Rome
After we settled into our hotel, I took Fierce to get some dinner. He fell asleep and woke up in the restaurant to the smell of Italian pizza. He looked up with such gratitude..."Thanks mom for some yummy food that I recognize."We explored the Castle that afternoon. Fierce led the way through which meant we didn't follow the normal flow of foot traffic, but that's boring anyway. At one point we looked through one of the window eyelets and saw a puppy. This meant that we were on a puppy search from then on :)One our way back we stopped for a huge helping of gelato about a hundred feet from St. Peter's Basilica. The owner was so sweet, he brought us little mini cones for our ice cream. With chocolate, coffee and mango smiles we left and took a few pictures of the Basilica as the sun set.
I set my alarm for an early wake up in order to get in line to see the Vatican. I have been to Rome one time before with my friend, Megan, and we were not able to get inside, so I was checking all of my boxes to give myself the best opportunity. Once I arrived, however, I found out that if you are with a baby you get to skip the line and enter at 9:00 am after the tour groups. So we went across the street to a coffee shop and at doughnuts and fruit while we waited. Fierce made friends with the server as well as a tourist group from Korea.We were able to enter before most of the tourists so we could see a lot without the crowds that came later. Fierce wasn't really into the Vatican, so I started pointing out different characters or objects he would recognize in the statues like puppies, etc. Then he saw a naked statue and said "Pee!" Uhhh, ya buddy, that's right :)He liked the wide open courtyard the best because he could push the stroller...he is very independent. In the courtyard is a large bronze sphere with cut outs...very cool looking.The Vatican has an Egyptian museum in it which is pretty neat to see. One lady statue was being attended by several others and it really brought the scene of opulence to life.In general, every room is so incredibly decorated and ornate. There are so many statues, paintings, tapestries, and marble everything. Even the floors are done in intricate tiles. I liked the dragons. I took a picture to be possible framed and used in Fierce's room.My Dad had requested a picture of Fierce in front of the Colosseum and of course that would be adorable...However, it is clear across town so I made a pit stop at the Botanical Gardens to let Fierce stretch his legs. He could run, run, run! He found a baby who had a ball and the mother let him play with it for a while which he thought was awesome. Later he found two sticks and drummed on the park benches. I took a video of him drumming and then singing. He is so into it, it's really cute. He drummed on every plant, tree, flower, path, etc...he likes to hear the different noises. I suppose everything has its own rhythm and he is going to discover them all.It was a painfully long walk the rest of the way so whenever we hd a chance, I let him get out of the stroller and walk next to me. This is slow going :) We arrived and he was so tired. He took a few cute pictures and then threw the tantrum of a lifetime. I guess if you are going to have a meltdown you might as well make it epic at a historical site. Anyways, he fell asleep soon after so I began the walk back. He didn't wake up until about one street from the hotel. I decided we needed some more gelato and he smiles soooo big. Yup, he is my kiddo! Our hotel had a main gate, then a reception building, a courtyard full of purple flowers and then our apartment building. Our apartment was one of three on our floor with a shared bathroom and kitchen. Our view from the window was of the train station, but the view from the street or main gate was directly of the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Truly spectacular! I would definitely stay here again. The reason I picked it was because it was a five minute walk to the Vatican...Amazing!
