Rome and the Almafi coast, Part 2

Thursday evening, we took the ICE train back to Rome.  I am so glad we did trains instead of renting a vehicle.  Parking and driving in Italy would have stressed me out!  Plus, the kids got to move around, eat, and use the restroom on the trains.  And bathrooms seemed to be difficult to find in Rome...we did and almost had many accidents...

The Colosseum was packed and the lines were awful.  Do not buy your tickets beforehand. You will still have to wait in a line to collect your ticket and then wait in a line to go into the Colosseum.  Glad we did this first and got it out of the way!  The trick is to have a small child needing to go to the bathroom- then you can just get in for free and skip all the lines!

 Jane at the Colosseum and happy to be out of the carrier.

 Bryan at Palatine Hill.

 Trojan's Column

 Jane happy to be out of the carrier and crawling around the apartment.

Oh no! Another line.  Getting into St. Peters Basilica was not nearly as bad as the Colosseum.  It is unfortunate that security scanners are needed at every major attraction.

 Pieta

 This might be forbidden in the basilica, so I had to document.  I felt like Jane was starving the whole trip!

Climbing up to the top of St. Peters dome.  The stairs just got smaller and smaller.  Kate said we were climbing up Rapunzel's tower.  Everything is related to a princess in her mind these days.

 Views from on top were amazing!

 There might have been limited bathrooms, but the water was plenty in Rome.  My mom warned us not to drink the water.  We did, and nobody got sick.

The Vatican and Sistine Chapel.  The little ones feel asleep before we entered the museum, but woke up by the time we reached the Sistine Chapel.  Lots of people, lots of art.  Bryan is getting good at this modeling stuff.

 Ponte Sant'Angelo- the bridge of Angels.  Also, the movie setting for Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn.  So beautiful.

 Love this picture of Bryan at Trevi Fountain.

She will be back!

 Piazza Navona with the cousins.

 The Pantheon.  Sad we were not able to go inside because a church service was being held.  

 The Spanish steps were under construction, but that didn't stop us from having a good time.

Our favorite place.  I think we went 4 times.  For two euros you get white or dark chocolate drizzled from a fountain inside of the cone, two flavors of gelado, and whip cream on top! It also happened to be 50 meters from our apartment and the most famous in Rome...

 Piazza Bernini

Villa Borghese

We finally found a park in the area (last day).  However, parks in Italy and way different than parks in Germany.  Rome is definitely not geared for little children.  Jane got tired of being carried all day.  We had fun, but we are glad to be home.