When planning the trip, each family member picked a destination where they wanted to go. And then it was up to us parents, to make it work. Mike picked the Yukon. I chose a Live-aboard boat, and Izzie selected Legoland. Now, it was Julie’s pick (or at least it was supposed to be). She had picked Disneyland. During the circumnavigation, the closest Disney park on our route was Paris Disneyland. So, it was added to the itinerary. When we actually got down to planning this leg, we realized that getting from Siena to Paris and then to Barcelona (our next planned stop) would be difficult. Without much backtracking and/or flying, we would spend 30 hours on a train to make this happen. Rail passes do not work as well as we once remembered because the “reservation fees” are much more common now, and going to Paris involved many of them. We could have flown for less than the booking fees! But at this point, we’ve flown 16 times in 6 months and feel quite guilty about our carbon footprint, so we really wanted to take advantage of the train pass. Instead, we got Julie excited about some theme parks in Spain and convinced her that we could skip Disney. She was satisfied, but we did not feel the best about it.
After Rome, we decided that we wanted to spend some time in Tuscany. Mike does not like renting cars in Europe (long story) and we did not want to be in the chaos of tourists in Florence. Instead, we decided to go to Siena – still full of tourists but fewer than Florence. We realized that most people were taking bus tours to Siena during the day but staying elsewhere, so we fell in love with the feeling of the city in the evening when everyone cleared out.
I booked an Airbnb that was perfect for us. It was an old Italian apartment with giant rooms and completely outdated elegant furniture. The kitchen had every gadget you could imagine so I enjoyed zesting citrus while the girls used the parmesan cheese grinder. Unlike these cookie-cutter Ikea Airbnbs, this one was the kind where they took their grandmother’s house, cleaned it up, and turned it into an apartment to rent. It even kind of smelled like a grandmother’s house. It was exactly what we wanted for this part of the trip. The kitchen alone, with its dining table, made this place magical for us. The view was also spectacular as you could see the skyline of Siena from our balcony.
Siena has some beautiful sites like a Duomo Cathedral and a tower well worth climbing. The outskirts of the city were pure Tuscan magic and we hiked one day amongst the olive and cypress trees. We also attended a soccer game since the Stadium was less than 100m from our apartment. Julie and I lasted until halftime but Isabella stayed for the whole game with her dad.
We took two day trips, finally getting to show the kids how the Eurail passes worked. We went to Florence one day and took another walking tour. Both Michael and I had been to Florence before but we had fun walking the city and showing the girls places like the Ponte Vecchia. Then a few days later, we went to Pisa and got the required photo at the leaning tower.
Siena was a great week of adventure coupled with fun daily living stuff. Living in a more “complete” home meant that we caught up on school, did lots of laundry, and cooked. It was amazing having not only a great grocery store nearby but also the Siena Agricultural Consortium which was like a treasure trove of Italian goodies. We were craving home-cooked rather than restaurant-cooked meals and were not disappointed. I even cooked a roast chicken dinner since we’d missed a few holiday meals and Julie told me that she did not remember what “stuffing” tasted like. For the record, she approved of the taste! Now we leave Italy on our most epic travel day yet (7 trains in 13 hours).
So we are very behind with the blog. My mom encouraged me this week to finish writing it, saying that we wrote for nine months and will always regret it if we leave it hanging in Amman. Michael is currently uninspired to write so I am going to try to write a few posts and re-inspire him to finish it with me.
To be honest, Rome is a very strange post for me to be doing because Michael loves Rome more than any other place in the world. He has been 3 times and was so thrilled to bring the girls. For him, a trip to Italy is not complete without a few days in Rome. We arrived a few days before Easter (yes, I am now admitting how far behind this blog is) and did not realize how chaotic Rome would be for Easter. To compound the situation, I had booked an Airbnb near the Vatican where a lot of the Easter celebrations take place so we were in a tourist-filled crazy zone. But our place was nice and we were happy to be in Europe finally, albeit sad because we knew that this was our last leg.
Mike hardly noticed how crazy Rome was over the Easter period. He was in his happy place and oblivious to anything around him. He would wake up every morning and go walking because he discovered that he could have Rome to himself at 6 am. He even took Izzie walking to the Colosseum and Pantheon before 7 am so that she could see the building from the outside without the hoards of people.
After 4 months in Southeast Asia, we were not prepared for the spring weather in Rome. The only pants the girls had were Boho elephant pants that were not thick enough to keep out the cool breeze. So Day 1 involved shopping (which I did not complain about). Julie got cute Camper shoes and Izzie was fully decked out by Benneton before we checked into our Airbnb.
Despite the fact that the apartment was so close to the Vatican, it was far enough away that we were in a real neighbourhood where people actually lived. We had a great Roman pizza shop across the street and loved looking out at the action below our giant floor-to-ceiling windows.
With both Michael and I having been to Rome before, we did not obsess over seeing all the sites again. We went to the catacombs one day and walked the Ostia Antica. We did the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps but mostly we just walked around exploring different parts of the city. It was nice to experience Spring and even the days of rain were nice since it hadn’t rained on us in months.
What will the kids remember about Rome? Probably their “special days” which are the days when we separate them and let them have one-on-one time with a parent. Julie had mom this time and so we went to an Art Supply Store and bought watercolours. We watched a Youtube video about how to watercolour paint and sat for hours mixing colours and painting. Then we cooked a 4 course meal. It might sound strange to some but painting and cooking are Julie’s favourite things so she was in heaven.
Isabella and Mike visited a park, threw paper airplanes and ate at McDonalds. Our kids love to travel but after nine months they are craving days where we do less. I guess that we are too!
Mike’s cousin Lorron came to Rome and visited us too. She brought her boyfriend Jamie and they were quite the opposite, visiting every site and cramming more into their week in Italy as we did in a month. Seeing Lorron was great and it even gave Michael and I a chance to go out to dinner by ourselves for the first time in a long time. We found a cute little Osteria and had a great meal.
We spent ten days in Rome and it was a great starting point for the European leg. We still have France, Spain and Portugal to go with many visitors planned. Off to Tuscany next!
Family Travel Countdown 