Going natural

Going natural - the predators stalk Lou

I've been reading all sorts of good things about the Via Appia. It was the principle road south out of Rome. It's amazing it's still existing. It is all very pretty. The wall museum was good.

Ollie and the kangaroos

Then we walked along the road in the rain on a 50cm strip on the side, while cars roared past. You need a lot of imagination to go back in time. We got to the catacombs at 12, just when they shut for 2 hours. We ate a bit, then gave up.

Boys get inside the head of a T-Rex.

The next stop was the Zooligical museum, which the boys really liked. Lots of skeletons, stuffed birds, stuffed kangaroos, models of fish, fleas, ticks, snakes bats etc. After 30 minutes of waiting around for Rome's confusing buses to turn up, we got home.

Dino puzzle.

For our final day, the weather was clear. Better late than no clear days. So we walked around. At the parliament buildings, there are several different popes names on different impressive buildings and monuments, Clemens, and Innocent. It's like the popes are each trying to outdo each other. We wandered to the Trevi fountain again, and the Spanish steps, which has a pretty crap view of town, and at least one more pope's name.



The papal competition continued at the Vatican, where surely the winner is the dude who did the horseshoe thing around the main square. 4 rows of columns ring the thing in a massive circle, and his name is in massive capitals all over the place. Surely he's the Max of Pontifex Max.'s, his name up in lights, and being infallible. There's a road leading away along the river, which has the best view we'd seen over the city, a highlight of the trip.

The boys fiddle around while Rome waits.

We found another rare park for kids, and our kids went nuts. Walking back over a bridge home, there is a tiny little monument with someone's name on it. He must have been a mediocre pope with such a tiny thing.

Paulus 5's effort - a bit lacklustre.