Christmas in Rome

We arrived at Rome airport on the afternoon of Christmas Eve by an Alitalia flight from Barcelona. Peter had arranged pickup by a big man in a big coat with a big van and a #0 haircut holding a Watt sign. He gave us a little bit of English commentary on the way into town and walked us down the alley to our apartment from the nearby main road. The apartment was cute and very central, within walking distance of some of the main attractions.

After settling in and fighting over beds we explored the neighbourhood starting with Piazza Navona which was just round the corner and packed with a Christmas market and lots of people not to mention a couple of ornate fountains in good Roman style. We got used to seeing the standing still buskers everywhere - Tutenkamen seemed to be a franchise because there was one of them at every tourist attraction. Wandering out of the Piazza and a couple of blocks further over we passed a very elegant Maccas which was opposite a famous landmark, the Pantheon, one of Rome's greatest tributes to the engineering skills of the ancient world. It is lit by a single shaft of light from a hole in the ceiling. We found a suitable pizza joint for dinner and went back to our apartment with trinkets from the market including tinsel for decorating.

Sophie set about creating a little Christmas corner, complete with tree, where we could arrange the stockings and presents.

While Peter and the girls had an earlyish night I ventured out for a look at St Peter's Basilica by night passing by the Castel Sant'Angelo where the Popes used to live before the current arrangement at Vatican City. When I got there at about 8:30 pm there were already hundreds or maybe thousands lining up around the circumference of Piazza San Pietro waiting for the midnight mass given by Pope Benedict (I hope I've got the name right) for the assembled masses and TV audience. I was tempted to wait it out with them but by about 10 pm the temperature had dropped a lot and I'd come out without my very warmest gear on so I decided to throw in the towel and go home to a warm bed. The 15 minute walk back home was very picturesque through narrow streets with interesting little shops and cafes lit up in the Christmas spirit.

Christmas Day was different from the usual family foodfest. I think that the main family part of it may happen on Christmas Eve over there. Anyway we got up and did the usual present thing, had breakfast and then the girls and I left Peter to have some quiet time while we went off in the direction of the Trevi Fountain with a walking map and my appalling sense of direction as aids. We never did find a couple of the things I was looking for but we did eventually get to the Trevi Fountain which must be the most elaborate in Rome, surely. On the way we stopped in at a couple of churches and joined in the local pastime of viewing the ever-present nativity scene. These ranged from simple to incredibly complicated and always drew quite a crowd. A very friendly waiter at a cafe near the Pantheon insisted on posing for a picture with Rosie and Sophie. We made a point of throwing coins into the fountain backwards over our shoulders as is the custom - Rosie must have thrown in several dollars worth for good measure. The Roman gelati was a big hit, naturally.

As we started to wend our way homewards we came across a small museum in a back alley that looked intriguing. It was devoted to models of some of Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical drawings including some quite sophisticated machines. It was a hands-on exhibit with hardly any people there so we made the most of it. Later the girls craved Maccas so seeing it was Christmas ......

I'm not sure if it was the same day or the next but sometime we set off with Peter to see St Peter's by day. There was a queue to get in and Rosie was tired and grumpy so it was not the happiest of our excursions. We had as much of a look as everybody could stomach then headed for some comfort food. Sophie was also pretty tired so we decided to have some down time back at the ranch.

On our last full day in Rome we visited the ancient part of the city including the amazing Colosseum which was probably my Roman highlight. On our way we stopped to check out some ruins right in town near our apartment which were apparently remnants of the oldest temples in the ancient city. We began to notice that there were quite a few cats in the sunken pit/courtyard containing the old pillars. It wasn't till we walked to the other end of the square that we saw the sign proclaiming this as a cat sanctuary. Roman strays were fed and looked after there until they were adopted. That was another of our Roman highlights.

Another church, another nativity scene, blue this time, another pizza dinner and soon it was time to bid farewell to Rome and take the train to Florence. During the journey we saw our first snow of the trip.