The Vatican

We were excited to make it into the Vatican Museum.   Our metro had a busker on it this time who, along with playing his pipes and guitar sang in Spanish.  I was surprised at how much I appreciated hearing him sing in Spanish, it was such a relief to be able to understand at least a little bit.  After the metro ride we took the 10 minute walk to the museum entrance only to find out that for some reason it was closed that day.  So we consoled ourselves with some gelato and made our way over to the Priscilla catacombs instead.  

The catacombs date back to about 200 AD and are fascinating.  We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, just this one (above) outside the entrance, but there were over 10km of tunnels 3 levels deep underground and stacked floor to ceiling with graves.  Some of the wealthier families had a fancier set up.  Sometimes it even included paintings in a little underground chapel type setting.  Down there our guide showed us the oldest know depiction of the Madonna, a painting above a tomb of the Mother Mary and the Christ Child from about 237 AD.  

The next day we tried the Vatican again.  Success!  We got the kid audio guide for the kids.  Success! It was extremely engaging and walked us right through the whole museum.  They loved hearing all the insight and info in English.  

More from Max on these statues later, but the one he's standing by was struck by lighting so they thought it was good luck.  Also, one of the popes had a the idea that many of the statues should be a little more modest and put artist to work adding leaves to all sorts of works of art.

Jonah gaining a little art appreciation.  "Dad, THAT is a BIG toe!"

How Bernini constructed an Angel.

It's a real mummy!  Fingernails and the whole bit!  Meanwhile outside it was gorgeous!  I liked how they opened up many of the windows in throughout the museum to let in the fresh air.

I have a special place in my heart for
mosaics and Max, both incredible!

Done with the Vatican looking back towards  St. Peter's Basilica.

Hooray!  a little room to RUN!

After the museums we headed over to St Peter's Basilica.  Tessa had done a research report on Michelangelo as we prepared for our time in Italy and couldn't wait to see the Pieta.  It does not disappoint.  It is breathtaking!  The kids also enjoyed rubbing St. Peter's big toe, it's supposed to bring good luck, and I can tell you his poor toe has been rubbed smooth.  It is amazing to think of how many people have done little rub after little rub to take his toe from sculptured to indiscernible.  

Michaelangelo was only 24 years old when
he sculpted this and it took him less than 2
years.  Gifted.  

Peter and his lucky toe.

Eli looks at the menu every time, but he always
chooses Spaghetti.  

Day Trips

NOTE TO THE READER:  I am aware that writing in real time is the most effective.  I am behind on  my blog post, however, so Aaron has graciously volunteered to help me catch up.  Later on I will go back and add the kids journal entries, ect.  But for now we are going to post as much as we can so we can do our next travels into the more exotic as timely as our internet connection will allow.

We managed to find a Water Buffalo Dairy with an adjoining Mozzarella Cheese Factory to tour outside of Napoli, Italy.  The family has had the operation since after WWII.  It was so interesting to see all there is to see about water buffalo.  The owner of the dairy was so kind to take time with our family and show us around the operation.  Kari had a special connection with her roots here.  As you can see, the farm was going to be a mess, so they were kind enough to get us plastic bags to protect our shoes.

Here is the milk production comparison between a dairy cow, a water buffalo, and a lactating human.  As you can see, the water buffalo produces much less milk, but has a higher fat content in their milk, so they are perfectly suited for cheese production.  It is obvious that a lactating human is just way behind on production in comparison.

These beauties are bovine through and through.  They have covered areas to keep them cool in the hot Italian sun as well.  This is a special breed of "Mediterranean" water buffalo that has been bred to thrive in this region.

We were fascinated to see that each pen has a pool of water that is constructed for the buffalo's comfort.  The water buffalo has no way to sweat, so they use the water to keep their temperature in check.  The pools have sprinklers that spray over them so all the buffalo can be cooled.  They were quite curious creatures and we enjoyed getting close to them with a handful of delicious grass.

What is a dairy without baby calves.  They were very cute and very friendly.  Several of our children go their fingers sucked by these little ones.  No one enjoys this as much as Maggie though.  She clearly had a special place in her heart for all animals.

Here is a picture our wonderful host, Manuela.  She was so kind and at the end of the tour she not only didn't charge us, but she also gave us a free water buffalo calendar, a ton of mozzarella and a CD!  You can see her house in the background that was built in the 1600s.

Here is a picture of our mozzarella braid that Manuela gave us.  They normally just sell it in balls, but for her family, they always braid it because it soaks up the salts more and tastes better.  It was very kind of her, and it was almost a crime to cut into it to try the mozzarella, but we had to because it was so good.

Day trip to the around the little town of Genazzano. This is the gate into the city.  We have been fascinated by all of these little walled cities that are all over Italy.  They were obviously built and planned out without cars in mind.  We wound ourselves through the quaint little mid evil streets for an afternoon.

At the edge of the town was a much needed park to play in.  The European cities have been filled with so much concrete that our children enjoyed running, and playing in the grass for a bit.  We played red light green light, tag, hide and seek, fox and squirrels, any game we could think of and we were so grateful for the room to run. 

I think Tessa won this game and is happy to be crowned victorious                                            

Goofy kids in a small apartment

The local church walkway in the little town we were staying in called Castel Madama.  This is also a picture of the town square in Castel Madama.  Each day we would go to the local produce vendor, butcher shop, and sweets shop.  It was so much fun to deal with the local vendors.  Everything was so fresh and the people were so friendly.  Nothing we bought to eat came out of a box or can.  Yum!

The local church was not easy to find because it was tucked away in a commercial building, but we found the ward to be very fun.  The ward was full of faithful saints from Italy and Africa.  Many languages were spoken throughout the ward, so translation services were available for those who needed them, namely, us.

Ugo and Jenna Perego and their 5 children were some of the friends we made while we were in Italy.  They were kind enough to invite us over for dinner, and we all had such a good time.  Our children got to play with other english speaking children, build with legos, and even break a pinata.  It was hard to get them to leave that night.  The Peregos were a sweet blessing our family was in need of.   Ugo is Italian and Jenna is American, and they lived in the USA for quite a long while.  An opportunity opened up for them in Rome, so they moved their family over there, and all of the children have had to learn Italian and adjust.  What a brave and talented family they are.

Outside of Tivoli, we decided to take a hike into the Roman countryside.  The trail was long, but the views were great.  We really enjoyed breathing the fresh air and getting out of the city.  The following pictures show some the things we saw.

Here is the Rome temple as of February 2016.  It has been in construction for 6 years or so.  We have heard lots of rumors of the building complications they have had, and who knows which are true, but needless to say, it is still in construction.

Palentine Hill and the Colosseum

It took us a little while to make it to Rome's most famous sight, the Colosseum.  This incredible structure towers over 150 feet into the sky, covers more than six acres, and held and estimated 50,000 to 80,000 people.  The Roman's built all this in only eight years, from 72 AD to 80 AD.  Impressive!

We had a bright but blustery day and although we enjoyed the sunshine, the wind had a cutting chill.  Per Rick Steves recommendation we walked past the long line to enter the Colosseum and started our explorations with the non existent ticket line into Palentine Hill.  This is the area just northeast of the Colosseum where the palace of Caesar was.  Shops and other dwellings also filled this upper crust center of Ancient Rome. The kids had the most fun playing with giant pinecones, peeling bark off the trees, and climbing up to pick wild oranges (which tasted awful).  We also found a hot chocolate machine to warm us up.

Maggie, "When we went to Palentine Hill it was really cold.  Dad got us hot chocolate from a machine conveniently located by the water fountain.  We got 1 cup and it was SO good!  I think we are getting less selfish because we all waited our turn for a sip patiently.  It was American hot cocoa and tasted SO good.  Then we saw an orange tree and I climbed it to get 2 oranges.  The tree had thorns kind of, but it was fun."

A view from the ruins of Palentine Hill, the Colosseum in the
background.  You can see it was super bright and blustery.

The Arch of Titus was built to commemorate Titus's victories including the siege age Jerusalem in 70 AD.   The inside of the arch depicts many of the spoils taken from Jerusalem including the menorah, the table of shew bread and other Jewish treasures.  It also was very inspirational to other arches that followed, like the Arc de Triumph in Paris.  

Unfortunately by the time we wandered our way in and then back through the maze of Palentine Hill, we missed getting into the Colosseum by about 5 minutes.  They were closing early because of the the slow season and we didn't know.  Fortunately our tickets were good for two days.  So we decided to take our newly opened afternoon and catch some more piazzas.

Looking out towards the Roman Forum.

And back towards the Colosseum from the
west end of the Forum.

We thought we would try a highly rated piazza not too far from where we were.  The walk to the Piazza Venezia was quintessential Roman.  We found these buskers playing a trio of accordion music along a sprawling sidewalk with a barrage of ruins and really old apartments behind.  We love the buskers!  Their music fills the street with life.  We listened to the guys above for at least ten minutes.  They loved to see the kids enjoying their lively tunes, and were more than happy for us to squeeze in between them for a photo.
The piazza itself was really just a giant traffic circle but it was in front of the Victor Emmanuel Monument, which is an impressive structure with giant winged chariot riders on both ends.

A little down time in front of the Victor Emmanuel Monument.

In Rome they have public water fountains all over.  They are cleverly disguised as nonchalant streams of water erupting from the sides of buildings, so at first we didn't realize their use.  As soon as we found out that the water above the moss filth was good to drink we took full advantage.
We found a couple water fountains that kept us going along the way back to our favorite Piazza Navona.  We photo opted with a few buskers, listened to some music, and then grabbed some classic Italian.  All in all our little legs walked about 7 km and by the end we needed some sugar to motivate us to make it all the way back to the metro.   Luckily there was a treat shop called  Giolitti's that fit the bill quite nicely.

I post this picture just so I can remember
this boy's laugh.  He is SO fun!

Fancy Italian treats, YUM!

Max, "On our walk to the metro station we got a treat.  I got a ball with a ton of sprinkles.  It was brown, but tasted bitter/sour for some reason.  After getting off the metro we sleepily went into our car and when we got there we fell asleep almost instantly.  We had a good day."

Because it was a consecutive two day ticket, we had to head back into Rome and actually get inside the Colosseum the next day.  

Max, "When we got there it had grown into a fine sunny day.  We went to the Colleseum and the line was a mile long, but we quickly passed through security in the "already has tickets" line.  First we navigated towards the floor which had disappeared revealing tunnels where animals were kept.  Elevators lifted props, beasts, or fighters up to the stage.  Then we went up to the second floor to see seats and columns.  We could see the ancient steps, artifacts, and coins that the Romans used in warfare in a ring.  Photographs of the first graffiti, (which told of gladiators fighting with leopards and tigers) and saw the ancient stadium.  After we went home, got popcorn and did a movie.  It was an exceptional day!"

Looking down into the tunnels and cages that would have
been under the floor of the arena.

Taking a break on one of the massive pillar remnants.

Tessa, "We went around climbing rocks and riding pillars.  I loved it and wondered what it was like watching one fight."
February 4 and 5, 2016