Roma: First days and "The Castle"

For the first time ever in the history of our marriage, we are not spending Christmas at home.  With Jordan's dad and stepmother traveling abroad all over the globe for a year, we decided to seize the opportunity to meet them (and sister Rachael and Derek) wherever they might be to spend Christmas together.  And where did they happen to be?  Roma!! 

So, we pulled ourselves together and purchased some tickets to meet them there, bambinos and all!  A cab, two flights, a train, the metro/cab and we finally arrived at the rented apartment approximately 18 hours after we departed from home.  The littles were amazing--they didn't get much sleep on the overnight flight, and a couple of minor meltdowns, but really, it was all very manageable.  Although, we were very happy when we finally arrived! 

We have slowly (very slowly for Magdalene) adjusted to the time change.  The three of us are quite accustomed to time change and traveling (this was flight 26 for Gabriel), but although Magdalene has traveled with us many times, it seems to take her a long time to adjust no matter what.

 

We walked about and visited various different places, some churches, the Spanish Steps before visiting the Vatican, which Gabriel called "The Big Castle."  Gabriel's favorite part was the map room where he counted the ships.   For an almost four year old, it was really neat to see how he was taking in various artistic pieces.  There have been several times throughout this trip where he has pulled on my sleeve to take me to see something.  "Look mom!!!  Soooo beautiful!!!!"  We like to think that exposing him to arts and culture since infancy has had that kind of impact on him. 

After some fabulous gluten free pizza (yes, Italy does this!) we stood outside St. Peter's Basilica for awhile.  But even in the middle of "winter" here, it was very busy and we had to cut our losses.

Hands down, the most exciting thing for the littles has been "taking the train" and the "moving steps" (escalators) and "alligators" (elevators) since, unlike Toronto, we have been exclusively using public transit to get around Rome, which has meant a lot of lifting strollers up millions of steps, over metro gates and up escalators.   I think I might be trading in my diaper bag for a backpack, parking the stroller in the courtyard and using the Ergo-baby for the rest of the trip.  It's hard to know exactly how to travel with little people, isn't it?  Will keep you posted on more adventures!!  Including Christmas Day and Princesses at the Ballet.  Stay tuned!