Rome Family Vacation: Day 5 - Ostia Antica

For our final full day in Rome, we decided to take a train outside the city to visit Ostia Antica, a well preserved ancient Roman city.

If you'd like to hear about our previous days in Rome, please check out Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4!

At least we saw this really cool fountain at the Spanish steps

We started the day off pretty well and left the apartment bright and early to head to the train station. Our plan was to take the metro to the train station and then hop on a train to Ostia Antica. When we got to the metro station stairs, a man selling tours convinced us that it would be easier with the stroller to just take the bus to the train station instead.

Worst.Idea.Ever.

First, we couldn't find the right bus and then we waited forever at the bus station and so finally we ended up walking to the Spanish Steps and hopping on the metro there to get to the train station.

It took up most of our morning and honestly, the metro wasn't that hard to maneuver with the double stroller. The stairs are always tricky, but we've found that people are generally nice and willing to help us out when we need an extra hand.

They had several cats at the ruins that were all very friendly and well-taken care of. We loved saying hello to all of them!

Ostia Antica is about a half hour from Rome (if you don't have to spend the morning wandering around the city looking for a bus...).

It was used as a seaport for Rome and had around 60,000 residents at it's peak. Eventually it was abandoned after the fall of the Roman Empire and luckily the mud that came to cover it up helped to keep it well preserved and protect it from being sacked.

The theatre entrance

We ate lunch at the little restaurant there and then began to explore the ruins. Again, we listened to a free Rick Steves audio tour as we walked around. It was a nice to get an explanation of some of the sights that we saw.

The theatre seating

One of the most impressive sights was the theatre that is still used at times today. It's one of the oldest theatres in the world! It was really neat being able to sit there and imagine how it was 2,000 years ago. Also, the view from the top of the stairs was fantastic!

The beautiful view from the top of the theatre

We also saw the Square of the Guilds which is where merchants would sell different items or services. This was really amazing because the mosaics used to describe the businesses are still there today! We loved walking around and guessing each merchant by the mosaic left behind. London had a great time learning about what a mosaic is and how it's made. She also loved pointing out what each picture was.

Squire of the Guilds

Such amazing mosaics!

We strolled further down and into the city and learned about ancient apartments back then. The apartments were so small that they didn't even have kitchens inside them! Instead they would eat at the local restaurant for their meals.

Outside of an ancient Roman apartment

The restaurant was across from the biggest apartment building and was still in great shape. The counter was still intact and you could definitely imagine what it would have been like back in the day. I really couldn't get over how well-preserved it was!

At the restaurant counter

The public bathrooms

We really enjoyed wandering around the ruins. I only wish that we would have had more time there! It was great for the kids because our toddler could walk most of the time and run around in the grass. Tons of pretty wildflowers were everywhere and London had a blast picking a few of them.

Ostia Antica closed around 5 or 6 pm (in February... They might be open later in the summer).

We had a wonderful day exploring this ancient town! It was great getting out of the city and away from the crowds for a day. I highly recommend checking this place out, especially with how close it is to Rome! It gave us a great picture of what everyday Roman life was like and really helped to complete our tour of the ancient sites.

Our 6th and final day in Rome was spent packing in the morning and heading to the airport. We took a metro to the train station and took a train straight to the airport with no issues. Our plane was a little bit delayed, but other than that was okay. It was a really fantastic trip overall and one that we will always remember!

For more information about Ostia Antica, check out:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/ostia-antica-near-rome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostia_Antica

Rome Family Vacation: Day 4 - Vatican City

Our fourth day in Rome was spent in Vatican City. Our plan was to go to the Vatican Museum (and see the Sistine Chapel) and then check out St. Peter's Basilica and climb the dome.

To read about our previous days, visit my posts on Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 in Rome.

The museum had a super cute children's map that gave kids things to look for as they walked through the museum.

Vatican City is the smallest state in the world and is ruled by the Pope.

Courtyard inside the museum

We bought our tickets online here before coming on our trip. I highly recommend this! We left our apartment bright and early and there was already a very long line outside the museum. Luckily, since we had already purchased our tickets, we got to bypass the entire line and enter in a side entrance with no wait.

Hallway full of Roman statues

We brought our double stroller with us and used the handicap entrances to go straight back to the Sistine Chapel. No photos were allowed, so I don't have any to post, but it was simply amazing to see in person! We had our free Rick Steves audio tour again and listened as he explained the different pictures.

A beautifully decorated ceiling above as as we made our way to the Sistine Chapel

There is a whole lot to see in the museum! After the Sistine Chapel, we walked back through the handicap entrance to where we started. We wanted to see the Raphael paintings as well, but had a little trouble accessing them with our stroller. We ended up having to carry our stroller several times up and down stairs, which was a huge hassle. If you want to see a good amount of the museum, I would recommend bringing a carrier or maybe a small light stroller instead.

Afterwards, we went for a walk outside for a bit so the girls could nap in the stroller and then headed back to climb the dome at St. Peter's Basilica.

Swiss Guard

St. Peter's Basilica was designed in part by Michelangelo and is one of the largest churches in the world.

Luckily they had a place to check in our stroller so we did that and then proceeded to make our way to the top of the dome.

The dome has a total of 551 stairs. For a few euros, you can pay to take an elevator that will skip the first 200 stairs - with a toddler and a baby, that's exactly what we did!

The view coming out of the elevator

We each held a kid as we climbed to the top of the dome. At times the stairway got very narrow and even slanted. It was very difficult at times, but once we got to the top, it was totally worth it.

The dome was fashioned after the Pantheon

About halfway up after the elevator, there was a door that led inside to a balcony inside the dome. It was amazing to see it so up close! The mosaics were spectacular. Both the girls loved looking out at everything.

We climbed the rest of the stairs and were greeted with quite the view.

 It was amazing seeing Rome from the top of the dome! We all loved it, especially Adeline. She kept standing and pointing at all the sights below.

We hung out up there for awhile and then made the trek back down all the stairs (and elevator) until we came inside the church itself.

It was really interesting seeing the dome up close first and then seeing it second from the ground. It really is spectacular.

The inside of the Basilica is massive, but was designed in a way to feel like a more intimate space. When looking at the different sculptures, they appear small. Until you take a closer look and realize some of them are over six feet tall!

There are many things to see in the Basilica, some main sights include:

• Michelangelo's Pieta (sculpture of Mary and Jesus)
• St. Peter's tomb underneath the center canopy
• The circle near the front dear where Charlemagne was crowned King.
• The Holy Door, which is only open on Jubilee years

Michelangelo's Pieta

The normal entrance

The Holy Door - Different groups will actually do a pilgrimage to touch the door. Normally closed, they were open for the Jubilee year. Since we entered after climbing the dome, we actually used a different entrance. 

We really enjoyed our day in Vatican City. The museum was a bit stressful trying to figure out how to get around with a stroller, but I did really enjoy seeing the Sistine Chapel and learning more about it.

The dome was amazing and made up for all the earlier stress! We loved the view and had a great experience all around.

For more information, check out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Museums
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
http://www.reidsitaly.com/destinations/lazio/rome/sights/st_peters.html

Rome Family Vacation: Day 3 - Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon

Our third day in Rome was spent seeing some of the smaller, quicker sights around the city. Our original plan was to see the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, a cat sanctuary, and a puppet store called Pinocchietto that was recommended by a friend.

When we left our apartment that morning, the Pope was getting ready to do a Morning Service. Tons and tons of people were gathering in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

I'll be honest, this was probably my least favorite day. We saw some really neat things, but I feel like we didn't plan our day as well as we should have, especially after such a fantastic day before in Ancient Rome.

We were able to do everything on our itinerary by the afternoon and then had a hard time figuring out what we should do next.

Trevi Fountain

It was still a great day though and I did enjoy all that we saw.

We started off by going to the Trevi Fountain first thing in the morning. We took the Hop-on Bus there, which was a nice little ride.

The Trevi Fountain is built mostly out of Travertine and was completed in 1570. Legend has it that if you toss a coin in the fountain and drink the water, you'll come back to Rome. Nowadays the water is recycled, but there are some cast iron pipes on the steps of the fountain that does have drinkable water.

The fountain was turned off and being cleaned when we first arrived, but luckily it turned on before we left. It was beautiful and London had a lot of fun throwing coins in and making wishes. We also got to fill up our water bottles from the drinkable water there, which was very nice!

A friend of ours, Dustin, went to Rome awhile back with his family and found this neat wooden puppet store while they were there. It was just down the street from the Trevi Fountain and it was the cutest little store! While it had mostly puppets, it also had a few other neat little wooden toys. We ended up getting a little princess puppet for our toddler and a little wooden pushcar for our baby.

The perfect spot for a picnic.

Next, we walked to the Pantheon and stopped to grab lunch on the way. We ate outside and enjoyed the fountain behind us and the Pantheon in front of us. The weather was wonderful the whole time we were in Rome and we really enjoyed all of our time outside.

Inside the Pantheon. The bottom photo is of Raphael's tomb. 

The Pantheon was built sometime around 126 AD. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church converted it into a Christian church and since the Renaissance, it's been used mostly as a tomb. Two of Italy's Kings are buried there (Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I) and one Queen (Margherita). The tomb of the famous painter, Raphael, can also be found inside.

It was amazing being able to step inside and look up at the dome. We had another free audio guide by Rick Steves that we listened to as we walked around. It had some great information and really helped us to understand everything we were seeing. 

Cat Sanctuary

Next up was the Cat Sanctuary at the Roman ruins of Torre Argentina. It took a long time to finally find it, and then we weren't really sure what to do once we did. I love animals and especially cats. When I read about the sanctuary amongst the ancient ruins, I thought that it was a really neat idea and something that London and I would really enjoy. Once we got there though, it seemed like you could only look down at the ruins where the cats were, not necessarily walk down there. This might be how it always is, or perhaps it was closed off for the slow season (it was February after all), or maybe we just missed the entrance - I'm still not really sure. 

Anyway, we saw some cats and we saw a place where people leave food for them, which I thought was really nice. A few cats were up at the top where we were so we did get to pet a few at least. 

Flower Market

It was only mid afternoon at this point and we had already ran through all that we planned for the day. I had the thought of us doing some souvenir shopping but we weren't really sure where to go for that (or what we were really even looking for).

We ended up walking down to the Flower Market, which is really more of just an open market. It had tons of dried spices, pasta, and other yummy looking food. We bought some dried mushrooms before continuing on our way.

Piazza Navona 

Spanish Steps

We stopped by the Spanish Steps which were unfortunately under construction. It had a really neat fountain though that I got a picture of on one of our later days.

Column of Marcus Aurelius

At this point, we started to head back to our apartment. on our walk back, we found the Column of Marcus Aurelius. It has a spiral of pictures going around it that tell the story of the Marcomannic Wars and is styled after Trajan's Column.

On our way home, we also stopped by the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon again. It was really neat to see both of these at night. Trevi Fountain looked even more spectacular lit up for the evening and it was awesome seeing the Pantheon one more time.

While the day wasn't as planned out as I would have liked, it was still a great day and one that involved seeing many wonderful sights. 

For more information, check out:

http://www.trevifountain.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome

http://www.romancats.com/torreargentina/en/introduction.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_of_Marcus_Aurelius

Stay tuned for Day 4: Vatican City!