Taking a child on an aeroplane at any time can be a challenge. We took our toddler on an adventure to Rome. Back in December, we booked our trip, part of the idea behind it was that we could see how Jaxon coped with a short flight before taking him on a longer one. You can find Day One here.
Sunday Morning
While Chris sorted out the deposit and keys with the landlady, Our Sidekick and I sorted out the final bits aroudn the apartment and got everything packed up.
After we had handed back the keys to the apartment, we headed up to OVS for Our Sidekick to take a look around after stopping the fun early yesterday. While he was in there, I went to Tiger. It seemed to be more home orientated than the UK one. I wanted to get some bits there but we were on a budget (although in the end we did come home with spare Euros!).
Today’s main visited was to the Vatican City. I would have loved to visit the Sistine Chapel but it’s closed on a Sunday and probably isn’t toddler-friendly. Jaxon would have probably got bored waiting for me to enjoy every bit of it. With The Vatican City being it’s own country we did have to go through a checkpoint/border control before we were allowed into St Peter’s Square. The poor guards couldn’t believe how much we had with us (Note to self: next time don’t go to The Vatican on leaving day with all our luggage!)
I didn’t realise quite how far the crowds are from the Pope’s actual window – I was grateful for the big TV screens. The address was given in Italian and unfortunately, my listening skills are rusty! This meant that I wasn’t abl extra slate for the boys. I got the odd phrase like “mio fratelii e sorelle in Cristo” (my brothers and sisters on Christ) then could not keep up at all! Occasional words would make sense but that was about it. There were a bunch of people near the front of the crowd who kept cheering like they were at a rock concert rather than hearing the Pope speak which was quite funny.
Once the address finished, we explored the local area and ended up at a shopping mall called Terminal Giancolo. We had lunch in the food court area. This was a bit disappointing but it did fill a hole. There was a small soft play area that Jaxon played in for nearly an hour. He’d spent so much of the weekend doing “adult” stuff that it was only fair that he got something of his own to do. He was a bit sulky when we left but that soon stopped and he was back to his normal self.
After The Vatican, we went to catch the bus to our next stop and Chris realised we weren’t going quite the way we were supposed to be so we ended up getting off the bus we were on. We then had to walk for a bit to get the bus that we needed. My phone wasn’t keeping up so I adopted some photos that Our Sidekick was taking.
Once we were on the bus, we headed back to Pyramide and caught the train from there towards the airport.
Our rail passes for us as far as Fiera di Roma (it’s a hit like the Birmingham NEC or Excel in London). We got off the train to get a single fare each to the airport. However there wasn’t a ticket booth or machine at the station so I ended up doing my best to figure out the website to buy the tickets we needed to get the rest of the way. At one point, I was really tempted to risk it and dodge the fare rather than figure out the website! In the end it was fine and we made it to the airport.
Getting food for Chris at the airport was a challenge and in the end whereas we had something proper to eat, Chris ended up eating a sharing size of crisps to himself! I think he was really grateful to get home and be able to eat normally!
While Chris got some food, Jaxon and I found this giant sofa to sit on. Parts of the sofa had USB ports and plug sockets for charging devices. At one point, Our Sidekick was lying down and Jaxon snuggled up next to him. (For all of a minute before wriggling away again!)
By the time we had made it into the air, Jaxon was shattered and ended up sleeping most of the way home.
