It’s been a couple of weeks now since we’ve returned from Rome, but between coming down from the high of the holidays and all of our vacations and trying to get the kids back on a schedule over here, there hasn’t been much downtime for posting. Add to that that Prim got the flu that’s been going around and had a super high fever for three days while KC was out of the country on business… hoo, well it’s been a week over here, guys.

Anyway, back to Rome! We went to Rome with my sister’s family and my brother over New Year’s after they had traveled to Amsterdam along with my parents for Christmas. My sister’s kids are really close in age to Prim and Lark, which is awesome; her oldest is about 7 months older than Prim and her youngest is about 7 months older than Lark. (No, we didn’t intentionally plan it that way, it was just a nice coincidence!) We rented this giant house through Airbnb which was a little outside the center, and it accommodated all nine of us really well. Everyday we would head into the center for sightseeing and (the real reason you go to Rome) eating. And since my brother was traveling with us, we were able to go out to dinner a few nights after the kids went to bed, which was heaven. We had so much delicious pasta and so much good cheap wine… it was a dream.  If there’s anything more attractive than a man wearing a baby while pushing a stroller, I certainly haven’t seen it.  We had all been to Rome before (Alexis and I studied there in law school), but this was KC’s first trip to Italy. We hit most of the major sites, including the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colusseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. Larky thought the Colusseum was riveting. (Also those cheeks and those little lips! I love her.) KC originally wanted to take that top photo of us from underneath so he could get the giant hole in the roof of the Pantheon in the picture. I quickly informed him that nobody needs to be shot from the angle of under-chin up. No one. Primrose the party animal finds fun wherever she goes. And a city where she gets to have gelato more days than not? Well, let’s just say that we’ve been back for three weeks and we’re still talking about the gelato almost daily. (I asked her what her favorite food was the other day — her response: “Um… ice cream.” Me: “What flavor?” Prim: “Gelato.” Noted.) The weather was much warmer than Amsterdam — in the 50’s most days — which felt like a real vacation. Walking all over the place and not having my feet freeze was so, so nice. I mean, eating all the pasta, pizza, and gelato everyday? How can you not love Italy! Let me tell you, it was a rude awakening to come back home and have to start cooking again and stop having wine at lunch. (PS: wine at lunch makes parenting on vacation infinitely more enjoyable. INFINITELY.)We’ll be back again, Rome! Three visits just isn’t enough for one lifetime.