Phil & Rachel's Shenanigans: Christmas Trip-Italy

Dec. 23rd: We got up and had breakfast in the hotel room with the food I got at the store. We headed to the train station to head to Rome. Found out the line was interrupted (not sure why). Had to switch to a bus part way through our trip out of Switzerland. We got back on another train for the last 30 min of our trip to Tirano. In Tirano, we got on another train (just barely making it after asking at the ticket window and being told that the train would leave in 3 min) to Milan. This was the only train we had taken so far that wasn't very nice at all. All of our trains have been very nice and very comfortable.

As soon as we got to Rome, we went to the ticket counter and bought seat reservations for the 26th from Rome to Venice. We had learned it was best to do this as soon as we got to the city to save time for our way out and also to make sure there was room for us on the train. We headed to our Airbnb.

Once at the apartment, the hostess met us and explained everything we needed to know. They had bought us a traditional Italian Christmas cake. So thoughtful. She then directed us to a restaurant very close to the apartment. The food was delicious! Pasta, lasagna, and salad. We got groceries and ended the evening at the apartment.

Dec. 24th: We started the day with a guided tour of the Vatican Museums. It was interesting to see, but we all agreed it wasn't our favorite. That took about two hours. We then went toward the Colosseum. We found a small bistro and had lunch. We had tickets to the Colosseum for 2:20. It was huge and very impressive. Both places had tons of tourists and also tons of hawkers outside. I didn't like all the people constantly asking if you wanted to buy something or getting in your face. It also felt more stressful trying to keep up with where the kids were. Because it was Christmas Eve, most food places were closed. We got groceries and made dinner at home.

I went to Christmas Eve Mass at 9:30. It was beautiful and lovely to see even if I couldn't understand most of it. Phil stayed at the airbnb with the kids. We had walked over 6 miles and they were all very tired. St. Peter's Square was beautiful at night with a large Christmas tree and the church all lit up. I only stayed for an hour of this service. It was late and my legs and toes has gotten very cold. It was 10:30 by the time I got home.

Dec. 25th: Merry Christmas! We all slept in. The kids and Phil had rice krispies cereal(we can't get in our city) and pastries from a shop right by where we had dinner. We then took our time getting ready for the day. We headed to St. Peter's Square for the noon blessing from the Pope. The square was full of people! We were very far away, but could see the balcony where the Pope would be. We couldn't make out his face from where we stood, but we could see when he came out. They have huge screens where you can see him up close. Such a neat experience.

We didn't stay very long in the square. We headed out for our walking tour. Phil and the kids got gelato. We then watched a small parade of all the guards that were in front of the church during the blessing. Once we started walking, there were so many people on the street. We walked for a long time and saw different sites throughout Rome. We had lunch at a restaurant right by the Pantheon. Our hostess had booked a 2:30 reservation for us. The food was good, but not fantastic. Anna and I both ended up with new boots as both of ours were broken and falling apart.

The Trevi fountain was packed. It was very hard to get a spot near the front. We ended our tour at the Spanish steps and found out the metro was closed. We were very far from our apartment, but decided to walk as long as we could. After finally making it back to our apartment, we realized we had walked almost 7 miles!! The kids did really well and didn't complain. We had leftovers for dinner and all went to bed early.

Dec. 26th: We got up and packed up to head out later. We took one more walking trip to go inside St. Peter's basilica. It was huge and gorgeous inside. We listened to Rick Steves' walking tour of the church. The kids have done really well the whole trip of listening when we could and trying to learn about the places we were seeing.

We then grabbed McDonald's for the kids (the first and only time for McDonald's on this trip) and headed back to the apartment. I had leftovers and Phil grabbed a sandwich at a bistro. We got our things and headed to the metro. Took the metro to the main station. Got to our train with 10 minutes to spare.

The train ride to Venice was 4 hours. When we arrived in Venice, we took a boat to our hotel. By boat was the only way to get to the hotel. The hotel was old and shabby on the inside. It didn't seem very clean. We went out and ate at a local pizzeria. We got groceries for the next day as we would be taking a 7.5 hr train ride to Vienna. I found a couple of bed bugs on the wall of our room. Yikes! We all slept in our clothes and I put all the bags up on chairs. I made all the kids tuck their pants into their socks and tuck their shirts in. It was a rough night of sleep wondering if we would be sleeping with bed bugs or if we would take any home on our bags. I was up every hour looking at the clock wondering if it was time to get up and leave.