Starhills in Spain: Our Roman Holiday

It has been a very long time since I blogged. While last semester felt like a sabbatical for me, the past few months have been enjoyable but more ‘normal’ feeling in terms of work – which means it has felt busy.

A big highlight of the past few weeks was our trip to Rome. Just as Nora, Nathan, and I went to Paris to celebrate Nora’s birthday in November, we decided to go to Rome (the city of 7 hills) to celebrate Nathan’s 7th birthday.

The kids’ primary goal was to eat gelato 7 times and to eat in 7 different restaurants – both of which were quite challenging since we were only there for 3 full days (and 4 nights). We only had gelato 6 times – two of which at a place near the Pantheon called Della Palma Gelateria that was truly amazing. We also had tartufo twice, including once here.

Because we were in Rome over a holiday (Tues May 1), we weren’t able to see some of the more famous (adult) sites of the city. We didn’t go to any museums (many were closed for the holiday). For the days that we were in Rome, the Vatican museum was only open on Sunday, and it was mobbed. But luckily Rome is so full of outdoor sites that we had plenty to do.

We had a fun visit to the Bocca della Verita

as well as the usual sites of the Colosseum, the Forum (where we pretended to be conquering victorious Romans - see below), Pantheon, the fountains, and the Spanish Steps. The kids liked a movie that we saw about ancient Rome called the Time Machine. And there was even a church that they liked, Santa Maria della Concezione, where the crypt rooms are decorated with the bones of thousands of monks – kind of macabre but very interesting. Nora and Nathan also went with me to to visit several other churches, to see Caravaggio works. And we had a nice visit at the main synagogue of Rome, which is built on the site of the old Roman Jewish ghetto.