Travel

Ever since we lived there for a semester, I’ve daydreamed about “retiring” to Lexington, Virginia. (Neither Adam nor I think of life in terms of working and then retiring, but I’m sure there will come a time when we slow down and cut back.) It’s not an impossible dream, but it’s not something we can really plan for yet, either. It’s just on my radar.

The town is nestled in the Shenandoah Valley and is home to Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute. It’s a touristy place, so there is a quaint, overpriced downtown shopping area. What that means to me is that there are some good restaurants – can’t live without fine dining! But it’s also a small town with cows and horses everywhere, no traffic, gorgeous mountains and countryside, and nice people. It’s just big enough to have a Walmart, which means that you can get the things you need without driving to the next big town – absolutely essential, even in these Amazon.com days. The universities keep it from getting insular and stale. (And VMI keeps the town full of young men in uniform!) I’m not a big fan of old buildings or living in a place with history, but I have to admit that I love the still-operational old post office and the campus of W&L:

When we lived there, we were lucky enough to rent the guest house of a home built on top of a hill just outside of town, and modeled after Jefferson’s Monticello. We had 360 degree views of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains, and there were three horses right outside our window which we didn’t have to take care of. We let Toby out without a fence or leash and he played with the horses. I’m sure it was the best time of his whole life. I mean, seriously, look at this:

Lexington is one of my favorite places on earth. We went back for a visit last weekend and I was reminded of how much I love it. We also went back to Natural Bridge Zoo. Because of my cast, I wasn’t able to visit the zoo itself, but I hopped into the lobby to take advantage of something they didn’t offer when we lived there: I had my photo taken with a baby tiger.

Did that really happen?

Yes, I touched and petted and held and even bottle-fed a five-month-old tiger. The only way I can describe how much I love tigers is to tell you that I often cry when I see them on the nature shows or at the zoo. This one was a white tiger (I prefer the standard Bengal) and it was forty-something pounds – bigger than Sam. The photo shoot happened so fast it was hard to take in. I think I was in shock. I want to do it again. I might get to – the zoo is regularly breeding and raising the tigers for use at other zoos, and they offer the photos every year.

And so now, I have another element to add to my retirement fantasy: volunteer work at the local zoo. It could happen.

Well, five months later, I’m finally continuing my travel journal chronicling our Italy trip. (I’ve been a little bit busy.) Be sure to read the first three installments, or re-read them just to get back into the mood. I did!

And here are some of our own pictures:

(Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t already.)

Our first night in Italy, we did not sleep well. We had barely slept on the flight and we had muscled through a long day, so you think we’d have slept like babies, but we all woke up around midnight (which makes no sense since that would have been around 6pm our time). I woke up because I was hungry. And so began one of the major quests on our vacation: my constant search for food. Luckily, we had some leftover pizza in the fridge, so I pulled out a couple of pieces and ate them in the bathroom so I wouldn’t disturb Adam or Sammy.

Unfortunately, Sam woke up soon after and spent the next two hours screaming at the top of her lungs. Adam had to take her out of the hotel room three times. It was really awful. But when it was over, it was over, and our trip continued.

Friday morning we didn’t have any reservations, so we slept until 9, and that seemed to be enough for all of us to get by. The hotel served breakfast in our room, which was awesome. They actually served eggs and some meat along with the usual breads and sweets, so I was able to have a real meal.  The coffee was not so great, though, so when we headed out, we got cappuccinos to go at the nearest shop. Ahhh, excellent!

This day held the worst weather of the entire trip: it was cloudy all day. We were planning on a lot of outdoor walking, so we worried about rain, but it never came. Our first stop was Largo Argentina, which is just a square block of ruins. We went there, not for the ruins, but for the cats. For some reason, somebody started a cat sanctuary there, so there are hundreds of cats roaming about the ruins. Sam was very excited, but a bit disappointed to learn that she could not feed or pet them. Still, we probably spent 45 minutes there, just trying to spot cats behind columns and on top of huge stones. It was fun.

Next, we headed towards the Colloseum, but we ran into the Monument to Emmanuel on the way. This is an enormous, 20^th Century monument to the first king of unified Italy. I know nothing about the man or that part of Italy’s history. The monument was pretty ugly, mostly because it just seemed so out of place. This is modern, political Rome. And in front, there are cheesy Roman gladiators who try to take tourists for fifty Euro tips (about $75) for a photo. Rick Steves warned us about them, so when I told one “no tip,” this is what I got:

I don’t think we ever got a bad attitude from anyone in Rome, which is one of the reasons I loved it. The people were all wonderful.  (And we did give him one Euro.)

Maybe the most interesting thing about the Monument is the statue of a man on a horse in front. I don’t know who it represents, but it is amazing just because of how huge it is. Nearby is Trajan’s Column. We didn’t walk up to it, but Adam told me a bit about Trajan and that was interesting. We inadvertently walked up near the top of the Monument building looking for restrooms (my other continuous quest) but the line was so long I gave up. We did get a nice view of the city from up there, though. But I was getting hungry. It was time to go.

Then we got lost for the first time. We didn’t know we were lost for quite a while, but we should have known because there weren’t any good restaurants around which means we were off the beaten, tourist path. The only food we could find was exactly what Rick Steves warned us about: a place that had big, gaudy pictures of food in the windows, which means that they have frozen dinners that they microwave for you. But we had to eat, and eat we did. It was no worse than any average diner in the U.S. Sam spent lunch watching a movie on my iPad, which became our go-to method for keeping her happy when she was fed up with whatever thing we were doing.

So we headed back out, fortified for the moment. After much walking, we finally realized that we had no idea where we were. There were no street signs, and nobody else walking around could speak English, or if they could, they were lost too. In front of us was a huge, grassy pit. By huge, I mean it was about three blocks long and one block wide, and about two stories deep. In fact, it looked a lot like Chicago’s Midway in Hyde Park. For some reason, we didn’t recognize this as any kind of landmark, which was a bit dense of us. But as soon as we found someone who told us where we were on the map, we realized that it was the remains of Circus Maximus, the ancient Roman chariot racing stadium. Again, I’m telling you: in Rome, you can’t help but stumble upon the most amazing things! We hadn’t planned to see this sight, but it was actually kind of cool to look at it and imagine those chariot races. Here’s a ten second video of what it looks like. (You’ll have to click the link because WordPress is not allowing me to embed videos for some reason.)

Before heading back towards the Colloseum, we found a street vendor and got Sam a gelato. A you can see, she was happy.

The Colloseum was cool, but it really is just ruins, and you have to use your imagination for it to be interesting at all. I was a bit surprised at how much of it is left. I’m sure I’ve seen pictures of it, but the image in my head was more along the lines of the ruins found in ancient Greece – just a few columns and rocky ground. I’m glad I went there in person to see it. There are a lot of statues and artifacts in the hallways, but we didn’t spend time looking at them. We just walked up the stairs (so many stairs!) and looked out over the stadium and contemplated what went on there. We read what Rick Steves had to say, and that helped bring it to life. Sam was fascinated by the fact that there were dungeons down there. “Is it dark? Is that where they put bad guys? Is it scary down there? Are we going to go down there?” Apparently, you can go down there on tours, but we didn’t have time for that.

The Arch of Constantine nearby was also neat to see, but really, it was just reviewing the history that made it so.

Looking at the photo of it, I see more detail than I noticed in person, which doesn’t surprise me because by this time, we were all beat. We cabbed it back to the hotel (with Sam totally passed out in her travel vest), and we snacked and rested. Sam watched some Italian cartoons on the TV and the language barrier didn’t seem to bother her at all. I had fun trying to translate.

We weren’t up for too much activity after all that walking, so we decided to go to an annex of the National Museum of Rome which was right next to our hotel.  It was pretty boring, as museums in Rome go, but we saw more statues. Sam noted that there were a lot of penises on display. Then she found a friend, a little girl named Violet, and they raced around the courtyard of the museum for a while. There always seemed to be something to amuse her.

We decided to do at least one splurge dinner, so we headed for one of Rick Steves’ favorite restaurants, near the Pantheon.  On the way, we passed through Piazza Navona (of course) and the square in front of the Pantheon, where there was a clown. Clowns are people in costumes so Sam is typically afraid of them, but this guy was good, just like the white statue lady. He knew how to make Sam comfortable, and he teased her in clown ways and twisted her a poodle balloon. We all loved him.

Just walking the streets of Rome was exciting and beautiful. I loved seeing all the old buildings with such beautiful shops and restaurants inside. The atmosphere of the whole city is so incredibly different than anything I’ve ever experienced before. I took this picture just because I loved the way the street looked:

Dinner was not all that great. It was good, but nothing special. Rick let us down! I was beginning to think that Italian food was not really my thing. But we did have a lovely time at dinner. Sam tried her first sip of wine. She actually seemed to like it a bit!

On the way home, we used the balloon to make Sam walk faster. It was hard to get her to keep going after all the walking that day, but if I teased her by shaking the balloon in front of her and then plucking it out of her reach as she grabbed for it, she went crazy with giggles and kept up with us. This may seem like a totally insignificant thing to report about a vacation, but it was family fun. We were all feeling good and we had had another great day in Rome. I don’t want to forget that fun walk home.

We slept much better that night and woke up early on Saturday, ready to hit Vatican City. The weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful day. After five minutes in the cab, I realized that I had forgotten the voucher for the tickets I had pre-purchased so we had to turn back, but we had plenty of time and it worked out fine. When the cab pulled up near Vatican Museum, we saw the mile-long line, but we were able to skip it entirely because of those pre-paid tickets. Thanks, Rick!

We decided to tour the Pinacoteca (painting gallery) first. I have in my notes that Adam was impressed by a Leonardo daVinci painting, but I don’t recall anything about it. In fact, I don’t recall much of this at all. We didn’t feel that we could take too much time on anything because Sam would get bored or I would get hungry, so we just breezed through. We’ve taken Sam to art museums before and she does very well for a four-year-old, but she’s used to going just for an hour or two at a time, and only one time every few months. So she did much better with the outdoor activities than she did in museums. Still, what I do remember is how impressed I was with the building itself, and just the sheer scope of how much art was in it. Instead of trying to take in a lot of paintings, or even using Luc Travers’ method of being very selective and viewing one or two works in detail, I just enjoyed the richness of all that surrounded me. Sure, it was all collected and compiled through the force or fraud of the Church, but that doesn’t change the fact of what it is – probably the most amazing collection of art, anywhere.

We had a snack and coffee before heading to the rest of the Museum. The cafeteria food was truly disgusting. I think this was the only bad food I had in all of Italy. But wait, we weren’t in Italy, were we? No. Okay then.

The rest of the Museum was amazing, for the same reasons I’ve already stated. It was beautiful and there was so much art. Sam enjoyed seeing the real mummy on display. She is currently quite fascinated by death. And there was even a mummy of a cat – what could be more cool? Adam and I had time to take note of the Apollo Belvedere, and we both enjoyed the hall full of ancient maps. I love maps. At one point, Sammy was being silly and she exclaimed loudly, “Jesus Christ!” (one of her favorite phrases which she picked up from someone in our household, I suppose, wink wink). Adam and I found that hilarious and I told her, “Don’t worry, we’ll see him later,” thinking of the Pieta in St. Peter’s.

So far, we hadn’t seen anything that really moved us. But then we made it to the School of Athens. We have the print in our house, but it is small and faded. I had no idea how much I would love the original. It was huge and it was bright and clean and beautiful. By this time, Sam had fallen asleep on Adam’s shoulder, so we had time to stand and look at it for about ten minutes. Rick Steves helped us to identify many of the figures, but both Adam and I just couldn’t take our eyes off of Aristotle and Plato, in their poses that encapsulate the entire history of the Western World. For the first time, I could see their expressions – it was clear that they were in conflict, disagreeing, maybe even in the middle of an argument, but that they respected one another. Both Adam and I were brought to tears looking at it. And all of this took place in a hot room packed with people, pushing and shoving, and very loud. And it didn’t bother me one bit. That’s saying something. School of Athens was another highlight of the whole trip. We bought a new print for our home.

The finale was the Sistine Chapel. We got lucky and found a place to sit. Sam woke up. We stayed about ten minutes. It was so different than I had expected. The ceiling has been recently restored and I have no idea how accurate it is, but the colors and clarity were amazing. I didn’t try to look at every aspect of the painting, but just tried to take in the Chapel as a whole. It was so neat to be in the place where the Popes are elected, so full of history. And the ceiling makes the whole place feel magical. The contrast in sense of life between Michelangelo and the mostly earlier works we had just seen in the Museum was astounding. It was a whole new world.

But, by now, the crowds were starting to get to me. We tried to use Rick Steves’ trick of exiting the Chapel through a back door to get straight to St. Peters’, but it was closed, so we had to retrace our route back to the front of the Museum. It’s a long walk. We ate more disgusting cafeteria food, which was mostly bread and didn’t do much to satisfy my hunger. My pizza smelled like dog. I forced it down. Sam had gelato. She was happy. Sam made another friend and they ran around a bit.

Then we had to figure out how to get over to St. Peters’. This is when we began to learn that Italians (even Italians who live in Vatican City) are the worst direction-givers on the planet. No matter what you are looking for, the answer is, “it’s right over there,” with a vague hand gesture. We had to ask about three people how to get out of the building and headed in the right direction. But we did make it. And the walk there was cool because you walk outside the Vatican wall. It really is like a fortress. But then we arrived and saw the line to get into St. Peters’. There was no way to avoid this one, and we were totally exhausted. So we decided to skip it. I was hugely disappointed because Michelangelo’s Pieta was one of the most important things I wanted to see, and of course the cathedral itself is really a don’t-miss as well. But, we made the right decision. We hung out in St. Peters’ Square for a while, and that alone was pretty cool. Again, so much history. Easter was about a week away and we imagined the crowds that would be in this spot. Sam chased more pigeons and fed them crackers. She treated them like dogs, “Here, pigeon. Pigeon, come!” It was really cute.

After taking a cab home, we all slept for three and a half hours. Wow. We were wiped out!

That night, we tried to do Rick Steves’ “night walk across Rome” which includes sights like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. But by the time we got to the starting point – Campo de Fiori – we were ready for dinner, and by the time we finished dinner, we were ready to go home. We ate right on the square with all of the night life streaming by us. Rick Steves told us that a lot of young locals come here after dark, and we noticed that Romans really love their tiny, designer dogs. There were small dogs everywhere! We actually had a wonderful meal this night – huge portions of salmon and lamb. The food situation was looking up. We met an older couple who admired us for bringing our daughter along, as they had done with their own children years ago. They warned us that Sam would always have the travel lust now.

Best of all, we saw our favorite clown again. He made Sam another balloon.

Then we got gelato on the way home and called it a night. I read a book called Dinosaur-Rumpus to Sam that night. Since she likes to count everything, I asked her how many horns on the triceratops. She counted, “One, two, three. Three penises!” Think we saw enough naked statues?

Sunday, we had early reservations at the Borghese Gallery. Talk about amazing collections of art! This was a private home filled with another mind-blowing collection of sculpture and paintings. Cardinal Borghese sported that title because his cousin was the Pope; but he himself was more of a humanist. I enjoyed the fact that he had so many rooms filled with art, but relegated the prayer room to a tiny, dark closet. Again, I was impressed most by the collection as a whole, and by the beautiful building with its frescos and arches and grandeur.

This is the point in the trip where my memory starts to get fuzzy, and I know the reason why. This is when Sam tired of going to museums and art galleries, and of walking around in general. She was tired this morning and started being very mean to us and misbehaving. I can’t blame her, but it didn’t change the fact that it was very difficult. I think Adam and I had to take turns viewing the Gallery, which was a real bummer. It’s not the same unless you see it with the one you love. But, we did the best we could.

Afterwards, we decided to rest in the park where the Gallery was located: Borghese Gardens. We sat under a tree and had a snack, and just enjoyed the beautiful day, and Sam watched a movie on the iPad.

Then we went in search of lunch. On the way, we found some bumper cars. Sam had been wanting to try bumper cars for a while, so this was a big hit. We managed to get a short video of the end of the adventure, when she crashed and banged her knees, but really, I promise, she loved it! (Again, you’ll need to click over to see it.)

We couldn’t find a decent lunch in the park so we headed out and ended up in a ritzy area of the city, with big hotels and expensive shops on a wide, tree-lined street. It reminded me a bit of Michigan Avenue in Chicago. We actually ate hamburgers at an “American” restaurant, and it was good to eat a big slab of cow.

We were all feeling better, so we decided to walk to the Spanish Steps. The walk itself was interesting, and mostly downhill, which was wonderful. Walking really is the best way to see Rome, and if you go without children, I think you could do all of the popular things except the Vatican without taking any cabs or buses. But if you do have children, don’t count on a stroller to solve that problem. The sidewalks (where there are any) are narrow and often rough cobblestone, and there are not always elevators available. There were times during our trip that I longed for a stroller, but really, I think it would have been more of a hassle to have to lug it around. Luckily, Adam was able to carry Sam quite a bit, and that worked for our little family of three.

We came to the Spanish Steps from behind, so we were at the top. The view was beautiful, and we enjoyed going down the steps and not having to go back up.

Sam slid down the steps on her bottom. I’m not sure why. (And I had to throw those pants away afterwards.)

I liked the whole feel of the place and could have hung out there, but it was time for a nap. We cabbed it to the hotel.

The afternoon was reserved for The Forum.

We got a quick cappuccino and gelato for Sam and took another cab there. Adam really loved seeing the ruins, imagining all that had gone on there. I liked to see the actual Senate building, but I was hoping to see something that would resemble what I see in the movies – you know – the scenes of the soldiers returning to the city from battle, entering the gates and arriving at the center of the city where the senators are gathered on the steps of some official building and the crowds are cheering. Well, that’s what I had in my head, anyway. It was hard to recreate anything like that from what we saw. Rick Steves pointed out things like where the Vestal Virgins were, and what this column meant and what that building was for, but it was all very abstract.

Also, most of my attention was on keeping Sam in sight. She was enjoying playing “hot lava rocks” on the ancient stones that still paved the paths. There were a lot of people there, but I wanted to let her blow off some steam while we were outdoors, so I mostly just enjoyed watching her. Of course, she found a cat and she took an excellent photo of it.

She also took a few photos of Adam and me which aren’t too bad.

She met some Italian kids her age and I helped her to understand that she could communicate with them using the little bit of Italian she knew (Mi chiamo Sammy. Come si chiama?) and by using body and sign language. Sammy invited the kids to play by making a “come here” motion with her hand and then showing them how to jump on the rocks. That was quite fun – watching them all struggle and then understand each other.

We had one of our few dinners indoors that night, our final night in Rome. We wanted to reduce the stimulation and have some quiet, and we got lucky and had a really nice dinner. From here on out, the food started getting better. Adam and I learned how to order and share so that we each got some kind of pasta and some kind of meat. Sam watched Scooby Doo for about the fourth time on the iPad. Adam ordered tiramisu for dessert, and I ordered custard because I hate tiramisu. But, it turns out that real, Italian tiramisu is mostly custard, instead of that wet cake crap you get in the United States. I loved it! Who knew!

On the way home, we stopped off one more time at Largo Argentina to see the cats, and we walked through Piazza Navona one last time. We had a bath and went to bed. In the morning, we would pick up our rental car and leave Rome. I think anyone could stay for a month in Rome and never want for something to do or see. But we were tired and ready to go. We packed quite a bit into those few days, especially considering we had Sam with us.

I loved Rome. I loved the contrast of the old with the new. I loved the people. I loved the fact that it is a real, modern city, bustling with activity, sitting on top of all of that history, so much of which still shows. Our hotel room was actually an interesting little metaphor for the city: old on the outside, but modern and stylish on the inside. But that only applies to the structures of Rome. The people are the opposite: modern and stylish on the outside, but old-fashioned (in the best way) on the inside. I’ve never been any place like Rome, and I suspect there aren’t many places like it anywhere. I imagine Istanbul and Bejing might have that combination of old and new. Regardless, Rome is a special place, and my visit there exceeded my expectations by far.

Before I even begin talking about our trip, I have to introduce you to Rick Steves. His guidebooks are the reason we had such an awesome, hassle-free vacation. I used the books to get a sense of the cities we would be visiting, to understand the neighborhoods where we might want to pick hotels, to choose the most important sights to see, and, most valuably, we used the information in the guides while we were at the sights to help us understand what was important. We didn’t need to spend a whole day at the Vatican Museum because Rick Steves gave us a sense of what we would want to see and what was a waste of time. He offers audio tours that you can download for free, but we preferred the books because they allowed us to edit our sightseeing even further. We’d skim through his chapter on, say, the Borghese Gallery, and we’d know which rooms to focus on. Then, while there, we’d take out the book and read his descriptions of individual works of art, or whatever captured our interest. We found that his understanding of the history, the art, and the culture of each place was excellent. I’ll refer to Rick Steves often during these reports as if he were there in person, advising us. That’s how it felt to us – like we had a good friend and expert along with us on the trip.

I also want you to know that I’m writing these memoirs for myself and my family, really. I want to cement in my mind all the things that we found most important. The same goes for the photos. We don’t take many photos of the sights themselves. We buy postcards for that. We try to take pictures of things that are more unique to our own experience: the street performers, Sam chasing pigeons, or the huge plate of pasta with ragu that Sam seemed to order at every meal. So, I’m not sure how interesting this will be to anyone but us. Read on if you wish…

We departed from Dulles at about 6 in the evening, and flew through Amsterdam. The flight there was about 8 hours, and then we had another 2 hour flight to Rome. None of us slept much on the plane, but, despite tossing and turning for hours, Sam did a fine job. I think she handled the flight better than I did. For some reason, I didn’t sleep at all. So my fears of a long flight with Sam were completely unfounded. I still don’t understand why parents are so hesitant to fly with kids. Yes, we only have one, but for the most part, flying with her has been an exciting and joyful experience. I guess it just depends on the child’s temperament. And having said that, yes, I am prepared for two, completely different children. At least, in theory, I’m prepared.

Our Little Travel Expert

We did the smart thing and paid five extra Euros (about $7.50) for the hotel to send their shuttle to pick us up. It was nice to be met at the airport and have confidence that we were going to get to our hotel without getting lost, which I’ve read can be a problem with these tiny hotels. (From now on, I’ll just convert Euros to approximate amount in dollars so you don’t have to do the math.)

We stayed in the Imperial Suites Navona, just north of Piazza Navona, right in the heart of Rome. I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. Here is the little street where it was located:

So cool! Our room was modern and comfortable, even if tiny (which is to be expected in Rome). The staff was so friendly and helpful and everything was easy. Breakfast was served in our room every day at the time of our choosing and they actually offered eggs and meat, which saved us from having to go out for breakfast each day.

I didn’t plan it this way, but staying so close to one of the piazzas, or squares, was a really good thing. We found out how wonderful it was right after checking in. We were starving and went to the first restaurant in sight – less than a block from the hotel. We had the most delicious cappuccino, pizza, and gelato, and our jet lag seemed to disappear. After a quick trip back to the hotel to unpack, we set out for the Pantheon. On the way, we walked through Piazza Navona:

We didn’t know what to expect, but we found a huge, gaudy Bernini fountain, street performers, tons of restaurants, street vendors, lots of people, interesting buildings, and our first taste of the City of Rome. What we were to learn is that, just about anywhere you go in Rome, you will find history, art, ruins, or something unexpected. But Piazza Navona was particularly good for Samantha. On our first walk through the square, she found one of her favorite things of the entire vacation, the white statue lady:

Sam fell in love with this mime, and worked up enough courage to go to her and shake her hand, which is saying something. Sam is typically afraid of people in costumes. But this woman was really good at her craft, and she read Sam like a book and got her to feel comfortable. She was rewarded with a Euro in her hat from Sam, which was another new experience. We were thrilled that Sam was already having a good time. There were other mimes in the square, but none as good as the white statue lady. Sam looked for her every time we passed through Piazza Navona for the rest of our stay. This is what I mean when I say that our travels are even more enjoyable with our daughter along. I would never have paid so much attention to a mime without Sam there, but little events like this made the trip so much richer.

The Pantheon was one of my favorite sights in Rome. I’ve never stood in such an old building. It was breathtaking to think that it was built in 120AD. The dome was built of concrete, a material lost during the Dark Ages. The strength of concrete is one of the reasons so many structures from ancient Rome remain standing today. The dome with its oculus (the opening at the top) was beautiful in its own right, as was the floor of the building, which has been repaired, but which I believe retains its original design. There were a lot of statues inside the Pantheon but I wasn’t very interested in them. Adam was excited to see the tomb of Raphael inside, and we both loved the inscription on his sarcophagus:  “Here lies Raphael, by whom the mother of all things (Nature) feared to be overcome while he was living, and while he was dying, herself to die.”

Sam was mostly bored, but we didn’t stay long. We walked around the outside and Rick Steves pointed out how the Pantheon actually sits at a much lower level than the current street level of Rome, as do all of the ruins and ancient structures. I’m sure I’d heard this idea before – that modern Rome is built upon the ruins of ancient Rome – but to see the ruins in person, in such a concrete way, made the history so much more real. It’s exciting to walk around the modern streets of Rome and wonder what lies beneath. The Pantheon was awesome!

We made a quick stop in a church nearby: the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, considered the only Gothic church in Rome. We didn’t really know what it was until we went in. It was just close by and we had a little extra time. Inside, we found a Michelangelo statue: Christ the Redeemer. And then we found out that this is where Galileo recanted, but then whispered “And yet it moves.” This is what I’m talking about – in Rome, you really can just stumble upon the most amazing things!

In the square in front of the Pantheon, Sam got her first taste of chasing pigeons, which quickly became one of her favorite activities in Italy.

We also saw a bunch of soldiers or policemen marching around with real big guns. I’m not sure what that was about, but it was clearly a ritual, not a practical exercise:

We walked through the city streets and just took in all of the shops, the street performers, and the buzz of the city. In some ways, Rome could be New York. But then again, maybe not.

We popped our heads inside another church. It looked like nothing on the outside, but it was beautiful inside. I don’t even remember which one it was, but it wasn’t important. It was just so cool that these things were everywhere. Sam was getting bored though, so we moved on.

We had to get used to the Roman traffic. Sometimes it was hard to tell where the sidewalk ended and the street began. We normally don’t make Sam hold our hands walking around, so it was very stressful to keep a close eye on her. I experimented with many methods of walking through the city and we never found anything that worked well for us. If I had to do it again, I would have started the trip with a special rule for Sam that she always hold our hands while walking somewhere. But as it was, we just struggled with keeping her safe and keeping her walking in the right direction.

Since we had eaten a late lunch, we opted for a dinner of appetizers right on Piazza Navona. I ate prosciutto with melon, some strange kind of seafood with suckers and tentacles, and a glass of Chianti. Not exactly pregnancy-approved food! I was unable to escape eating some lunch meat throughout the rest of the trip – sometimes that is the only kind of meat you can get – but I deliberately drank a cappuccino and a glass of wine every day, and that was totally worth it. But I have to say, this first day’s coffee and wine were probably the best of the whole trip.

I haven’t mentioned it because it is so completely normal, but both the meals so far were al fresco, as were almost all of our meals throughout the trip. The food on the piazzas is never quite as good as elsewhere, and it costs more, but the atmosphere, especially at Piazza Navona, was worth it. Sam spent much of the dinner yelling, “Pigeon, come!” and we were able to allow her to leave the table when she was done to wander about the square and chase pigeons or just look around. She made a lot of friends this way.

And that was our first day in Rome. And it was only a half day, really. And we were jet-lagged and a bit disoriented. And it was cloudy and a bit cold. I’m sure I won’t write as much as this for every day we were in Italy. But our first day was really very special – one of the best of the whole trip.

We’re home, safe and sound. After ten days in a foreign country, that is a wonderful thing!

I’ll have to write about our experiences over several posts. The idea of getting it all down in one, digestible essay is too daunting a task when I have hundreds of unread emails and everything else that backs up over ten days (think four doctors appointments in four days) to deal with at the same time. For today, I’ll just give you an overview.

The trip was incredible. We experienced the unique energy of Rome – the city of old and new, then spent a relaxing night being pampered and well-fed in an eleventh century castle, passed quickly through Volterra – the medieval fortress-city in the clouds, and ended up in Florence, where the Medicis once spent their disposable income funding great art, and where Western tourists now spend their disposable income appreciating it. And no, I don’t find that ironic, but beautifully appropriate.

When planning the trip, part of the reason I decided to go to Rome first was that it was the chronological thing to do. Given a choice, it just makes sense to see ancient Rome and the Vatican before the birthplace of the Renaissance. But I didn’t realize how the road trip would be the perfect bridge between the two – a real tour of medieval times. But I also imagined the road trip as a  relaxing break in between the two highlight cities, and that was a mistake. Getting the rental car, navigating the Byzantine streets of towns born in the Dark Ages, and staying in different hotels four nights in a row was a struggle. But still, the road trip was entirely worth the effort.

I’m surprised to say that Rome was my favorite part of the trip. I thought I’d like Florence the most. But Rome is an amazing place. You’ll see why I think so when I get into the details later.

There were a couple of things that dampened my enjoyment of the trip. First, it was not easy being pregnant. I feel like I spent the whole trip in desperate need of a bathroom or a restaurant. Mostly, it was the eating that was difficult. If you can live on bread and cheese, it’s easy to eat well and cheaply in Italy, but if you need meat, and you need it every few hours, you’re in for a challenge. Getting real meat meant that we had to eat at formal, sit-down restaurants for every meal, and that meant that each meal cost about $100 and took about an hour and a half! The food was great, but there was no way to get it fast and cheap.

For the most part, I did stick to my “we must nap” rule, but we didn’t seem to be able to get Sam to bed any earlier than 10pm (and sometimes it was midnight), so it didn’t do much good.  Sam got progressively more tired as the trip wore on, becoming more and more difficult to manage. She did very well on both the plane trips, as always. We just could not get her enough sleep during the trip. Even when we were on the road and she slept almost the entire time in the car, this was not enough sleep. So she was no fun to be around at all by the time we got to Florence, and she took out most of her anger on Adam, yelling at him constantly. We muddled through, and we had some great moments in Florence, but most of  our time there was not enjoyable. Maybe that is partially why I liked Rome better.

On the other hand, a lot of things went well. We had almost perfect weather. It was sunny and in the 70′s for most of the trip, with just a bit of rain here and there which did not affect our plans. All of our reservations were honored and we didn’t have any big hassles getting our hotels or other technicalities. Things went as smoothly as can be expected when you’re roaming about in a foreign country. We only missed two big things on my agenda: St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the Duomo in Florence. We chose to skip both because there was no way to get around the long lines, and I can’t regret those decisions. Waiting in lines was out of the question. But otherwise, we saw everything and did everything we wanted to, including quite a few unexpected gems.

And it was immensely gratifying to see that, despite her exhaustion, Sammy loved the trip. She was very sad to come home, and is already planning what she’ll do when she returns. Having her with us made the whole experience richer for us as well. And I think, when you read my detailed reports, you’ll enjoy seeing Italy from her perspective as well.

Well, I promised to keep writing updates about my planning for our Italy trip in April and I haven’t done that.  Mostly, I haven’t reported because I didn’t do much planning for a long time.

Everything is turning out to be more expensive than I had estimated.  That’s ok. This is an expensive trip and the extra 10% or so isn’t going to get me down.  I can’t say that this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip because I do think we’ll be able to travel like this again someday, but it will be a long way off.  So if I spread out the cost over, say, 10 or 15 years, it’s actually quite a bargain!  But the extra cost threw me for a loop when choosing the hotels and I got stumped.  I had a price-point in mind but I just wasn’t finding what I wanted.  Eventually, I figured out that I just needed to spend a bit more, and that solved that problem.

But by the time I got over that, the hotels started filling up.  This was in December, for a trip in April!  I was shocked.  So I also had to modify my expectations on that front too.  I could no longer just pick the one hotel that I wanted and assume I would get it.

Another problem I had was that my method of choosing a hotel required me to sit at my computer and compare my options all in one go.  It’s one of those tasks that required me to have a big block of time to work with.  Not easy when you have fractured time.  Every time I did a little piece of research and had to stop and do something else, the effort was lost.  I needed to retain the options in my head and  compare them while they were fresh.  Finding that block of time was a big challenge, especially when most of my Sam-free time was being used for the baby-making project.  But finally, I found a day with some time and I booked the hotels for Rome and Florence.  Whew!  Both of them are in great locations, but they’re just above what I’d call “budget” hotels.  I don’t think the hotels will be very important in the big cities.  I looked primarily at location, comfortable beds, on-site management, and private bathrooms.  All we need is a stress-free place to hole up for a nap or for the night.

Oh, and booking the flight was a nightmare.  I had checked flights early on and there seemed to be plenty of options, but when I went back a month later (in early December!) all the flights were very inconvenient.  Some of them had 12 hour layovers.  I used search engines but they all gave me the same bad news.  Then I started searching individual airlines’ web sites to see if I could get lucky.  Finally, I did get lucky with KLM.  I found the perfect flight.  I tried to book it and my goddamn credit card blocked the transaction because their algorithm said that it might be fraudulent.  So I tried another card.  That one had a block on it too because Adam bought my Christmas present on it that morning and THAT was flagged as potentially fraudulent!  Finally, I got a card that I knew should work, but the KLM web site would not take it.  Somewhere in there, the KLM web site returned a message saying that the flight I had chosen was no longer available.  I actually cried at that point.  But I tried again, while also calling on the phone.  It turned out that there were more seats on the flight, but that it still wouldn’t take my credit card.  When I got someone on the phone, they could not find that the flight even existed.  At this point, I had been working on this for about two hours and I had to go pick up Sam from school in just a few minutes.  But while I was talking to a rep on the phone, I clicked “book this flight” again on the web site and for some reason, it went through!  I still have no idea what was going on there, but the whole thing was so stressful.  I think I was on the hormones at that point too, which probably made it seem worse than it really was.

Then, I still had the road trip to plan for.  I needed two more hotels and all I knew was a general driving route we would take between the two cities.  I have a friend from Perugia who helped me figure this part out.  We’re going to stay one night in a real castle just outside Gubbio, and one night in Volterra.  I picked places that seemed restful and had access to some of the areas we want to explore by car.  I am so excited about this part of the trip.  I just hope the weather is not too bad.  April can be very rainy.

I reserved a rental car but I’m not totally confident I did it the smart way.  I need to review my guidebooks and make sure I made good choices.  Damn, that little VW Golf is expensive, too!  With the exception of the hotel near Gubbio, the car is the only thing that I didn’t have to pay in advance for, so at least I can try to change that if necessary.

And now, I need to book the museums that require advance reservations.  I hope I haven’t missed the time window for that, but I suppose if we miss something, it won’t be the end of the world.  Our list of  things to see and do is huge and we’ll probably not get to it all anyway.

Overall, the planning has not been as fun as I had hoped.  It’s been a lot of really difficult, stressful work.  But I am determined not to make that mistake with the actual trip itself.  We are not going to try to do too much.  We are not going to stress out about whether a meal costs a few extra Euros.  We are NOT going to overpack.  And, after making this mistake way too many times, this time we will be sure to make time for naps.

Despite the spotting scare, cold weather, pregnancy fatigue, and a cranky Sam, we had a pretty good trip to New York.  We did a lot more than I had expected.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and it was not raining or snowing, so we checked into our tiny hotel room, examined the room for bed bugs, unpacked, and then hit the town.  We decided to go to FAO Schwarz, which we skipped last time because of the holiday crowds.  We took the subway and ended up right at the horse-drawn carriages outside Central Park.  We had missed that last time, too, for the same reason, so we took the opportunity.  Of course, Sam loved it.  Central Park looks strange all covered in snow.  In fact, all of New York looked strange to me.  Walking was a big hassle because of the puddles and slush everywhere.  But the carriage ride was a really nice way to begin the trip.  Afterwards, we got a hot dog from a street vendor, always one of my favorite things to do.

FAO Schwarz was okay, but not as grand as I had remembered it from when I visited as a child.  Sam loved the Big Piano, but I don’t remember much else that wowed her.  We told her she could buy one thing and I was hoping she’d pick out something new and interesting, but she wasn’t drawn to anything in particular so we ended up getting her a Fancy Nancy book.  Somehow, we’ve raised a four-year-old who is completely oblivious to the idea of shopping and buying toys.  She had a real hard time making a list of things she wanted for Christmas, too.  Maybe we don’t let her watch enough commercials.

We had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, which was so-so, and then called it a day.  We had to do my progesterone injections twice a day in that tiny hotel room, which was a challenge, but not really all that big of a deal.  I’m just glad we took the train and didn’t have to carry all those needles on an airplane.  I suppose we would have had to put them in a checked bag, and that would have been very scary.  A lost bag could have meant a lost pregnancy.

The next morning, I discovered that our hotel was committing borderline fraud by claiming that the room had a shower.  I suppose it’s common in Manhattan, but there was just no water pressure at all on the twelfth floor.  Lesson learned: from now on, request a room on a lower floor.

We had a date with Mary Poppins at 2pm, so we decided to hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the morning, have lunch there, and then head back to Broadway.  We took the subway, but ended up having to walk a long way to get to the Met.  Adam and I took turns carrying Sam for parts of the walk.  I discovered the spotting when we arrived.  Maybe it was all the walking, but I don’t really think so.  Regardless, the rest of the day is kind of vague to me, since all I could think about was the next trip to the bathroom.  I liked the Met, but we didn’t stay long.  The building itself was pleasant, and we enjoyed another view of snow-covered Central Park through the floor to ceiling windows.

I also completely accidentally came across a sculpture called The Sun Vow, which is featured in Luc Travers’ book, Touching the Art.  After reading his book, this sculpture has a very personal meaning to me, and it was a thrill and a joy to stumble upon it and get to see the real thing instead of just photos.  Unfortunately, most of the paintings we wanted to see were packed away in rows of glass display cases, while the gallery was being renovated.  I can’t wait to go back again in the future to see more.

We decided to take a cab to get back to Broadway, since I was trying to take it easy.  For Sam, we used the Ride Safer Travel Vest I mentioned before.  We strapped it on her, then buckled her into the cab.  It’s not the easiest thing to do, especially over a winter coat, but it really didn’t take that long, and it’s simple enough so that we felt very comfortable that we had hooked it up right and Sam was safe.  We ended up using the vest about four times on the trip, and even Adam, who was skeptical about it being worth the cost of $120, was convinced that it was a great investment.  (We even used the vest again this past weekend at home, to allow Sam to ride in the rental car her grandparents were driving on their visit.  It was much easier than putting one of her car seats in their car.)

Samantha loved Mary Poppins, and I think Adam did too.  I thought they did a really good job with it, but I’m just not much of a Mary Poppins fan, so it didn’t thrill me.  Also, I was tense about not being able to go to the bathroom for an hour and a half at a time.  But still, if you have kids, I would definitely recommend the show.  The singing and dancing were wonderful, and it was visually beautiful without being over-the-top flashy like I suspect some other shows are.  My favorite part was when the statues in the park came to life and danced.

After that, there was just time for dinner, which we had an an Irish pub near our hotel.  It was quite good, but that ended up being the best restaurant of the trip, unfortunately.

All we had planned for the next day, Sunday, was lunch with Harry Binswanger and Jean Moroney, so we decided to rest in the morning and do the Statue of Liberty in the afternoon.  The weather was nice (sunny with a high of 34), so this was our chance, and we all really wanted to see it.

Lunch with the Binswangers was a highlight of the trip for me.  We just had a really nice conversation, and they gave me some ideas for a project I’m working on.  Sam got to meet their two cats, and anything that involves cats is a hit with Sam.

Afterwards, we took a cab to Battery Park and braved the cold on the ferry to Liberty Island.  Before we got on, though, we had to upgrade our winter gear, so Sam got a pair of gloves in the official color of New York, black, and I got a tacky touristy knit hat with “I heart NY” on it.  Adam acted embarrassed, but I loved wearing it.  What’s wrong with being a tourist?

The boat ride wasn’t bad because we were in a completely enclosed area and there was even heat.  We watched Lady Liberty grow larger and larger in the windows.  Sam said, “Wow, she is humongous!”  Adam said, “She sure is. And so is the idea that she represents.”  I told Sam the four-year-old version of the meaning of the statue.  I told her that, a long time ago, no matter where you lived in the world, you were bossed around.  No matter where you went, there was somebody telling you what to do.  You were not free.  But then people came to our country and made it a place where nobody was allowed to boss anyone else around.  We are all free to do what we want here.  And the news spread all over the world, and lots of people started to come here, because nobody likes to be bossed around.  And another country thought we were so great that they gave us this statue to celebrate the fact that we have freedom.  And that’s what “liberty” means – freedom.  So she is called the Statue of Liberty.

We walked all the way around Liberty Island and bought a cheap replica of the statue in the gift shop, and then we were ready to head back.  It was really cold.  I got a few good pictures of the Manhattan skyline, but downtown still makes me sad.  We did see the beginnings of Freedom Tower.  I think it’s about halfway done.  I hope that it will raise the skyline once again.

Before we got a cab, we picked up a couple of hot dogs and fed the buns to the pigeons.  Of course, the pigeons were another hit with Sam.  Adam, having lived in New York, just sees them as flying rats, but I don’t mind them.  At least, I didn’t, until they started swooping down over my head from behind, trying to grab the hot dog right out of my hands!  They actually bumped into my head as they made their passes.  It was annoying, but also kind of cool.

We had a disaster of a dinner that night.  I need to get on Yelp and trash that place.

The next day was Adam’s workshop, so he hung out with us in the morning but then was gone for most of the day.  Sam and I went to Toys-R-Us in Times Square.  I think it’s even better than FAO Schwarz.  It has a real Ferris Wheel inside the store!  Sam loved that.  She was too scared to get a hug from Geoffrey the Giraffe, but I could see that she was less terrified of the enormous animal that she used to be of things like that.  We spent about an hour browsing, and Sam’s favorite toy was Thomas the Train.  That’s the second time she’s been drawn to Thomas, but I think it’s just too late to go down that expensive road with her.  What a deprived child.

Despite the cold weather, we had ice cream in the store before heading out.  We walked the fourteen blocks back to the hotel, stopping for more hot dogs for lunch on the way.  Sam griped about the walking on this trip a lot more than last time.  I think she’s gotten lazy.  But she did it.  It helped to count down the blocks left to go:  ten, nine, eight…  Sam is very much into numbers right now.

When we got back, Sam had her first nap of the trip.  She was really getting cranky by this point, and we had no plans for the rest of the day, so things started degenerating from there on out.  She and I had dinner at the Irish pub again, but otherwise we were stuck in the hotel room since we had no energy for much else.  The room was so small that TV was really the only option.  My iPad was useless for movies because of the insanely stupid iTunes movie rental system, where you have to download the movie on to your regular computer, then transfer it to your iPad (which all takes quite a long time), and then you get a rented movie for 30 days, but only 24 hours after your hit “play” for the first time.  So I only had time to put one movie on the thing, and it was only available for the train ride there.  I’m really not much of a fan of the iPad.  My Droid is better in every way, except, of course, it’s only got the tiny phone screen.

So anyway, the next day, we woke up too late and were too tired to do anything, and our train was departing at 2pm, so we were stuck in the hotel room again.  By this time, Sam was done, and she was being a complete bitch to both of us, constantly.  It was really quite unbearable.  She couldn’t take a sip of water without spilling the whole bottle, she wouldn’t eat much, and she wouldn’t cooperate.  I ended up really yelling at her, twice.  I later apologized, but even now, I only half-regret it.  It shocked her into tears, which stopped the yelling for a while, and even made her complacent enough to walk alongside me, holding my hand.  I’m not sure if we could have gotten to the train station any other way.

We also resorted to punishment during this trip.  Sam had actually been bitchy to us for most of the trip, just not as bad as that last day.  There was no escaping her, since we were all stuck together in the tiny hotel room.  At home, if she can’t stop herself from screaming at us, she gets sent to her room, or we lock ourselves in our own room.  She can scream all she wants as long as it’s not hurting anyone else.  But here, there was no way to get away from her, and she was literally hurting our ears with the volume of her screams, besides just making us insane with irritation.  So we started taking away TV time.  We couldn’t take it away for the trip or we would be stuck with even less to entertain her, so we took away time when we returned home.  She ended up losing five days of TV.  I don’t think that punishment had any effect on her behavior at all, but again, even after the fact, I can’t think of a single thing we could have done to improve the situation.  More naps would have helped, but here’s what we would have missed: the carriage ride, FAO Schwartz, Mary Poppins, and the Statue of Liberty.  I suppose if we could get our asses out of bed earlier, we could do things in the morning, have time for a short nap, and then do things in the afternoon, but we don’t seem to be capable of that.  It’s easier in the summer, when days are longer.  But a nap from 1-3pm rules out almost any afternoon activity during the winter.

But in the end, it was all worth it.  It was a good trip, and we did a lot of the things that we missed last time.  The first morning at the hotel, Sam’s first words upon awakening were “I love New York.”  And when we got home, one of the first things she said was, “I want to go back.”  Me too, Sam.

We’re off to New York tomorrow.  Compared to last year, I’ve done almost no planning.  We’ll see Mary Poppins and have lunch with friends, but that’s all I have on the agenda so far.  I really wanted to take Sammy to see the Statue of Liberty, but I think it will be too cold.  Somewhere in my electronic world, I have the list of things to do with kids in New York that you all helped me with last year.  Maybe I’ll find time tonight to do a little planning.

We’ll be testing a couple of new pieces of technology on this trip.  First, my iPad. I usually just rely on my phone and Adam’s laptop.  I haven’t figured out too many uses for the iPad yet, but I think travel will be a good one.  I’m downloading my first movie as I write this – Tinker Bell – something for Sam to watch on the train.

Also, we bought one of these travel vests for Sam:

It’s a vest that a child can wear and strap in using a regular seat belt, instead of using a car seat.  I don’t see any other way to take taxis in New York with a child.  It’s not possible to lug a car seat around all day just in case you take that 5 minute cab ride back to the hotel when you’re too lazy to take the subway.  This vest is small enough to put in a backpack, and it’s supposed to be pretty effective for safety.  It will certainly be safer than what we did last time: putting an arm across Sam to keep her from sliding off the seat where she sat, unbuckled, untethered, and squirming like crazy.  The big question about the vest is: will she wear it?  I’ll report back next week.

If this trip is half as good as our last trip to New York with Sam, it will be a fine time, indeed.

As I’ve mentioned before, my parents are full-time RVers.  They sold their house about five years ago and they travel around the country (and beyond) at will.  Sometimes they take jobs.  Three years ago they spent the winter working at Disneyworld, which they loved.  This fall/winter, they are working for Amazon.com, helping with the seasonal rush.

They just sent me a link to an article in USA Today which characterizes these seasonal workers as desperate – just more evidence of the terrible economy, with the implicit message that SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT THIS!  But my parents claim that the vast majority of the workers at their RV camp in Campbellsville, Kentucky, are not in dire financial condition.  Their observations are anecdotal, but so are those of the journalist.

My parents actually are there for the money – they’re saving up for a trip to Europe.  But, as they also point out, “many of us wanted to experience work as a change of pace.  After all, our lifestyle is a continuous vacation.”

Desperate?  Not.

Besides the new deck and trying to make a baby using an egg-donor, my biggest project is planning our spring trip to Italy.  I’ve always enjoyed the process of planning a vacation, and this one is especially exciting.

The first thing I had to do was to get a new passport. I lost all of my important papers, including my birth certificate and passport, during the Great Moves of 2007-2008.  I was very worried when I read on the Los Angeles County web site that it might take up to 14 weeks to get a certified copy of my birth certificate, but they got it to me in just one week. The passport was fast, too. Huge sigh of relief!

I also double-checked Sam’s passport.  She went to Mexico when she was three months old so this is all old-hat for her.  I’m glad I checked because a minor’s passport is only valid for five years.  We’ll need to renew next year. Put that in the tickler file now!

Next, I asked Facebook to help.  I got lots of advice, and I compiled it all into a Word document (thanks, friends!).  I also asked a couple of real, live friends who gave me invaluable advice.  Based on all of that, we decided to stick with two cities for a ten day trip: Rome and Florence.  We’ll also spend at least one night on the road in between, exploring the Tuscan (or maybe Umbrian) countryside via automobile.  I’m as excited about that part as I am about the big cities.

Now we need to book accommodations and flights. A quick search on Expedia told me that there are plenty of good flight options, so I started researching hotels and inns, figuring that availability might affect when we fly.  But then I realized that I needed some good maps and guidebooks before I could figure it all out.  Today I received Rick Steves’ Rome, Florence & Tuscany, and Italy guidebooks, plus Streetwise maps of Rome and Florence. (I love those Streetwise maps for the US, so I’m hoping they will be reliable overseas.)

The first thing I did was open the Rome guidebook to the chapter on “Rome with Children.”  It begins:

Sorry, but Rome is not a great place for little kids. Parks are rare. Kid-friendly parks are rarer. Most of the museums are low-tech and lack hands-on fun.

The good news for kids? Pizza and gelato.

As much as I like Rick Steves, this was a little bit offensive to me. Does he have kids? Or is my kid weird? My kid goes to parks and eats ice cream all the time. I’m confident that she will be utterly fascinated with just strolling the streets, and even with the art. Sure, we can’t count on spending four hours straight at the Vatican Museum, but I can’t believe that any of us will be jonesing for a playground.

Here is the first sentence in the next paragraph:

Rome’s many squares are traffic-free, with plenty of space to run and pigeons to feed while Mom and Dad enjoy coffee at an outdoor table.

Sounds like a heavenly break from sightseeing to me. Actually, it sounds like New York without the cars. And Sam absolutely loved New York, including the walking, the subway, the buildings, and just being in a new, totally foreign environment.  Oh, and yes, especially the pigeons.

Anyway, we’ll get into the sightseeing planning later.  Now we want to focus on getting inexpensive hotels in good locations for both cities – ones with private bathrooms and elevators and air conditioning, and maybe, if we’re lucky, a little bit of ambiance. But really, we just want a comfortable place to sleep and watch videos and rest. I think we’re going to try to hit Rome first because it will be hectic, then have a lazy day or two getting up to Florence, where I’m thinking the pace will be a bit slower.

Like I said, I love planning. I love trying to figure out all of these little details to make the trip as great as possible.  Planning doesn’t mean scheduling every little thing, but it does mean being prepared.

Next up, I’ll start working through Rick Steves’ Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary, which has been sitting hopefully on my bookshelf for eight years.