We arrived in Rome very late (we made sure we scheduled the flight after the kids got out of school since they were already going to be missing a day and a half). We quickly found the bus that took us to Termini Station in the center of Rome. Once we got off the bus, Fe --we were staying in her apartment, was waiting for us and helped us carry our luggage......and showed us the way to her apartment. She was a lovely lady and SO helpful! Our Rome adventure was off to a great start!
We got a late start on our day in Rome.....someone didn't want to get up and get going (Allie). Once we set foot on the street we started making our way to the Coliseum......the long way. We got in line to go inside but it was so long. We ended up deciding that seeing it from the outside was enough.
Of course it was under construction....pretty much everything we wanted to see was.
Blake loved chasing the pigeons!
We considered buying an entrance pass to the Forum and Palatine but just decided walking around and viewing from outside was good enough for that too (you know how cheap we are!)
Rome was so CROWDED! That definitely started to add stress to the day, plus we didn't have a stroller so we were taking turns carrying Blake....and even Avery sometimes. It was SO hot too! We were getting drenched in sweat pretty quickly. Then there was some sort of parade or riot going on. We weren't sure which. There was lots of loud rave type music, lots of chanting and parading, color bombs, etc. We were trying to get away from it as quickly as we could!
There were lots of interesting characters doing "street performing". The girls couldn't get over these guys. Of course, after I snapped some photos another guy started chasing me down for money.
Pantheon
We had the BEST gelato here. PS - we had gelato all but one day!
The kids decided to cool off at this drinking fountain.
Lunch in Piazza Navona
Then we walked to Trevi Fountain....under major construction. Then onto the Spanish Steps, under construction. So, we rested at the fountain near the Spanish Steps.
Then we started the long walk back to the apartment. Fe was kind enough to let us keep our bags there while we walked around (even though we were already "checked out").
At this point, we were more than ready to get back to the airport, get our rental car so we could be in air conditioning and on the road to our next stop!
Here is where the most stressful trip ever part comes in....so we get to the airport. Take shuttle to rental car area and get in line for our Rental Car. We rented through a company called Gold Car, which we had never heard of before but the rates were fantastic. Actually, we rented through Expedia....but the company the car was from was Gold Car. I stayed back with the kids while Derek was dealing with everything. It was taking FOREVER! The line was getting really long and it was still Derek and the same couple that was there before us that were being helped. I noticed that they had Derek step aside and started helping the next people. I walked up to see what was going on and he explained that they were trying to charge him double what he had already paid, plus lots more extra. Then he said they called the police on him because he said he wasn't going to leave until it was taken care of. They wouldn't even give us a refund if we chose not to pay all the extras! Before the police got there I explained to the other people in line what was going on. They were all furious too...and had the same thing happen to them. Every single person walked away without a car. The only thing was....every other company was already booked.....so then they all went back. The police came, the lady was talking to them in Italian saying who knows what, so I walked up there and said she should talk in English so we know she's not making up some story about what happened. They took Derek's passport info, then after he explained everything that went on they went and said something to the ladies working and "left". Derek called Expedia and was put on hold forever, lost calls, explained the situation to I don't know how many people and finally got someone that would talk to them for us. So Derek went up to see if they would talk to the people from Expedia on our phone and he was just standing there being ignored. So.....since we had been dealing with this for 2 hours at this point and already had the police called on us once I got out the video camera to record how long it would take for them to actually help us....and to have proof that we were in no wrong because i had no doubt they would probably try calling them again. Of course as soon as the lady saw me recording she went CRAZY! I guess it's against the law to record people in Italy. I tried over and over again to explain to her that I was recording the situation not her. She didn't care and called the police again.........which never left, they were still siting outside. I showed them the video, deleted it so the lady would stop freaking out, and explained everything to them. Told them how they were just ignoring my husband. We've already paid for a car, they are the criminals trying to charge so much extra, we have the company we purchased car from on phone wanting to talk to them and they are trying to tell them they can't charge us more, etc. The police actually agreed with me and the lady finally agreed to take the phone call and everything was finally settled! Ugh, What a nightmare. (funny side note story, when we returned the car.....there was another long line of furious customers. One guy saw Derek turn in keys and took him aside and talked to him. They LOVED talking about how big of a joke the company was.)
Luckily and surprisingly, we didn't let the situation bother us and had a FANTASTIC vacation after that. The Amalfi Coast is gorgeous!! We were situated in Maori, which was the perfect place to base ourselves with the kids. It's right in the middle of the Amalfi Coast and is probably the flattest part of the coast as well, which meant not a lot of steep climbs for us...where that's all it is everywhere else.
The apartment we stayed in wasn't bad. We chose this particular place because it was one of the few places that had a pool.....a free pool. Everything in Italy costs money! The only problem is, the pool was surrounded by buildings so it never really got much sun on it....and it wasn't heated. Oh, and they required you to wear a pool cap, so we never went in it. We were only a 5 minute walk (or less) to the beach though. It was great.
We had pastries for breakfast all but 2 mornings. This place had fantastic pastries! I wish I would have got a picture of them but we devoured them too quickly!
We spent the first day at the beach by the apartment. We had grabbed a few snacks earlier in the day and decided we'd just eat some of those for lunch since we got a late start to our day.
The beaches here are really rocky. While the setting is beautiful, we much prefer sandy beaches. Although the rocks did wonders on my cracked heels!!!
There was an Italian family sitting near us on the beach. I could tell their girls really wanted to play with our kids. I told Allie to offer to let them play. They were so excited! It was fun watching all of them interact as they couldn't understand anything that anyone was saying. They were trying though and did very well!
We then got ready to walk around the town and go to dinner. Pretty much everything was closed. The Italians close up shops during the day for riposo/siesta.
Then we learned the hard way that places in Italy really don't start serving dinner until 6:30 pm or later. We were waiting around for this one place I had read about to open (it never did open by the way). Once we realized it wasn't going to open we started walking to other places. They were open but only serving drinks. We did find one place that was serving dinner at, by this time, 6pm. We ordered a pizza for the kids.
It was massive (we had leftovers for lunch one day)
Derek and I devoured our pasta.
The next day we had breakfast at the hotel down the road. This hotel actually owns the apartments we were staying at. It was a nice change from the pastries and the view was amazing!!
Then we set out to find this awesome secluded beach that I had found when doing my research. It was SO worth it! We pretty much had it to ourselves. It was a lot more rocky than the beach in Maori so the kids didn't really venture out into the water much. They had a great time collecting broken pieces of ceramic that were constantly being washed up on shore. They found some pretty cool pieces too!
This was another day where we didn't have lunch. We didn't plan on staying here as long as we did! Good thing we had the snacks!!
Afterwards we made our way to Positano. The most picturesque city on the Amalfi Coast.
Much prettier from afar. It was SO CROWDED. This was the road.....it was like we were herding cattle!
More pictures from our drive along the coast. These roads are crazy. Tight. Lots of swtichbacks. Sheer drop offs on one side, cliffs or houses on the other. Not a lot of room to maneuver. Though I think the Road to Hana in Hawaii is much worse, one thing that makes this road so bad is that there are tons of buses that take up both lanes and tons of motorcyclists that think they rule the road. We were in this jam for I don't know how long. Cars had to keep backing up in order to get that bus through. We, at one point, were the first car behind that bus....
Dinner that night....
Every place we went to tried to get us to order the fresh fish. I figured we are on the coast it's probably pretty good so I went for it. Not at all what I was expecting! I ate a few things, who knows what it was. The kids split hamburgers (that had no buns) and Derek had a really yummy lasagna. Luckily Derek shared some of his plate and the kids had big salads come with their burgers that I was able to eat.
Next day (our last full day) we spent the entire day at the beach across the street! It was my favorite day. The most relaxing of them all. Very few pics from the day because I didn't take my camera with me.
Breakfast and pastries at the park
Getting ready for the beach
We were at the beach until about 4:30 or 5pm! It would have been the most ideal night to eat out since it was late enough for places to start serving dinner by the time we got back and showered.....but we decided to save some money and eat it. We made spaghetti and it was probably everyone's favorite meal. We were expecting some great food in Italy and it just wasn't as awesome as we had hoped for. Then we realized we hadn't taken any family pics on this vacation. It was really too dark out by this point but we went out and did it anyway.
That was the best we could do.
The last couple of nights Avery and Allie were going through an entire roll of toilet paper with stuffy noses. Our last day Allie seemed to be better but Avery and Blake were really not feeling well. You can tell in the pics! We were slow moving that morning but finally got up and going. We stopped in another town along the coast, Vietre Sul Mare. It's known for it's pottery and was quite charming!
Gelato makes everything better, at least a little bit.
Then we had the long drive back to Rome. The flight wasn't so fun with sick kiddos. Avery especially. It was a good trip overall though!
2 comments:
finally figured out my password
so I could look at this. All the
pics are so good. Sure could tell
when they started feeling bad:(.
I think the family pic is good!
love you,
Mom
I'm so jealous that I almost couldn't look at your pictures. Almost. But then I gave in and they were gorgeous! What a trip! We went to Italy when Owen was three. It was rainy and he complained the whole time. We're definitely going to try again.:)
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