Cozzens Guidice Adventures

Home!  Our journey back home wasn’t without one last adventure.  We left our hotel around 8:30 am for an 11:30 flight, having arranged for another van given the Rome airport’s location outside of town and the already discovered fact that our family + suitcases = too big for taxis.  We made it to the gate with time to spare (Rome’s airport is like a high end shopping mall), and Jourdan even commented on how smooth everything was.  I’m not 100% saying he jinxed us, but. . .  We had a little more than 2 hour layover in London.  We went to the bathroom then took a bus to our next terminal (which seemed to drive forever; that must be a giant airport), then waited in the passport line, then went through security again.  Julia had forgotten a disposable water bottle in her backpack, I had a big bottle of contact solution (which is allowed in the US as a medical liquid but not in the UK apparently without a letter stating it is medically necessary), and we had...

Last day in Italy. We promised the kids a low key day today after a full day of tours yesterday, so we let them sleep in and then we just wandered around Rome buying souvenirs.  The square outside our apartment has a big market during the day where we bought fresh fruit for breakfast and pasta and sauces to take home.  (We once again didn’t haggle well and probably paid more than we should have, but I’m chalking it up to supporting small business/the local economy.) We also purchased a new suitcase in which to carry all the souvenirs home, something we had always planned to do because we only each brought a carry on bag with us.  After walking around for awhile and eating lunch, we came back to the apartment to rest/nap, and then get ready for pictures in the evening.  I know I will be happy to have the pictures in the long run, but choosing coordinating-but-not-too- matchy-matchy outfits for all 5 of us for family pictures is seriously the most stressful thing I do ...

This morning we had an early morning tour of the Vatican.  We missed our chance to reserve a time to tour it, so ended up paying extra for a private, guided tour.  It was so interesting to learn the history of the buildings and the art inside, and of the various Popes.  The Sistine Chapel is incredible and St. Peter’s Basilica was most impressive to me because all but one small part of it has mosaics (rather than painting).  The size and complexity of them was incredible. One of the favorite things I learned is that the people depicted in the Sistine Chapel and in many of the statues were nude (because ancient Greeks and Romans were fine with nudity).  But then in the 1500s the Pope at the time decided that nudity was shameful and that the genitalia in the works of art should not be visible, so a non-Michaelangelo painter covered the genitalia on the Sistine Chapel, and someone else made fig leaves to strategically place on the statues.  I cracked myself up...

We got to sleep in a bit this morning, as our train wasn’t until 10:20.  Packed up to move hotels for the last time this trip, grabbed a croissant for breakfast, and then headed to the train station to go to Pompei for a few hours on the way to Rome.  I think Pompei was the thing the boys were most excited to see going into this trip, other than The Colosseum for Russell. And it lived up to expectations.  The city is so well-preserved, it is hard to believe the structures were built 2000+ years ago.  Of course being buried under ash for 1600 years was helpful for preservation, but when it seems like very little is created anymore with the intent it will last more than just a few years, so to see so many old, well-built things, WOW. We retrieved our luggage and took the train to Rome, our last train ride of the trip.  Jourdan hasn’t loved the trains (at least not the ones in small towns) but I think it’s such a great way to get places.  We arrived ...