Friday 23rd September

I am writing this on Saturday morning as I was too tired last night to write anything. Yeterday (Friday) was Mark's birthday and he sounded like he was  having a very stressful day trying to get everything done before flying out Friday night Sydney time after a very big day of work and almost no sleep and a busy week on call. We spoke to briefly on Friday morning Sydney time to wish him a happy birthday and we'll look forward to meeting him at the airport in a few hours time. Hopefully he'll have had lots of sleep on the plane and will be able to relax and recover his energies whilst in France.

It is another beautiful day today. We have been very blessed with the weather - mild, sunny days. Very comfortable for sight seeing. I accompanied Carolina to Gare Du L'est this morning and deposited her on the TGV to Frankfurt. We both felt rather emotional. It has been such an adventure together. We've been a very good team. If her new job comes through it may  have been the last time she will have been with us in a work capacity too.

Yesterday we all woke up feeling very tired, and on my part rather flat and grumpy. We did manage to get out of the house by 10 and walked up to Les Halles to tackle the sim recharge task for the iPad - I really want to get some 3G availability for we reach the south of France so we can use it as a GPS to find our house. I had wanted to take Carolina and the children out for a proper French breakfast as I remembered it from my first visit to Paris at age 14. I was entranced by the beautiful milky coffee and hot chocolates served with fresh croissant, baguette, unsalted butter and jams that had been served in the breakfast area of our little hotel. I thought I was in heaven and nothing had ever tasted so good. I haven't found the same thing this time and the breakfast we found yesterday morning was no exemption unfortunately. It was fine, but not mind blowing. The hot chocolate was of the thick, custardy variety that I don't like but that Carolina and Alex did, so that was OK. We will keep searching. Recharge achieved, we walked back down through the back streets of Les Halles and into the Marais to the Jewish Museum which is situated on Rue de Temple, appropriately enough. It is located in a beautiful old building set around a large sunny courtyard. It was very interesting and differently set out to other museums we have seen. They included a collection of photos of current members of Parisian Jewry with brief comments on what being a Jew in Paris meant to them. These photos with their commentaries were interspersed amongst the other areas of the museum which dealt with the history of French Jewry, the Shoah, Jewish festivals etc. The little ones were not very interested but were very well behaved. We had again ventured out without the stroller with less protest this time.

The children were anxious for the morning dose of nutella crepe which we fulfilled en route to San Michel station where we caught the train to Versaille. Eva has eaten little except nutella crepes, salami sandwiches and ice-cream all the time we've been here but seems none the worse for wear. Carolina fell sound asleep in the train and I had to work very hard not to. Once again, this travel business, is hard work. We slowly observed the change in landscape as we left the central Ille de France area, with the gradual change from apartments to houses. The boys commented that they hadn't actually seen a house in France until now.

It was a perfect day to visit Versailles - a first for all of us. It really is quite extraordinary and sickeningly lavish. Eva enjoyed the different colours of the fleur de lys wallpaper and happily found herself a corner in each room to draw. Much to the delight of the Japanese tourists who seem to always enjoy photographing her, particularly when she is covered in nutella or chocolate ice-cream (i.e. more often than not). (Forgot the wipes again). Wonderful to see the David painting of the Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine. I realised again how little I know of French history. The reading list for our return is getting longer everyday.

We loved the gardens and spent some time running around exploring. It was already well after 5pm and hence too late to explore the garden in detail but we enjoyed it nonetheless. As in the Tuillieries and around Notre Dame, there was a wonderful contrast between formal garden and profuse and apparently randomly planted flower gardens of the country garden variety. Very, very pretty.

We arrived back to a glorious evening and walked slowly back along the Seine through the Ille de la Cite and across to Ille Saint Louis. A wonderful jazz band was playing near the bridge as we crossed over to the  'mainland' and we stopped to listen for a few songs. The lead seemed to be American but clearly living in France and their group included an elderly and rather eccentrically dressed lady who danced joyfully along with the music. Sam was transfixed and the boys talked avidly about how they might form their own band for some time afterwards.

We meandered through the Marais towards Pl de Vonges where  we found Cafe Hugo, as recommended in Lonely Planet. It is situated on 'the most beautiful square in Paris' according to The Guide and it was indeed very pretty, with a colonnaded arch all around the edge - rather Italian actually. There were a several cafes and restaurants scattered around the edges of the square and we eventually found ours. It was busy but they found us a table out the back (a good judgement on their behalf) and we had a lovely meal. Carolina and I had French Onion Soup which was delicious and Alex and I followed that with Duck and sautéed potatoes of perfect crispness. Carolina ordered an enormous steak. Sam and Eva had plain pasta and bread and cheese respectively and all the children finished the meal off with MORE crepe with nutella.  I enjoyed a Kir Sauvignon - the first since our arrival - I had forgotten what a nice drink it is - white wine with creme de cassis. The menu offered various other combinations of wine plus liquor which I hadn't seen before. We walked home, tired but happy after another big day of stimulating  sights and food.

Thursday 22nd September

We promised the children a focused and brief tour through the Musee Dorsay today. After battling with the stroller in the metro all week, we decided to brave it without today. Eva was Not Happy. I WANT MY STROLLER alternated with CARRY ME  for the entire distance on foot and metro to the museum. We gritted our teeth and stayed firm. Eventually she calmed down with the assistance of an ice cream and brotherly diversions on the steps outside the museum.

She didn't make it easy though. She certainly is a young lady of opinion. It is such a beautiful museum. Again I wished we'd been able to be more leisurely. Eva was so excited to see Degas' little dancer. Carolina, Alex and I were so excited to see all of it. Eva did really well for the rest of the day and it was so much easier without the stroller. Carolina took off on her own in the afternoon to see La Defence and climb the Arc de Triomph. I thought it was time that we did something for Eva so we headed back to Les Halles where we had seen a lovely playground. She and Sam had a great play and were so happy to be outside in the sun. We walked slowly home through the back streets on a beautiful warm evening. After all the exercise, Eva fell asleep within minutes of reaching home and slept for 12 solid hours. I found the makings of a sort of spaghetti bolognese at Monoprix and it was surprisingly good - a bottle of Barilla pasta sauce (Basilico) with a small packet of mince.

Wednesday 21st September

Louvre Day. Deep Breath. Snacks packed. Good supply of coloured pencils, drawing paper, colouring in books, charged iPs (pods, pids, pads etc).

To preserve strength we took the metro to the Louvre station. This has been transformed since I was last there, which was almost 20 years ago. The station exit opens into an underground modern cave filled with the remains of ancient walls and filled with modern shops. Never miss a retail opportunity. We queued for our museum passes in a queue that must have been almost as long as the one we were trying to avoid by buying one. We then proceeded with the crowd through underground passages through more retail opportunities - tantalising Louvre related shops including an entire shop devoted to  the most magnificent art books and toys for children - finally emerging into the Light under the pyramid which is central mission control for processing visitors and distributing them via ancient and modern means into the various wings of the building. All rather magnificent. The queues are reduced by having multiple opportunities for ticket purchasing and weren't too bad at all.

As advised, we focused on the highlights. The audio guide caters quite well to this with various choices of tour or the option of just picking out the (selected) pictures as you find them. Unfortunately information about pictures not included in the guide is all in French and brief at that. Eva switched off very quickly and descended into the drawing and cyberworld, raising her head for a brief nod at the Mona Lisa, with which she seemed distinctly unimpressed after all the hype. The rest of us still got quite a kick out of seeing it. I had forgotten that there are quite a few other Da Vincis. Wonderful to see. Also really enjoyed the big romantic French revolution paintings and our increasingly rushed foray through the Dutch masters. Unfortunately the audio guides ran out of batteries before we did. Irritating.

All utterly exhausting but hopefully something sunk in.

We escaped into the Jardin des Tuileries and collapsed into chairs by the lake with beautiful ice creams from Amarino which are delivered looking like beautiful flowers and taste superb. The gardens are looking more autumnal every day but the cottage garden flowers are still going strong. So pretty.

Somehow, I managed to convince our exhausted team to undertake an ultra quick tour of L'Orangerie before heading off. All were suitably awe inspired by the Monet waterlillies and Alex, Carolina and I wished we could have spent longer in the down stairs area. We rushed through at criminal speed as they were closing. Well worth it. If I'd had the time again, I would have avoided the Louvre altogether - or just headed to the Mona Lisa and spent more time in the smaller galleries.

I then had the crazy idea of visiting the yarn shop I had read about which was 'sort of' on the way home, near Les Halles. It was closing at 6.45 and it was close to 6. I couldn't see when I would get there otherwise. We found it easily and it was HEAVEN. See photos. Could have spent hours there. Absolutely beautiful yarns, ribbons, buttons, accessories and patterns all beautifully displayed. I chose a modest amount of yarn for two cardigans for Eva and went to pay. My wallet was missing. I thought I'd been so careful but we think it was pinched on the metro which was horribly crowded. Such a bugger. We tried not to let it get us down too much.

We headed home, after a rather indifferent but nonetheless welcome meal from the Brasserie around the corner and collapsed in a heap. This travel business is tiring.

Tuesday 18th September

This morning, after another not terribly early start we jumped onto our local metro (line 4) and headed north to Montmatre, ostensibly to visit Sacre Coeur. I must admit to some baser motives, Montmatre being the fabric district. When I was 17, I found a wonderful shambolic fabric store selling, amongst other things, some beautiful Provencal fabrics. I bought several metres of two different patterns which have served me as tablecloths ever since. They are now very tired and faded and need replacing. I had hoped by some miracle to stumble on the shop or something like it once again. No such luck. Once again, the natives were restless and we stuck to the itinerary. Anna (Mark's Mum) had spoken of a wonderful cheese shop too but we failed to stumble across it unfortunately. Never enough time.

We did get to Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the marvellous views from the top. We did not enjoy carrying the stroller up and down the stairs and convincing Eva that she had working legs. Eva protested the whole way up, through and out. I had not appreciated the Art Nouveau decorations in the church before. Despite its elaborate wedding cake appearance outside, it is really quite modest inside. Maybe everything  looks quite modest after St Peter's in Rome. In all the museums and churches there are a series of severe Somalian attendants who bark at everyone for wearing hats, talking too loudly, not going through the correct passage, taking photos and other general signs of disrespect. They seem to have limited patience. I'm sure I would too in the circumstances

We then meandered throughout the very pretty and very tourist filled cobbled streets of Montmatre towards the Dali museum. I had never known this was in Paris. We had previously visited the big museum in Figueres and his house in Cadaces in northern Catalonia which were both very impressive. This was a small but also very impressive museum of sculpture and paintings. The children were very taken with them, asking lots of appropriate questions like: 'why does that elephant have such funny legs' and 'that man has a tree growing out of his head'. etc. It was a nice, small, manageable museum. I also hadn't realised that Dali had a preoccupation with Alice in Wonderland although it makes perfect sense when you think about it.

We set off again on foot, down the hill towards the metro again. We were held up by a delighted Carolina who had sighted a small shop that was clearly Columbian. We ventured inside and she bought us all Empanadas and strangely flavoured Columbian soft drinks. The small shop was lined with high shelves, bedecked with Columbian products and, strangely, Milo in the middle of it. Carolina transformed in the presence of her countrymen and women, speaking with an entirely different manner to that which I am used to, and which clearly was appropriate to the circumstances. It was fascinating to watch the transformation. Armed with a bottle of toxic Columbian alcohol and the makings of Columbian hot chocolate and several bags of Columbian sweets, we escaped to the metro again and headed for the Rodin Museum were we were to meet Tasha, Rob and the boys for ice cream. More later. I'm going to bed.

Monday 19th

We are not doing very well at getting out of the house early. After another lovely French breakfast in our apartment we walked down to Notre Dame. There was a queue to enter and plenty of people already wandering inside despite the earlyish hour and the fact that there was a mass in progress. Carolina joined the mass and took communion. Eva was not particularly patient but the boys were suitably awed by the cathedral and at how different it was to the Italian ones we had recently seen. We recovered with coffee and crepe at somewhat hideous expense in a nearby cafe before heading to St Chapelle at the other end of the Ille de la Cite. The queue there was long and apparently not moving at all. I don't remember having to queue for St Chapelle on previous visits and I was rather disappointed. The natives were getting restless and we decided to give up whilst we were ahead and return another day (I hope). The Ille de la Cite is very touristy as evidenced by the crepe price index which was high. (4-4.50 euro/nutella crepe compared to only 3euro in the vicinity of our apartment).

To our delight we had bumped into our Sydney friends Tash and Rob Cheval and their three boys Oscar (in Sam's class), Hugo and Louis in the Pompidou the day before. The big topic of conversation had been a huge toy shop the boys had visited. Our children were desperate to follow suit. I googled 'biggest toy shop in Paris' that evening and found a likely candidate near Printemp and the other Grand Magazin and as I knew there would be no peace until we went, there we headed after our high brow, churchy morning. Consuming our bread rolls on the way, we alighted at Madeleine and after some effort found a very closed toy shop. Sigh. Very disappointing. I thought we might compensate by visiting the toy departments in one of the big shops. Carolina and I were rather keen to see at least one of them anyway. It is a beautiful area around the big shops. We stumbled upon Fourchon which was, of course a delight. The chocolate, the cakes, the Macarons, the madelines.

Printemp was quite overwhelming. We started in the perfume area, where I spent an intensive 5 minutes choosing my perfume for the next 10 years or so. I like to put time and thought into these decisions. (My previous bottle has been going for rather longer than that and is just running out). (I bought Opium, which I love, if you are at all interested). We the ascended up the floors, lodging ourselves for some time in the fascinating homewares department which was full of delicious, beautiful and almost entirely useless and uncessessary things of great delight. We refrained. Carolina escaped into the women's area briefly and returned scathed but essentially unharmed. The children and I located the toys and despite Eva's expressed NEED to buy something, escaped again in tact. The boys weren't actually very interested. We escaped to the basement, bypassing the designer labels which did make brief but marvellous viewing. Down the bottom we discovered some reasonably priced and very lovely scarves and indulged modestly.

We escaped into the streets and walked home via Les Halles where I managed to locate a sim for my iPad, which I am, as I write, completely unable to recharge because the phone message on the phone recharging number is in rapid french and rather than transferring you to an operator when you fail to provide the required response like in OZ, it just hangs up on you. The website is untranslatable, even with google translator and hence I am stuck until the morning when I shall venture out to the shop again. What a pain. I have great sympathy now for non-english speakers attempting to negotiate their way through those dreadful phone messages that say, please state your problem in simple terms. Hard enough in the native language to understand what they want.

The boys were after some peculiar piece of dongle-ware for connecting some device to another and Alex had googled it and believed himself to have located it in a shop called FNAC which we then located in Les Halles. It turned out to be the biggest book/DVD/phone/IT shop I have EVER seen. We remained stuck for some time, transfixed by its enormity.

We eventually escaped and staggered back to the apartment for a bread and cheese supper before collapsing terribly early. We must have walked many many kilometres.

Sunday 18th

Monday 19th September The children are asleep and it is time to tie up the loose ends. The housekeeping of travel is really quite time consuming - sorting the photos, checking and responding to email, planning the next day's activities (which never seem to follow the plan), doing the washing, tidying up - some things don't change wherever you are. Our circadian rhythms are still a little out of whack. We seem to be moving into a rather meditteranean living  pattern with late nights and late rising. We have spent the past two days exploring our locality. Yesterday morning some members of the team ventured out to find the all important first breakfast of croissants and baguette, only to find the one around the corner closed and, in fact most things closed. After a lengthy walk we finally spied what we were after and returned triumphant to a truly glorious breakfast (luckily we had bought our jar of Bon Maman raspberry jam the night before). The morning was crisp - what a delight to be cool after Rome. It is such a delight to explore a  neighbourhood for the first time. Being a Sunday, many shops were closed and shuttered and did not reveal themselves until this morning's excursion for breakfast materials. We seem to be surrounded by a mixture of high class shops, adult sex shops and peep-shows (Alex was very disapproving and insisted that we don't pass that way again), members of the rag trade - this evening as we returned to the apartment they were sweeping  the cut offs out of their shops and into the street, top end furniture shops with exquisite modern furniture and lots of little restaurants and cafes. We've noticed quite a few sushi restaurants and kebab shops mixed in with the Brasseries and Cafes, Creperies and patisseries. Yesterday was cloudy and cool with occasional drizzle. We revelled in it. After leaving the apartment we headed  in the general direction of Notre Dame and bumped into the Georges Pompidou centre on the way. The children were delighted by the external elevators (which Eva has renamed 'Alligators') and hence, in we went. There were no queues and we were able to proceed through with great ease and delight. Unfortunately the Edvard Munch exhibition doesn't open until Wednesday but we were able to see a rather wonderful and at times confronting temporary exhibition of collaborations between Indian and French artists.  After proudly and piously eating our packed lunch of cut up baguette with suitably french fillings, we proceeded to the permanent exhibition  which the children, on the whole, really embraced much to my delight. It is an astonishingly rich gallery. Eva drew throughout the visit, filling more than one notebook with colourful drawings that did not look at all out of place in the gallery. Several people stopped to admire them! The boys now want sketchbooks too. It is surprisingly hard to find a plain sketchbook. The cheap school notebooks are of course all what we would call 'graph paper'. Not that she seems to mind. I shall have to store them all afterwards as Eva's 'Paris Ouevre'. One of the other delights of the Pompidou was the gift shops - full of such beautiful design and imagination. (though if you are after something as mundane and an emergency pack of coloured pens or pencils it is less useful). Both Carolina and I succumbed to rather gorgeous glass rings and I to another colourful watch to complement my recently purchased Egyptian themed MOMA one. Fun to wear. The children were very keen to 'do' the Eiffel tower. I stupidly thought we might 'quickly' sneak in a visit before dinner. by the time we had negotiated the metro, RER and a decent walk in-between it was after 7pm by the time we got there,  with dark clouds threatening, spitting rain and a healthy wind. The queue was considerable if not extreme and it was tempting to turn back but I couldn't bear the thought of getting there again and experience tells me that saying that you'll come back and see it another day usually means that you don't. So we did it. Sam, Alex and Carolina were keen  to climb to the very top. I wasn't and the queues for the very top were even longer. As I suspected, once we reached the middle level and everyone had been outside in the rain and wind and cold for  minutes, they were all very happy  to come down again and very happy not to be going any higher. The view was spectacular of course and the children  were very excited to have been there although that excitement wore off very quickly once were stuck in a long queue, packed like sardines into an elevator and thrust into the elements. I felt rather sorry for the grumpy, tired elevator  operators and ticket sellers who had to deal with grumpy, rude and tired tourists all day long. Ascending the tower does have an air of the pilgrimage about it. After this visit I think I will preserve its magic from a distance rather than climb it again. By the time we returned home it was well after 9 and too late to find anything open locally for dinner. Luckily we had plenty left over in the fridge from the day before an enjoyed an ad hoc supper of eggs, bread, cheese, salami and fruit, classic of the German 'Abendbrot' tradition which seems to make a great deal of sense. The children enjoyed their first crepe with nutella and St Michel yesterday. They were greatly approved of.

Saturday 17th, Paris

Just a quick note tonight to say that we've arrived in Paris after an uneventful journey. It is wet and blissfully cool but not cold and our flat is beautiful - large, with three lovely bedrooms, a well appointed kitchen, good views and beautifully decorated. And good wifi!

Carolina and I have been out for a brief explore and found Monoprix just around the corner which has gorgeous children's clothes and a supermarket upstairs. We found supplies for a late supper - bread, cheese, pate, salami and unsalted butter and a little fruit. They had four different varieties of apple juice - i.e. made from 4 different varieties of apple. We bought 'green'. It was very good. I bought Eva a blue and white striped top which she has declared is not pretty and won't wear. Predictable. This is the child who insisted on wearing inside out hot pink leggings with a green flowery t-shirt and one of each of her two pairs of shoes. And who calls her new stuffed toy - a small puppy - 'Shrek'. Which accompanies her other stuffed toy - a small leopard named "pig". Go figure. The metro station is about 2 minutes from the front door and a brief look at the map we bought at the supermarket indicates that we are within walking distance of lots of good things - the Louvre, Georges Pompidou, Les Halle, Jardin des Tuilieries, Notre Dame etc. Can't wait til morning to have a good explore (after finding the nearest Patisserie of course).

Alex has already located a computer games shop in the Chatelet-Les Halles metro station which he is desperate to visit. Both are having a blissful time with their new DS pokemon games which I am very close to throwing in the Seine.

We were sad to leave Rome today. Too many things left unseen and unfortunately, not enough time to see Ostia, where Mark lived briefly many years ago. We managed a quick walk this morning before checking out of the apartment, and found a marvellous speciality food store. The children were attracted by the multiple varieties of lollies and Carolina and I, by the multiple varieties of pretty much everything else. An entire wall was devoted to different varieties of salt! Including, I might add, pink Murrary River salt from South Australia. It was also possible to buy vegemite, Bundaburg Ginger Bear and Riverland dried fruit.

Photos tomorrow.

Friday, September 16th

Last full day in Rome and so many more things I wanted to do. There is a beautiful golden light suffusing the apartment as the sun sets over another very hot day.

We are less tired today having spent the majority of it inside the Vatican Museum. What an extraordinary place! We worked hard for our Sistine Chapel reward at the end. I was going to leave the children at home for an hour or two and rush through early in the morning as they weren't keen but after a Skype conversation with Mark this morning, was persuaded to take them. Mark felt that they would be crazy to miss out on it.  In retrospect I think he was right, at least where Alex was concerned. I took along some entertainment for Sam and Eva should they get bored and start whinging, which they did. People were most amused to see the two of them plugged in through their headphones to the iPad watching pixar movies whilst wandering around the museum. Eva also did lots of drawing. She has been drawing constantly through this holiday so far. Delightful, interesting, colourful pictures. Maybe she will be the family artist. I was appalled by their sacrilegious behaviour of our children but it did mean that Carolina and I got to see the museum at not toooo rushed a pace. Though we unfortunately raced through the modern religious art towards the end.

We didn't take a tour and I rather regret it now. Overhearing the many tours around us, I think we might have learned more. We were accosted by potential tour guides from around 500m away from the museum entrance which I loathe. I always feel like I am being had. It is hard to judge what a fair price is and experience tells you you are unlikely to be paying it. We battled on with our guide books and audio guide which skipped so many interesting things. The museum was jam-packed with no room to move at all once we reached the Sistine. I would have loved to have been able to lie on the floor and just stare at the ceiling for an hour or so but not a chance of that.

My head is full of wonderful pictures and lots of questions and thoughts tonight. I hope the children got something out of it, even if they don't realise it at the moment.

We had hoped to go to Ostia this afternoon to see where Mark and his family lived when they first left Russia. By the time we left the museum it was after 4pm and the children refused point blank to go anywhere. We will try to get down there in the morning after checking out and before our flight to Paris tomorrow afternoon.

crowds in the gardens of Vatican Museum

Sam and Eva watching pixar movies in the museum. Sigh.

Excellent pizza restaurant within the museum.

Eva drawing her way around the museum

much needed ice cream afterwards. 

the foyer of our apartment building

The hall within our apartment. Checkout the gorgeous tiles. 

the living room

other end of the living room

view of St Peter's from the living room

skyping in the kitchen

the boys' bed

the living room again

Carolina is heading out with friends tonight for a very well deserved night off. Looking very glamorous too  I might add. She is in search of leather boots to take home. I've not managed more than window shopping. The shops around our apartment are full of wonderfully glamorous and oh so European winter clothes. The prices seem very reasonable but it seems inconceivable, given the heat to consider trying on anything with long sleeves, let alone made of wool and there really isn't much space in the bag. How very restrained of me. There is always Paris! Carolina has been a great companion. Infinitely patient and sensible and very tolerant of us all. Seeing Rome through her Catholicism has also increased my appreciation of this very religiously focused city.

Thursday

Another really hot day - mid 30s. Although we were out of the house early (i.e. before 9am) we were thwarted in our attempts to 'do' the Forum before it got too hot by the difficulties presented by Italian Tourism which seems to relish in a lack of directions or reliable information. Thus, it took us about an hour to find the entrance to the Forum. Meanwhile the children were entertained watching the filming of a roman film of some sort featuring Roman soldiers in chariots.

Nonetheless, the Forum was spectacular, albeit exhausting in the heat. Eva loved jumping from one giant flag stone to the next and collecting pebbles to put in her purse and playing with her princess sticker book. The rest of us were impressed with the weight of history beneath our feet and all around us. There was an exhibition relating to Nero which was somewhat chaotically laid out with a map provided that was next to useless. The bits we were able to understand were very interesting. I was impressed by how much the boys remembered over lunch afterwards.

After another delicious pizza lunch (Eva demanded pasta then refused to eat it and demanded Sam's Margarita instead, which she had previously not wanted. No logic at all), we staggered through the heat to the metro station and travelled south to San Paulo. Just this morning I had expressed my surprise that there was no St Paul's church in Rome when every other Saint known to Catholocism seems to have one, particularly since St Paul was no small time saint. A brief look at the map later and there was St Paul's Basilica, the third largest church in Christendom, built on the site of his execution none the less. After the hot morning, a cool, peaceful church sounded very appealing.

Not only were we impressed by the modest (if large) facade of the Basilica but also with the peaceful, suburban surroundings, at least relative to central Rome. Less traffic, less noise, less frenzy. Compared to the baroque splendour of St Peter's, St Paul's was a breath of fresh air. It was quiet, empty and peaceful with some decoration but not to the extent of having every square millimetre of wall bedecked in gilt and marble. To me it seemed a place much more open to contemplation and prayer. Above the main alter was a magnificent golden mosaic covering a large area of roof in an arc shape. For a gold coin, it would light up, looking most spectacular. At each end of the transverse naves were smaller alters decorated with malachite and lapis lazuli and devoted to Mary and St Paul. Around the ceiling of the centre nave were pictures of all the previous popes - small mosaics. There are 12 empty places left. Allegedly it is said that when the last place has been filled the end of the world will come.

In the centre of the church is an old stone sarcophagus housing the body of St Paul and above it in a glass box can be seen the chains that allegedly bound him in the final days before his execution.

When asked what was the best part of the day, Eva answered: 'the museum' by which she meant the basilica. What about it I asked? 'The cafe', she answered. I have to say that we liked the cafe too. It was air conditioned. We were hot.

We had planned to travel further South by bus to visit the catacombs at San Sebastiano but ran out of puff and time. Mañana.

Our other gripe with Italian tourism is TOILETS or the lack thereof. For the entire Colloseum area there are 2 female and 1 male toilet and 1 of each for the Forum. And they are Not Very Nice.

We are also underwhelmed with italian breakfasts. Too many sugary cakes with little substance that fail to fill. Boiled eggs for us tomorrow morning.

breakfast of sugary, empty cakes. 

roman charioteer near the Colosseum. very entertaining

And the Colosseum itself (in case you'd forgotten)

My favourite ceiling in the forum

and again

hot Sam

Alex with the Forum behind him

Eva (clutching princess sticker book) skipping on the flagstones

more sticking over lunch

Master Chef Italia

the interior of St Paul's Basilica

the incredible mosaic over the main alter

everyone exhausted, waiting for the train back

fish fingers, Italian style

Smurfs, Italian style

We were amused on the metro today to see advertisements for Italian Master Chef and for fish fingers - never imagined the Italians would stoop to that level. Also of note were the ads for the new Smurf Movie, which in Italian is called: Puffi .

Alex and Sam - Wednesday afternoon

Sam: we're just relaxing, playing DS, reading books, and I am thinking of doing some drawing.
Alex: We had a good day at St Peter's at first until we tried to get the stroller back from the storage desk. When we went to get it, we couldn't get it because we didn't have the card and then Carolina tried to get it but she forgot the card. Then Mum got it finally and we all went home and we've been relaxing since then. Sam and Alex: St Peter's was beautiful and very, very big. There were lots of good paintings and sculptures and we saw a dead man (a sculpture that looked very very real).

Best and worst things about Rome so far:
1) The fountains - it is very very hot.
2) The obelisks - in every square
3) Just by walking 500m from our house you can find two famous things - the Vatican and Castello d'Angelo
4) Food and Iced Tea and Gelato
5) too many churches, obelisks and fountains
6) some people are quite rude and just want to get where they want to go
7) the Colloseum was pretty Epic.
8) the cobblestones really hurt your feet and you get blisters
9) Eva gets too messy every time she eats an ice cream
10) everyone double parks and the traffic is crazy

Wednesday afternoon

It really is Very Hot. We braved St Peter's this morning. The crowds were not completely overwhelming and it was lovely and cool inside. All going well until they announced that we couldn't take the stroller inside. Eva had just fallen asleep in the stroller. It was all rather down hill from there. Eva, not surprisingly did not like being woken up and complained bitterly for the duration of our visit. I gave up somewhere on the left nave and left Carolina to visit the museum alone whilst I sought emergency gelato outside. We have decided not to take Eva to the Vatican Museum or the Sistine Chapel. St Peter's was, nonetheless, extraordinary. Of course. Every mm of wall bedecked with decoration and not a bible story untold. I do find myself rather fascinated by the stories of the saints. St Jerome particularly appealed to me this morning (large and incredibly fine mosaic in right nave). According to that wonderful resource: Saints for Dummies (on kindle), Saint Jerome is the patron saint of the Bad tempered and of translators. He spent 30 years translating the various books of the old and new testament from their original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic into Latin and chose to live as a hermit because he found it so difficult to control his temper, particularly when he was interrupted in the middle of his work. He was supposed to have been very brilliant but scared the living daylights out of St Augustine. I wonder whether he had a touch of Asperger's - Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) springs to mind.

Perhaps it is my protestant origins, but I must admit to finding  these highly Baroque churches a bit over the top. Give me an austere Lutheran cathedral anyday.

As a complete contrast, and to at least 4 of us, rather more meaningful, we found the Jewish quarters (the old ghetto) yesterday afternoon, at the end of a very long, hot day of sightseeing which started with the Piazza Navona, progressed through the astonishing Pantheon, proceeded to the Piazza Venezia, continued through the Palatine Museum and ended finally at the Synagogue and Jewish Museum. The story of the Jews in Rome goes back to at least the 2nd century BC and is one of fluctuating tolerance and persecution, with an emphasis on the latter. After the Spanish Inquisition, the Jews of Spain, Sicily and Southern Italy all proceeded to Rome which was considered more tolerant. Each built their own Synagogue but when the winds changed, the Jewish population was confined to a Ghetto and allowed only to be money lenders. They were also allowed only one Synagogue which had to serve the many different cultural and religious variations practiced by the diverse groups. After the Risorgimento in 1870, Victor Emmanuele II granted the Jews full citizenship and the old Ghetto which was in a terrible condition, was destroyed and new buildings constructed. The new Synagogue is very beautiful. It has a very high dome (so that everyone can see where it proudly stands - no longer needing to hide) and it has beautiful art nouveau/arts and crafts decorations. It is strangely congruous to see Liberty textiles in the Roman Synagogue. There are now 16 synagogues in Rome, all orthodox.

Sam with Romulus and Remus in the Palatine Museum

Surrounding the synagogue we saw the Jewish school and lots of Jewish restaurants, which I was very keen to try but the children were beyond it by that stage and we crawled home instead.

Alex with his lunchtime pizza - Piazza Venezia

The children were quite taken with this shop selling Priestly and Nunly garb, near the Pantheon

The steps to the Palatine Museum take on a whole new meaning when pushing a pram.

One of several restaurants in the former Ghetto area specialising in Jewish-Italian cuisine

another Jewish restaurant

and another

and yet another

The beautiful Synagogue

Sam has been quite disapproving of the Roman way of life. In particular, he thinks they smoke too much and don't use enough sun block - they are magnificently tanned. He also complains about their driving and parking and has taken some incriminating  photos to demonstrate:

Surprisingly, very few cars appear scratched or dented. 

Rome day 4

Dear family and friends,

here we are in Roma. This is the first morning that I have been organised enough to make any entries into our promised blog. Every evening thus far we have collapsed into an exhausted heap after walking and listening, looking, smelling and touching the many wonders of Rome for many hours.

We arrived on Sunday morning after a very reasonable flight during which the boys indulged in an orgy of electronic gaming and movie watching thanks to the delights of the Singapore airlines inflight entertainment  system. Eva was also very good, though slept not at all from Singapore to Rome and hence, neither did I most of the time.

Despite the new rulings, Singapore security decided that my knitting needles posed a security threat and confiscated them. I was sure that would be the last I would see of them, but, to my complete astonishment, there they were at the other end, ready for collection. Not that any knitting has happened since. too hot. too tired.

 Here you can see us eating our first Roman gelati and pizza.

We arrived to a hot and sticky morning and found ourselves one of many buses promising to transport us to the city centre. Ours deposited us in Piazza Cavour, not very far on foot from our apartment. None of the taxis were willing to transport us because we were 5 not the maximum limit of 4 passengers, but one of them kindly called us a cab, which after all that, turned out to hold only 4 passengers anyway. We crammed ourselves in a few minutes later found ourselves outside the imposing 3m high wooden doors of our apartment building. Sam fell asleep on the footpath outside (see photo above) whilst we waited for Vladimir to arrive to let us in. The apartment is beautiful. The view from the living room over St Peters keeps reminding me of the closing seen of 'A Room With A View'. The floors are lined with beautiful terracotta tiles and it is very tastefully furnished with comfortable couches, beds, beautiful antiques and pictures. It is very comfortable. What's more it is directly opposite the fruit and produce market (see below) which we have been making very good use of. 

Meanwhile, the day is getting hotter and the children have been playing their DS games too long. Alex is talking to his friends on Skype. It is time to get out there and work our sore and blistered feet for another day. We now know to carry a spare set of clothes for Eva as the gelati take their toll on her t-shirts in a very short time. Unfortunately chocolate is her favourite. We have also discovered a gelato shop in the Piazza Navona that sells nutella flavoured gelato which is VERY popular. Some of our other favourite incidental finds have been the little (and big) fountains located all over the place. These offer wonderful opportunities to cool our hot faces, wash our dirty hands and refill our multiple drink bottles and wash off the latest gelato. They also offer great opportunity for fun. The boys rapidly discovered that when the main outlet is covered, the water shoots out a small hole in the top, supposedly as a drinking fountain, but also an excellent weapon (see above).

I will add more later .