Adventures in Rome, Italy

Since Richard had to work over the kids' spring break we didn't get to take a long trip somewhere. Due to a Georgian Holiday lining up with Orthodox Easter holidays, Richard had a 5 day weekend, so we let the kids miss a day of school and flew to Rome! We arrived in Rome a little after midnight local time (so about 2 am Tbilisi time). Clarissa had fallen asleep the second flight and pretty much dozed through customs and slept in the cab on the way to the hotel. We check into the Crowne Plaza - St. Peter's. They offered a shuttle (to/from Vatican in the morning and to/from the city centre late afternoon/evening) for 1.50 Euro each person. We had gotten a package deal that also included 2 adult passes on the Rome Open Tour (green bus), so the next morning we headed down to catch the bus. We only had to buy Mason's child ticket (Clarissa was free since she was under 6). We figured this would be the best way to orient ourselves in the city.

The first stop we got off at was the Trevi Fountain. Legend has it, if you throw a coin in the fountain you will return to Rome some day. Mason really wanted to throw a coin in so that we can come back to Rome again (he is not the only one wikipedia says that every night the fountain is cleaned out and about 3000 Euros are removed daily and donated to a supermarket for the needy).

Unfortunately the fountain is under construction currently. There is a scaffolding that you can walk on and get up close to the fountain (which is a rarity to get that close). There was a long line and with hungry kids we opted to just throw our coins in a small pool of water in front.

We walked a little further down the street and had lunch at a cafe/pizzaria on the street.

After lunch we got back on the bus and headed on our way, super cool cruising past ancient ruins.

The next stop we got off at was the ancient Roman ruins. Mason was super excited to headed to the Colosseum (it might have something to do with having studied ancient Rome in the fall this school year....seeing things he had just learned about).

Watch your back....Mason.

Seeing this reminded me of the stories (history) I learned in high school from Mr. McCauley.....I told Mason some of the things I remembered (I left out the vomitorium stories).

Looking for lions.....we didn't see any....

It was pretty amazing to see something so old that was so massive....

View of the Arch of Constantine.

Up close to the hypogeum (the elaborate under the arena floor area).

Outside the colosseum we splurged and let Mason meet some gladiators....(20 Euro for the photo op).

Clarissa wanted nothing to do with them....especially after Daddy got impaled.....

We then headed over to the Roman Forum (super cool, one ticket got us into both the Colosseum and Forum!). We saw the Temple of Romulus.

We went inside the Temple of Romulus.

Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

The Temple of Castor and Pollux.

It was almost surreal to see the ancient and the modern so close together.

My favorite view in the Forum was of the Palatine Hill (one of the most ancient portions of the city).

It was kind of fun to stop and rest on a wall/walkway that Julius Caesar probably walked by himself.

The sign said this was a bath....rub a dub dub, scrub with a bud.....

We headed up the Palatine Hill to view the Forum from the look out point. We came across an underground fountain/spring.

The view from the top of the Palatine Hill.

Richard had done a Europe tour about 15 years ago...even though he had come to the Roman Forum, we stumbled upon some ruins he had not seen then!

After the exploring, we had back to the bus. We passed the outside of Palatino Hill as we headed back.

On our third day in Rome, we hadn't pre-planned anything. We were toying with the idea of heading to the Pantheon and/or the Zoo. Clarissa ended up waking up with a high fever and was very lethargic. We called the front desk and they offered to call a Doctor to come to the room for us or give us directions to the ER. We opted for the Doctor coming to us. He was very nice, walked in with a leather doctor's bag (like in the movies) and diagnosed a lovely double ear infection in the little lady. He wrote a prescription for antibiotics and warned us about flying the next day.

So given Clarissa wasn't feeling too hot, we opted to do another on/off bus. That way the rest of us could still see things, while she rested. Per her request we rode on the pink bus this time. 'I Love Rome' was priced the same and had the same number of stops. The route the bus took was slightly different, but that may have been due to it being a weekend as oppose to a weekday on this trip. The only drawback we noticed was the frequency of the pink bus. They came by a stop every half hour, where as the green bus came by every 15 minutes or so.

Since the route was different, we drove past the Hard Rock Cafe Rome location this time. Given it has been 8 months or so since eating American food....we decided to go there for lunch (which ironically was one of the cheapest meals we had on the trip). So we got off at the Barberini Square stop, had lunch and took some photos of the Fontana del Tritone....a lovely merman blowing water out of a conch shell.

Clarissa even woke up for about 5 minutes to see the fountain.

So while, we didn't see as much as we would have liked to on that last day, we had a great trip (I will write about what we saw/did in the Vatican in a separate post). Since we tossed our coin in the Trevi Fountain, we will be back some day....so until then Ciao Italy.

Monday's Moment: Mario is that you?

Monday's Moment: No....just because the fountain is doesn't mean you can

Pros and Cons of Living in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

Some of us bloggy bloggers are doing a little 'pay it forward' for the summertime bidders by describing some pros and cons of our post. So with out further ado, here are some for Tbilisi.

Pros:

1. Food - so being a vegetarian one of the key things we look at is availability of produce at a post. Happily, there are plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables available here. Things are obviously seasonal. Watermelons are appearing roadside already (I always associated watermelons with 4th of July...not late April), last June tons of blueberries (and I filled my freezer with a huge bag of them) and then mid-summer/early fall we couldn't find zucchini for a couple months. So it seems the seasons are a little different with some foods. Beyond cooking at home. There is plenty of good Georgian food, lobiani is my favorite (bean pie), Richard likes shashlyk (meat kabob), both kids like the tonis puri (fresh bread), and the Eastern European fries are soooooo good! Of course you can't forget the national dish, khachapuri, cheese bread/pizza type dish. Each region has their own twist, my favorite Imeruli khachapuri from Imereti region. If you look here on wikipedia, there is a huge list of national foods..... Still don't believe me that the food is good, well Thrillist ranked all 48 countries in Europe on food/drink.....good ole Georgia came in 4th place.

2. Wine - Georgia is consider the cradle of wine making. Evidence of wine making dates back 8000 years.......that is a long time! The Georgians have had time to perfect the craft. Many families have their own family wine that ferments in the qvevris (clay pots) in the basement of their homes. One thing Richard has enjoyed is due to the wine fermenting in clay as oppose to oak barrels is he doesn't have a histamine/allergy reaction like he does with US wines. If I remember correctly, there are 60 varieties of grapes that are grown Georgia (only a few are seedless though). For a good history, dinner and wine tasting, Pheasant's Tears is our favorite place to go. The best part of all this wine making....in the fall during harvest season you can go pick and crush grapes......mark that off the bucket list!

3. Day Trips - The Republic of Georgia is only about the size of West Virginia. So you can visit most of the country in under a day's drive from Tbilisi. Sighnaghi is about 2 hours away, Kutaisi is about 3 hours (and has very tropical/FL keys feel), Mestia is about 8 hours away (you go slower as you go through the mountains), Ushguli is another about 3 hours from Mestia (even though it is only 35 kilometers away), Batumi is about a 5 hour drive (or 5.5 hours on a train). Each of these areas are so different from each other and each so beautiful to see/hike around.

Sventi area just outside of Mestia

4. Household Help - We have a housekeeper, she comes three days a week and does the cleaning, laundry, ironing.....she has cleaned things I didn't even know could be/needed cleaning. We pay less per week then we did for a bi-weekly service in the States (and they just did your basic cleaning). Most everyone I know has a housekeeper, those with younger kids also have a nanny, and a good number of people also employ drivers.

5. Good for kids/families - I feel this a very family friendly post. Georgians are very friendly in general and they really love kids. Clarissa is super shy but has had many Georgians try and talk with her or wave at her. One night at dinner, a group of Georgian men danced with all the kids at our table. The schools are really good as well. We send our kids to QSI Tbilisi. It is the primary embassy school. We live close enough the kids can walk to school, but they also offer bus service to other parts of town (including the downtown area). We have been every happy with QSI, they got a new director this year and he has made many positive changes to the school. Beginning in 1st grade (6 year olds), kids start taking a foreign language (options are Georgian, Russian, French and German) five days a week. Mason is taking Russian and he talked with a Russian speaker last summer and she was very impressed with his accent. There are some special needs kids at QSI and the school helps with coordinating extra things they need. There is also a British School in Tbilisi that offers the IB diploma program, there are some embassy kids that go there as well. In addition, several families send their children to the French School. The French School teaches in all French but some English is spoken in the school, so if you want a French immersion that is the school to go to. A number of the schools are doing Destination Imagination and we get kids from all the schools together for events. There are a lot of parks and playgrounds and they are regularly used. The botanical garden in Old Town is one of the more fun ones we have been to with a climbing web and a kids zip line.

Cons:

1. Drivers - The drivers are crazy here, they all drive how you would imagine a 16 yo boy with extreme ADHD....all over the place and fast. In a way, it is kind of fun: missed your turn, no worries throw it reverse; can't decide which lane you want to drive in, no worries drive in both; can't find a place to park, no worries the sidewalk is open; gotta go potty, no worries just park on a curve in a lane of traffic and go up the hill a bit so no one sees your winkie as they swerve to miss your car. I'm not really sure the meaning of a yield sign here, maybe it is to warn people in the main lane of traffic to watch out. I think my biggest pet peeve is people who will go around you at stop sign/turn if they deem you are taking too long, I especially love it when they attempt to go around me and get stuck because there is truly no opening. Also, not only are the drivers crazy, BBC did a documentary on how dangerous the roads are in parts of Georgia are. You can watch it here.

2. Old Habits - Georgia declared their independence from Russia in 1991, so not that long ago (I am not a history buff, the length of Georgian history (from approximately 600 BC) is amazing to learn about). So there is a large portion of the population that lived/were raised during soviet times. Some habits are hard to break. The one we notice most is lines.....or lack of (probably left over from food line days). People will constantly cut in front of you, especially in the grocery store. You bag your produce and then take it to the weigh station to get a bar code label placed on your bag. Lots of pushing/cutting there. At the airport....boarding by zones....forget about it.

3. Smoking - It seems everyone smokes here. Having lived in California when the ban on smoking in bar/restaurants went into effect, it definitely takes a bit to get used to all the smoke. Most of the time when you go out to eat, there will be smokers at all the tables around you. Outdoor restaurants do help a bit. The smoking does deter us from going out to eat some. CLO came up with a list of restaurants that are smoke-free which is great.

4. Flights - Flying into or out of Tbilisi is painful! I would say about 90% of daily arrivals/departures occur between 3 and 6 am.....yes you read that right, butt-crack of dawn! Given those flight times, you typically end up with insanely long layovers en route to/from Tbilisi (Coming from DC, 13 hours in Munich...sounds great! CLO even did an article a few years ago about tips for surviving the layover since there really isn't anyway around it).

5. Hmmm -  Can't think of anything else, maybe check out the photos on this blog for more reasons to not come to Georgia....

Overall, we have really enjoyed this post. It is our first post, so we worry that the bar has been set really high for all future posts. If it is on your list, I recommend bidding it high!

Monday's Moment: When life gives you a chicken sandwich when you wanted chicken nuggets

A Whole Handful

Clarissa turned 5 last week and is literally (and figuratively) a whole handful. Last weekend, we had her birthday party on a welcomed warm and sunny spring day (followed by a week of rain and cold wind...seriously, it is almost May temperatures shouldn't be in the 40s anymore).

Given that she is turning 5, any guesses on the requested theme? Can you imagine my "surprise" when she wanted a Frozen party?

So first off the cake. When Mason was younger, I took a couple cake decorating classes at Michael's. Richard really enjoyed that time (making a cake once a week for a month)! So I enjoy making the kid's cakes at their birthdays. While they probably would not win me a spot on one of those cake baking shows, they don't fall into the Pinterest fail category.

Clarissa wanted to have Elsa on her cake. So I looked around online for inspiration. I saw a number of cakes with ice palaces made of melted sugar. These ice palaces involved boiling sugar/oven drying for hours/etc.....I wanted quick and easy. I search some more to see if an idea I had was possible....found nothing. So I tried my idea anyway.

I took some Wilton sugar sprinkles (in blue of course). Sprinkled them on some parchment paper.

I then put them in our toaster oven set on 350°F for about 5-10 minutes (just until it was melted). After about 5 minutes, I had to watch the closely so they wouldn't get too green (very short window of perfect). This is what I got.

Blue - check, Icy Appearance - check, Sweet and Edible - check....that will work! I iced the cake with a homemade buttercream icing that was so sweet it made my teeth hurt the first bite I tasted, but Clarissa essentially only ate icing from her cake and happily kept asking for more. I placed Elsa, Anna and Olaf on the cake and added the 'blue ice'. Viola!

Clarissa appeared to be happy with the cake. After I decorated it on Friday, until her party on Saturday I caught her several times sitting on the floor with the fridge door open just smiling and looking at her cake.

For drinks, I printed off some melted snowman labels from here and put out some capri suns. Given there are not any party supply stores, I bought some white placemats and decorated them using a snowflake stencil.

Table is ready for party time!

For party activities, we played with an Elsa bowling set.

I stole a frozen hand activity idea from here and the girls used warm water, medicine droppers, and plastic knifes to melt Elsa's frozen hands.

The treasures I hid in Elsa's hands were pop beads to make bracelets and snowflake rings. I had put some glitter and ribbon in them too.

I found a Frozen lyrics scavenger hunt. I downloaded the clue cards with lyrics here. I gave Mason the job of leading the scavenger hunt. The final clue lead them to the den. We had popcorn served in cute popcorn containers I'd gotten here. Using the Disney Story Central App, I downloaded the Frozen Fever book. I linked the iPad to the Apple TV and had the story read to the girls who piled on top of each other on the couches.

So we made an improvement over last year. Clarissa did not hide under the table when happy birthday was sung, but she did plug her ears......

But quickly recovered after the cake was served.

After her brother's party, Clarissa wanted a piñata. So I ordered one back in February....and it was one of the items that took a month to get here. We got the ribbon pull type....and of course the last sting pulled open the piñata.

Finally, what Frozen party would be complete without sno-cones? I totally cheated and used my salad shooter to crush most of ice, but Olaf was available for fun.

Finally, since the little ladies had rings and bracelets from their Elsa hands and candy from the piñata, I made little snow man bags with snowman parts (marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate chips) for favors. I totally flaked and didn't a photo though. I downloaded the bag toppers from here.

She said she enjoyed her party.....so that's all the matters. (Again, sorry for the creative cropping...don't want to upset anyone by posting photos of their kids online).

So what does a big brother do with leftover crushed ice after a birthday party? Make a sno-cone stand and starting knocking on doors to advertise.....I think Mason and sno-cone shop gang each made a couple lari after the profits were split.

On Sunday, we let her open birthday gifts from grandparents/aunt & uncle. Then she had something to keep her entertained all day for part of the day. On her actual birthday, little bit got dressed up and took cupcakes to school to continue the celebration.

 

After school, it was 'Take Your Child to Work Day' at Richard's office so we went to Daddy's work. Afterwards, she requested pizza from the man in the white car (aka Ronny's Delivery) for her birthday dinner. She then opened presents from Mommy & Daddy and had one more round of Happy Birthday.

While putting together the coveted Wild Style and Princess UniKitty in Cloud Cuckoo Land, something seemed unnatural about following step by step instructions....just saying.....

Almost 1/3 of the way through getting the annual hand me down figurines from Mommy. Busia gave them to me, now I am giving them to Clarissa (Mason likes to point out the unfairness that he isn't getting them or some sort of equivalent....).

Rockin' out to Happy Birthday!

With one last blow to the candles, the birthday festivities wrapped up.  Hard to believe our little firecracker has been around half of a decade already and my oh my has she changed.