It's a Railey great life!: Rome, Italy and the Swimming Pool

Our next stop on the cruise was Rome, Italy- a city I have always wanted to visit! The day ended up going a bit differently than we had planned, but was wonderful nonetheless! We got up bright and early and made the hour train ride into Rome and headed straight for the Coliseum. We intended to go into the Coliseum first, but Savannah fell asleep in the stroller, and we decided to go to the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill instead so she could get a good nap in. We snapped some pictures outside the Coliseum and then headed inside to the Palantine Hill.

The Coliseum

We really enjoyed the Palantine Hill and the Forum. The ruins were beautiful to look at, but one thing we were not prepared for was the terrain. Let's just say that an entire day of pushing our stroller along the cobblestones of ancient Rome killed our stroller, literally- as in, I'm ordering a new one in a few days. :)

Pushing the stroller along the crazy cobblestones.

Savy slept the entire time!

When we finished up the Forum, we got a quick bite to eat and then planned to go into the Coliseum. This is the point that our plans began to change. Apparently while we were in the forum there had been some kind of security situation and they closed the Coliseum for a hour and a half or so. This resulted in ridiculously long lines! We had already bought our tickets, but even pre-paid tickets line was a hour and a half wait! Since, we were only in Rome for the day, we chose to skip the ridiculous wait and spend our time seeing something, so we made an impromptu visit to the Vatican. At first I was sooooo disappointed that I had missed the Coliseum, but by the end of the day I was so happy that I'd had the opportunity to visit the Vatican. It was incredible to see the massive amount of ancient art and treasures that belong to the Vatican. It sparked some very interesting discussion between Brent and I of the church's best use of resources (that's another blog for another time). Anyway, we really enjoyed the visit!

Savy was finally awake, so we snapped one more picture!

In front of the Vatican with Mommy.

With Daddy at the Vatican.

Savy and Mommy in the square.

Savy and Daddy

In her favorite spot!

After our visit, Brent and I decided that Rome was definitely on the list for a revisit! There were so many places that we didn't get to see but would like to see in the future. We headed back to the train and were back on the boat in no time. Our dinner reservation that night was a bit later than usual, so we had time to take Savannah to the little kids pool. The pool was perfect! Part of it was only six inches deep, so she crawled all around! About 30 minutes into the fun we realized that Savannah was swimming "illegally" because she was in a swim diaper. Due to health regulations they only let completely potty trained kids swim in the pool. We were so disappointed because we had planned to take her quite a bit. Since she was already in the pool we let her play for another 20 minutes or so and then headed inside for dinner. Even if she only went swimming once, she sure did have a good time!