Roma - The Eternal city....

Buon Giorna Roma!

More blue skies greeted us today... we are definitely living in the wrong country when it comes to the elements!! Here is the gladiator still smiling despite having posed for hundreds of pictures!!  Alex and Elena (those least likely to be able to read them!) seem to have taken charge of the port explorer guides...

We set off to explore Rome 'en famille' as even though the very capable kids' club volunteers would  have looked after the two small ones we felt a bit reluctant to be so far away from them as Rome is about an hour and a half train ride from where we were docked in the port of Civitavecchia...

Today was very hot and in particular a small boy got very whiny when his little legs refused to work for him after a while and there were persistent cries of 'Carry me, Dad... I'm tired!'... We took pity on him as he probably had two or three steps to do for every one we took and so therefore decided to do yet another city tour by bus....and hop off at the sights we particularly wanted to see...sightseeing in Rome is a vast undertaking and we were quite aware and quite content to just get a glimpse of the more famous landmarks!! Our first port of call was without doubt ancient Rome's best known monument and hugely impressive despite only a third of the original building remaining...

This huge structure was capable of seating 50,000 spectators - a far cry from the 82 or 83,000 needed to fill Croke Park...Off course what better place to have these guys but outside this arena of games and gladiators...

The midday sun was already making certain people irritable or maybe it was me with the camera that was the reason for the grumpiness but Declan was the only one willing to pose for a photo.

I found that when I didn't ask them to 'pose' they were ok!!!!

For a moment we thought we were in Paris!! but no - next to the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine (and not the Arc de Triomphe!!!), erected in 315AD and honoured Rome's conversion to Christianity and victory over Pagan forces as a result of Constantine's battlefield vision of a cross...(Much and all as I am tempted to pretend that I remember all this information as a result of listening to the running commentary on the guided bus tour... I am afraid that with the two small ones I missed a lot of what was said and am filling in the gaps with the guide leaflet and even with that I find myself with a lot of photos that I have no idea which building is which!!):)

Arch of Titus...

Can anyone name this???

And this one has me stumped as well:(???!!!.. No idea what it is called but it looks impressive...

Il Gesu...this 16th century late-Renaissance Church is the mother Church of the Jesuits....We liked it because Alex spotted his name on it as we passed by!!!

To sit on a  bus and be driven through Rome is an unmissable experience... Just wish I managed to hear the commentary a little better...it is truly unique with its many fine buildings that span so many centuries in history and is has an abundance of spectacular strutures and interesting sculptures...like the one below on this bridge over the River Tiber...

St. Peter's Basilica....The largest Catholic church ever built. It stands on the site where the apostle Peter was crucified and buried...Maybe someday we will come back and get to go inside but we could not face queuing in the heat ....right in front of St. Peter's is the most popular of Rome's many squares and it can hold up to 400,000 people....

Some happy tourists!!

And some not so happy.... a very tired, hot, fed up little boy!

Yip,, I'm in Italy...!!!

We were all soon revived with the multitude of flavours of italian gelati!! in itself worth travelling to Italy for....On to our last stop in Rome which was the Trevi Fountain...one of the many fountains in Rome and definitely the most famous... Of course we had to buy in to the legend attached to the fountain that says 'Whoever tosses in a coin will one day return to Rome.... Well, last time I visited here 20 years ago I did not get to throw the coin and it took me 20 yrs to return... My sojourn that time was even more brief, as having trekked round the city carrying a heavy rucksack in mid-summer and speaking into endless intercoms looking for availability of accomodation myself and my friend decided to get the next train out to Brindisi, enroute to Greece and not to return to Rome until we could afford a nice luxurious hotel... maybe next time!!

The 'boys' did buy into the whole legend also but think that was just to humour us and hurry us up so that we would not miss the train back to the port... it was a rush but we made it.. none more happy than exhausted Alex to be heading back to the ship....

On a funny note:  I have been trying to teach the kids a few words in the langauge of whatever country we were in..Getting a chance to learn a little of another langauge while visitng a country is a real love of mine and I embraced Kazakh and Russian phrases in my time in Kazakhstan (was pretty lousy when it came to calculating the currency exchange rates!! - thankfully we were travelling with a banker and an accountant!) On this trip however am afraid my knowledge of Spanish only extended as far as Dora the Explorer.. Hola!

In Italy we remember a little from our trip 5 yrs ago so I was encouraging them all to use phrases like Buon Giorno, Si, Grazie and Arrivederci...On getting off the bus at the port I was behind Elena and asked her to remember to thank(Grazie) the busdriver... Imagine my surprise when instead of thanking him as she passed she said quite confidently 'Ti Amo' (I love you!)... Her air of confidence was quickly replaced by one of bashfulness when we explained what she had said.... and she has many times since said 'I can't believe that I told the bus driver that I loved him'!!!

And on that note ~ Arrivederci!