We had a very special summer. It had been a long time in the works but it finally happened. What started off as a week long tour of England with some friends somehow turned into a 28 day tour of Europe (minus any touchdown in England funnily enough). How in the world could that happen? Well, let’s just say we had too many “planning meetings” involving wine and world maps. Yes, we’ll blame it on over-organization, mixed scale maps, and wine. Everything looks so close in Europe on a map. “If we are in Italy already then we should definitely hit Austria since it’s only like an inch away.” Sounds like a plan!

So after a few more “planning meetings” and file folder filled with booking confirmations, four families packed our agreed upon, medium-sized, rolling, soft duffel bags and headed to Europe. Rome was our first stop. We hit the city hard from the moment we landed and didn’t stop until we left 3 days later. We didn’t tell the kids that jet-lag was a real thing and I must say that I was truly impressed with their stamina. We logged about 9 miles of walking a day in the 100 degree city heat. I have never drank so much water in my life. The city has so much to see with a crazy mix of ancient ruins and modern life colliding every where you look. We managed to survive the mad traffic, cross-city taxi rides, and long meals.

Of course, traveling with kids brings with it all kinds of unique challenges and joys. The focus of your itineraries quickly change. You start to examine maps differently and plan routes with areas that have parks or open space for running and of course you build in lots of  “sanity breaks” for Gelatto. For a major city like Rome we had to do a few tours but we also made certain to not overload the schedule since this was our first stop. We chose the Colosseum and Vatican for professional tours, making sure to book the “skip the line” tours to avoid hours in line under the summer sun. The rest of the time we wandered to the sites on our own or used jump on/jump off buses. One thing to keep in mind when choosing your jump on/jump off bus company, don’t only consider the hours of operation and number of locations they visit, but also ask how many buses they actually have running. The company we mistakenly chose had the longest hours and best prices for kids however, they had far fewer buses running so we found ourselves waiting for-ev-er for buses to show up. The other really positive thing for us was that we all booked apartments rather than hotels. The apartment building housed about 12 apartments and they were clean and large by European standards and had air conditioning–a must when visiting Rome in the summer! It was so nice to come back to them each day and be able to relax in cool comfort.

I’ve included some of my favorite city pictures on this post. The last time I was in Rome was in November 2001. I was married but we were DINKS (dual income no kids–is that still a term?) It was definitely a very different trip this time around. But I loved seeing the city through my kids’ eyes. For that reason, I have also included what I like to call “shenanigan shots”. The images of kids being kids no matter where they are in the world. If you aren’t an architecture lover then you might want to scroll to the bottom for the funny business 😉

 

---

---

SHENANIGAN SHOTS