top of the Basilica of St. Peter's Church and got this beautiful view of Vatican City.
The Vatican Gardens are so beautiful when seen from above.
Each day we spent in Rome the temperature reached the upper 90s to low 100s. We took a rest from the intense 100 degree Roman heat on the roof of the Vatican and got a great view.
St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world and contains this beautiful Pieta. David and Sharon even got to go on the Scavi Tour, which takes visitors underneath the basilica to see St. Peter's tomb.
No visit to Rome would be complete without gelato(!) After limiting David's gelato consumption on our backpacking trip, Sharon made sure there was a daily gelato stop this year.
The children had a great time at the Parc of the Aqueducts going on the rides and playing skee ball.
We had a wonderful outdoor lunch of pizza and pasta at the Four Rivers Restaurant in La Piazza Navona.
After lunch in la piazza it was off to Gelateria Della Palma, the BEST gelateria in Roma!!!
Gelato for postre every day was the favorite part of our trip to Rome for Alexi and Mateo!
It was another 100 degree day when we were in Pompeii, so we carried umbrellas for shade.
The very best pizza we had on our entire Italy trip was Neapolitan pizza in Pompeii.
Sharon and Alexi hiked all the way to the top of Mount Vesuvius and got to see the crater(!)
David had a knee injury from Spain, so he and Mateo did a partial hike - strenuous enough that he got an ovation on the tour bus when we got back!
Alexi and Sharon are great hiking partners, and are excited for their next hiking adventure!!!
We were thrilled to be able to visit a zoo in another country with Alexi and Mateo; this year we have taken the children to all five zoos in each borough of New York City!!!
Mateo absolutely loves animals so he had a tremendous amount of fun at the Giardino Zoologico.
Such incredibly beautiful animals at the zoo in Rome - and we got to see the animals so close up.
Alexi and Mateo had fun pretending to be animals themselves!
The colorful marble and modern stained glass window inside the basilica are simply exquisite.
We spent our last day in Rome touring the Coliseum.
We showed off our Castle Bridge pride for a family photo. Alexi was contemplating the gladiators after reading a book about the history of Ancient Rome, and Mateo kept saying "Hey stop fighting!" to the imaginary gladiators.
We had a wonderful time in Rome. Sharon and David were happy to return 10+ years after visiting Rome together for the first time as European backpackers, and we were happy to share this amazing city that has such cultural and religious significance with our children. Thank you so much for hosting us Theresa and John. We are already eagerly anticipating our summer 2016 trip...wherever it will take us...
1 comment:
Absolutely great pics! I'm glad you all had a wonderful, jam-packed trip! It looks like you had a lot of fun!
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