Chapter One of the Family Chronicles- Roman Times

​We left Spoleto in the early morning to catch a train to Rome. 

First destination upon deboarding at Tiburtina Station in a quick stop at our Easybox storage unit. 

 We need to trade out some warm clothing articles for some cooler weather ones and to pick up the clothes that we packed for Anna. Jim had to strap her clothes to the outside of his seat post bag and I heard a lot of, “why does she need so many clothes?”   

As I haven’t mentioned it as of yet I will now.  We are very excited to see our children and especially in the backdrop of this crazy beautiful country that we live so much.  We hope that they not only have a wonderful respite from their normal lives but feel some of the magic that has captured our hearts. 

We spend the night in a hotel near the station and check out and immediately hear from Elliott that his flight arrives an hour early.  Rather than wait for the limo we had lined up for Brad and Anna who arrive a few hours later he wants to jump on the train. The train station at the airport is busy and confusing and Elliott figured it out pretty well except for missing the train that he bought the ticket for and jumps on the next one and they make him buy another ticket.  Oh well, a pretty good first attempt and only costs a few extra dollars.  

It is still early morning and we can’t check into our hotel for many hours so we do a long loop around seeing some of the sights enroute.  After a few hours and after seeing some wonderful sites we stop at a shady park near Castel St Angelo where Elliott promptly falls asleep on a walk. I serve as the safety monitor because if he fell off the backside he would have plunged to a very serious injury!

Finally we check into our hotel which is very welcome after the heat and chaos of the city streets.  Elliott naps while we buy some provisions as we don’t know if Anna and Brad will just want to go to bed or go to a restaurant for dinner. We fill the tiny hotel fridge with meat cheese, wine, juice, fruit and other snacks.   Anna and Brad get dropped off right in front of the hotel and they are exhausted but ready to hit the streets. So we head out and start seeing the beauty of this city at night and go to a restaurant right near the hotel. 

So over the next two days we do the usual Rome sightseeing but it was fun to experience the sites through eyes that have never seen it before.  We had some extraordinary meals.  It seemed every meal was better than the one before. Tip:  eat at Emma’s pizza.  It brought back childhood memories of eating at Pepe’s pizza in New Haven Connecticut.  Slightly charred  crust perfectly salty cheese bright tomato sauce and to top off the ecstasy deliciousness of crispy pork cheek bacon.

  

One thing we opted for instead of dealing with the Vatican museum (although we did stand in a relatively short line to go into St. Peter’s basilica and climbed up to the top of the cupola) 

was Elliott suggested we go into the Castel st Angelo museum instead. It was an excellent choice. We bought tickets on line, walked right in and it was a fascinating museum.  This castle has been in constant use since Hadrian had it built for his family mausoleum.  It has been a mausoleum , a place of torture, a prison, quarters for soldiers a private home and now a state museum.  The view from the top was wonderful as well. 

Overall it was a perfect Rome visit for both the family time (including Brad!) and the perfect amount of sightseeing.  However I think everyone was ready to leave the hustle and bustle of Rome for quieter experiences.  Onto Spoleto….