Memories of a Roman Holiday

Three years before, when Art came home and asked, "What do you think about going to England?" and proceeded to surprise us with the tickets, it shocked us.

When he came home in November of 1993 and said, "What do you think about going to Rome?"  we were still not quite prepared for him getting tickets for us to leave right after Christmas.  Tiffany was on holiday break from the University of Illinois and Jon was in high school.

The Vatican

That's how we ended up standing in front of the nativity scene in front of the Vatican on December 26th.

It was such an incredible feeling to walk inside the huge Vatican where only the night before, the pope held Midnight Mass for Catholics around the world.

St. Peter's Basilica

We climbed up the stairs of St. Peter's Dome.  Even then, I didn't like stairs and was winded by the time we got to the top.  Art is a runner.  The kids were on the swim team in high school.  It didn't faze them at all.

The view from the top of St. Peter's Basilica was breathtaking.

Colosseum

The following day we were off to the Colosseo (Colosseum).  Getting off the train we were awed by the sheer size and grandeur of the huge arena.  We were all amazed at how history was coming alive and becoming real for us.

The Roman Forum

The next stop was the Roman Forum.  We climbed up Palatine Hills to get this fabulous view.  We saw the spot where Julius Caesar was supposed to have been assassinated.

Kids will be kids.  Jon is splashing his sister with Roman water.

 The days were not long enough for all the things we wanted to see in Rome.  We loved Piazza Navona, the Borghese Museum, the Capitoline Museum, the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, and too many other places to name.

The  funny thing is we didn't much care for the pizza in Rome.  We were too used to the Chicago style pizza.  However, one day we had warmed focaccia sandwiches from a roadside stand and the kids fell in love with it.  For many years after that, it was the kids' favorite... along with gelato!

Piazza di Spagna

The Romans told us that they had two weeks of cloudy, rainy weather before we arrived.  The weather was sunny and wonderful for us and it made all the difference I'm sure. We sat on the Spanish steps just luxuriating in the warm Roman sunshine with everybody else.

We also did some exploring in all the Roman alleyways leading into different piazzas.  It's a good thing we had our trusty travel book with maps keeping us from getting lost.

Art set aside one morning for Jon to do his own exploring.  He gave him maps, careful instructions, money and the hotel address in case he got lost.  We synchronized our watches and told him to meet us at the Piazza Navona.  Then we kept our fingers crossed.  Jon told us later that he really felt he had travel in his blood like his dad.  He now wanted to explore more places and learn about different cultures.

Trevi Fountain

We made a stop at the Trevi Fountain and dropped our coins in.  If legend held true, we would all be back.  It worked for Tif and Jon.  They have been back on their own.  Art and I went to Florence later... but that's another story.

Still more scanning to do.