When in Rome....

Maddox did fantastic on his first flight. On our return flight, he cried for a few minutes before take off and then went to sleep. So all in all, he did great on both flights.

Trevi Fountain

Legend has it if you throw a coin into the fountain, you will return to Rome one day. There were so many people, we didn't even attempt to throw a coin. It was definitely beautiful even with all the people surrounding it. Next we headed for Hard Rock.

Vatican City

St Peter's Basilica first thing in the morning. It was great to see it before the area filled up with people. From here, we did a tour of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's. We booked a 3 hr tour and I was pretty sure we were insane to do it with a 4 yr old and 2 mo old. But it was something we really, really wanted to do while in Europe so we were going to give it a shot. We had total success! Maddox fell asleep within the first 15 mins of the tour and slept the entire time. Macen was on his best behavior almost the entire tour. The last 20 min in the Basilica were wearing on him but he did great overall (could have had something to do with the fruit snacks we fed him every 20-30 mins). We did the tour with about 30 others and I was afraid they were going to be cursing us by the end of the tour. Instead, we got several compliments on how great both boys did. That felt great!

These 4 pictures are from the Vatican Musuems.

The 4 pics above are inside St Peter's. It was pretty amazing! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pics in the Sistine Chapel.

The Pantheon

Outside of the Pantheon.

Inside the Pantheon. It is over 2,000 yrs old and has hardly needed to be renovated.

Piazza Navona

Rome is full of fountains and the Piazza Navona this had 3 in it. We were there first thing in the morning before all the tourists arrived and I am so glad we got to see when it was peaceful.

The Colosseum

Roman Forum/Palantine Hill

The 2 above pics are from where we ate lunch. Macen was all about taking pics this weekend and he isn't half bad with them. We need to work on the focus a bit but I love that he enjoys being behind the camera.

In my research for Rome, I found there was a pyramid here. There are only 2 in Europe so I thought it was great we'd be visiting Rome to see 1 of them. For months now Macen has been telling us he is moving to Egypt and he will see the pyramids. We have no idea where this statement came from but he always talks about it. So I thought he would get a kick out of the pyramid since we won't be making it to Egypt.

These last 2 pics you can see where Piazza Navona is quiet in the morning and bustling in the afternoon. We found some gelato here and enjoyed watching all the people for a bit.

Overall we had a great time in Rome. It is not stroller friendly though. We brought the stroller and it sat in the itty bitty hotel room all weekend. Maddox had to be carried/worn everywhere and it was kinda exhausting. He did great with it though and it ended up not being too bad. James got sick during our Vatican tour so after that was over, we did absolutely nothing the rest of the day Saturday. It was kinda nice to relax. There is so much to see in Rome, you just can't take it all in. If you go there with the mindset that you aren't going to see it all then it can be very enjoyable. Even with missing out on sightseeing time on Saturday, we didn't rush to do a bunch Sunday. We just covered the things we really wanted to see and enjoyed the day - even getting in a carriage ride. We enjoyed a whole lot of gelato. Macen even branched away from the only flavor he will eat (strawberry) and had some blueberry gelato. I'm pretty sure it was only because the color purple was acceptable to him that day. He later tried grape gelato as well since it had a purple tint to it. We found what is suppose to be the best gelato place in Rome but I don't think we'd agree with that. They did offer different flavors than the normal gelateria offered but it wasn't the best. Definitely a great way to spend a 4 day weekend.