New Year in Italy

Where did 2011 go? I’m sure most people ask themselves the same question. Somehow every  year seems to be shorter than the last. Our family had a get-away trip to Rome, Florence and Pisa for the end-of-year Holidays. It was a wonderful, relaxing time in an area that has to be among my favorite.

A few years ago we had visited Rome briefly as part of a Mediterranean cruise. However, it was a less-than-24-hour visit and it was raining! We just did not have enough time to give this wonderful city a decent try.

As always, a trip for a family of five takes some planning, particularly for New Year in a city such a Rome. We got some amazing discount flights and planned the treat way ahead of time.

Rome has so much to offer, but it can be very expensive. We got smart this time and bought some excellent maps for the ipad for Rome and Tuscany in general, as well as some excellent audio tours by Rick Steve.

First Stop was the Colosseum along with neighboring Palatine Hill and the Forum. So much history in one little area! Again, by using the Rick Steve audio tours in my ipad and the kids phones we had a very informative day and both Julie and I as well as our older kids really enjoyed the history behind the ruins. 

Making a Wish at the Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

The Vatican City Museum was yet another day’s trip. It really takes a good four hours to see it. We particularly enjoyed the Egyptian Room as well as the various sculptures of great value. Austin, our youngest, found it strange that many of these male statures were complete except they were missing their male anatomy. We made all kinds of funny stories about diseases they had that led to this tragic amputation J Anyway, we found this museum to be a little challenging to cover but very doable in one day along with a visit to the Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Sistine Chapel

St Peter's Basilica

We planned some various trips around Rome. A big hit among the kids (and adults) was our trip to Ostia Antica. This old Roman port is just outside Rome but easily reachable without an extra expense if you got the Roma Pass by connecting from the metro to the FR-1 railway.  This old Roman town is great fun for the kids as they are able to walk around the ruins and see what life was like back then. Again, the Rick Steve’s tour was extremely helpful to make this a fun-filled day as opposed to just a bunch of rocks.

We welcomed the New Year in Rome and took off the next day by car to Florence, crossing the heart of Tuscany. The weather was unusually warm the whole trip and it was sunny almost every day.  It is hard to describe how amazing Florence is as a city unless you listen to an audiotour or read some history to see how many world-changing figures came from or lived in this city: Galileo, Da Vinci, Americo Vespuci, Donatello, etc.  We enjoyed some delicious Tuscan food every day of our stay in Florence and Pisa.

Finally, we took a day trip to Pisa. The leaning tower and the Field of Miracles is beautiful as imagined in any postcard. Overall however, the main tourist attractions takes less than one day to cover in this city.

On our drive back from Tuscany , we stopped by the Mediterranean sea at a small town of Cecina.
 Our trip back was tiring (arrival after midnight!) but overall it was a wonderful trip. 

We are glad we were able to make a come-back trip to this wonderful country.