What were you grateful for this week?
Amazing tour guides!

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
Figuring out the dynamic when Mom is at home instead of at work.

 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.
I watched the kids all day on Thursday so that [my host mom] could go to Florence for work.

Tell us about your week! 
What a week! It was hot hot hot here in Rome, and that meant the kids (and their parents, and yours truly) were tired and a little bit crazy. We’ve spent a lot of time sitting directly under the fan on the cool tile floor coloring and doing puzzles to try to cool off. 

This weekend was dedicated to some day trips I’ve been wanting to do from Rome for a while now. It was so fun to be able to check them off my bucket list, and they all more than lived up to the expectations!

 

On Saturday I made the short trip out to Tivoli and spent the whole day at Villa d’Este. I had originally planned to visit Hadrian’s Villa as well, but I was too in love to leave! Villa d’Este is beautiful and fascinating inside, full of frescoes that really help you see the opulence of courtly Renaissance life. But it’s outside in the gardens that the estate truly shines. They’re built on a hill, full of stairs and sloping paths and tall cypress and sweet-smelling wisteria and honeysuckle — and more than 300 fountains! So so so beautiful.

Yesterday I made it down to Pompeii and Vesuvius! I splurged on a guided tour and I’m so glad I did because I didn’t have to worry about the long navigation and I had an amazing guide who was able to tell us all about what we were looking at, instead of just seeing a building and wondering what it might have been. Seeing all the details of the time preserved so completely was incredible! And the view from the crater of Vesuvius is beautiful.