11.22.16 - This is not a real treasure hunt

11.22.16

“This is not a real treasure hunt!”

This might be a short one.

I’ve got all the right pieces to charge the laptop, but of course, they don’t want to cooperate with Italy’s low wattage power.  

Combine that with no hot water and waiting around to get that sorted out, I’ve got to make this quick.

This was our earliest morning so far.  I shook myself out of bed at 5:30 while on vacation and found the shower frigid with no hope of hot water.  

I was very alert.  

We had a tour at 8:30 at the Colosseum, so we needed to get the girls up, dressed, and fed all by 7 after they’d gone to bed at 10 last night.  Amazingly, they were cooperative, and we were walking down the street to the taxi stand and coffee by 7:05.  

Again, the Italian people have been so nice to the girls.  At the bar where we had coffee and pastries, the barman gave each of the girls a Kinder chocolate on their way out.  

The taxi was a quick ride to the Colosseum, and we were, unbelievably, ten minutes early for our tour.  

This was our first ever tour with the girls, so we were a little nervous, mostly about how H2 would do listening for 3 hours.  

Our tour guide, Marta, was really nice and spoke directly to the girls, trying to engage them with books and activities and questions all along the route.  H1 was enthralled for most of the 3 hours, and even H2 managed to keep her I’m boreds to herself for at least an hour.  We spent two hours in the Colosseum, learning about its construction and use and related discoveries and then we walked to the Palatine Hill and into the Forum.  

KEY MOMENT: We saw a cat outside the Colosseum and all of us turned to look at it and take pictures.  I didn’t see that much excitement at any other thing we saw all day.  

Without a tour guide, the Forum and the Palatine Hill are a jumble of broken columns and rocks - it’s hard to make sense of what you are seeing without someone to paint the picture.  The Flavian palace came into view as she described it, as did the nature of the Forum’s use and the road that led from it to the Palace.  

Marta had promised a treasure hunt, and H2 was ready.  She started with muttering and then when it finally did come, she crossed her arms and planted her feet and declared this is not a real treasure hunt!  H1 happily took the scavenger hunt map and started doing it all by herself.  She did wonderfully and was elated with her discoveries.  H2 made me carry her.  

After 3 hours of listening, H2 had on her best dirty look.  Her eyebrows knit and her eyes dark with rage at having to listen and not jump off of every step and rock she came across.  It was time for food.  

Marta gave us a recommendation, but as we walked up to the restaurant, we noticed a big sign that read “Closed Tuesday.”  Noooooooooooo.

So we ate at the restaurant across the street and it was okay.  H1 has this really charming habit that as soon as the food hits the table, she starts first going crazy with energy, and then when you ask her to stop and eat a bite, she says she is tired and tries to lay down.  

I have never had the pleasure of meeting someone that hates eating so much.  

After that negotiation, she ate almost her whole half of pizza, it just takes 15-20 minutes to make it happen, which is not a fun use of time.  

We headed to get a taxi back to the apartment and the street vendors were out in full force.  We even got hit up by the same guy from last night that asked if we were African.  H1 and H2 of course want to ask a million questions about why we say no and won’t talk to them which gives the guys more time to ask us if we want some bizarre phone charger or mini sewing machine.  

The route to the taxi took us by Trajan’s Forum and Trajan’s column, but the girls were more interested in making pine needle nests in the pebbles and finding quartz in the rocks.  

After the taxi ride home, we had…

ICE CREAM #1

The early wake up caused a need for naps all around.  Upon wake up, we set out for more suppli and park action.  The girls happily played while we ate the fried heaven.  

Stopping at a market, we checked out all the interesting Italian products and prices and tried to navigate the shop that twisted around and behind the other shops on the block.  It was a maze with tiny aisles and doorways between sections.  

Walking back to find dinner, we stopped outside of a restaurant and a guy came out telling us it was the best place in Rome.  He asked us where we were from and bizarrely, he had worked at Luna Rossa, a restaurant at the top of the PV hill and had lived in Manhattan Beach!  We figured that was some kind of a sign, and the food was actually pretty good.  

H1 did her finest acting job again, but after 15-20 minutes of her show, she ate her whole bowl of Cacio e Pepe.  

So there it is, folks.  Another day travelling as a family.  Sometimes the debating about if a child has to eat food gets to the point where we ask if it is even worth it.  But then I remember that H1 does this at home too with a grilled cheese or turkey, so it’s the same debate, just with the added cost of traveling thrown in.  AND layer on the fact that I want to enjoy my food that I am paying a bunch of dough for and you get an extra layer of annoyance.  

But there is growth too.  She ate pasta that wasn’t dry eventually and the debate time was probably 5 minutes shorter than usual.  

I’ll count it as a win.

This is how the magic happens.