I know this has been a forgotten blog but I wanted to be able to share our Rome photos and I thought why not go back to where I started sharing these!

Since we arrived in Europe in 2012 Rome, Italy was at the top of my list to visit. Growing up in a Catholic family and through school I had learned of Rome and the Pope and never thought that in my life time I would ever go there to visit. So when I heard we were going to be stationed in England and Rome was going to be within "arms reach" I knew that it was a place we could not miss the chance of going to. Our 4 years in England went by so fast with visits to a lot of places with in the UK but also in mainland Europe. But time had gotten away from us and I knew that it was make or break time. But then, we found out we had orders to Germany! SCORE!! 3 more years to try to get to Rome. We were now 1.5 years into our tour in Germany and still had not made it to Rome. It has been so close but making the time to get there had been the problem. The kids were constantly in sports and Mat was constantly working at him job so time was limited for big, long trips away.

On Christmas 2017, Mat surprised me with the trip that would happen over spring break. He had booked the room for the week but the rest was yet to be determined. There were a few obstacles we still had to jump over. Mat is preparing to have jaw surgery. We didn't know when but it was coming up. Ebony still has issues with people and hates her kennel, what were we going to do with her? Typically we take the dogs on our trips with us but we knew that dogs in Rome were not as common and even if they were, there were many, many places we wanted to visit that did not allow them to come in.. ie THE VATICAN Museums!! So we had to arrange for someone to take care of Gunner and Ebony while we were away. This proved to be more difficult that we had hoped. We had secured a sitter who at the last minute was unable to watch them. Then everyone who was available originally were no longer available. Thankfully our friends from England are stationed in Italy and we had to pass close enough by them to get to Rome and they offered to watch the dogs while we enjoyed our trip. I still left worried because of Ebony's issues but was grateful for their help with both of the pups.

So off we went to Rome. It was a very busy few days. We arrived in Rome on Monday and we decided to leave and head back towards the house Thursday staying a night over again on the way home neat Ghedi, Italy with our friends. The hotel we stayed out was very nice. On arrival day, they opened the pool for the guests because of the high temperatures. The kiddos were very excited but once they jumped in, they quickly jumped back out because it was SO cold! The hotel had a shuttle that took us into and out of the center of Rome daily. This was a great service for us so we did not have to fight traffic into the center and also did not have to stay in the hustle and bustle of the city.

We visited the Pantheon, Vatican City ( I recommend not getting a tour and paying one of the outside people to jump the line to get into the walls. It saved us a ton of time and money), Trevi Fountain, Piazza Venezia, the Spanish Steps, The Colosseum, Castle San Angelo, Roman Forum, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Piazza Navona, Saint Peter's Square, and I am sure I am missing more. The highlight for me was being able to see the Pope during Wednesday's Papal Blessing. He rode by us twice and was within arms reach each time. What an awesome experience for us all.

So now for some photos.

Driving to Rome from Germany.

There were soooooooo many long tunnels through Switzerland and when we came out of one we either had sunshine or snow.

There were many waterfalls as we drove through the Alps

The super cold pool.

Near the Bus stop where the shuttle picked up and dropped off in the afternoon.

Graffiti was all over the city. It was sad to see so much in such a beautiful place.

There is always at least one in every tourist location... NO we did not eat there.

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps.... CROWDED!!!

Always finding a cactus along the way

The Wall around the Vatican and as you can see... EVERYONE wanted to go in and see it.

Tickets in hand Vatican Museums Begin

Our first try at finding a landmark for a letter... The I is top of St. Peter's Basilica

The boys were done walking so sis and I walked the grounds and I shot a few photos of this Beauty

Start of the Papal Carriages

OHIO with the O as the art piece.

Fontana della Pigna

Gallery of Statues

Gallery of Tapestries

Hall of Maps

Castle Sant' Angelo

Ponte Sant' Angelo

Heading towards

Altar of the Fatherland

Altare della Patria

Altar of the Fatherland - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The view of Rome and the Colosseum in the distance

Ruins

Italy with NO SPOONS FOR PASTA!

His meal of choice at almost every place we went.

Heading to Wednesday's Papal Blessing -Early Birds to get the best seats possible.

St. Peter's Square

Preparing the Altar

Of course this was the 1 day it RAINED while we were in Rome but that didn't stop anyone!

Ruins

Off to the Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum- We thought that we would have to fight the crowd because the day before the line was wrapped around the outside of the building but we were lucky and had a very short line to wait in.

A single poppy in the field of Dandelions.

We headed back to pick up the pups and spend some time with out friend near Ghedi, Italy. We arrived while he was still at work so we visited the castle close to their house and Lake Garda