Roma

Rome already seems like a long time ago, but I wanted to share some of the experiences we had there ~ it is such an amazing city ~ so much history, art, architecture.....we were blessed to have 2 1/2 weeks there and we enjoyed every minute.

We rented an apartment in the northern part of Rome.  The location was great because we were near a major square (pictures below) so public transportation was close.  The area's famous "shopping triangle" provided great stores and restaurants, and the huge public park I mentioned in a previous post, Villa Borghese, was close.  This is the boys at the front doors of the building and in front of the quirky tiny elevator we crammed into to get to our 5th floor apartment.  Often the boys liked to race it by taking the stairs and they usually won.

The treasure of our apartment was the terrace ~ we had space to be outside and enjoy the sunshine.  We enjoyed quite a few simple dinners of tomatoes, parmagiana, bread and olive oil out there.

This is a view from our terrace toward the River Tiber ~ it was only about a block away.  You can see the bridge at the top of the picture.

This is a picture taken one day when we crossed the river to go to a grocery store.  

There was a lot of traffic on the river ~ some kayaks, but mostly rowers.

This is the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo ~ the major square near our apartment.  I was so amazed by everything I saw when we first arrived, and I wondered if the people who lived there still noticed the wonders around them or whether they just become part of the scenery.  I got a little taste of it for myself.  The first time we went through this square, I took tons of pictures but by the end of our time, we really were just walking through and barely looking around ~ it kind of did just become part of the background, if that makes sense.  I had to remind myself to keep taking it in each time.

Believe it or not, there were 4 churches on Piazza del Popolo.  We realized on one of the last days that we had never gone into the one on our end of the square.  We went in and there were TWO Carravagios in it!!  He is one of Italy's most famous artists and we just wandered in off the street and saw two of his works.  That is how prevalent amazing pieces of art and history are in Rome.

Some other interesting things in our neighborhood ~ space is scarce so the gas stations are right up at the curb.  For some reason, this always caught our eye.  We realized that in America, right or wrong, we take up a lot more SPACE.

While there are plenty of tiny cars in Rome, scooters seem to be the vehicle of choice.  Ben has decided he needs to invest in whoever makes "Vespas".  I doubt this trend is going away.

The flowers of Rome were just blooming when we were there.  We saw a lot of wisteria ~ it looked and smelled beautiful!

In Virginia, we called these trees redbuds ~ not sure what they call them here, but this one was the biggest one I have ever seen!

The boys got a kick out of this Michael Jackson imitator who entertained in Piazza del Popolo ~ he was really good!

This was taken at the boys' favorite gelato place called Della Palma ~ I think they had at least 100 flavors!

This was one of MY favorite places for gelato ~ GROM.  We have found them in several cities and always stop.  My favorite is caramel and coffee.

There are beautiful flower markets everywhere.  

Chris surprised me one morning with these beauties ~ my favorites!

This was an entire market stall of dried tomatoes ~ where else would you find THIS!!

There is also street art everywhere.

Hopefully this gives you a taste of what Rome is like.  I hope to do several posts about it.

Ciao!