When in Rome

We arrive in Rome with drizzle still coming down but find the very central campsite to be pretty good with a little tourist info booth on site, and a REALLY helpful lady who guides us on where to go and how to get there...anything to make the big cities easier is hugely appreciated by us!!

Our first full day and we get the train as instructed into Rome. The walk to the station is a little hairy, as we are bacaly walkin on a dual carriageway, often with no pavement, sometimes pavement too narrow for the buggy, but we make it in one piece after a quick snack stock up meaning we can fill the children up on strawberries on the train ride. The only downside here’s is that he stations don’t have lifts we we have to carry the pushchair up and down the stairs each time (on a badly sprained ankle...ouch!).

We are aiming to cover west of the river today so head to St. Peter’s piazza. I am trying to avoid all the people trying to sell queue jump tickets that the lady warned us about, but Nic apparently didn’t hear her give this warning and, what with his love of chatting to people, we get stuck a few times before I explain that we have to politely say no!

We find a lovely little piazza to have a pit stop snack in and luckily there are pigeons so obviously Coen is entertained with chasing them, which makes Amelia chase them and consequently most of the piazza is entertained as well.

Next we make our way to St Peters piazza. Our first look at what Rome is about and we are pretty impressed!! We decided that we can’t do the tours, it’s going to be two long days and a lot of miles for little legs so adding in any extra 2 hr tours that will not be entertaining for the children is not fair and will consequently not be much fun or informative for us. Luckily the campsite tourist lady lent us a book that fills us in on a bit of history!

As rain was forecast we take our ‘big’ umbrella - which Amelia is now using for shade as it gets hotter, however being Rome, most streets were packed with people and this meant most people were having to do so crazy manouvres to keep their eyeballs as she strolled past them oblivious to the spikes being at everyone else’s eye level. Luckily we quickly manage to find a brand new pink umbrella which was much more Amelia’s size and she wanders the streets happily shaded and everyone else gets to keep their faces!

We had seen a little lookout highlighted on the map so head towards it; the map was a little vague though so we spend a good half an hour trying to find the highest point that would give us the view...luckily a local points us in the direction and we get a great panoramic of Rome and it’s wonderful buildings, statues and the old city within the Roman Forum. We wander back along the river, taking in the amazing buildings, castles and bridges. It’s quite breathtaking to see the beauty of this place, we are not ‘city’ people but it’s hard not to be in awe of these Roman creators. After haggling with a lookie-lookie for a new selfie stick, and a quick go on the merry-go-round for Amelia and Coen, we find the pizza place that was recommended by the campsite (more amazing pizza?!) and head out into a beautiful piazza to let the children run around, chase the bubble man and pigeons, and then figure out which train to catch home.

The total perk of this stop was that taking Coen to check in at reception meant they gave a us a key to the ‘nursery’ - we didn’t know what this was but turned out it was a little baby room with a FREE washer/dry - cue 7 loads of washing - 1st machine wash in 8 weeks and we did not leave a single thing unwashed! The showers also have classical music on loop 24/7 so we always felt quite relaxed after using them!

The next day we take the train again to cover the other side of the city. Another slightly risky walk to the station, and we head towards the mighty Colosseum - testing our map reading skills on a very dodgy map with only half the streets on, luckily we end up in a tiny piazza with an amazing church with the most beautiful paintings on the ceilings, angel statues all around the place and beautiful gold figures high up in the ceilings - a real treat to see this art as we were not going to the Sistine due to the queues! Also, as there is a sign asking to keep noise down as there are services going on...Coen wants to test the acoustics of the building by shouting ‘ECHO’ ‘ECHO’! Aargh.

Eventually we see the mammoth structure of the Colosseum towering above the crowds. Definitely the busiest place we’ve been, we realise that Amelia has been able to wander fairly freely until this point - cue a quick talk about ‘getting lost in a city’!! The sights are really quite amazing, we stand and wander how these huge structures were built in an age before machines.

It gets pretty warm so we bargain with Amelia for an ice-cream in return to walk a little further while Coen has a kip. More amazing statues, more palaces, church’s, the Trevi fountain (how many others mistake it for the tiny one around the corner?! Lucky we carried on looking!), and finally the Spanish steps, where we see a beautiful Italian bride and groom celebrating just as the rain starts. We then decide as we’re passing, that we should get another pizza from the same place as the first was so good...just a quick snack to give the children the energy to get home!!

We are all pretty physically drained from two days walking around Rome, but have really enjoyed the wonder of this place.

Another highlight for the children was the little golf buggy on the campsite that picked up us and took us to and from our pitch, waving at Nic as we drove past (who walked with the pushchair).

Onwards and upwards literally now as we leave Rome, dubiously following Nic’s suggestion of a campsite on a very narrow spit...Read more