Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008

For Christmas this year, we opted to take a vacation instead of getting gifts for each other. The destination chosen? Rome, Italy. It was the first time my kids had been out of the country...and I have to say they did AMAZINGLY well. The 11 hours plane flight wasn't even enough to send them over the edge! We rented a tiny apartment....yes I meant tiny! It was 2 rooms, and 2 bathrooms, but the entire apartment was the size of my kitchen! (ok...maybe my living room too) We were all able to sleep in a bed though, and it was extremely clean. The showers were ridiculously small...and the hot water was not always available, which made for miserable showers. No oven left us fewer options for dinner. We took a suitcase full of food to keep our costs down. Soup was the main dish at all meals. I think we've had enough soup to kill us. Ha ha. But all and all - we loved it. The location was central enough that we were able to walk everywhere. Even Mitchell managed the walks! The only time it was bad was walking to the Catacombs...we took a minor detour that added an extra 3 hours to the walk!
Our itinerary included the Vatican, the Colleseum, the Piazza Novana, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, shopping in general, and the Catacombs. It managed to rain almost every day, which made the umbrellas we brought some of the most valuable things we owned. We loved having the time to see something so amazing as a family...and the kids are already planning the next family trip!