Nana and Grandad arrive!

Friday 20th June 2014

Blog post by the mother (albeit a week or so in arrears)

The arrival of the grandparents in Rome this afternoon has been much anticipated.  In order to stop the children asking every five minutes "When are we going to see Nana and Grandad?", we thought we would keep them busy sightseeing for the morning. Across the muddy old Tiber we went and caught the number 8 tram up to the Capitoline Hill. 

View from the Ponte Garibaldi looking towards the Vatican city.

At the tram terminus is the incredible monument to Victor Emmanuel II constructed to celebrate the unity of Italy.

Tucked down a side street to the right of the monument is the oldest surviving apartment block in Rome.  We had some great conversations about what it must have been like to have lived in Ancient Rome and how different it would have been to the current day.

The chapel in the old apartment building.

Miss 7 and Miss 9 were particularly taken with the cordonata (wide stairs) that Michelangelo designed so that horses could be riden up them to the piazza.  From the Capitoline museums there were also great views down onto the Forum so we could see what we had missed out on due to the strike. 

After a brief stop to do some clothes shopping for Mr 14 we caught the bus to the Spanish Steps.  Unfortunately the church at the top of the steps is completely covered in scaffolding so we couldn't appreciate the beauty of the exterior.
What we did discover at the top of the steps however were several artists who draw caricatures and portraits.  Before we left NZ Miss 9 had a wishlist of things to do in Europe which included having her portrait drawn in Paris.  We didn't manage to find any portrait artists in Paris so Rome seemed like a good second option. We found a delightful Italian man named Augusto who drew a gorgeous portrait of Miss 9.  She is absolutely thrilled with it.

We walked down the steps (note the carefully positioned photo to avoid all the scaffolding in the background!) and then broke our McDonalds rule again.  To be fair, this time we were in need of their facilities and the lure of their air conditioning and 1 euro milkshakes proved to be too much for us!

After our McD's recharge we headed off in search of the Trevi Fountain.  Would you believe it!  Again with the scaffolding!!  I seriously think that the Italians should consider staggering the work on their monuments so that not every one is covered in scaffolding at the same time.  We still threw our coins into the empty fountain - I don't think we hit any of the workers - so according to legend we should now all return to Rome again in the future.

On the way to see the Pantheon Miss 7 spotted a toyshop full of wooden toys and couldn't resist the Pinocchio photo op'.

Hooray!  The Pantheon was not covered in scaffolding and we really enjoyed looking at this almost 2000 year old building.

 We were all fascinated by the opening or 'oculus' in the centre of the dome .  The oculus is open and the girls were particularly concerned about what happens to the inside of the Pantheon when it rains.

By this point we were all ready for a rest so it was back on the bus and the tram to the apartment.  After a quick dinner at the apartment we got changed and then headed off to the Vatican Museums to meet Nana and Chugchug.  We were all very happy to meet up and catch up on each others adventures. We had tickets for the evening session at the Vatican Museums from 7pm onwards which made for a lot less people and also less heat than during the day. The kids all had a special treasure hunt audio tour which they used to find specific pieces of art as we walked through the museums.  I think their version of the tour was possibly a lot more interesting than the adult version.

With Nana and Grandad at the start of the Vatican Museum tour

We had one slight mishap in the museum when Mr 11 got separated from the rest of the group.  It seems he thought we were all in front of him and so he just kept going through the galleries and eventually through the Sistine chapel in an effort to find us.  He completed the whole tour in just under 15 minutes.  While he was doing his solo speed tour the rest of us were backtracking, checking bathrooms and starting to have a mild panic.  The guards were very helpful once I was able to get them to understand that I had lost one of my bambini - initially they couldn't work out why I was worried when I clearly still had three bambini with me.  Long story short, Mr 11 eventually found his way back to the group much to his relief and the relief of everyone else.  Needless to say, he stayed pretty close for the rest of the evening.
I enjoyed seeing the Sistine Chapel much more this time round as there were relatively few people and there was plenty of time and space to stop and really enjoy Michelangelo's work.  The kids all enjoyed regaling us with facts from their audio tour about Michelangelo's 'Last Judgement' and finding and pointing out lots of little details from the painting.

The Tooth Fairy - or so we told the girls!

St Peters by night

When we got out of the museums at 10pm we were all in need of gelato so we joined the queue at a place which Nana said had been busy all day.  You know it's a good sign when you are surrounded by locals and not other tourists and the gelato did not disappoint.
Nana and Grandad headed back to their hotel and we went to catch a bus to take us home along the river.  Forty-five minutes later we were still waiting for the bus and trying to work out how to ask for a maxi-taxi in Italian.  Just as we were about to give up entirely the bus arrived and we crammed onto it along with half of Rome.  Finally made it home and had the kids in bed by midnight - it will be a slow start tomorrow morning!