All right, let’s start with our first stop, Rome. This is where we landed. Like most of you, I did tons of research, and felt 3 - 4 days in Rome was an absolute must. So I had planned for three days. But parents, yes, if you are reading this, I imagine you will be nodding your heads when I say things don’t go as planned with kids !!!
So, we landed at the Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport and rented a car. It was very easy to get to the car rental location from our terminal (and all the other terminals I assume). So why did we need a car when the public transportation is amazing? Well parents, you understand me right? Right ? We had tons of baggage and a stroller! I can’t imagine carrying my kids (3 years old preschooler and 9 month old) and hauling all this luggage everywhere. But, renting a car had tons of disadvantages that I will explain later, beginning with the cost. I saw that the manual cars were quite cheap but we drive only automatic cars, so the cost was a huge chunk of our trip, a tradeoff we decided to make.
It was straightforward to rent our car, thankfully the folks at the counter and Italy in general spoke English. (I am an avid language enthusiast but I couldnt learn Italian fast enough. l should probably get started on Spanish for my travels). Anyways, having driven only in North America, for someone who religiously follows the rules, I was in for a rough few days. Here are my main takeaways,
I learnt that STOP is not STOP, but yield.
I was not impressed with trying to be in your neighbour’s lane a lot.
The speed limit is not very respected.
But I loved the condition of the roads (we took toll roads, the time between toll and regular roads was big enough to justify this) and loved the service area facility (autogrill) where we stopped for grabbing quick bites, clean washrooms and cofffeeee!!! ( Some places even had showers).
I had an itinerary planned for our landing day. But keeping it real, we decided to just rest as we did not sleep in the flight (one of the two were always awake). We were able to fit it into the next two days. We went out for that much raved about Italian food. The food was so amazing but we did not have the greatest experience as the old couple next to us did not like our children interrupting their dinner. We ordered some yummy yummy pasta (I don't think I will ever enjoy a bowl of pasta in North America after eating the authentic stuff). We stopped for a few essentials like diapers, some fruits and snacks for the kids and called it a day.
Rome - Day 1
First stop Vatican. We parked at Parking Trionfale Market - Vatican museums. We were really lucky to get a spot here to park. If you are parking here or anywhere nearby go early!!!!
I had booked a 3 hour group tour of the Vatican (Skip the line tour of Vatican, Sistibe chapel & St. Peter’s - Small group tour by what a life tours. I highly recommend this tour, the guide was amazing and very attentive). I am super glad for the skip the line tickets because the queues were huge, easily 1-2 hours wait time when we saw it. But the guided grouptour part turned out to be a mistake. Our tour guide was amazing and we learnt a lot. But I think group tours are not for kids. I felt so stressed because we had to keep the kids quiet during the tour as I didn't want anyone to suffer because of the kids. The preschooler was quiet as he was engrossed in all the art, architecture and paintings. But the baby …. Can you actually ask a babbling baby to be silent ? We carried the kids in a regular carried and a shoulder carrier respectively. Without appropriate rests, hubby and I were sore and exhausted and it was scorching hot. We were very exhausted at the end!! But Vatican itself was amazing. My hubby and I were in awe and it's truly magnificent as every blog I read made it out to be. No wonder the lines were long…! We carried lots of snacks and water for kids and that was covered.
Please note that your shoulders and knees are expected to be covered when entering Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.
We grabbed our food from a foodtruck parked just outside the Vatican as we were tired and the kids were slightly cranky being in their carriers. We went back to our car, took a short break in it and then strolled out again with our stroller and let me tell you, Rome was amazing. We took random turns and walked for a while here and there. We enjoyed the cobbled pathways, the random historical buildings every now and then and the amazing cafes during our stroll. Our kids napped in their stroller, so we had a peaceful walk.
A note about stroller usage: We have an uppababy vista 2 with two seats. So while the stroller has big wheels and it's easy on the babies, it's heavier for us. There were a couple of places with no ramps so we had to lift the stroller and in some places had to walk on the road. But in Rome a stroller is very doable.
From our parking, we walked to Piazza Navona (about 40 mins walk as we wandered quite a bit). I was expecting a normal piazza but boy oh boy, it blew my mind away. It is super vibrant and there were lots of cafes and people hanging out. You can just stroll about nearby!!
Followed by this, we walked to Pantheon. Again another beautiful monument that deserves another huge chunk of your time (Remember I said we cancelled our day 0 plans and crammed it into the other two days). Pantheon was the side effect of this. We did not book skip the line tickets and the lines were very long. We did not want to stand in line with the babies, so we skipped the tour. Please book skip the line tickets if you want to skip the long long lines. Maybe next time!
I sampled some yummy cannolis (pistachio and chocolate flavours) while the preschooler had macroons. We adults had our cappuccinos while looking at ever moving tourist crowds.
We then visited Travi fountain. Be careful here as someone I know lost their wallet here. It was a little crowded.
Following this I wanted to do the central market but we had to walk back and decided to just explore the route and take a different path. We grabbed some pizza on the way back.
Our tired happy faces at the end !!!
Day 2 - Rome
Any guesses of what we did on day 2?? Well, you are no tourist to Rome if you don't see the colloseum. We parked at the park services colloseum. It costs 40 euros per day ( I think they have some hourly charges as well) but we wanted some peace of mind with a reserved parking spot and could not walk very long with kids in their carrier, a tradeoff between money and convenience.
We had booked a 3 hour tour package like day one and again I regretted it. Kids and guided tours don't go together. I wasn’t very impressed with the tour we selected so I am not recommending it here. We really enjoyed the three structures, the colloseum, the Palletine hill and the Roman forum. The colosseum was truly magnificent and to me, it lived up to all its hype.
Note about stroller Usage: you could perhaps get away with an umbrella stroller but be prepared to do a lot of stroller lifting.
Beware though, it was very very hot. There is no proper shade and it was scorching even in September ( I cannot imagine how it will be during the actual summer months !!!). There were tons of water taps and we carried a small bottle that we refilled everywhere.
After this, our kids were tired ( it was so hot), so we went to our room for a little break. The kids stretched their legs while we rested. In the evening we visited the Piazza del Campidoglio, the plaza designed by Michaleangelo.
We strolled the city along the cobbled streets taking in the beautiful city. We went to a local pizzeria and found some authentic dishes. The 3 year old had the time of his life.
Day 3
Next day in Rome we were supposed to go to Villa borghese. It was not straight forward to find the Villa borghese museum. We walked through the gardens and reached the museum. It was a Monday and I did not know it was closed. I had booked the tickets for Tuesday by mistake (Reminder to double check your dates while booking). We strolled through the lovely gardens, got some coffee from a local cafeteria and decided to bid Adieu to this city. Onwards to Florence !!
I enjoyed Rome a lot and I know I only barely scratched this surface. Some day I hope to be back to enjoy some of the locations I missed and to visit the cute cafes peppered throughout the city!!