Rome slowly

**Part 2 of 3  of our vacation: Rome
    

Rome was tricky. We couldn't lounge in the mornings like we did in Tuscany. We could come home early, but if we were going to get anything out of Rome we had to be out in it during the day. I've got to be honest; if Nils wasn't so easygoing it wouldn't have worked.

Lucky for us he is easygoing, so out we went. There was something for everyone. The Colosseum for me:

 The Vatican for Oliver:

And water bottles for Nils. Seriously, he can play with one of those for a half an hour.

It was a slower, less direct style of sightseeing. There were certain things we couldn't do (museums), and the things we did do were done more slowly. Yes, for example, there was an ancient structure; enormous and beautiful and you could practically still hear gladiators waiting beneath the arena... but within that structure there was a thin wire to hang on to! A wire! We needed to devote some time to this.

And so it was, a push and pull. We pushed Nils a bit sometimes, taking advantage of his flexibility and sunny disposition to cover a bit more territory, see a bit more of the city. He pulled us back in turn, reminding us in his own sweet way that we had to slow it down a bit:

On our last morning in the city we decided to hit up one last place. The Terma Caracalla, a complex of thermal baths built during the Roman Empire. It was beautiful and deserted, and we wandered at our leisure. 

 I scampered around, taking photos. Oliver sat with a finger on his lips and took it all in, wordless. Nils found another thin, wire-like structure to hang on to:

Something for everyone.
   

Caffe, gelato, vino (Tuscany with a baby)

**Part 1 of 3. I feel like writing about each section of our trip on its own. First: Tuscany  

From the get go, we knew this trip would be different. We'd be doing Tuscany with friends, for one thing. Friends with their own little one in tow. We'd have a home base too, instead of packing up the bags and moving on every couple of days. More than anything else though, the baby would make it different. How much more limited would we be? Could he handle everything? What would our days look like? It's hard to imagine now that we ever had concerns; everything turned out beautifully.

Tuscany, for us, meant mornings at the villa. Lingering over the breakfast we ate outside. Puttering around the olive groves and country roads while the babies took their morning naps. (Taking turns puttering, of course. I feel compelled to let you know that the babies were not abandoned as they slept) Once the babies woke up, we sometimes made the 30-minute walk to Monte San Savino, the hill town we could see out our windows.

 Other days we got into our cars and made our way to other hill towns. Once in those towns, two things were inevitable: coffee and ice cream.

The coffee and ice cream made it all work. Each gave you a place to sit outside, a place to watch everyone pass by. You could linger over your cappuccino while your little babe sat on your lap, staring in wonder at the old woman making faces at him from the next table. Once it was time to move on from the coffee place you could aimlessly wander the streets, snapping photos and pausing to look into shop windows, until you stumbled upon a gelateria. Who wants gelato? (Everyone does.) The adults could sit and blend into the stone walls again, stopping to become a part of the town for a bit instead of simply passing through it. The babes could stretch their little legs on stone streets and rocking horses/moose.

 Once back to our home base, there was usually time for a dip in the pool before dinner. Dinner, just like breakfast, was eaten outside and lingered over. It also included my favorite detail from the giant fresco that was our week: homemade wine. Our landlord's own, made from the grapes we walked past each day. One partner sat and sipped near the lemon and fig trees while the other shushed the baby to sleep in the house. The little ones asleep, we all poured ourselves more glasses. We talked about the years to come. We watched the lights go on in nearby Monte San Savino. It was heaven.

(Main piazza, Montepulciano. Bonus points if you can spot Oliver and Nils)

 (The Duomo, Orvieto... technically Umbria, not Tuscany)

  

Big weeks

  

We're off!

A couple weeks in Europe await - first Tuscany, then Rome, then Germany. We're renting a house with friends, sightseeing just the three of us, and taking Nils to meet the other half of his family. 

Big weeks, these will be. Nils will use his passport for the first time. Oliver will get to - for days and days on end - spend more than 45 minutes in the morning with his son. I'll get to see Italy. We will drink wine (some of us, anyhow), take day trips, lounge with family, and meet our future wives (one of us, anyhow ;) ).