Hello everyone! This year for Mardi Gras Break, we took a whirlwind of a week trip to Italy. It started before Christmas, Norah said “I reallllly want to go to Rome… can we please go to Italy? I was too young to remember it”… and I can be EASILY persuaded to book trips out of the country if the price is right. 🙂 So, I started searching and I was able to find flights for a decent amount of credit card reward points… and some decent price hotels… so, it was planned.

The flights were from Houston to Rome via Amsterdam… so that meant the second Norah was out of school on Thursday afternoon- we hit the road to Houston, TX. The next day for lunch before the airport, we met my friend Tim and his wife Jen for sushi at a new place I have had my eye on since it opened in October- Katien Ginza Onedera – it is the first of the chain in the US, originally in Tokyo, its a very high end fresh nigiri conveyer belt sushi experience.

This salmon lunch set was legitimately the BEST salmon I had ever had in my life. And that’s a LOT of salmon in my life. ha Can’t wait to return.

Tim and Jen took us on to the airport and our car sat at their house (I wish everyone amazing friends who on one day’s notice are like- heck yeah! let’s get lunch! and no, you don’t need to Uber, we’ll take you to the airport!) *anyone who will drive you to the airport means they are a true friend. No one likes an airport run 🙂 ha

Norah was all geared up. We all packed for the 9 day trip in backpacks since we were changing flights twice, changing hotels 3 times and taking 2 train rides as well as hoofing it through Venice and other cobblestone uneven European streets. I had to repack my bag 3 times to fit everything! ha

The food on the flight wasn’t bad… pasta, bread, dessert, salad.. I’ve had worse.
For the first time ever, my name was on a sign waiting at the airport! We had arranged a private service to take us from the airport to our hotel since it was about 45-50 minutes and we wanted to try to fit in some hours of exploring the same day we arrived. 100% worth it to not have to navigate any bus tickets, cab fares or directions at all.
The airport had a wonderful surprise for Norah. TUC crackers. ha This was an Irish staple…and almost impossible to find in a store in the US (Amazon has them, but pricey) and so immediately, we had to get a package of Tuc. ha
Another Italian treat I had forgotten about… Pocket Coffee. Caffeinated, liquid center coffee chocolates that act as a shot of espresso. After flying overnight, we were ready for these!
Our hotel in Rome was a sort of AirBnb style setup… small operation, maybe just a husband and wife who remodeled a floor of a building into some hotel suites. it was clean and comfy… no complaints.
The elevator was very old with manual doors to close and lock in to go…. tight squeeze. ha
First stop- showing kiddo that McDonald’s in OTHER countries is actually good. ha
Offering a side of parmesan cheese with your burger lol
Look- a Big Mac… put together like a real burger… with real toppings… and the size of an actual meal!
Another side choice- croquettes- ham and cheese fried bites. Had to try those, too.

Overall, Norah was super impressed, as I had assumed.

With some food in our stomachs, we set out to just walk around the city for the day exploring some sites.

Norah on the Spanish Steps in Rome
Trevi Fountain craziness. SOOO many tourists in this one square, you go 50 feet away its almost deserted.
I wanted to go into this “City of Water” which is an old Roman cistern and reservoir of water they excavated and studied under Harry’s Bar. We stopped by to see if we could walk in and she only had 1 ticket slot left- in 45 minutes….and since I skipped it 10 years ago, I initially said no thanks… but then went back and said, yes please- put us down. So we went and got gelato while we waited.
Pistachio for me
Strawberry for Norah (and lemon for Kegan which I guess I didn’t photograph)
Once it was time for our entry, we went to check out the underground Roman water system
We headed towards the Pantheon because this was the 1 thing I thought Norah needed to see in Rome… but alas, it was closed for mass by the time we got there… and would not be reopened for another couple hours… so we made plans to circle back around before we left Rome.
The Neptune fountain in Piazza Navona
The Fontana del Moro at the other end of the Piazza
We walked by a shop with Aperol Spritz to-go! I have been on quite a kick of drinking spritzes even at home, so this was great 🙂
To wind out our evening, ended at Castello Sant’Angelo – my 1 “must” of the trip.

Castel Sant’Angelo was originally designed and built to be a mausoleum for the emperor Hadrian and his family, beginning around 134-139 AD. Hadrian’s ashes were placed here after his death in 138AD… and all following emperors through Caracalla in 217AD. However, when the Visogoths sacked Rome in 410AD, it was looted… again in 537AD when the Goths came back for another round of sacking Rome they removed all the hundred or more statues from the monument and all the bronze decorations.

It got it’s modern name because legend has it that the archangel Michael appeared over the Castel in 590AD to signal the end of the plague.

The popes converted this ransacked mausoleum into a fortress, incorporated it into the Aurelian walls of the city somewhere around the 1300s. There is even a secret path from the Vatican underground where the Pope could reach Sant’Angelo for safety in times of need. Supposedly they are working on converting that old underground path into a tourist path between St Peter’s Basilica and the Castel.

Since 1901, its been a museum… and we got the last entry tickets in for the night to explore.

Really interested in the backstory that gets Baboons painted on the Pope’s room in the 1500s
It was really raining and all the outside exploring of the Castel had us cold and exhausted after flying all night and exploring all day. Norah couldn’t quite hack it and zonked out in the cab back across the city towards our hotel for dinner, but overall- she did fantastic for being exhausted.

Dinner was Ok, but nothing to write about really.. we just wanted to pay and go to sleep at that point 🙂

Our Sunday morning started out at the Basilica of Saint Mary Maggiore- a REAL surprise and gem that I had never heard of, but am so glad we saw!

The original church was built in the 400s AD and retains a lot of the same shape from the original building. The floors are all Roman mosaics, original to the church. Absolutely unbelievable.

These Athenian Columns pre-date even the building of the church… and the coffered ceiling is said to be gilded with gold that was brought by Christopher Columbus, presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish Pope, Alexander VI.
The mosaics all over the church, but especially in the nave represent old testament events

There are at least 6 popes buried in this church already…and it will be the future burial place of our current Pope, Pope Francis… who at the time of our visit was hospitalized for a respiratory illness…but seems now to be improving.

One thing I didn’t know before our visit is that this is a Holy Year for Catholic pilgrimage- once every 25 years.. and for pilgrimage to Rome and to be forgiven for all of your sins, you must walk through the Holy Doors (which in the major basilicas are only opened every 25 years) of the 4 major basilicas in Rome. This is one of them. The other 3 being St Peter’s in the Vatican, St John Lateran’s and St Paul’s Outside the Walls. We did pass through the gold Holy Doors of Santa Maria Maggiore, but I didn’t take a photo as there was a nun entering alongside us and she was actively praying and kissing the doors and it felt invasive to photograph her…

We decided we needed some breakfast after that. Stopped at a little cafe with some great pastries, coffee and sandwiches.

There is an old staircase called the Scalinata dei Borgia or the Vicus Scelerata (the Evil Steps) that connects Via Cavour where our hotel was, up to the higher streets which led us towards the ancient Roman Forum and ruins. This staircase is famously where an ancient king of Rome – Servius Tullius – was killed by his daughter in an overthrow in 509BC…. but in modern history, the Borgia family lived in the palazzo above the staircase and lots of secretive murders and rendezvous happened here. Today it’s just a lot of steps with homeless people living on both sides under the cover….and some dude playing one line of a song over and over for tourists hoping for tips.
This led us to the colosseum first along the path. Here’s Norah in front. We originally had a private tour of the colosseum booked but they cancelled it, letting us know they couldn’t get tickets reserved for that day because the first Sunday of every month is free entry to the ancient sites and they don’t sell advance tickets… The line was INSANE…, so we had decided we just might miss the inside of the colosseum this trip… so we headed to the Roman Forum to wait in that line… and learned after we got the tickets, that our Roman Forum entrance included a timed entry to the colosseum to skip the line! Big winners!

After our Roman Forum and Colosseum exploration, it was time to meet our guide for our afternoon private golf-cart tour out along the Appian way.

Loved this fountain in the square. Made of a repurposed 1500s marble mask and an ancient granite tank from a Roman thermal bath.
The took us to the Giardino degli Aranci – the Garden of the Oranges to take a walk over to the medieval walls for a gorgeous look out over the city.

Also beside this park is the Basilica di Santa Sabina all’Aventino (on the Aventine Hill)- a church that dates from 422AD as maybe THE oldest church in Rome… back in Christianity’s infancy.

What makes this rare, is that as Christian houses of worship adapted to more ornate and opulent interiors, this church has retained its more stark and plain contemplative worship space. The pillars were taken from the ancient Temple of Juno the Queen which stood nearby in ancient times.
The doors are very special. They are made of Cypress wood and have a layout of 28 panels.

One of the smaller top panels, depicts the crucifixion of Jesus and 2 other figures in front of a Roman style portico’d building – this is the VERY FIRST known publicly displayed image of the crucifixion of Christ. These doors are from the original church in 432AD.

Unbelievable. and there was like, NOBODY there… add this to your Rome itinerary- totally worth it.
There is a small portal window across from the amazing doors giving a glimpse into the private garden of the convent (a convent used by St Thomas Aquinas) of an orange tree that was supposedly planted by a Saint in the 1200s and is still producing oranges. Believe it if you want 🙂
A golf cart tour was amazing, we sped through the city along with the cars on the streets, passing by tons of famous landmarks on our way to other sites.
Our guide stopped in a small restaurant to buy us Suppli- a fried risotto ball stuffed with mozzarella and tomato sauce. It was AMAZING. Ours were Suppli dei Telefono- because when you bite into it the mozzarella center strings out like a telephone wire.
I had to get a selfie with our awesome guide Francesco before he left us.
We headed back across town to a restaurant near our hotel called Ristorante Amedeo.
Norah’s Octopus starter
She almost didn’t make it through dinner tonight either- which is expected since the restaurants don’t even open for dinner until 8pm. She had a Veal Scallopini for her main
Kegan’s dessert was a “grandma’s lemon cake” that he said was great.
Norah and I got tiramisu. How can you be unhappy with tiramisu?
Free limoncello after dinner with the bill.

Tuesday was an early start because we had purchased an early entrance private tour into the Vatican to see the Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel before opening time.

We started our tour in the Pine Courtyard – named after the huge bronze cone from the 2nd century at the top of a staircase designed by Michaelangelo. The pinecone used to be a fountain where water would trickle down from the top in front of St Peter’s Basilica and it is even referenced in Dante’s Divine Comedy- used to describe how big the giant Nimrod’s head was- as big as the pinecone at St Peters. ha
Arnaldo Pomodor’s “Sphere within Sphere” – the original. There are now 45 more… we’ve seen a few around the world, but have many more to go. Supposedly there is one in Indianapolis….. but I’ve never went seeking it out yet.
The two lion statues in front of the staircase are Egyptian and date from the 300s BC! They were discovered in the 1400s and were placed in front of the Pantheon, but were eventually added to the Pope’s Egypt collection.

The interior of the Vatican museums had way too many items to write about… just mind-blowing history and art…

I don’t remember much about this red stone, other than the guide said it is the most expensive stone in the world, because it was all quarried and used in antiquity and no longer exists.
My absolutely favorite room- the Hall of Maps. Various maps from around Italy, all painted in the 1500s

The Raphael rooms were next along the way to the Sistine chapel.

Finally we were able to get our 15 minutes in the Sistine chapel- where of course they don’t allow any pictures or talking, so I have none to show.

Our tour also included a back entrance visit into St Peter’s and our guide got special permission to pass through the Holy doors here as well

Michaelangelo’s Pieta is at St Peters. He was only 23 years old when he carved this. I learned that they originally sold this off as someone else’s work because they didn’t think anyone would believe a 23 year old did this. He tracked it down and in the middle of the night carved his name into a sash across Mary that basically said “Michaelangelo did it” lol Turns out he was kind of a jerk. But when you’re the best, you get a little wiggle room ha. The statue is now behind glass because in the 1970s, some idiot thought he was a child of the Virgin Mary and bashed it in with a geologist’s rock hammer because he was mad at Jesus for being with his mother. (He was forgiven by the Pope of course after mental treatment for schizophrenia)

After an entire morning of art and history at the Vatican, it was time for some lunch and we just went inside a little pizzeria along our walk. It was good for just randomly choosing but we ordered entirely too much food.

So much so, that we decided it was time to go back to our hotel and chill for a couple hours and take a nap. Norah enjoyed some time on her phone out on our tiny little balcony.

After a couple hour reset, it was time to go back out for some last sights.

I wanted Norah to see the Column of Marcus Aurelius since its such a huge amazing piece of sculpture. I don’t think she really cared… but maybe some of my history lesson stuck 🙂
The elephant obelisk- the smallest of all the Egyptian obelisks in Rome.

I was able to reserve tickets into the Pantheon as the last group in for the day…which was great because it was hardly busy by that time.

Hadrian ordered the Pantheon built in 126AD after an earlier temple by Marcus Agrippa burned down

The Pantheon has the most famous dome in the world- a coffered concrete dome with a central oculus open to the sky. two thousand years after it was built, its still the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. 142 ft wide and 142ft high at the center oculus.

The painter Raphael is buried here. two kings of Italy are, too- Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I

The columns of the portico were quarried in Egypt and floated down a barge on the Nile during the Spring floods when the water was high- transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea and then from the Roman port of Ostia, they were transferred onto barges and pulled up the Tiber river to Rome. The giant 24 foot tall bronze doors are the oldest in Rome

After killing a bit of time to have spritzes and snacks at a little cafe right by the Pantheon, we grabbed a taxi from the queue and headed away from the tourist center out to our first international escape room! It was themed V for Vendetta and it was super fun. I thought it was one of the best we’ve done- but Kegan just thought it was better than average.

Of course, we escaped 🙂

Don’t ask me what the cards say, I can’t remember. We did this room because it had the option to be set in Italian or English… and the game master spoke English as well.

The girl from the escape game recommended a close by place for food- trattoria pizzeria da simonetta- so we took her advice and headed there since we had been underwhelmed by our meals in Rome… this one was worth it- very good food.

Norah was very proud that she ate this entire pizza by herself lol

After Rome we headed to Florence by train and I’ll post about that in my next post!