My mom arrived in Rome on Thanksgiving day and met us at the restaurant for dinner. I did a lot of googling beforehand to find a restaurant that would have an American Thanksgiving dinner in Rome, but it was quite challenging. The one option that kept popping up was the Hard Rock Cafe......haha. So, we opted for Pizza and Pasta on Thanksgiving. Nobody was mad about that.
On Friday morning we started walking to explore the Forum and Colosseum. Our apartment was really close to Piazza Navona, so we took a few pictures with Oma. The apartment was a great location.
We got to the Forum before it was too crowded.
We walked around, listened to some street performers and bought some souvenirs.
On the way back we went off the beaten path and just strolled around.
We made another stop at the Pantheon to see it by daylight.
It was pretty crowded around the Pantheon
That night we went to dinner a little early, so that we could then watch the USA vs England World Cup match.
The homemade pasta at this place was really good
Evan was supporting Germany that night with his Jersey
Since Aunt Ashley was going for England the trash talking was getting intense :)
We found a place to sit outdoor on Piazza Navona to watch the game.
Nora lost a tooth and was very happy with the Italian tooth fairy, which brought her 5 Euros
And then I found this gem in my camera roll....
The next morning we let everybody sleep in a little and then started our day walking around again. We had plans for the afternoon, so we took it a little easy in the mornings.
We went inside this beautiful church.
We lit some candles for some special people
We went up the Victor Emmanuel II Monument
We booked a cooking class for the afternoon. I discovered a new to me App called "WithLocals" and found a family friendly cooking class with Massimo. We went to his house and cooked in his kitchen!
Massimo's apartment was on this street
The kids were working on the basil for the pesto here.....
Ashley was roasting the pine nuts...
Eating the Alfredo was everybody's favorite
Massimo had lots of stories and facts and it was a fun experience.
This is his herb "garden"
Massimo recommended a gelato place close to his apartment, so we had to check that out.
The three rules Massimo gave us were:
1. Have to get it in a cone.
2. Have to get whipped cream on top.
3. Walk around with it.
So many options.....tough decisions to make
Some of us did not follow all the rules :)
Regardless the ice cream was delicious
After ice cream it was time for Ashley and Derek to head to the airport....one final group picture
We then met up with my mom again and headed to a Colosseum night tour. Based on the reviews of the tour we knew that the first hour was going to be a little long and boring, but that the second hour was going to be worth it. You can only enter the Colosseum with a tour at night, so it is not crowded at all.
For the first hour of the tour we were on the outside of the Colosseum and learned a lot about the history....
It was getting pretty chilly out, so we were freezing just a little bit.
Then it was time for us to enter. I knew that we needed an ID to enter, but didn't think that the kids would need one as well......so I panicked a little when they asked for the kids ID. Thankfully I had pictures of their passports on my phone and those were sufficient.
With this tour we got to go underground and on the arena floor. It was a great experience!
This was absolutely spectacular!
I have to brag on the kids. They did fantastic again during this 2 1/2 hour tour and never complained. It was long and cold, but they were troopers. They found it very interesting as well, but 2 1/2 hours of facts and history is a lot for anybody :)
After the tour we found a restaurant close to our apartment for a late dinner
This was Oma's last night. She still had most of the day on Sunday, so we did some more walking. The kids did great with all of the walking. We averaged 22k steps a day and there was very minimal complaining.....maybe there was a little bit of bribing with ice cream involved, but that is fair game!
We walked a lot on this day.
We had nothing but blue skies again.
We did a little bit of shopping at H&M and checked out the Lego store
Christmas lights were installed in all the shopping streets
We went by the Spanish steps
I love seeing these two together.....they put their arms around each other all the time
In the park we came across a carousel.....this was a nice little break for the kids.
Even Hannah got on the carousel
We walked to the Quartier Coppede .....it was definitely a little bit of a longer walk than anticipated.
This little district had a completely different feel....
On the walk back we had to come up with some distractions for the kids, because it was a long walk. We realized that we were close to all of the Embassies, so Scott turned it into a "name the country" game.....as soon as we saw a flag for an embassy we all had to guess the country. We even took a little detour to go by the US Embassy.....it is huge!
After saying good bye to Oma we had one last dinner in Rome and watched the Germany soccer game.
The next day we had to head to the airport bright and early.
We landed in New York in the afternoon and spent another night there before flying home.
The jet lag is real at that point, but we needed to stay up, so that we can adjust quicker and not be up in the middle of the night.
Scott found a New York Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden, so we went.....
Evan loves ice hockey! He thinks it is very exciting when they fight.
Nora was also getting into it......
One of us just couldn't hang anymore :)
Hannah was passed out in the midst of a hockey game at Madison Square Garden
At first she wasn't happy that we took selfies with her, but then she thought it was funny too!
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