Family Overseas Adventures: Roman Spring Break

Before moving we each identified places we'd like to visit in Europe. Zoe picked Italy – and given the chance to go somewhere we knew the kids would not complain about the food, we jumped...

Rome – a short 3 hour flight away – WOW – yet another fabulous city (I’m starting to wonder if I was harder to impress in my 20s or if my bar has gotten lower……) The things that really struck us:

Good First Impressions: In the taxi from the airport, the kids shared their initial POVs:

· Zoe: “It’s more pretty-er than Kyiv”
· Xavier: “More green”
· Quincy: “I think the food will be yummy’ier”

Ancient buildings galore: in addition to the explicit sites we headed to – like the Coliseum…..

(I guess no one is exempt from modernization - the ancient Coliseum rented iPods as video / audio guides!)

….cool, old buildings were around almost every corner.

(Zoe was particularly impressed with the angel carvings in this church - giving it her highest ranking of a double thumbs up)

Tiny streets, tiny cars: I’ve never seen so many micro cars. Tiny Smart cars and motorcycles are the norm (apparently given all of the taxes gas is ~$10/gallon!).

And even tho you aren’t even allowed to drive in the city center unless you are a resident, it’s still jam packed!

Crazy full of tourists: Even after working in San Francisco’s Ghiradelli Square, I’ve never seen so many tourists. Walking around with a map out may make you feel like an asshole in most cities, but in Rome, you fit right in..

And if you can't beat 'em, join 'em we said - and hopped on the double decker tourist bus!

(We thought what a smart way to avoid dragging tired, whining kids all over Rome. Turns out, the kids cried they wanted to walk that day!)

Silly Pizza & Gelato: I guess predictable, but the abundance of gelato and pizza places was fantastic insanity. It was no effort at all to live up to our objectives of pizza and gelato everyday