Buon Giorno from Roma!!

I may have mentioned in my last post that we were just slightly excited for our trip to Rome, but the pre-trip excitement was nothing compared to actually being there.   It was absofreakinlutely the coolest thing we’ve done in a long time (next to moving to Stockholm, that is).  The weekend began with a Friday night jaunt to a town called Nykoping (pronounced Kneeww-shooping from what I can tell), about an hour south of Stockholm.  We were taking off at 6:30 AM and needed to be at the airport by 5 so leaving from here would have just been way too early.  Not that it already wasn’t way too early when we left the hotel at 4:30 AM.  Oy.

So we arrived at Skavsta Airport a little before 5 AM and took the ticket from the autopark machine.  I thought I was putting it in a little shelf in the dashboard like we have in our car at home.  Alas, I put it in the CD player instead and the CD player kept trying to play it and would not eject it.  Nice.  More on this in a later post because we are in a rush.  We need to get to the airport!  C’mon…

Not since I was in college have I seen so many people drinking beer at 5 AM as I saw at Skavsta Airport.  It was unreal.  And no, before you ask, I did not partake.  Why you may ask?  I was saving up for 3 days of the best Chianti and Pinot Grigio on the earth.  (Note to my neighbor, The Divine Ms. M.:  we should move our Thursday night viewing to Rome.  Great bottles of Pinot Grigio for about $3 at the supermarket.  No lie.)

The flight was uneventful and before 9:30 AM we touched down in Rome.  Got ripped off by some cab driving conspiracy because some of us are just too good to take the bus (hey Birthday Boy, I’m looking at you), and arrived at our hotel, which was really very nice.  I was slightly concerned because we got such a good deal on it – $275.  Total.  For 3 nights.  Including tax.  And Breakfast.  It definitely exceeded my expectations by miles. While we’re on the subject of cost, did I mention how much I paid for the airline tickets to Rome?  $251.88.  Total.  For all 3.  Are you jealous yet?  Don’t be.  Remeber, I pay $90 every time I fill up my gas tank.  I feel I am somehow owed. 

Oh, right.  So we’re in Rome.  Yes, I know we’re not really there anymore, but just pretend that we are, the same way Regis and Kelly do when they tape a show and pretend that it’s live.  Humor me.

The first thing we did was dump our bags and head for the Vatican area.   We stopped for a little lunch at a little Italian place on the way. 

First up, birthday pic of Birthday Boy at lunch, showing you all how old he is:

Mmmmm.  Pinot Grigio.  Did I mention that we’re in ROME???

Not to be outdone by daddy, The Bug also wishes to let you know her age, and thankfully did it in front of my face so that you cannot actually discern mine:

And the food.  OMG, the pasta:

Now you know that The Bug is the pickiest eater on earth and she told me that this was without a doubt the BEST pasta she had ever had.   I ordered this:

So it was a good thing that Bug had a lot of pasta to share.  But seriously,  Rachael Ray is right about the tuna fish here.  It tastes NOTHING like it does at home.  It is really, really, really, really good.  And I love tuna.   Mr. T and I actually shared the salad and a pizza which was yummy but did not pose for a photograph worthy of you, so I left it out of the post entirely.

So we finished lunch and walked down to the Vatican area.  Amazing.   Below is one of 2 fountains in the plaza area:

And here’s a picture of St. Peter’s Basilica (we never got inside because the Police closed it down while we were there and told us that we couldn’t get in line).

Nope.  Don’t know any of those people.

Below is a view that was taken from the steps which shall now be known as The Vatican Naughty Seat. 

Yes, The Vatican Naughty Seat.  The Bug was lucky that The Pope was around to oversee her spiritually because I was prepared to take her back to the hotel at this point.   To be honest it was mostly my fault.  I forgot the stroller.  Bad move.  Don’t ever take a 4 year old to Rome without a stroller (even though in Europe 4 year olds walk everywhere….people in Stockholm keep staring at her wondering what in the world is wrong with this girl that she needs to be in a stroller.  You see 2 year olds here walking everywhere).  So lets change that last warning.  Don’t ever take an American 4 year old to Rome without a stroller.  At least Mr. T. got to burn off all the Italian food by carrying around an extra 4o lbs. 

 Stay tuned….more from Rome later tonight or tomorrow.

~ by feefour on February 9, 2008.