Rome: home to beggars and thieves.

OK, it isn’t that bad. I'll put the negative bits at the bottom.

As is our habit, we stayed in a rented apartment instead of a hotel. Maybe 900 sq. ft, but the girls had their own room, we had a kitchen, and we lived in the city with the Romans. Great location, right next to the forum (200 yards away). A 17th Century building with us on the second floor – a little family grocery store right out of central casting. The décor, was interesting…to say the least. The 70s.

The girls were troopers as always – and as you can tell here, OA liked eating out. When in Rome you know……

You name the major spot, we hit it. Though chilly, it only rained the first night. The key to the successful trip was the apartment and its location. We were close to everything and the Metro to get us to some of the outlying locations. The first shot was right down the street as we walked home down Capital Hill. More shots here, here, and a long shot of the Coliseum here. My new camera has a night feature that, as you can see, works real well.

We ran into a nice British couple who took our one family shot here. Note OA….she doesn’t know it, but she would have done better with a cup of coffee that morning. She had another hide-my-face-and-pout moment or two, but got over it and posed for a solo. A few more shots of OA and SJ up and down the Forum on the way back, here and here.

As expected, we made the fountain tour. From the Spanish Steps, to one with bees, to the Trevi with a shot of me and the girls, and me and the Mrs. One the way, I had to make a pass by the “Mouth of Truth.” SJ – Check. OA – Check. MJ – busted! (I recused myself).

The highlight of the trip was, of course, The Vatican. Our big goal was to have everyone climb to the top of St. Peter’s. All four of us. SJ and OA were troopers. The view of the city was outstanding (here, here, and here). SJ took a couple of chances to catch her breath and get a grin, and even OA decided the climb was worth it.

We made the tour, as best you can with wee ones, of the Vatican Museum. In a word – impressive. Oh, and we managed to find more bees. Did I mention bees?

After that big of a day, we all needed a good nights sleep and make it out of Rome before the Christmas rush. In spite of the big week – we still managed to make a Christmas Party. OA and SJ held up quite well.

Next trip Bavaria!

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OK, the "Beggars and Thieves" part. You do have the standard issue “mother with small child begging” outside almost every church another high-traffic/high guilt locations. The scam of this is that a nation like Italy doesn’t have a safety net: it has a safety cot. Not enough people know that, as in most locations, these are part of the scam run by the same families who run their rackets at the major tourist locations – this job is just outsourced to the women.

Kind of hard to explain to the young ones why Mom, Dad, almost everyone is ignoring these poor women and their children… but you have to learn about scams and con-men somehow. Better from your parents than the hard way. Let’s see, other scams we ran into. At “Piazza Navona” there is the gauntlet of young men who try to stop you with the (in English) “Excuse me sir, could you sign this….” – There is the man parked in a car at the Circus Maximus with a map in front of his face asking you (in English) for directions; of course, there was the scampering urchins selling trinkets…easy to avoid. The keys to success: keep moving, don’t make eye contact, don’t respond to anyone that uses English. I found my Spanish (Latin is too far gone at this point) and my basic Dutch helpful in avoiding the overtly aggressive. That with my well tried “clueless and annoyed” expression kept us moving forward.

Perhaps it is her natural “I don’t put up with fools” ambiance – but the Mrs. didn’t get bothered as much.

Oh, another thing about Rome. Like Venice, the fake bag industry should be know as the Illegal Nigerian Support Program. The reason they have their goods on a blanket? If John Law comes, grab 4-corners and outrun the chain-smoking police. South Asians seem to have the illegal umbrella/electronics trade sewed up, and the food stalls for that matter. Though a hazard to navigation; they didn’t bother me too much. Just some folks trying to make a quasi-legal Euro or two. At least they weren’t crooks. Well, major crooks.

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