Trip to Venice and Rome, Italy!

Friday October 28th-
We ended up deciding to pull the kids out of school all day today.  Jason thought he had a dental cleaning this morning early and when he came home 20 min. later I knew something didn't go right.  So here the 1st time you visit the dentist he does your checkup and you need to make a separate appt. to get a cleaning (?)  Ok good to know!
Then we had to return to downtown with the kids as well for another round of Luxembourg paperwork.  Today we all needed our pictures and fingerprints taken.  They couldn't seem to get a reading off any of my fingers on my left hand.  So I guess if I am going to do something bad I should use my left hand- ha!
Then we finally left for our big trip to Italy!!  This weekend starts the kids fall break from school where they have a week off but since we are driving we wanted to leave today.
We drove a little over 6 hours today and that got us to the top of Italy.

 I had packed our lunches so we ate in the car and only had to make one stop.  The kids did very well in the car.  We drove through France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.  I booked us a hotel here in Italy for the night as a stop over point.  The drive was pretty easy, not that I was driving, but not a lot of switching highways where we always miss the right exit.  The drive through Switzerland was beautiful with the Alps covered in some snow.  Switzerland was a hard country to try and read in the car- anyone guess why?
It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive through it and can you guess how many tunnels we drove through?
44!  Crazy, but much faster than driving around all the mountains.  5 of the tunnels were long ones.  One about 6 miles long and then the second longest tunnel in the world- 11 miles long!  (The longest tunnel in the world goes to Norway) There was a stop light before the long tunnel to limit the amt. of cars going in and it narrows down to just one lane each way.  One tunnel even had some windows.

Pictures of the alps

We saw a white church on the top of a smaller mountain and it had a cable car to take you up to it- cool.  We saw lots of big lakes around the mountains too.  Once we drove into Italy we went through 5 more tunnels and then we got off the road for our hotel.  The hotel room was great!   The boys had their own room, we had an actual American King bed behind a wall separating it from the family room where Amber's bed was.  It had a foyer and a walk in closet.  So the beds were far away from the door which is nice then you don't hear the hall noise.  For dinner we drove about 5 min. away to a cute pizzeria the front desk had recommended.  It was difficult to get too.  We drove by it 3 times trying to figure out how to get over to it.  It didn't help that it was dark.  One of the drive bys Jason took a corner too tight and scratched one bottom side of the car on a cement corner- ouch for the car.  But once we got over to it, it was a good, quaint place.  We decided we like the Italian language better then French.  A lot of words are similiar to Portuguese and we could understand some of it and the accent is easier then French. 

Sat.-
Jason's Ipad started beeping at 6am for some reason- so much for sleeping in.  But of course the kids I had to drag out of bed around 7:30.  After breakfast at the hotel we started driving to Venice.  We only drove through 2 tunnels today.  It was suppose to be a 3 hour drive, but with traffic and a stop for lunch it was about 4 hours.  Now there is no driving in Venice so your choices to park are the mainland, an island, or 1 of 2 parking garages in Venice (most expensive).  We figured it would be easier with all of us and our luggage to just park in Venice since we were only going to be there for a few days anyway.  We had no problems driving onto the island of Venice, but once we turned the corner to go to the garage there was just a long line of cars not moving.  I had made a reservation here- you are suppose too- and went and asked the guy there at the garage.  He says everyone does and the wait could be 1 1 /2 hours long.  Oh my this is not good.
About 30 min. later around 1:30 all of a sudden all the cars go into the garage.  It suddenly dawned on me that I bet all the garage guys were at their lunch and they weren't letting anyone into the garage.  This would have been nice to know in advance, but at least Amber got a nice nap in!  The garage has cars parked 2 deep so you leave your keys in the car- yikes.  We park, and unloaded our stuff.  I had packed all our stuff in rolling suitcases instead of bags for ease of traveling with since there is no pulling up to your hotel here.  I even packed a suitcase of food- have you seen how much my children eat!  So we exit the garage and then have to cross this piazza (square) and go buy our boat tickets.  It is crowded around but not too bad.  We then have to find our boat number and go wait in line to get on the water taxi.  Here there are no buses to get you around town you use the water taxi.  Venice was built on a series of mud banks, and it joined Italy in 1866.
So these water taxis hold about 50 or so people and they come speeding up to the floating dock we are on and kind of bang into it.  We are hurded on the boat and the driver is starting to pull away when the last person's foot leaves the dock- not wasting any time.  We go 4 stops down and get off.  Here we meet our greeter for the apartment we rented here.  We walk down this cobble walkway that gets narrower as we keep walking.  We walk to a point where it looks like it is a dead end and she turns left down a super tiny 2 person width walkway and it curves around to our apt. which is on a corner of a bridge and a canal.

 It is an old building with 1 apt. downstairs and 2 upstairs.

 We are on one of the second floor apt. and have a great view of a canal. 

The apt. was nice.  It had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and lots of hallways, and a piano in bad need of tuning but the kids enjoyed it.
Here is a picture of the entrance hall after you walk in that main door from the outside. 

Only problem with renting an apt. instead of a hotel was here there was no soap, shampoo, etc. so good thing I had taken all of these from our hotel last night! (:  The other side of the apt. has a view of a cobblestong courtyard with clothes ropes hanging outside of everyone's apt.  No dryers here.
Here are some pictures of our apt. from the outside.  It is on the second floor of the building right in front of the gondolier and it starts at the 3rd window over.

Here is a picture if you can see down the street people's clothes hanging out to dry.

We get situated and went for a walk and found the grocery store.  And then we went into a tiny store and bought a map so we can find our way back to the apt.  Came back and unloaded our groceries and then went back out to explore. 
Venice has 150 canals and 120 churches- a lot of bells a ringing! 

We walked over to the Rialto Bridge.

Here they are standing on the Rialto Bridge.

 This is their big famous bridge they are known for.  It was built in 1588- 1591.  It used to be a wooden bridge and before that a pontoon bridge and that was the only link between the 2 banks over the big main canal- Grand Canal through Venice.  This canal weaves through Venice almost dividing it in half.    The bridge is very wide. On the steps in the middle section are rows of tourists shops.  And people are always packed around the bridge and this area in general.   Also lots of shops and restaurants that line the canal in this area too.
Here is a picture of the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge.

Here is another one and you can see the water taxi is the white boat on the left side and the gondola is on the right side.

 Here as well are gondola rides.  They are very expensive rides in canoe like boats, but it is one of those things you have to do while you are in Venice.  Gondolas have been a part of Venice since the 11th Century.  Canals are 15 ft. deep, but some are shallower.  The Gondoliers are all dressed the same.  They have black and white or red and white striped tops on with black pants and shoes.  If it is cold they have black coats and scarfs on.  Our Gondolier spoke English well.  All the boats are black and decorated very nicely.
Here is a picture of the gondola that we took.

Here is our Gondolier

 We took a 30 min. tour as the sun was getting ready to set.  We went past an apt. that Marco Polo used to live in on the 2nd floor.

Here are other pictures from our Gondola tour.

Here is a picture of San Giacomo di Rialto.  This could be the oldest church in Venice.  It is across from the Rialto fish and food market that started there in 1097!

 After that we walked back to the area our apt. was in and ate at a pizzeria- these types of restaurants are very popular and are all over the place.  We had some pizza and a calzone.  It was good.  Italy is suppose to be famous for their gelato (ice cream) so we stopped at an ice cream place on the way back.  Getting back to the apt. in the dark is a little bit trickier!  Jason was using his GPS on his blackberry to help us.  Then the kids watched Karate Kid- Sean's new favorite movie.

Sunday-
Was daylight savings time so everyone slept in to around 8:30, but it was really only 7:30.  Jason walked to a square where we were told a bakery was open today since it was Sunday.  But even at 9am it wasn't open yet.  So we ate breakfast and got ready to go out.  We walked back to the bakery when we left the apt. and it was open and we bought a few doughnuts and split them.  No real breakfast pastries here like in Luxembourg.  So then we walked back to the boat pier where we got dropped off yesterday.
Here is a picture of a museum right at the end of our street by the pier.

We waited about 5 min. and a water taxi picked us up.
These boats are extremely crowded.  Some older Italian men were not very happy and saying things in Italian.  We probably rode it for about 10 min. down the canal, and we were standing in the middle of the boat moving side to side depending which side of the boat people were exiting from. 
Some pictures from our ride down the canal.

We finally arrived at our stop- San Marco (St. Mark's Square).  This is a famous Venetian square.  At 9am they feed the pigeons and I guess it is crazy with them all over.  We arrived around 10am and there were still many pigeons around.  We brought bread to let the kids feed them and they had a great time.

 This square is packed with people.  This is where St. Mark's Basilica- church is and Doge's Palace is.  This square was built around the 10th century.  During Venice's heyday this square is where people would be tortured and then hung- ugh!  St. Mark's Basilica is the Church of Gold.  One of the world's greatest and most richly embellished churches.  It had very long lines to get in so we just walked around it and peeked in at the exit.  We saw beautiful painted golden ceilings. 

This square has a tendency to flood being right along the big opening to the Grand Canal and sea and there was a big puddle outside and inside the church.  So a very famous square with other buildings but just not sure what they were.  They had a bunch of shops lining the sides of the square and some restaurants with a bunch of outside seating.  I went and looked at the menu and it was $12 for a pop or juice!  They were white table cloth places with waitors in black tie bows and had live music, neat atmoshpere.    We walked back behind the square and saw Girogi Armani and a few other big names stores.  We found Hard Rock Cafe on a cute big canal corner with a bunch of gondoliers there.  So we decided to eat lunch there, of course.  We know what were are going to get and it is good food.
Here is a picture of the chandelier in the Hard Rock Cafe. 

Views from Hard Rock Cafe out onto the Canal.

  As we are leaving the restaurant to walk back to the apt. the kids were messing around against the railing that is near the canal. 

We tell them to move away from it, well in the process Sean's shoe falls off.  He tries to put it back on and it somehow falls into the canal- are you kidding me!!  How many people drop things in the canal?  The canals are not clean looking at all.  They are a mucky green color and in the summer they say they smell.  So I quickly drop everything I am holding, go through the railing and now the shoe is out of my reach.  Jason grabs on to me and I put my foot in the canal and push it back to me.  Oh boy was Sean in trouble!  Eveyonen else got ice cream on the way home except for the boy with the wet foot!  Of course I only brought one pair of shoes per person on the trip.  So I made him take his sock off and wear his shoe home.  On the way back I found a street vender selling fake expensive brand name purses so I bought one of those!  Once we got back to the apt. everyone had to wash their hands and Sean had to wash his foot.  I put his shoe on the edge of the window sill outside to dry it out- yuck! 

So we hung out here for a bit, then we walked over to San Rocco and saw the San Rocco church.

 It was founded at the begining of the 15th century and rebuilt in the 18th century.  It was very big with a lot of beautiful paintings.  It was founded in honor of San Rocco (St. Roch) a saint who dedicated his life to helping the sick.  We walked around the area and found another Church and then the Leo di Vince Museum.  It was very interesting.  It had all the inventions he had made and things he had made better.  It was amazing.  There were a lot of interactive exhibits which the kids could touch.  It said that he was one of the most diverse talented people in the world- famous mathametician, writer, musician, scientist, painter (known for the Mona Lisa), and sculpter.  Then we walked around and found a restaurant opened at 5:30 for dinner - not very common.  So we ate there.  It was a small crowded place.  Jacob had seafood pasta, and I had these great big grilled full shrimp.  Those ones that have the eyes on them still.  Jason had lasagna and the other two split a pizza.  It was all very good.  Came back to the apt. and had dessert we had picked up from a bakery earlier and Jason and I enjoyed a bottle of champagne!

Monday-Happy Halloween!
We had some festive Halloween shirts for today to wear!  Today at 6:45 this annoying seagull was squaking and woke us up and Sean and then at 7am one of the church bell towers started ringing.  But Jacob and Amber slept in until around 7:30.  This morning Jacob woke up with mosquito bites on his face, poor thing.  Jason heard one flying around his head too last night.  The dishes here in this apt. crack me up.  They go from Ikea to fine china just all stacked together.  After breakfast I washed a few of our clothes and hung them out to dry on the clothes lines outside our bedroom window.  Below the clothes line is a locked courtyard area so I was hoping that I didn't drop anything.

Today we walked back down to the boat dock and waited for our water taxi.  When it came this time we went and sat down at the back of the boat since we were going to have a longer ride.

 It was pleasent just sitting and crusing down the canal.  So this time I think we went down about 12 stops to the far east side of Venice in the Castello Neigborhood.  I think it took about 1/2 hour.  We went there to see the Naval History Musuem.

 It only costs us a total of $4.50 for all of us to get in!  Jacob loved this- 5 floors of boat and cannon history.  I liked the gondola room.  They also had this cool room of shells that Sean enjoyed.  The area that the museum was in was founded in the 12th century and by the 16th century had become the greatest navel shipyard in the world!   We spend the morning here and then walked down the boardwalk area and over a bridge.  This city is not very stroller friendly.  We brought it but once we got to the apt. it  stayed park there.  The bridges here are all steps and you are constantly crossing the bridges to get across the canals. 
We ate lunch right on the corner of a nice open street and a bridge/canal and a view straight out to the sea.

 It was a very pleasant lunch.  After lunch we stopped for some ice cream and walked down this large street and weaved our way to a boat station. 

We always start out consulting the map, but in the end we end up using Jason's GPS.  There are just so many little passage ways and alleys and canals!

 It is crazy we are always able to find our way back to the apt.   We rented this apt. in the Santa Croce area which is a little quiter and off the beaten path of all the tourists so we have enjoyed it.
We saw the ambulances today.  As you can guess they are boats as well.  There were orange and you call 118 for it. 
Once back on the boat we didn't realize it was going out to Venice's other islands, so I think we rode this water taxi for 1 hour.  But the kids enjoyed it and less walking for them.  So the boat took us to the first island which is a cementary and then on to one of Venice's most popular islands- Murano.  We drove around half the island and down it major canal.  The island buildings look newer then Venice's.  They still have their color on them. 

Murano is know for its glassmaking since 1291.  So most of the shops are all different glass places- hence not a great place for 3 curious sets of hands.  We didn't get off the boat.  So the boat went back to Venice and headed north and we got off in the Cannaregio neigborhood and then walked through the area.  There were a lot of tourist and clothing shops and then we headed back to the apt.  We have had great weather here.  It is in the 60's, so a little chilly in the morning, but once the sun comes out it is very pleasent.  It would be tough to be here in the summer with the heat and no air conditioning in the apts.
Yesterday evening I had made dinner reservations at another restaurant in the square by us.  The place last night and this one only have about 6-8 tables inside and then some outdoor seating as well.  But at night it gets a little chilly so we sat inside.  The restaurant was good, but service was poor.  We ordered 3 dishes and 1 appetizer to share.  When they brought the main dishes the waiter said by the way there is no more chicken- finished, which is what I had ordered.  We had ordered a chicken dish, spaghetti, and a meat platter.  So I look at the meat platter and say but that is chicken there, right?  Yes he says," but now no more-finished."  Don't ya think that would have been helpful to know before everyone's dishes came out?  So he brought the menu over but by now we weren't going to wait another 20 min. for another dish so we just split what we had.
Tonight there were a few kids running around the town in sort of dressed up costumes and going into restaurants and shops trying to get candy.  Some places would give them a little piece of candy.  After dinner we just walked around the square a bit.

Tuesday-
Today we packed up and got back on the water taxi with all our luggage, drug it across the big square and found the car in the garage and off we drove to Rome!  We went through 36 tunnels today.  They are not as nice as the Swiss tunnels and our toll for the day was $50.   It was a beautiful drive down through the Tuscany region with the rolling green hills and the grapes growing.

 It was about a 6 hour drive and we stopped once and grabbed a bite to eat with some not so good sandwiches at the Autogrill which is the only restaurant at the stops along the road.  It has been difficult telling a 3 yr. old to potty when a potty becomes available b/c who knows when we will find one again.  So normally it comes down to bribery- nice.
Sleeping Amber and bunny!

Driving to Rome was remarkable easy besides the exit we couldn't get right twice, so by the third time we had gotten so turned around we ended up on the right road.  Of course not before we paid the same toll twice!  There was no traffic going into Rome or around the area.  Today is a holiday in Europe- All Saints Day.  We found the address of the apt we were renting here and called the lady to come down.  We unpacked the car and Jason stayed with the car to keep moving around since it was a narrow street with cars parked on both sides.  We brought all the luggage up to the penthouse apt. in this tiny little, narrow elevator.  You have to close 2 sets of doors on the elevator and then we went up to the 6th floor.  So that was a couple of trips in that elevator!    The owner took Jason and they luckily found a spot on the street not too far from the apt.  We just had to keep putting money in the parking machine and get a parking ticket per day.
 The apt. is very spacious and nice.  It does feel like they just moved their clothes out and left everything else like how it was when they lived here.  But it is a nice older couple who rent out this place and they live 2 blocks away.  So the 1st floor of this apt. has a kitchen, dining area, family room, a remodeled bathroom with a window that doesn't have a covering in the shower. 

Then it also has a big bedroom with a double bed, single bed and then a double bed up on a wood loft.

The boys loved this and took turns sleeping here.  So it was nice all the kids could sleep in this room, not that they did everynight but the thought was good.  Then out by the dining area, there is a rod iron sprial staircase that leads to a 2nd floor.

Then the second floor has a bathroom, bedroom area, table and a daybed and then a door that leads to the big patio area.

 This patio faces the Colosseum and is about 2 blocks East of it- amazing views!

When Jason and the owner came back from parking the car she gets out all the maps and went over things with me for probably about 30 min. of sites, restaurants, grocery stores, train, etc.  She was so nice, and very chatty.  When she leaves we head out to one of the restaurants she had recommended.  It is like a cafeteria.  They have some food out on plates and you tell her which plate you want and she puts it in the microwave- ok.  This was one of the only places open at 5:30 for dinner.  Most places here are 7 or 8pm.  So we go to sit down and we see the owners of the apt. we are renting who we were just talking with.  Funny.  Anyway the food was good, and right next store was one of the ice cream places she had recommended called Casa de Gelato, House of Ice Cream.   The ice cream was wonderful!  In Italy the ice cream is much richer and creamier.

 Jacob was trying to convince me that we have been and will be doing a lot of walking so we will burn it all off- wishful!
Then on our walk back to the apt. we stopped at 2 little different 1 room mini stores- all seemed to be run by maybe Pakistani people. We got cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast.  Then across from our apt. was a bakery so we picked up some crossaints as well.  We brought our food back and Jason and I enjoyed some wine on the patio and enjoyed the great view of the Colosseum all lit up at night and Rome.  Pretty neat!!

Wednesday-
So it is said the Romulus was the one who founded Rome in the 8th Century BC.   Today we walked around and covered a lot of the major sights in the ancient part of Rome.  We left the house at 8am and returned around 2:30 and spent most of that time walking and seeing the sights.  Here the side streets are lined with parked cars, some double parked, and some of these streets have no sidewalks so then you are fighting the one lane of cars that can get through the street and trying not to get hit.  We started out by walking over to Palatine Hill and getting the combo ticket for Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  The ticket office opened around 8:30 so we had a to wait about 5 min.  We walked around the Palatine Hill first.  This area is now all brick ruins, so the kids could run around here without our worry about them ruining something.  This area is where the 1st settlers built their homes, under direction of Romulus.  In later years the hill became a patrician residential area that attracted famous and infamous people.   Neat to imagine.

In this area was also the Palatine Museum and this has a good collection of the Roman sculptures- peoples heads/bodies and normally missing a lot of pieces!

I brought my Italy books I have been reading up on to know what to do so I brought these with me and at each site I would read in the book to the kids what the sight was about. 
After this area you walk through the Roman Forum.  This area was built in the marshy land between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills and flourished as the center of Roman life in the days of the Republic.  This area still had some standing columns.

The columns look like they could collapse any time now!

When we exited I bought this great book called The Past and Present of Rome.  It has a page for how a structure used to look and then you take the overlay page off and you see how the structure looks now.  Pretty neat book.
Boys fighting off the Romans.

Next we walked over to the Vittorio Emanvelle II (1st King of unified Italy) Museum and Glass Elevator.  It is a huge white building and a ton of stairs.

 Jason was lugging the stroller up and down stairs all day.  So after you go through the museum and walk up to the top floor of the building there is a glass elevator you can take to the roof of the building.  This had wondeful views of the city since this is a very centrally located building we could see a lot.

Construction on this building started in 1885 and was completed in 1911.  Rome became the capital of Italy in 1870.
In the back this building is connected to another museum and we walked that way and down the museum's stairs.  This set of stairs was built over another set of ruins and the stairs were completed in 1348 to commemorate the end of the plague.

From here we walked over to the Pantheon which means "All the Gods".  This is the only ancient Rome building that remains intact.  It was built in 27 BC by Marcus Agrippa and was reconstructed in the early 2nd centruy AD.  This is a remarkable building b/c it is a perfect sphere resting in a cylinder and is among the architectural wonders of the world b/c of its dome and its concept of space.  A circular opening in the dome at the top lets in the only light.   And about 125 years ago Raphael's tomb was discovered here.

Outside of this there is a pretty fountain.

I had packed lunch for us- the apt. had peanut butter!  So we enjoyed lunch on the steps of the fountain.  Then off again!   We walked over to Trevi Fountain.  It was completed in 1762 and never became famous until it was used in a movie.  The design centers on the triumphant figure of Neptunus Rex standing on a shell chariot drawn by winged steeds and led by a pair of tritons.  It is the largest fountain in Rome.  We stopped for some ice cream and sat on the steps with tons of people and watched the beautiful fountain.

Next we walked to the Spanish Steps.

There is a much smaller, but pretty fountain in front of these as well.

They are called the Spanish Steps b/c the Spanish Embassy used to be headquartered here.  They were built from 1723-1725.  There are 138 steps here.  We only walked up some- long day of walking already.
From here we headed down the expensive shopping district.  Here it was neat to window shop.  Here are some of the stores we saw, Prada, Louis Vitton, Gucci and other big names I don't even know.  From here we walked over to Augustus's Mausoleum.   It was once the most prestigious burial place in Rome.  It now has crumbled about half way down but it was built in a circular pattern that has been there for 2000 years.  Many of the 1st century Emperors had their ashes deposited in golden urns inside.  This structure stayed intact until the 5th century when invading barbarians smashed things and stole the urns.
From here we got a cab since we were now at the other end of town and went to the Colosseum.  It is an amazing structure- huge.

 The height of the arcs and columns is amazing. 

Vespasian had it built as a Amphitheatrum Flavium in 72 AD.  It was inaugurated by Titus in 80 AD with a bloody combat lasting many weeks between the gladiators and wild beasts.  About 9000 wild animals were killed.  The Colosseum could seat 50,000 people in all bleacher like seating.  In here you can see the basement where they housed the animals they would then put them up on the stage floor.

 Then you can walk on 2 of the levels.

The sets of stairs they have to walk up are so steep.  Later it was struck by an earthquake, then later it was used as a quarry.  It now sits in the middle of Rome's largest traffic circle.  We saw some cats around and in the Colosseum.

Here they are considered Roman citizens  b/c they chase away the rats.  So people love cats and they have a santuary here for them.  
From the Colosseum you can see the Arch of Constantine.

This was put up by the Senate in 315 AD. to honor Constantine's defeat of the pagan Maxentius (306 AD)  From here we walked back to the apt.  We were exhausted.
At 4pm we had to go back out and pay for a new parking ticket for the car since we were on the street.  So after we got the ticket we walked over to a church about 1 block away.  San Clemente Basilica.  This church has a history of layers beneath it.  In the 4th Century a church was build over a secular house from the 1st century.  The Normans destroyed the church and a new one was built in the 12 century.  So it has 3 layers of buildings within it! It is a beautiful ornante church on top of everything.  Then you pay and open these doors to the underworld and go down a level. 

In 1857 the Irish Father at the time of the church started excavations.  So the original Rome is really buried beneath the streets now.  Things crumbled and people just built on top of them.  So it was really cool walking in these cold dark brick passages.   
After this we didn't feel like waiting a couple more hours for dinner, so we walked to the butcher shop, and the one room veg/fruit/store, and the bakery for dessert and got our dinner to make.  We came home and made dinner in our tiny kitchen, brought everything up on the patio and ate dinner at the picnic table overlooking the Colosseum.  It was a very nice time! 

This is a picture of the Colosseum and the Vittorio Emanvelle Museum light up at night from our patio.

Thursday-
So as I mentioned earlier there are a lot of cats in the city and both nights we kept getting woken up to them meowing.  Kind of funny, except not really at 4am!  So this morning we walked over close to the Colesseum and went to the cab stand and took a cab to Vatican City.  This is on the other side of town.  Both times we took a cab it was only $12!  We started walking around St. Peter's Square which is just a big circular area with some fountains.

The Vatican City became the world's 2nd smallest sovereign indepentant state in 1929 due to the Lateran Treaty between the Pope and Italian government.  It only has a few hundred citizens and is protected by it own militia- Swiss guards.  Since the swiss guards were known as brave soliders and were hired out for foreign armies.  I wish I would have taken a picture, so here is one from Phillip Holts online.  These men have to be Catholic and between the ages of 19-30, single and Swiss citizens. 

 
Quite colorful. 
Straight in front of St. Peter's square is St. Peter's Church.  This church is where St. Peter is said to have been crucified.   Then he was buried here in 64 AD, and in 324 Constantine had a church built over the tomb.  This structure stood for over 1000 years then it was about to collapse so it was remodeled in the 1500's and inaugurated in 1626.  Inside the church is beautiful and overwhelming to take it all in.

The Papal Altar stands over the crypt where St. Peter is suppose to be buried.

Some of the greatest Italian artists completed the work inside the church.  The paintings, marble and mosaics are just breath taking. 
From here we walked to the Vatican Museums which were about a 10 min. walk.  Getting into the museum there was a little line.  So the Vatican Museum has one of the world's greatest art collections.  You can spend up to 4 hours touring here.  We chose the shorter route which was an hour- still long for the kids.  The museums occupy a part of the papal palaces built from the 1200's on.  The museums were created over a period of time to display the treasures of art acquired by the Vatican.  We all liked the Egyptian museum room with the mummies and things.  In general we saw beautiful urns, statues, and tapestries.  In here and our apt. there were a lot of naked pictures or statues and Sean said he wished they had more clothes on.  Too funny coming from someone who doesn't mind running around with no clothes on when he is changing!

The tour ends in the Sistine Chapel.  Michelangelo painted the ceiling over 4 years, 1508-1512.  They say it was so much for him that it permanently damaged his eyesight.  And I guess the pope was always telling him to hurry up and finish!  The walls in here were painted by other artists and then Michelangelo also painted behind the altar from 1534-1541.  This chapel is used by cardinals when selecting a new Pope.  You can't take pictures in here and you have to be quite as well.  It is beautiful and amazing!  Here are some pictures from the internet. 




The stairs going down to exit the museum.

The exit of the Vatican.

After this we had seen a Burger King to take the kids, since we don't have this in Luxembourg, but when we got there it said they weren't opening until later today.  But across the street we saw a subway so even better!  We split some subs and got some American cookies- yummy! 
From here we walked to Castel Sant' Angelo.  As most things it was built for one thing and used later for many other things. 

Bridge in front of Castel with statues.

It was built in the 2nd century as a tomb for Emperor Hadiran.  There is a wall that is built from here to the Vatican with a passage way that later the Pope would use to escape from unwanted vistors.

So then it was used as a fortress to defend the Vatican.  Its legend rests on its link with another Pope, Alexander I, who mistress bore him 2 children.  This fortress was later used as a miltary area and prison. We walked along the outside up on the upper levels and again had a great view of this part of the city.
Here is a picture of piles on cannon balls.

From here we walked to a flea market and then took a cab back to the apt. 
Of course we stopped to ride the merry go round!

*Just a note that all my historical data isn't from me, but from my 2 books I had brought of Italy.
DK Eyewitness Travel Italy and Frommer's Italy 2006.  As other expats were moving home they gave us their travel books!  And they were very helpful.

This afternoon Jason had some work to do so we so we were at the apt. for a few hours.  Here is Amber looking for her snack!

Then at 6:30 we walked about 2 blocks to a Irish Pub hoping that it would be open.  It was and we all had good meals.  Jason's dinner translated as sheep on stick!
I really wanted cornbeef, but the guy had no idea what that was.  I guess not a very Irish Restaurant.  So I had a good chicken/veg. wrap.
Jacob's Roman drawing at dinner.

 After dinner we walked back and the kids found one last Gelato place to stop in.  While we were walking home I pointed out the church that had the 3 layers of history and Amber said "I don't want to go in anymore churches!"  Too funny.  I told her I was just pointing it out and that we were all done.  Once back at the apt. we took in the views one last time with Rome all lit up!

Friday-
The kids were up super early today.  So we were packed up and got out by 8am.  Rome has a lot of construction going on and to get out of the city the GPS was zig zagging us all around.  The drivers here aren't as polite as the ones in Luxembourg and they were all over the road.  The people on motorcycles weave in and out of the lanes or just go in between the lanes, just like in Brazil. 
When I asked the kids what they enjoyed about Rome, Sean said the Colosseum.  He also asked at one point if Grandpa saw the fights they had there.  I am not sure how old he thinks Grandpa is, but Grandpa didn't like that one! 
Jacob said he liked the Pantheon and Amber said the Museum.  And Jason said the view from the apt.  For me it wasn't necessarily one strutuce as they were all amazing, but just the fact that these structures were over 2,000 years old and we could wander around them and wonder what life must have been like. 
So we drove 8 hours today back up north.  We stopped only once.  I had made lunch so we had that in the car again.
It was very foggy in the Swiss Alps.

I had made reservations for a hotel in Switzerland, so after 8 hours of driving we arrived there.  It was in a cute town called Altdorf in the middle of the mountains.

We walked around the town, Jason made a haircut appt. for Sat., and we went to the grocery store to get some more food for the remaining trip home.  The store was the same chain as Venice- Coop.  The store had a more American products then Luxembourg stores do- peanut butter for one.  We tried to go up the cable car, but it was closed due to the wind.  We tried to find a fondue restaurant, but couldn't.  We asked back at our hotel and she wasn't really sure what that was.  Here they speak German, and not many people speak English here.  Switzerland also has its own currency, Franks, so at the grocery store we were able to pay in Euros but got Franks in change.  Not a lot of places even took credit cards.
Outside our hotel was a mountain and about 1/3 of the way up was a house that said Restaurant on it.

So we thought we would try that for dinner.  The lady at the hotel said you can't drive up there you just walk up the trail that was across the street.  Sounds good, right.  So we start hiking around 5:25pm.  It was now starting to get dark.  It was a steep hike up and in the middle were some signs about which way to go,  thank goodness it wasn't too dark to see these yet.  We still can't even see the restaurant and now the trail is getting narrower and is single file against the side of the mountain- this is not looking very safe.  By the time we reach the restaurant it is dark.  There is a little wood gate and we walk up to the restaurant.  There are some tables outside and 4 big picnic like tables inside and an old wood burning fireplace.   The owner and his wife that ran the place I think they just live above the restaurant in the chalet looking house.  The view from up here was so neat. 

There were only 2 other groups of people there.  By the time we sat down it had been about 40 min.  We couldn't understand the menu very well since it was all in German.  The owner tried to help us with his little bit of English.  The food was good, but a lot of it fried.  Jason's had a good bratwaurst, and mine was a fried pork.  So now the trick was how in the world are we going to get back down this mountain in the dark.  The owner said to go down the the mountain on the other side of the restaurant which was a steep gravel road going down.  It was lit a little bit by the lights from the city below.  So much easy then a little trail.  I was carrying Amber half the way and the boys were holding on to Jason.  Note to self- next time we go hiking up a mountain in the evening, bring a flashlight!

Saturday-
Jason got up and got his hair cut.  He wasn't going to have time to get it done before his next trip so just easier to have it done here, but no one spoke English so he ended up with a very short haircut.  The hotel had the basic European breakfast, yogurt, cheese, meat, bread, fruit.  Although here they had very good banana bread.  They also did have good hot chocolate that all the boys enjoyed- we will be stopping later because of this!
It was a beautiful area.  We tried to do the cable car again, but they said it was still too windy.  Today the weird thing about the wind was that it had a warm breeze to it.  Overnight it definately snowed in the mountains since they had more snow on them today. 

From here it is about 4 1/2 hours home.  There was still beautiful fall colors on all the trees and it is Nov. 5th. 
Jason had heard that there was a KFC outside of Luxembourg in France and we would be driving that way.   So we found it on GPS and took the kids there.  The parking lot was packed and this was at 1:30.  We had to wait for someone to leave to get a spot.  They had a small kids play area inside here.  The chicken tasted the same but I was disappointed b/c they had no sides or biscuits.  It just comes with fries.  So we missed the coleslaw, mashed potatoes and biscuits.
We finally made it back home here and Jason and the boys had a bunch of yard work to do, since we can't mow on Sundays.  I had loads of laundry to start.

We had a wonderful week seeing Italy and now I look forward to hearing where some of my friends that went on vacation went  to- Hong Kong, Portugual, Ireland, California, and Normandy.

Arrivederci