La Zia & La Nonna Vanno a Roma

In early March, my mother and sister came for a visit. It was really wonderful of them to come; my sister has to get away from work and find someone reliable to watch over Natasha & Gypsy and my grandmother's death was only 2 months behind my mom. But they came and we had a typical "indie film style" loving, contentious and exciting visit. We of course dragged them to our favorite restaurants & places in Padova, we made side trips to Verona and Venice and we had a long weekend in Rome. Unfortunately, their visit and subsequently our visit to Rome, coincided with the European Rugby championship and the Rome Marathon. Rome was very crowded, but our Italian friends tell us that Rome is always like that and something is always going on. This really made getting around town difficult. But we saw all the big highlights including the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and the Coliseum. There were two especially memorable stories from this trip.

First, the only time we used a guide was for our Vatican visit. The lines to get into Vatican City are LONG (like in a a couple of hours long)! We paid for a private guide which involved a mini-van picking us up from the hotel which showed up 2 hours early by mistake. We left the hotel with our guide and the 7 of us and arrived at the Vatican where we met with an older gentlemen who gave our guide a small slip of paper and instructions to hand to the guards at the gate. (We have no idea what was written on the little piece of paper and come to think of it, we probably don't want to know.) This allowed us to not only cut in front of all the "regular" visitors standing in a line that snaked around for I don't know how long, but also into the front of the tour group line. Once inside, we bypassed one set of ticket counters up to another which required our guide to then make a phone call and to tell us that if anyone asked, we were all just "friends" and that we shouldn't act like he was a "guide." While the whole "cutting in front of everyone in line thing" was a bit shadowy, I think we all agreed that it was well worth the cost and had a very Italian "we are breaking some (okay, a lot of) rules, but we really aren't hurting anybody" kind of feeling. I am sure that we would have stood in line for at least 2-3 hours if we had arrived any later than 7 am. Anyway, we got into the museum and it was jam-packed and we had a quick tour, pausing in my favorite room (remember, Terri?) of maps which is just connected to the walkway to the Sistine Chapel. This was also packed but it is very cool and I had read a book about how Michelangelo was commissioned to and completed painting the chapel ceiling. Also, our guide then took us in the "back door" of St. Peters (which is really part of the Sistine Chapel excursion). St. Peters really is a unique church given the international wealth and prestige that the catholic church has enjoyed throughout history. The kids especially liked the dead pope on display, its one of the popes that died in the 1960's, and his face is wax now (or something) - whatever, we just called him the "wax pope."

Second, we missed getting into the Coliseum on Friday, so we tried again on Sunday but were running late because we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe' with every other English speaking person in Rome. So, Bill and I went back across town to get the luggage for 7 people while my mom & sister took the kids on a Coliseum tour. The Rome marathon ended at the Coliseum and thus, no cabs or buses were able to get down there and it involved the kind of subway rides for all of us that require you to literally push your way on. It was all very rushed, including the kids and their aunt & grandma arriving for the train 4 minutes before it left - the kids running through the Roma train station to get on the train. It was all very stressful, but we didn't miss our train and we settled in and had a smooth ride home.

All I can say, is Rome is cool, we visited a church which features artwork that was created with the bones of 4000 dead capuchin monks. Rome is the epicenter of everything Italian - I would love to go on a sabbatical there! Are you listening honey? We also heard more people speaking English there than anywhere else in Italy.

I really have to thank my mom and Monica for coming. I believe they left with enough shoes, rosaries, purses, chocolate treat eggs, soccer jerseys and jewelery to call it a successful trip. Hopefully, my sister will email me some good digital pictures that I can add to this blog because all I have are hard copies.