Lyra did great on the flights, much to my relief and the relief of those around us. She didn't like airplane food but she sure liked all the time she had being held by Bill and me. We missed Will and Eva so it was definitely time to go home and figure out how our next trip to Italy can include the whole family.
We ate dinner at Fischetteria Beltrami, near the Spanish Steps. Cherie and Frank both liked it and we had a great meal there too! The bread was great, so was the wine and the service was, how shall I say it....relaxed. Lyra had the tonnarelli carbonara and tiramisu. I will have to try making that at home. The only downside was the cars and motorscooters drove within mere inches of the table. Lyra really wanted to run around but we couldn't let her
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On the day where Bill and I got to go on a tour together, we had a choice of going to St. Peter's Basilica or to Ancient Rome. We chose Ancient Rome. But then on the way to dinner, someone told us that the St. Peter's tour was just fascinating and that we definitely couldn't go home without seeing it. Soooo, we did!
Lyra was the ultimate travel baby. She spent a good deal of time in the backpack and, on the last day, the sling. She rarely cried. Everyone told her how bellissima she was and she learned an Italian word....GELATO! Everytime we said the word or walked by a gelateria, she would cry and reach out for it. 
seeing the Colosseum! This thing is as large and solidly constructed as any modern sports stadium. It had aqueducts bringing water to built-in water fountains and even a tent covering over the top. Apparently wine was not permitted inside. Our guide said it only took 8 years to build. That doesn't seem very long to me considering how enormous the Colosseum is but I guess there was no shortage of slave labor.
I am having a lot of trouble with Picasa and Blogger. The photo blog process used to be fatastically simple and "improvements" on blogger have made me want to throw in the towel. So hopefully you can see some of these photos. We had a private tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. Look how small I lok next to the entrance! The enormity of these galleries and the amount of art crammed into them is just extraordinary. The gallery of maps was my favorite although our photos from that one did not come out well. The Sistine Chapel is truly a marvel. And just when we thought we'd seen it all, we went to St. Peter's Basilica. More on that in a bit.
We had dinner at the Palazzo di Colonna on Wednesday night. The galleries are open to the public on Saturdays and for private events. It has been the private residence of the Colonna family for centuries.
Our hotel was just lovely and kid-friendly in that everyone just cooed all over Lyra, brought her a high chair at breakfast and lunch, and was totally patient with the mess on the floors created at each meal.
e! Wish us luck.... Arrivederci!
The Pantheon, temple to all gods...I think this is my favorite place so far. It is 1900 years old. It is just beautiful inside.
The Pantheon continues to operate as a church and there are concerts here too. I would love to hear a concert here. The opening in the dome on top lets in light and it looked just beautiful in real life. I do not know how to capture it with my camera. Lyra continued to sleep in the backpack.
Piazza di Navonaa used to be an olympic stadium but is now a square with the Fountain of Four Rivers and lots of shops and restaurants. Actually, it is not literally a square because it still has its oval shape from when it was a stadium. There are lots of vendors selling drawings and paintings and other things. Unfortunately, the Four Rivers Fountain is under consruction. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed that as well as lots of other beautiful things around Rome.
I learned that the azaleas are in honor of Rome's birthday as a City, on April 21st and that they have bloomed a bit early this year. The obelisk (THAT was the word I was trying to think of yesterday) is from Egypt. There were 9, 6 small like this one and 3 large like the one from Piazza di Popoloi yesterday. They were funeral monuments for various Pharohs and were incorporated into Roman monuments centuries later. 
Now Lyra is sleeping in the backpack here even though you can't see her at all.
Finally, a Piazza where it is reasonably safe to let Lyra out of the backpack to run around. This monolith (is that the word for this type of monument? I was trying to avoid "phallus"), this monolith has hierglyphics inscribed all over it. Bill has a picture but it will have to go in the travel scrapbook because I was ot successful in getting it to post here.
Despite horrible jet lag, we took a taxi out to Piazza Venezia and walked around the oldest part of Rome. We saw the Capitoline and some amazing statues which I can't show you here because Bill's camera saves pictures in a raw data format that doesn't work with Blogger. But here is the Roman Forum...
I cannot believe how ancient all these things are and they are just sitting here mixed in with other modern parts of the landscape. There is nothing like this back home. We could also clearly see how Rome was built in layers, one on top of the other.
Lyra liked this porpoise fountain out front but she won't stay still for a picture. She also liked the car seat I got her for the taxi, the hotel lobby and pushing the buttons in the elevator. She is attracting smailes and attention from everyone and has the waiter at the terrace restaurant here toally smitten. However, Lyra has already perfected the art of giving guys the brush-off.
The trip to Rome was blissfully uneventful. Lyra was a very happy traveler except for a brief period when we had to fasten our seatbelts for take off and she wasn't allowed to run around. She didn't think much of airline food and held out for yogurt at breakfast. She got to sleep in the taxi to the hotel but we didn't. I felt horrible earlier this afternoon.
I just finished this sweater for Lyra and it is a good thing because I think it won't fit for long. Lyra turned 15 months old on Sunday. At her check up, she weighed 21 lbs 9 oz and was 30 1/4 inches long. That puts her at 25-50% for weight and 50-75% for height. She is definitely more petite than Will and Eva but certainly middle of the road in size.
Last Sunday Will and Eva had another piano recital with their instructor, Julie Zupan. Julie is a wonderful teacher and both Will and Eva had worked hard to prepare their material. Will and Eva played beatifully and received lots of compliments.
