Exhausted, What Next?

So, now it was Tuesday and after the last three days, we were pretty tired.  Two days in an airport and then one day long tour to Pompeii and Naples equaled some cranky Bearys.

Checking the schedule, we had Tuesday free.  We started looking at our tour vouchers and realized that our Colosseum/Forum tour voucher did not have the time of the tour on it.  The tour was scheduled for the next day, Wednesday.  I figured out how to use the phone and called the tour company.  It was a good thing that I did for two reasons.  First, because of the snow and bad weather, the Colosseum was closed and our tour for Wednesday had been affected as in canceled.  So, we were able to reschedule for Friday.  Also, it was with the same company (Dark Horse) that we had planned the night tour with, so while chatting with the girl on the phone I was able to get her to reschedule the tour without the additional 10euro booking fee!  Yeah!  The only bad thing ended up being that it was for that night, which ended up being the one of coldest night we were in Rome, or at least it seemed like it!

So, we headed out that day and just did some wandering heading toward the Pantheon.  We grabbed breakfast from a busy patisserie and walked. We were really close to so much with our hotel location.  We started out at the Vatican and then walked.  We ended up in a really pleasant square, Piazza Navona.  There we stumbled upon Super Handsome's favorite gelarteria, Grom!  It was a cold day, but the kids were eager to try it anyway.  Oldest Son, Kid 3 and I had a piccolo limone cona.  Yongest Son had a chocolate one (is he really my kid?) and Second Son had strawberry.  I ate the gelato out of mine and Super Handsome ate my cona.  He said that it was too cold for gelato.  What?  Who are you and what did you do with my husband?  While we were in Italy last year Super Handsome had gelato at least 3 times a day, not this time!

The boys in front of Grom.

Piazza Navona

Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

We wandered around a bit more and then headed back to the hotel.  Dinner subsisted of left over pizza from a tattoria that we grabbed dinner at the night before along with some good salami, crackers and parmesan cheese that Super Handsome bought Sunday.  Then we headed out for our night time tour.

It was a small group, just us an one other couple.  Our tour guide was good.  It was evident that he was not used to giving tours with kids though.  He kind of stumbled a bit when we were in Campo di' Fiori.  He was telling us about a radical monk Bruno.   During the dark ages, he was branded an enemy of the church for many reasons.  The reason that made our guide stumble was because Bruno claimed that Mary was not a virgin.  Bruno ended up being executed by the church as was many in Camp di' Fiori.  He also pointed out that there were no churches in this square, even though Rome has 918 churches!

This tour ended up being one of our favorites, even though the stories we heard were generally not good ones.  We learned about Madonnella's in Rome.  It was an ingenuous idea really.  During the dark ages, Rome was not safe at night.  The church placed images on Mary on buildings to "watch" the people and crime rate went down immediately.  So, when you are in Rome, look up at all the buildings. They are commonly located on the corners but not all the time. We have many different pictures of them.

We also learned about the church Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte.  The monks that founded this church buried abandoned bodies in Rome.  Eventually they ran out of room.  Their problems were compounded when the Tigris River flooded and the dirt was washed away leaving the bones exposed.   At the time, death was celebrated as an important part of life and it was joyful to know that loved ones were going to heaven.  Also bodies were buried or put into crypts so that they could be resurrected.   The monks began to use the bones to make things, in particular we saw pictures of a chandelier made of human bones.  This was done as art and well accepted as normal until 1870 when the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel put a stop to it.  Saying that it was important that Italy be civilized like the rest of Europe.  They were not allowed to make anymore bone artwork.

Note the skulls on the church!

This is when one of my children had to "tie his shoe".  At least that was what Super Handsome told the tour guide as he and the said child lagged behind.  Actually the poor kid had to pee, so Super Handsome found a place that it could be done discreetly which caused him and the said child to lag behind, considerably!

Then saw the site of the old prison and head the story of Beatrice Cenci.  She was from a rich family in Rome.  Her father was very good friends with the Pope Clemment VIII.  Her father was a very bad man and it was well known that he treated his family badly.  He beat his family and raped his daughter. The people of Rome wrote to complain about his bad behavior and he was mildly punished.  He sent his family to live in the country.  In desperation that family or Beatrice alone killed him and tried to make it look like an accident.  It was formally investigated by the papal police.  Beatrice was put into the jail for about 6 months.  The people of Rome protested her ill treatment and eventually she and her family, with the exception of her younger brother were beheaded.  Beatrice Cenci is apparently now a symbol in the campaign against child abuse in Italy.

This is Castel Saint'Angelo and Pont Saint Angelo Bridge, near the castle is where Beatrice was beheaded.

We moved on and learned about Aqua Tofana.  If you see Aqua Tofana, please do not drink it!  It is NOT some new fangled Italian water!  Giulia Tofana moved to  Rome from Italy.  She discovered a fantastic new poison that was odorless and tasteless.  She sold it to many wives in Rome that wanted to get out of marriages with their husbands.   It was sold as Manna of St Nicholas of Bari.  In the end, it is estimated that over 600 men were killed with the poison.

We ended the night tour with frozen feet and fingers.  We made our way back to the hotel with another free day in store for the next day, Wednesday.  We were slow getting up in the morning, thinking that we could catch an audience with the Pope.  It turned out that he was speaking inside and we had to get tickets, somehow Super Handsome missed that information when he checked the website, so we missed him.  So, we spent the time revisiting the things that we had seen during our night tour.  We had lunch on the go which, was when the kids tried crepes with Nutella for lunch.  It was an instant favorite.  Liam and I also had a panni.  I managed to get a little shopping in, I picked up two scarfs.

For dinner we headed to a little market and picnicked.  We picked up fruit and some disappointing bread.  We also headed to the grocery to get a few things that the market did not have.  We also picked up cherry tarts for breakfast as the next morning we were touring the Vatican bright and early!