Are You Not Entertained?!

We are now stationed in Rome until the end of August. Our apartment is lovely, but sadly, not air conditioned! It will be a hot month, haha. But we are learning that is how true Romans live! There is not much air conditioning here, not even at the church. Whew!

We got in to Rome late Saturday night. The Rosebroughs and the Kortmans are traveling with us (Rosebroughs are staying with us but the Kortmans have an Airbnb nearby). Since they are only here for a few days, they have been anxious to see all the sites.

We did not go to the Vatican with them on Sunday, but on Monday we did join them for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

I think the Colosseum is just amazing! To me, it is a site that never disappoints you when you see it in person.

The inside is pretty spectacular. I love that they show you where the stage would have been, but also show you what the passageways underneath look like too.

Finding a spot of shade!

Levi J was not too interested in the Colosseum until we explained about gladiators. Then, he was gearing up for battle the whole time he was there! He wanted to fight a lion!

Seeing the Colosseum on our first day out in Rome reminded me of our first day out in Rome nine years ago, our honeymoon! Aren't we so young and cute??

After the Colosseum we went to the Roman Forum, which is the grounds of ancient Rome. There are so many cool ruins, statues, and art from so long ago. You can almost picture what it used to look like!

The kids were so cute. Olivia, age 7, got them playing that they were time travelers going back to ancient Rome. Amelie, age 5, kept saying they were at Hogwarts, and Levi kept pretending to be a gladiator. Luca just wanted to whack everything with his sword. Even though it felt like it was 1000 degrees outside (not really, but it was hot), they just had a blast.

They were doing some time traveling magic using the well.

This was part of the pre-Christianity temple where the women performed rituals.

The whole place was dirt, so naturally the kids wanted to be right down in the dirt. Yuck. Baths were needed that afternoon.

Do you see how tiny the people are up on top??

The forum was pretty amazing, but frankly we were so hot and tired that it was hard to appreciate it like we should have. We (the Bakers anyway) didn't walk the whole thing and instead headed for home. It is a tough time of year to be out walking in the sun and dirt.

Pushing the strollers over the true cobblestone was no joke either!

 It was amazing nonetheless! 

A guidebook to Rome that I have said NOT to spend your first days at the Vatican and the Colosseum or you will wear yourself out right off the bat. I can understand why! But at the same time, how can you really complain about seeing such amazing sites. There is really nothing like it in the world. These were really some incredible things to see.