When in Rome pt 2

When the kids keep asking to GO back to Italy, you KNOW it was a good trip. We weren’t there for long! Yet still it left an impression on them :) memories they will have forever.

Our  FULL day in Rome, we spent the day in Vatican City.  See pt 1. <—- 

The next day we slept in and decided to eat breakfast at a restaurant near our place. It’s true what they say... sitting down for breakfast will cost you! It was $60 euros for sandwiches, coffees, and toasted bread. Ha! When in Rome tho! 

After our bellies were full, we hopped in a taxi and went straight to the Colosseum.

A beauty to see in person! We had amazing weather too. 

The lines were long. So we did pay for a skip the line tour. The kids were awesome in the Vatican with a guided tour, but I think we were all a bit more tired than the day before. So we got in and then ditched our tour guide and walked around. The kids got to explore at their own fast pace ha! Plus, we gave the kids, a brief “kid” version of what down in there :/ 



How amazing are my pics tho :) 

These boys were facinated! 

We spent a few hours here taking it all in. 

When traveling with kids, the main thing is, know your kids, know your family. Every family is different, every kid is different. Some do well with fast pace, some don’t, some need snacks every second (my kids) some kids don’t. 

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It seems like we covered a lot in just 2.5 days, and we did,  but we actually took our time and didn’t cram it in. We know our kids and we like to take it easy. No rush, no over booking ourselves. A slow pace, so we can take it all in and not feel overwhelmed. 

After the Colosseum I knew the kids were tired. We didn’t want to continue walking too much around the grounds and end up too exhausted for the evening. So instead we hopped on the hop on hop off bus. We didn’t hop off until it was our stop near the  Spanish steps. But in the meantime we learned about all the historical sights a long the way. Mr K was paying close attention and ended up feeding us some of the information later on that night. 





Oh, and don’t forget to buy the kids a little souvenir or something to hold them over a bit longer, ha! They called these mushy balls they bought from a street vendor “doctor pimple poppers” ha! And that was the joke the whole trip. 






Once we hopped off at our stop, we had a little walk to our place. 

A scenic fun walk. 

We took in the calm fresh Rome air and talked about ... dinner of course haha well, gelato first then dinner. 





In Italy, they fill the wine glass right up to the rim! 


Ahhhh take me back! 

One more post to come! Yummy food and last evening in Rome before a 7 day cruise! Sicily! Malta! Spain, France and Genova!  

When in Rome

We had 2 full days of sightseeing in Rome before our cruise. We had lost a day of our trip because of the plane delays, so we made sure to make the absolute best of our time. Keeping in mind that we were traveling with 2 small kids, we planned out our days perfectly, Making sure we took much needed breaks, like gelato breaks ha! Because, you know, when in Rome!

 

The kids loved the strawberry gelato the most! Sooo good!

And messy ha! Good thing our Airbnb had a washing machine, because this mama used it! 

Our first morning there, we grabbed a quick breakfast and ate as we walked around the Spanish Steps. Taking it all in before jumping into a taxi to get us to Vatican City. I know transportation is easy to use in Rome as we were told. But we didn’t have much time to experiment and with 2 small kids jumping in a taxi was much easier for us. 

Vatican City!!  It was actually my second time there, I traveled to Italy with family when I was a teenager, and being on this trip with my little family now was soo special. 

This was an experience they will never forget. 


We purchased a tour from trip adviser with City Wonders. A skip the line, guided tour. Which was totally worth it. We met the tour group in front of the Vatican Museum. It was easy to find and our tour guide was so nice. They gave us earphones and a device, that way even if we walked a bit further or behind, we could still hear all the information. We learned so much! I think it was about $300 for the tour. Definitely worth it if it’s your first time. 

The Vatican museums are breathtaking. These pictures don’t do it justice. You NEED to see this all in person.

The tour was perfect for us, it gave us a lot of information but it also moved along fast and had a little snack break in between. My boys always need to eat. I think we were there for about 3 hours. The boys were facinated and didn’t complain one bit. We also went in February, and although there were crowds of people, it wasn’t as busy as their summers. 

Like I said, you NEED to see this in person. I have soooo many pictures of all the beautiful paintings and sculptures. Just unreal. 

We walked through the mueseums and out to St. Peter’s Basilica. The largest church in the world. 

Rome has like 900 churches 👀 maybe more? I’ll google that later haha. But A LOT of churches. MrK was paying attention to the guided tour and he fed me this information 😄

The boys loved the freedom of exploring new things. They were on their best behavior. 😅


The tour guide continued inside the church for a bit then left us to do our own thing. We could stay for as long as we wanted. We almost didn’t want to leave. The beauty and peacefulness of being inside the church was so welcoming. 












From here you could go up the steps to the dome, where you can see the city from above. I did this when I was 16, I remember it so vividly. I went on what it felt like the hottest day ever haha and I was so sick with nausea on my way down (ok maybe that was teenage drama) but anyway, thinking of carrying a 3yo up and down, didn’t feel like a good idea. We didn’t want to over do it with the kids. It was already an early morning and long day. Pushing them to their limits could ruin the experience, you know what I mean haha 


So we came out to the square and went into a few gift shops. Their great grandparents gave them some money to spend in Italy. They used the money to buy 2 little Angel ornaments taking their first holy communion (since this year it’s MrK’s first holy communion) they also bought their grandparents rosaries.💙

We walked around and took many pictures before getting more snacks! Ha! 

We had the perfect weather. 

The kids were awesome! We made sure everyone was hydrated and fed, we took breaks if needed. Bathroom breaks too! We then jumped back into a taxi and made our way back to the Spanish steps! We went back to the Airbnb to put our feet up and freshen up, then made our way back out into the streets of Rome.

More posts to come! 

Yummy Rome dinners, the Colosseum, Trevi fountain and la dolce vita of our trip in Rome.

Have questions on traveling to Rome with kids? Send me a message! Or DM me on my Instagram @aka_mama_t

Thanks for reading!