We had a day here and there in Rome on either end of our Sorrento trip and in some ways it felt like we were trying to literally, “do Rome in a day”, except that we weren’t that organized and ended up not really doing Rome–at least in the traditional sense.

We stayed at the charming Hotel due Torri on the recommendation of the Price’s and loved it. This is the view from our balcony and their breakfast had some of the absolute best pastries we’ve ever eaten, which is saying a LOT considering our current home base and the fact that the kids and I have been making our way through the list of 12 best pastry shops in Paris!

Also, instead of having an automatic coffee machine as most hotels do these days, they had a real live barrista behind the bar in the darling little breakfast room.

I have to share this quick story…on one of our mornings there, a thirty-something American guy walks up to the barrista and without saying hello or buongiorno or anything, says quickly and loudly, “I’d like a caramel mocha!” The older Italian gentleman, who doesn’t speak English, just stares at him with a confused look on his face.

Rather than clue in that he’s speaking fast English to an Italian with the arrogant assumption that the barrista speaks English, the American says more slowly and loudly, as if the the guy were deaf, “do you have a car-a-mel…mo-cha?!?!

After a couple of unsuccessful tries, he drops the car-a-mel and just asks for a mo-cha!??! Do…you…have…a…mo-cha?!?! Mo-cha?!

I seriously wanted to stand up and shout at the imbecile, “this isn’t Starbucks, blockhead! Just pour some milk and 15 packs of sugar in your espresso and you’ll have your ‘car-a-mel…mo-cha’!”

But just in the nick of time, he settled for a cafe Americano. I started speaking Swedish after that in an attempt to distance myself from my fellow countryman. Sheesh!

But back to my journal…Rome has delicious and surprisingly cold water sprouting out of fountains throughout the city which we fortuitously discovered within 10 minutes of our first outing. There were so many more beautiful fountains than this one, but this is the only pic we managed.

I loved that we only had to bring one water bottle with us and could count on being able to refill it often rather than lugging around a bunch of heavy, plastic bottles of warm water.

But the kids loved being able to play in the water and cool off completely. It was such a nice change of pace being able to just let them have fun for once without worrying about scowls and scoldings. Have I mentioned how much I just LOVE Italy and Italians?!

We threw coins in for good luck at Trevi fountain and I guess it worked since we found Joakim after having lost him for a solid 15 minutes amongst the throngs of tourists.

This thing is so outrageously amazing today; I can only imagine how impressive it must have been 250 years ago…

Keeping it real factor: you’d never guess from this “happy” picture taken as we waited to be seated at at restaurant a friend had recommended and we’d walked all over looking for, that moments later, we’d have to leave after having been seated because of all the teasing, complaining, and general bad attitude of these two.

We took them back to the hotel trying to explain that eating out at restaurants is a privilege and not an entitlement and if you don’t appreciate it, you don’t get to have that experience. While I stayed back in the room with the other two, Niklas and Mattias stopped by a little pizza place around the corner to enjoy dinner in peace. Mattias says this was the best pizza of his trip. I think he’s just rubbing it in, but what do I know?!

On our return trip, we arrived on the first day of Italy’s biggest holiday of the year, celebrated for two days. Absolutely everything was shut down which was obviously the downside, but we practically had the place to ourselves which was enjoyable in it’s own right.

As always, Niklas took us on some great walks, and as usual, they were mostly uphill…

so we could enjoy views like this…The panoramic views at sunset made us fall even more for Rome than we had before, if that’s even possible.

The only thing open during the holiday was the Colosseum so we dropped our luggage and made a beeline for it before it closed for the evening. We practically ran by these gorgeous ruins which is a crying shame since ruins need to be wandered about and imagined in their previous glory.

But alas, we thought the Colosseum would be more fun for the kids so traversed onward as best we could. I must have asked Mattias to hold the camera while I carried Linnea who has having a full melt-down and he captured the transfer to Niklas after I couldn’t take it any longer. We are sooo close to making it at this point, but we literally arrived just after they closed the doors so all that effort and angst was for not. Niklas and I have promised ourselves a weekend in Rome (or someplace) sans kids soon.

Whenever we weren’t trying to get to or experience any of the myriad of magical, historic, or just plain awesome sights Rome has to offer, the kids were just fine.

Picture back story: I like this picture because it’s first in a series that shows them progressing from being cautious and trying to stay dry, to getting fully drenched. It also shows Mattias’ Mickey Mouse bag which goes with us everywhere, because that’s where we keep his epi-pen.

Mattias received received his Mickey bag, containing within a boatload of goods from Buckingham Palace, as a consolation prize when I didn’t let him go to this, because I had previously arranged a play date for him. Who knew what he’d be missing?!?!

Mickey is starting to get a little small for Mattias’ shoulders so I thought I’d document it’s place in our family history before we have to find a new one.

I think playing in these fountains was the highlight of the kid’s time here. Like I said, not your traditional Rome visit, but we were exhausted by this point and figured they’ll have to come back on their own to appreciate this special place.

I just had to take this picture, because, despite all it’s deliciousness, we actually did get pizza and pasta’d out and just had to eat something different–lunch of bananas, yogurt, and rice cakes.

And this concludes our three part Italy visit this past summer. Linnea just told me a new kid joined her class and he’s from Italy! So fun!