Month: September 2014

What is your personal Snickers?

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The rest of our stuff should be showing up in the next week or so.  We did a pretty good job packing.  I really haven’t felt deprived.  But of this collection, I am most excited to see:

  • The kitchen trashcan.  Our place came with a trashcan.  It has a step on lid that doesn’t really work.  The bag doesn’t really stay on.  And it is so very small.  It looks like a bathroom can.  Even with mandatory recycling, I feel like the thing fills up every time I blink.  Frequent emptying is probably a good thing given the lack of garbage disposal, but it currently seems a little ridiculous.
  • Tissues.  I also miss nice toilet paper, but I can’t remember if I packed any.  The pipes are so old here that Italy has just decided not to let people have quality paper products.  (My working theory anyway.)  Years ago I had a household ban on tissues.  Why bother if you can just use TP?  And then I rediscovered the pillowy softness of a high quality tissue as it caresses your nose and have not looked back.  Surely there are tissues here somewhere.  I’m just having trouble finding them.
  • The boys’ cribs.  We have loaner cribs right now.  These have been perfectly adequate, but they have bars instead of our chunky slats.  I feel like there has been more pacifier escapage.  The loaner mattresses are so thin you could probably fold them in quarters.  This has made changing sheets easy, but I’ll be glad when they have their nicer mattresses back.

Someone told me that when their daughter was in Italy, she craved Snickers but couldn’t find them.  So her mom would send care packages with Snickers.  I totally get missing things, but Snickers surprised me.  This is the land of chocolate and gelato!  I may have an unhealthy relationship with Kinder Chocolate that I have been indulging.

But now that I’ve been here for a bit, I’ve had a chance to think about what may own “personal Snickers” is.  I do have a few.  Unlike the above, these things are not showing up with our stuff.  Many of them couldn’t come even if I wanted them to.

Grocery delivery.  In the year before leaving DC, we converted to Relay Foods disciples and never looked back.  Before, we had been doing double grocery store duty at the local Giant and then Whole Foods to get the nice meats.  Enter Relay Foods.  They would deliver Whole Foods/farmers’ market quality food right to my front door.  Granted, you were paying WF prices, but I thought it was pretty reasonable.  We paid $30/month for unlimited delivery.  You just filled up your virtual cart and they would deliver it the next day.

I miss it so much.  I feel like I am constantly grocery shopping.  1) We need more food because we’re eating at home more and 2) I have to take more trips because we can’t carry that much.  It’s either what I can carry myself or shove under the stroller.

I’m talk more on this later, but grocery shopping is a pain with both kids.  The stroller is unwieldy.  If I take the stroller, where do I put the groceries when I’m shopping?  I’m hoping some day that Henry can walk there and back, but you just never know with that guy.  And then I’m stuck carrying stuff until I find a personal grocery cart we can buy.

Hops.  They do have beer here.  There is a whole aisle in the store.  But it seems to be pretty much a lager party.  I miss good-ole-American-punch-you-in-the-face hops.  We’ve heard there is a developing craft beer scene here.  I’ll report back when I encounter it.

A variety of takeout options.  Where we lived in DC, we could get a range of takeout or carryout.  For $15-40, I could get Thai, Mexican, Sushi, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, or Indian for the whole family to eat in the comfort of my own home.  Which is key with the small kids.  We do restaurants, but it is nice not to have to do restaurants, you know?  And we do lots of cooking, but sometimes you just don’t want to cook.

We had been warned that Rome does not have international cuisine and this has been largely true.  There are two Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood.  We’ve heard of a Mexican restaurant across town.  I’m sure there are others, but you definitely don’t have your pick of everything a few blocks away.

I swear I’m not sick of Italian food yet.  Just in this one instance of takeout.  It would be great to have something other than pizza or panini to grab when we are feeling lazy.  The pizza and panini are pretty amazing.  But OPTIONS.  And you never know if the pizza or panini place is actually open, but that’s another post.

King bed.  We had a king back home.  We opted not to take it.  Our place here is furnished so it didn’t make as much sense.  Also, others told us that it wouldn’t fit.  Even if it would fit in the room, they might not be able to get it into the place it would have to be abandoned by the roadside.  I figured this could be a good chance to test drive a queen; wouldn’t our room look so much bigger if we opted for a queen later?

I miss it so much more than I expected.  I’ve slept in plenty of queen beds.  They aren’t that much smaller, right?  WRONG.  It seems fine to start off.  But the number of times I have woken up about to fall out of bed is more than I’d care to admit.  The day I wake up on the floor is coming.  I’ll make sure to tell you about it, probably in a post with an ill-advised name such as “Queen are the Worst.”

I’m sure there are others, but that is what I’ve missed the most in the first month.  What is your personal Snickers?

They have how many what now?

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Strides have been made on the Italian learning front.  Longer strides for James.  He did a week-long, three hours/day Italian survival class.  I would have too, but you know, kids.  I’m pretty impressed with him.  He was in the more advanced group and their teacher, a 4’10” fantastic dresser from Naples, does everything in Italian.  He’s been holding his own and then some.  Apparently after he was a little tired one day, his classmates told him to get his act together for the next day.  Because who else who hassle the teacher about all the grammar rules that don’t make sense?

On the home front, we had our first meeting with our Italian tutor this week.  The plan is for her to come once a week at 2000, then watch the already sleeping kids so we can date night.  I really want conversation practice.  I need someone to force me out from behind my books and duolingo lessons and make me say something–anything–in Italian.  Our first session was pretty light on this, but I have hope for the future.

And I definitely enjoyed the date night part of the evening.  James and I hopped in a cab and walked all around downtown.  And maybe ate a little gelato.  I was enjoying it too much to take pictures, but we went from the Pantheon, through Campo de’ Fiori, and over to the Campidoglio.  It was beautiful.  Hard to describe, but it really looked like a movie set.  Gleaming cobblestones, beautiful people bursting out of sidewalk cafes and restaurants.

Ooo . . . look . . . a blurry picture of me with a cat

Ooo . . . look . . . a blurry picture of me with a cat

But back to the Italian.  Our tutor emphasized that you must pause between double consonants.  This means “oggi” (today) is really og-gi.  She noted that lack of the pause will change the meaning of a word.  It reminds me of SNL’s Nuni and Noonie sketches.

James also discovered this during his class.  During an interview your neighbor and share exercise, James told the group that his partner has 36 anni (years).  The teacher immediately stopped him to explain anni.  I’m having trouble picturing how this was done in Italian, but she said “it’s not good” and there was some hand gesturing.  Turns out, anni is the plural of anus.  If you want years, you really need to say ahn-nee.

I cracked up pretty hard.  And then I thought, “Holy tootknockers, do you know the number of people that I’ve told that my son has two anuses???”

 

I have too many tabs open

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Happy Friday everyone!  Because all of my tabs are seriously jeopardizing system performance, I wanted to share some links and musings with you.

I can’t stop listening to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off.  This is not necessarily problematic, but because I am a Luddite, I listen to music on youtube.  And I have to stop and watch this video.  Every.  Time.  It cracks me up.  Krumping ballerinas.  Nuff said.

 

Where to next?

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Some time this past summer, James and I (and Mac) ate lunch at Old Ebbitt.  We were running errands and managed to duck in right before a torrential summer thunderstorm.  I was more than happy to sit and eat my fill of oysters.  Since getting to Europe feels like half the battle, we used that meal to brainstorm on our  travel wishlist.  You can see it over on the new I want to go to there page.  I’m sure the Italy list will grow quite a bit as we talk to more people and read more Rick Steves.

We have a pretty good idea on what we aren’t trying to see.  Granted, we wouldn’t turn down trips, but these things feel pretty well covered.  We spent 8 days in Paris at the end of 2010.  We did Normandy then too.  I’d take the kids there to see the beaches if they were going to be a little older.  And eat oysters, of course.  We’ve done London and Edinburgh.  We’ve been to Prague.  We’ve done Florence and Venice.  As much as I love the idea of seeing Henry chasing the pigeons in St. Mark’s Square, I love the idea of not having to be on canal watch 24-7 more.

It’s an ambitious list.  To make a dent, we’d have to be planning a major trip at least every quarter.  Now that we are planning our first big trip–looking at the Christmas Markets in Munich and Nuremberg this December–I’m feeling completely overwhelmed.  I can barely move my children around this city.  How will I move them among, around, and between more cities?

To break down the parts: we would need transportation to the airport, a flight, transportation to location, train to a second city, and then everything in reverse.  I know this can be doable.  I swear we traveled when it was just Henry.  Right now two just feels overwhelming.  I really should borrow someone else’s child for a bit.  After three, I’m sure two would seem fine.

So where to go when?  Once our car situation is straightened out, I’m hoping to start knocking out close towns in Italy.  The Shroud of Turin is only on display next April to June.  The Palio only happens in July and August.  Scandinavia would probably be a summer thing.  I’m thinking of running the marathon in Berlin, which would be next September.  I spent Easter in Luxembourg with a friend once where I realized you could hike the whole country.  I guess we should do that stat when we can carry the kids or at the end when they can walk more?

Either way, we need to get to scheduling and get to traveling.  The Island of Elba has already been recommended to us.  What else are we missing?

 

Coloring outside the lines: can it be taught?

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I recently finished Rules of Civility.  Set in NYC in 1938, the main character is a spunky gal making it on her own.  I’d recommend the book for many reasons, but the protagonist particularly impressed me when she went after a job in a nontraditional fashion.  Instead of brushing up on her cover letter, she stalked her hopeful boss at his lunch spot, pretended to be meeting someone else, and then dropped a novel of mutual interest on his table.  I’ll let you read whether the gambit works.

Granted, this is fiction.  But these things do happen in real life.  Take this guy: post WWII he borrows money to buy a new car, drives it halfway across the country for a business meeting, parks it strategically, is all like “oh, you like this car,” and gives the car to secure the distributor contract.

I would not do these things.  It isn’t just that I wouldn’t do it; it would never even occur to me to do them.  Take Martine Rothblatt as another example.  There are about a billion examples in this (lengthy) article, but it would never occur to me to start my own religion.  That just seems out of the bounds of things that one can do.  (I guess I am not honoring my Lutheran heritage by thinking that way.)

Or Bill Murray as another one.  Running up to people on the street to warn them about a lobster on the loose just isn’t something you can do.  Right?  (I know, I know, tell that to Billy Eichner.)

The Confidence Code, another recent read, talks about how women are generally great at school because they are good at following the rules; however, rule following may not serve you well in the real world.  The book also mentions that women tend to ruminate about things more, where a guy could just shrug it off and try again.

My confidence is a little on the low side right now.  Some of it is from navigating a country with a foreign language and different customs.  Some of it is from learning how to juggle two kids in public.

I’ve decided to work on this.  I’m thinking about a series of “confidence challenges.”  Baby steps.  Things like purchasing produce at the outdoor market, getting a cappuccino with the kids, taking the kids on public transit, and actually going to the weekly playgroup across the park.  Besides making myself do more, I’m also going to try not to beat myself up about them.  If an Italian occasionally thinks I’m a clueless foreigner, this really should not be a big deal.

This morning at the grocery store, I transacted with the seafood guy.   A first.  Baby steps.  And you never know, by next year I could be approaching random Italians at Villa Borghese to warn them about runaway lobsters.

 

 

confidence code

street market

So this is modern dating?

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The first I ever heard about texting was over ten years ago in Germany.  I didn’t have a cell phone, but all the kids were SMS schicken.

Now, everybody texts.  I’m not great at it.  1) I tend to forget to keep my cell phone on me.  2) I like to make definite plans.  If I hear things like, we’ll text you when we’re heading out, my head might explode.  3)  I don’t like being character restricted.  This is why I do like email.  I guess I could just send ridiculously long texts, or multiple texts, but I probably wouldn’t get the type of responses I wanted and would frustrate everyone.

But now I’m back in Europe.  I have a cell phone this time.  I’m trying to make new friends.  And this seems to mean texting.

I met a really nice girl at a BBQ.  We exchanged numbers.  Her family came to Henry’s birthday party.  I meant to text her later to say thank you, but she beat me to it.  I wasn’t playing coy; I swear, I’m just really bad at this.  I agonized over how to respond.  I wanted to be witty and likeable.  I wanted to suggest making plans, but I didn’t want to crowd the text.  I may have ended up using a highly embarrassing word such as “holler.”  I immediately texted back to apologize for using the word “holler.”  You could call this a rookie mistake, but at least it felt more like me.  Doing something and then over-thinking it is pretty classic Melissa.  It worked!  She laughed.  Or at least her text said she did.  We had a nice conversation.  This reminds me, I probably need to text her again . . .

Another new friend texted out of the blue to say she had a song stuck in her head.  This made me feel nice.  Someone is thinking about me!  I then spent way too much time agonizing over a response.  The takeaway: texting is not just for making plans.  I should reach out more just because I feel like it.

This weekend continued the “dating” adventures.  Saturday was supposed to be a group date at the zoo.  But the other people couldn’t make it.  It would have been the perfect setup in a romcom, but in reality, it was just more screaming toddlers.  I think it went well.  We may get to go out again sometime.  Henry had fun.  The zoo was pretty cool.  (And you know I changed diapers on a bench. #placesmysonsjunkhasbeen)  You can get very close to an exhibit with more than 40 monkeys.  I could have watched them all day.

Ready to see some animals

Ready to see some animals

The awesome monkey island

The awesome monkey island

More monkeys

More monkeys

Henry, new friend, & creepy photobomber

Henry, new friend, & creepy photobomber

Sunday was the speed dating.  Really more like a mixer, I guess.  The Ladybirds English-speaking playgroup had a kickoff lollipop hunt at Villa Borghese.  I came with a friend, but we were determined to mingle.  It was a tough room.  Picture about 50 kids running around with parents running after them.

Intimidating, right?

Intimidating, right?

But I did meet a few nice people.  No numbers exchanged, but we talked about connecting on facebook and I’ll hopefully see them at the weekly playgroup.

Henry quickly grasped the hunt concept

Henry quickly grasped the hunt concept

Always sweet to be the mom of the "kid in the fedora"

Always sweet to be the mom of the “kid in the fedora”

Where's my lollipops?

Where my lollipops?

In sum, I will work more diligently on this modern thing known as texting.  But I’m glad I met James before it took off.

 

8 Tips on being a stay-at-home mom

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Hahahahaha!  I don’t have any tips.  I just wanted to go for the clickbait title.  I should be asking you guys for tips.  (Seriously–do you have any tips??)

A more appropriate title would be “Things that have worked for me so far.”  I’ve only been doing this a nanosecond.  And with only two kids.  These are things that are working now, but I’m sure it will change.  Also, these are things I try to do, but not always successful.

  1. Eat when the kids eat.  I do tend to have adult snacktime by myself during nap (think cheese and chocolate, not wine), but otherwise I try to eat with the kids.  This is one of the reasons I’m having trouble on planning lunches; I want something quick to pull together.  By eating at the same time, (1) I don’t get hangry later if I didn’t get food and (2) it frees up my me time for other stuff.
  2. Clean when the kids are awake.  Besides wanting to train good cleaners, this also frees up me time for other things.  (You’ll notice a theme here.)  This could be harder as Mac gets more mobile, but right now Henry and I can usually knock something out quickly during Mac’s morning nap.
  3. Keep the dishwasher open for business.  We are using the kitchen more than ever before.  We try to clean up after each meal to prevent the end of the day bomb explosion that feels much too impossible to clean up.  This is way easier if the dishwasher is ready to receive dishes.  I run the dishwasher at night, if it needs it, and unload in the morning.  It seems small, but it makes a huge difference.  Hat tip: A Slob Comes Clean.
  4. Live by the schedule.  I’m a schedule mom.  People who know me are probably not surprised by this.  I really like our schedule.  I’ll post more on it later, but it isn’t anything ground-breaking. Most of it just comes from the kids’ natural rhythms.  I like having a plan.  I like knowing what comes next.  And most importantly, if it all goes right, I get 1-2 hours to myself during naptime.  #metime  This is when I get to blog, and it definitely makes me a better mom in the afternoon.
  5. But don’t die by the schedule.  If the kids sleep later, fine.  If Henry wants to sit in his crib and talk to me before heading for his snack, no problem.  If he wants to play around with his fork when he’s finished eating, I don’t care.  I like having the general plan, but I’m not racing to get to the next thing.  The only ones that are nonnegotiable are finishing up our morning activity so that Mac can eat and simultaneous afternoon nap.  (See #3.)
  6. Don’t wait for people to get hungry.  Some of Henry’s meltdowns are because he is just being a doodyhead.  But many of them are when he is pushed too hard and he is hungry.  Pretty much the same for me.  We don’t do a lot of snacking between meals (except designated afternoon snack, and of course adult snacktime, see #1), but I always like to have a food strategy.
  7. Have a plan when you sit down to the internet.  Double naptime is sacred.  But if I get on the internet without a plan, naptime will fly by and I’ll have probably spent the hour looking at cat videos.
  8. Live in the little moments.  For anyone who has spent time with kids, you know there are actually a lot of boring moments.  I spend a lot of time doing things like following Henry around on his “moto.”  Or watching him eat.  Or reading the same story 5x.  But I try to just enjoy these moments as much as I can.  Even though some days seem slow, I know it will really go fast.  For me, it really helps having seen the other side of the coin.  Neither side is all cookies and sunshine by any means.  But it helps to remind me that I did something else and now am choosing to do this.

This is all the unqualified “wisdom” I’m dispensing at the moment.  What works for you?  Any tips??

Wine tweets: What I’ve been drinking*

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*Descriptions from a wine/beer lover who is really bad at talking about it

I’m not sure if this will be a regular feature.  We’ll have to see how it goes.  If I keep it up, I definitely need to do more in real time, as I have forgotten much about these poor bottles.  So with all of these glowing recommendations, here we go . . .

Reds

Reds

Up first, some chiantis.  The chianti on the left was legit.  Hands down favorite of this post.  James got this on his first visit to the wine store, where he consulted with a very helpful English-speaking wine enthusiast.  I have not yet been to the wine store because stroller.  And taking Henry into a store that specifically and deliberately sells glass bottles seems like a terrible idea.  If I had to pick one word for this one, it would be “mineraly.”  It wasn’t overly tannic, but you were scraping your tongue a little after each sip.  But in a good way.  #gobigred

The chanti in the middle I don’t recall specifics, but I think it was pretty good.  The word here would be “adequate,” but meant in the best possible way.  Here is a nice red that I would enjoy drinking with most things.

The chianti on the right, however, not so much.  I picked this one out at the grocery store.  This is wine that prompted James to suggest we only drink “classicos” from now on.  There just wasn’t a lot to it.  Although when we had it the next day with a nice weekend pizza lunch, it was much better.  I guess I just need to decant my crappy red wines more.  (snort) #pass

More reds

The valipolicella on the left was very nice.  If I recall, when selecting a wine that night, James asked what I wanted and I said “I want something that feels velvety in my mouf.”  I know.  Who says that?  But this one did fit the bill.  #smooth

The other two I do not have strong recollections of.  I believe they were Italian adequate.  And ooo . . . cool bottle decoration.  It’s like the hood ornament to your drinking experience.  #fancy

The lone white of this batch

Even though we arrived to excellent white wine sipping weather (read hot), I’ve just been craving the reds.  This was also Italian adequate.  More on the fruity and refreshing side.  This would be great to drink on its own.  #porchwine

9.18_wine 4

And one beer

James grabbed a pack (they come in 3s) of these beers at the grocery store.  I use the term beer loosely.  Not because it was bad, but because it really seemed more like lemonade.  In its defense, it was only like 2%.  #wouldbuyatthebeach

And that concludes this edition of wine tweets.  We’ll see if this feature returns.  If it doesn’t, it certainly won’t be because of a lack of subjects.  If this is a must for you, do let me know!

Paleo Fail-io

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Once upon a time, James and I read It Starts with Food and did a Whole30.  Basically you cut out all gluten, added sugar, dairy, booze, legumes, and corn for 30 days, and then gradually reintroduce foods to your healed body to see how it does.  Even though it was strict, I found it worked better for me than trying to be reasonable.  I am definitely an abstainer and not a moderator.  At the end of the program, we had both lost about 5% of our body weight.  We did feel great.  James and I couldn’t shut up about it and annoyingly preached the Whole30 gospel for quite some time.  I think almost everyone in my family has done one.

We do try to do more paleo cooking, but we’ve definitely fallen off the wagon.  Italy has not helped that.  Gelato!  Cheese!  Pizza!  Wine!  I can’t figure out what to make for lunch so Henry and I frequently have yogurt.

I feel less healthy in other ways, but this has to do more with stay-at-homing than with being-in-Italying.  I don’t walk as much.  Not because I’m driving, but because we don’t venture out as far.  There is a playground steps from our door.  The grocery store is only two blocks away.  I used to walk to public transportation, walk around the building, walk for lunch.  I’m trying to say yes to more dance parties and head out for longer walks.

Our schedule makes big walks hard though.  I love our schedule.  But with Mac’s morning nap, we are never really more than an hour away from someone’s nap or meal.  Also, Henry will tolerate some stroller time, but he also likes to walk.  If he’s walking, we cover less ground.  And it is easy to release the kraken, but will he go back in the stroller?

But the other day, I decided to grab hold and seize it.  We would head back to Villa Borghese and explore some other area of the park.  We live 10 minutes from Rome’s Central Park.  We owe it to ourselves to enjoy everything it has to offer, darnit!

This was probably too ambitious.  First off, we all have colds right now.  Second, instead of a low-to-mid 80s kind of day, it was more of an upper 80s kind of day.  But it was too late.  I had loaded up more than 50 lbs (not an exaggeration) of children and gear, and we were off.

By the time we got to a previously unvisited portion, I was sniffly, hot, and tired.  And it was time to go back for lunch and Mac was not pleased.  And Henry definitely did not want to go back in the stroller.

But we got to see a few new things before we turned back.  While Henry was chasing pigeons or other such, I noticed this guy in a tree.  He was so exotic looking that I thought he must have been someone’s escaped pet.  But I saw three of them in the tree.  Turns out my first instinct may not have been too far off.

9.16_green bird

We also saw this little guy.  He stayed remarkably patient with the toddler who wanted to embrace him.

9.16_lizard

And then after bargaining, bribery, and threats got everyone (read  Henry) loaded back in the stroller, I’m pretty sure I saw two people having sex in the park.  Sorry–no pics!  They were a little far off, and I didn’t want to stare.  So there’s Rome for ya.  Start off talking about paleo, end up with sex in the public park.

Places my sons’ junk has been

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I used to joke that I should start a tumblr with “places my son’s junk has been.”  Not with actual pictures of junk.  That would be all kinds of messed up.  But just the locations.  Stateside, I had a policy that if your (chain, family-oriented) restaurant did not have a changing table, we’d do a change in the restaurant.  On a bench if possible.  Always on a changing pad.  I’m looking at you Bojangles and Waffle House.  But Henry got to enjoy plenty of other al fresco changing venues.  Parks, rest areas, the National Mall.

I guess my tumblr would now be “places my sons’ junk has been.”  The trend is definitely continuing in Rome.  We’ve been hearing from people, guidebooks, the internets, etc. that Rome is not the most kid-friendly.  This doesn’t just mean a lack of sights for kids.  I’ve mentioned before that the double stroller is a challenge.  Whenever we get around to attempting public transit, that will be a challenge.  And I haven’t been able to find a restroom for me most places, much less a changing table.  (Just realized we will have to be WAY more strategic whenever Operation Potty Train commences.  Although I did see a kid drop trou at the Villa Borghese playground.  #OPTIONS.)

So this week’s “places my sons’ junk has been” is brought to you by Piazza della Repubblica.  Last weekend we went on another epic walkabout around the city.  Unlike last time, we ditched the double stroller at home.  I loaded Mac into the Lillebaby.  Thankfully, James is still able to wrangle Henry in the Deuter hiking pack.  And Henry did an impressive amount of walking.  Which would you choose: carrying a 16 lb child all the time or a 30 lb child half the time?  I’m stuck with the smaller one because I couldn’t even wear Henry in the Deuter 10 lbs ago.

Adventure ho!

Adventure ho!

It was glorious!  We could walk anywhere!!  Up church steps, in between cars, around tourists!  The city was our oyster; we were limited only by our aching backs.  The weather was also gorgeous.  I think around 70 degrees when we set out and creeping up during the day.

Although I was eager to get to proper sightseeing, I was also eager to have my first cappuccino in Italy.  Only took three weeks.  We stopped at a Bar, where I made James order.  I still do a double take on the signs sometimes, but Bars are the casual places with pastries and sandwiches that are open early.  Loved the cappuccino.  Henry loved the pastries even more.

They sprinkled chocolate on top!

They sprinkled chocolate on top!

Mmmm...nutella croissant

Mmmm…nutella croissant

Our first stop was Santa Maria della Vittoria Church.  We went for Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa, which was on my radar from Angels and Demons (on sale for kindle!)–classy, I know–but were really impressed with the church itself.  [Angels and Demons is now a movie?  From 2009?? How did I miss this?  This was pre-kids.  I have no excuse.]  It was on the smaller side, but every inch was covered with marble, paintings, mosaics, and other precious objects.  I’d love to go back for mass; you just know it would be an intimate affair.  Hopefully without Nic Cage-haired Tom Hanks crashing in to catch a maniac.

Outside of Santa Maria della Vittoria and Moses Fountain

Outside of Santa Maria della Vittoria and Moses Fountain

9.13_vittorio ceiling 9.13_vittorio

Bernini’s statue was very impressive.  The literature said he made the marble look like wax, which really is a good description.  So fluid.  So much movement.  I think I like Bernini even more than Michelangelo.  TV Show Idea:  Italian Sculptor Wars.  No?

9.13_sttecstasy

The Church of Santa Susanna is across the street.  There has been construction so we ogled the outside but didn’t go in.  This is home of the American Catholic Church in Rome so I’m sure we’ll be back.  Santa Susanna’s exterior boasts “a highly influential early Baroque design” and some pretty amazing FAQs on its website.

1. What is the Pope’s email address?

Everyone wants to talk directly to the pope. Unfortunately the population of the world is now over 6 billion people and the Holy Father is not capable of speaking to each person privately.Though Pope Benedict had an email address, so far Pope Francis has not listed his.

Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna

We headed down to Piazza della Repubblica, close to Termini train station.

Junk exposure took place over my left shoulder

Junk exposure took place over my left shoulder

But before the titular diaper change, we went to the Baths of Diocletian.  The baths were built between 298 and 306.  They have many other uses now–Michelangelo designed a church inside–but you can still see the exterior and infrastructure.  At the tallest point, they are seven stories high.

According to Wikipedia, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History building was partially based on design elements from the Baths of Diocletian

According to Wikipedia, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History building was partially based on design elements from the Baths of Diocletian.  I can see it.

Typical state of affairs around here

Typical state of affairs around here

Google auto-awesomed this one. I kind of love it.

Google auto-awesomed this one. I kind of love it.

9.13_baths inside 2

Lots of trompe l'oeil in here. Can you tell the bit to the left is just painted on?

Lots of trompe l’oeil in here. Can you tell the bit to the left (green columns) is just painted on?

We got to enjoy a few minutes of an organ concert inside the church.  Henry was enthralled.

I counted more than 70 stops on this bad boy.

I counted more than 70 stops on this bad boy.

After the diaper change, we picked up takeout pizza from Alice (Ah-lee-che), a delicious pizza chain here.  We enjoyed it in the Villa Borghese Park to the sound of a dude playing the mandolin.

Alice selfie

Alice selfie

Both kids crashed before we could make it back for official nap time, but it was a pretty nice day.

Ball so hard

Ball so hard

James put together this map ex post facto of our route.  I think it was only around three miles, but it felt longer.  I blame the toddler stop and go.  It isn’t just “mas running,” but you have to frequently reline up at the starting line.

Will try to update this when I find a way to make it look better

Will try to update this when I find a way to make it look better.  Blogger fail.