Europe Trip: Rome


This is part four of many recapping my trip to Europe. Read about my third leg in Switzerland, second leg in France and first leg in Amsterdam.

Due to storms we got to our Rome AirBnB near 2am. There was a lot we wanted to see, so we walked all day in 97 degree heat with direct sun. I got a heat rash on my feet to show for it. We loved ancient Rome but wrestled with our feelings about the loud, grandiose and crumbling city today.


We did not go hungry in Rome. For breakfast we bought a chunk of cheese, sliced salami, fresh bread and strawberries from a farmer’s market. We ate amazing thin crust pizza, chewy homemade pasta (cacio de pepe for me as I knew it’s famous in Rome), buttery gelato and syrupy tiramisu. I taught Ben what limoncello is through a mini bottle in a brown paper bag. Good thing we walked a lot.

The vastness of the ruins is amazing. They’re EVERYWHERE. Ben was wowed at the size of the Colosseum and how amazing it is so much of the structure is in tact. I loved the Roman Forum, a wide area of unidentifiable ruins which was once Rome’s city center for work and play.


Art in Rome is immaculate, amazing and showy. The carved sculptures are beautiful, the Trevi fountain takes up the front of an entire building, the Pantheon is massive and looms over a town square. Modern buildings carry the theme of grandeur—everything is tall and ornate though pealing, chipping and crumbling. The cobblestone streets almost always lack sidewalks and are commonly missing stones or uneven, begging for ankles to be rolled. 


On our second day we explored the Vatican Museums. My mission was to see the Sistine Chapel but the elaborate hallways with hand-painted ceilings and sculptures lining the way really amazed us. We made it to Saint Peter’s Square just before noon to watch the Pope speak, but he was out of town.


Saturday night I found a recommended neighborhood to explore just west of town. This area felt young and local. The streets were a one-car wide maze all lined with shops and restaurants with apartments above. Everyone was out enjoying a beautiful night, it felt like an impromptu street party.

With sweat soaked clothes and tired feet we wrapped up our quick stint in Rome. I was excited to show Amsterdam off to Ben and we were both looking forward to much cooler temperatures.

Scroll through more of my photos from Rome here:
Rome & Vatican City

Popular posts from this blog

The Waffles ChatGPT Taught Me to Make

My kids stopped eating my go-to oat waffles. No reason why, but one day they were in, the next day they were very mas o menos or 6-7 about them (reader translation: more or less, uncertain), and the day after that a solid nope... where they have remained. Then I broke the waffle iron.  Cool! Never one to quickly learn from the most obvious mistakes, I Amazon'd a new waffle iron over and sought to find a new recipe.  I'm really not interested in crap waffles. If it's a white flour/quarter cup of sugar waffle recipe, I might as well buy Eggos, buckle my seatbelt for a hunger induced fit (from the boys OR myself) 30 min after breakfast and call it a day. But, my last recipe (which was good! Here if you want it!) got rejected. I wasn't easily finding something that still had protein and felt good, so I turned my effort to ChatGPT. Give me a kid-friendly, oat-flour, waffle recipe And oat-flour and kid-friendly... ish it is. I now have one kid (actually my more challenging ...
Read more

Cooking Out My Kitchen

Taking down holiday decorations last week snowballed into a total home clean out. I was wild. I was ruthless. I realized I’d been compulsively buying paper plates and storing them in unique corners of the basement. You know when we use paper plates? Maybe twice a year and also when I draw on 8 of them as paper plate awards for C’s soccer team. Good thing I have 3,000 of them! Clearly I need to get better at monitoring and using what I have. That big time applies to the kitchen. I’ve got a stocked pantry, yet I’m a frequent flier at our grocery store–constantly filling the gaps of what we run out of or suddenly want. For shame! This week I had a craving for homemade soup, a want for granola on my yogurt when we were out, and a need for a dinner side dish hit and I…*groundbreaking I know* used what I had. Here’s what I made, and altered, cooking out of my kitchen: Greek Fries A half bag of frozen Costco gyro meat A half bag of frozen fries Diced cucumber & red onion Fet...
Read more

Halloween 2025

...and what a year it was. Both boys were ninjas. C and his friend Theo SPRINTED through the entire neighborhood, ping ponging across the street while the Dads strolled down the middle. Their night wrapped up after two solid hours, a full pillow case of candy, and a sweaty ninja costume. They hit the entire neighborhood, a new PR, and as C proudly displayed on his watch--17K steps. Whoa.  Meanwhile the Moms took A and friend Benny out together. What started as a sprint quickly turned into a walk/run combo. The boys also PR'd, down our long street, around the full corner and cul-de-sac, and back home again. A real highlight was trick-or-treating at our own house, where Uncle E was on duty handing out candy... Trick or treat at your own house?! HILARIOUS! They loved racing to the door to help in handing out candy, too. While the boys' stamina is always new and improved year over year, so many traditions stay the same: Our family friends, former neighbors, with boys similar ages, ...
Read more