Rome how I love thee, let me count the ways:
1. The Pope - he gets his own post.
2. The church - such an experience to see people from all walks of life sharing your faith. Religious from all over the world flock to this city. I met a newly ordained priest from Michigan working for the Vatican and a group of family and friends of a young man from Haiti in Rome to celebrate his ordination.
3. History - everywhere you turn in this city there is something interesting and very very old.
4. Food - Italian food is amazing and so easy with the kids. Every night for dinner Miles ordered spaghetti and James ordered pizza margherita. It was funny. It was even funnier when a waiter, previously unknown to us, came up to the table one evening looked at the boys and said 'spaghetti, pizza margherita'. Apparently our kids aren't the only ones!
5. The people - the Italians are so friendly and welcoming. I really got to experience this on this particular trip. We stayed right in the middle of a traditional Italian neighborhood in an apartment in an area called Trastavere. Downstairs and across the street from our place was a little coffee shop with delicious Italian coffee. It was a long narrow room divided by a wooden bar running the length of the place. Behind the bar were 3 very Italian barristas. Here was the drill, you walk in exclaiming Ciao! and Buongiorno! to address the room. You then belly up to the bar and order your coffee 'cappuccino per favore'. This you drink at the bar with your neighbors. Finally, you pay 1 euro for your drink and exit in the same fashion you entered, Ciao! Buongiorno! Loved it.
6 - The art - where else in the world can you see Michelangelo's Pieta, the Sistine Chapel, and as you walk around the city, duck into a church for a Caravaggio masterpiece? Only in Rome.
I could go on and on but those are some highlights.
Group photo at Piazza Navona.
This moment will go down in family history, the boys LOVED posing for this one.
Colliseum
Front of St. Peter's.
AMAZING picture of Miles!
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