It has been my life's dream to go to Italy. My dad served his mission in Rome, and so I've always wanted to go there. I am a huge art fan and I like history as well, so this was a must-see on my list of places I want to visit someday. When the opportunity to buy $400 round-trip tickets to Italy came up, we couldn't refuse, even though we were nervous to leave our kids for the first time ever. We had 5 months to plan, and I took full advantage of that time and our trip went very smoothly, except for a couple things which I will tell you about later. We traveled with Blake's sister Katie and her husband David, and it was fantastic. Let's start at the beginning of the trip!
Day 1-2: The Flight, and the Capuchin Crypt
Tuesday morning we got up, said goodbye to our sweet boys, and headed for the airport. We found our gate and then waited anxiously as we found they couldn't find Katie's passport. Thank goodness they did find it (deep inside the couch) and they made it in time. Disaster averted! We flew to LAX first and then from there to Rome. It was an overnight flight which is pretty awful. I didn't sleep at all. None of us slept much. The food was just barely tolerable. You know, typical international flight.
So we finally make it off the plane, through the passport check, and outside to find our AirBnb host who is waiting to bring us to our apartment. It is a guy named Andrea and his daughter, and they are super nice. The apartment was great! It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living area. It was literally right next to the metro stop, so it couldn't be any more convenient. Obviously I requested to have the mint green room.
We had made reservations for a concert, so we walked down the street looking for a place to buy our Roma Passes. We had to ask at 3 Tabacchi shops and walked two metro stops away before we found one that sold the particular pass we were looking for. We had just enough time to make it to the Capuchin Crypt for our museum tour and concert. I remember seeing a postcard my dad had of this place and it always fascinated me. During the tour, the most interesting thing I learned is that cappuccinos are named after the color of the robes that monks of the Capuchin order wear. The most interesting thing I saw was definitely the crypts, if you can call them that. The Capuchins dug up their graveyard that had held the bodies of the past monks and used their bones to create decorations in their church. Which is the most morbidly fascinating thing I have ever seen with my own eyes. They said that it was to represent how the person is more than just flesh and bone, and what we leave behind when we die is as meaningless as the dirt around us, essentially. It was definitely cool to see.
After the tour, there was a concert featuring Gregorian chant and Roman Renaissance Polyphony, which was absolutely, insanely beautiful. I am so glad we went. Here is a video they put together of a little snippet of the concert:
After that, we had dinner at a restaurant nearby I found that had Naples-style pizza, which is my favorite kind of pizza ever. It was delicious and it was the perfect first meal in Italy. PS, there is a restaurant here in Utah that does it extremely well, it is called Settebello's and you should all go. :)
This was called 'The Vesuvius'
The Opera house
I believe this was on the way there, but might have been on the way home that day... Anyways, at one point we were on the metro and it wasn't very busy. A lady decides to come stand and hold the bar above our heads (we were seated) instead of standing somewhere not awkward. She was texting on her phone and was wearing low heels and nice clothes, but what I noticed most about her was that she kept glancing at our laps. I decided to sit there and glare at her the whole time. Eventually she got the hint that these tourists weren't going to be easy targets, and she moved away from us, checking out everyone else's bags as she went. Luckily that was our only brush with pickpockets, but it did make me paranoid the rest of our trip.
Day 3: The Colosseum area and Trastevere
This was definitely our most heavily-planned day. Unfortunately, I slept poorly that night as well and nearly fell asleep a few times throughout the day. At least we had lots of amazing things to see to keep me awake. We started our morning at the Colosseum. It was beautiful and amazing. We spent a good deal of time in there exploring and taking it all in. It rained on and off all day, so the rain jackets and umbrellas were going in and out of our bag constantly, and unfortunately we didn't have pretty skies for pictures.
I'm such a tourist
After we were done there, we walked up the hill towards the Saint Peter's in Vincoli Basilica. This church houses the famous Michelangelo statue of Moses which features horns on his head. It was a beautiful, if somewhat strange, statue, and was worth the small trip. Afterwards, we wandered nearby streets to find a place for lunch. We found delicious little pizzas at Trieste Pizza and enjoyed the scenery.
Chains that held Peter while he was imprisoned
Moses with his nubby horns
After lunch, we went back towards the Colosseum to visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I had no idea it was going to be so huge! We spent hours in there in order to see everything, but we never got bored. It was beautiful. The poppies were in full bloom!
Next was the Capitoline Museum. It held lots of beautiful artwork and statues, and was even built over an ancient temple. The most famous piece here was the statue of Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf. I had to keep moving here because every time I sat down I started to fall asleep.
Marcus Aurelius
The museum is on the right
Our next stop was the Mouth of Truth! If you've seen Roman Holiday, you definitely know what this is. The legend is that if you put your hand in it's mouth and you are a liar, it will bite your hand off. Luckily, our group made it out with all of our fingers.
Next we wandered over to Trastevere, and waited the long hour or two until dinner started. Dinner always starts late in Italy, sometime between 7 and 8 at most places. Trastevere was very cute and quaint, and we liked walking around there.
The Tiber River
A very strange art installation inside a tiny church
When dinner came around, we discovered most restaurants were booked up already, so we found one that looked good that let us eat there if we were willing to sit outside. It was still cold and rainy, so it wasn't our favorite idea, but we did it and had a delicious meal. I was excited to try Cacio e Pepe, which was amazing. I also wanted to try Jewish-style Artichokes, which were okay but not as good as I was hoping.
Mmm... cacio e pepe
Stay tuned for Roman Holiday, Part 2, in which we face a potentially awful and expensive disaster, and I also experience my favorite part of our trip.
