Today was an early day- we headed to the Vatican for the Pope’s weekly audience! It was pretty cool to see how many people were there for so many different countries. He was treated like a rockstar and was pretty funny too!

We then went to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was our third attempt but the kids had been so great about going with the flow that we figured it would be a great last day treat.

Then we headed to the Vatican Museum. It was huge! Everything was beautiful including the Sistine Chapel. It was so crowded!

We missed out on going into St. Peter’s Basilica because the lines were so long. But we took a bunch of pictures of St. Peter’s Square all decorated. It was so pretty!

Today was pretty special. We rented a car and drove to Bari, a town on the other side of Rome. In a little town there called Tulizzi, my great- grandparents were married and my grandmother was baptized. Likely some distant cousins still live there too! We took pictures and looked around a bit. We couldn’t go in the Church since there was a funeral.

Then we headed to Pompeii. It was too late to see Pompeii but we saw Mount Vesuvius. Dinner on the road was a bit tricky- we ended up with double the pizza we expected!

Chris drove over 500 miles in one day and the kids were great (thankful for technology!). It was also pretty cool that we could FaceTime everyone at home so they could see too!

Today was a chill day checking out more sites in Rome. We visited the Trevi Fountain and had pizza and Gelato along the way. Then we walked down little streets taking it all in. We went to the Spanish steps too.

We had a little rest in the afternoon before heading to dinner. The boys had pizza again!!! (they are becoming pizza experts) and more Gelato! I had a really good crepe.

It was fun to have no plan and just wander around- not a bad way to start the New Year!!

PS There were lots of fireworks last night!!!