Life is not just about work.
Happy New Year from the 4 of us! May 2010 bring us more happiness and good health, amin.
I meant to put this photo of Pepper on Xmas Day, it was taken by Martina at Cattery Cottage very recently.
Seasons greetings fellow human beings!
ps: will blog soon! so so busy…
My cousin who is currently studying in Sheffield will be arriving on Tuesday to spend her Christmas holidays with us.
Playing host, I’m predicting a really busy week ahead bringing her around the streets of Dublin. Surprisingly a lot of shops have started their sales which got me a little excited but I’m still waiting for the big one next Saturday.
Anyway, this post is way overdue. I probably won’t have time to update next week and since I don’t know how and where to begin, let me just do a quick pictorial narration with little clips of Aidan.
Piazza Navona, which was featured in Angels and Demons
This place is my favourite piazza in Rome- very lively with musicians, artists, people dressed as statues etc.
Restaurants here are really overpriced, we paid a fortune for a bowl of pasta, a basket of bread and hot chocolate! But I figured we were actually paying for the lively atmosphere and ambience so that justified the price.
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi/Fountain of the Four Rivers
Also, at the very end of Piazza Navona is a little quaint toy store selling original wooden Pinocchios. We bought one for Aidan with the Euros given by Aidan’s aunt before we left for Rome.
Having a quick bite of pasta alfredo and watching the world go by
A video of the Piazza.
Just 5 minutes away is the Pantheon, a very ancient and well preserved building which can be visited for free.
Both our cameras ran out of batteries, but we managed one last pic of the Pantheon!
Inside the Pantheon
The Pantheon is windowless and only has one entrance . Sunlight is provided by the window in the center of the dome, as below.
Eye of the Pantheon
We also made a pit stop at the Ferrari shop in Rome and took a photo of this bike for my big bro who’s a hard core cyclist.
would you pay 3k euros for this bicycle ?
I was looking all over Rome for this limited edition coke and was thrilled to find one on our last day ,
When you can't afford the top, you just have to make do with this! hehe
And finally, let me spice up this very boring post with a video of Aidan getting flirty with an Italian waitress.
We’re having a lazy sunday today after a having a big meal of Daging Masak Kicap with Asparagus.
Am thinking of bringing Aidan out later this evening to the Chrismas Market at the Docklands, I hope it doesn’t rain or else we’ll just stay indoors and watch the finals of the Xfactor.
Anyway, I’m putting a video of Aidan’s first ride on the Choo Choo Train. Lately I’ve been taking short clips of him so that the family back home can see how much this little boy has grown, will put them up in the next few weeks.
Check out Aidan in the last 10 seconds of the video - he gives a big smile the minute he sees his daddy with the camera! We’re in the blue carriage btw.
Let’s take a little break from sunny Rome and talk about Ireland instead.
When big bro was here 3 weeks ago, we rented an MPV to fit all 7 of us.
We figured it would be much more enjoyable to travel together in one vehicle instead of two.
Apart from the shopping escapades to Belfast, Kildare and Dublin, we managed to squeeze some time to drive right into heart of Wicklow.
The last time we went there was in the summer and although I’m a big fan of the sun, I found Wicklow to be even more beautiful in the winter.
Big bro said some scenes reminded him of Yellowstone Park, US
One of the most popular drives is to take the ‘Braveheart Drive’, which was where the movie Braveheart was filmed. We didn’t follow the trail exactly as we were running out of daylight. (Daylight ends at 4.30pm)
Winter backdrop
Can you imagine Braveheart in the background ?
We zoomed through the rolling hills, wooded glens and cascading waterfalls in 2 hours and despite the time constraint, everyone really enjoyed themselves. And of course, we made a few stops to take photos :
Us 
The all important family photo
You might have to turn your volume down for the video, I shouldn’t have left the window opened during the shot!
Silly, silly me.
More on our trip.
Just to give you an idea of the walk with the Colosseum in the background
Just a 10 minute walk from the Colosseum is the Roman Forum.
Foro Romano
The Roman Forum was the only place that hubby really wanted to visit in Rome and he said that we must make every effort to go even if we’re stuck for time. I, on the other hand was only aiming for a stress free holiday, anything to escape from cooking and never ending laundry.
Ruins
I personally think that to appreciate the history and significance of the forum remains, one should take the guided tour or an audio guide.
We had bought a guidebook which had a labeled map of all the ruins but I still couldn’t figure out what I was actually looking at. You really need a lot of imagination to decipher what you were viewing.
The cobblestones were huge too that it was really difficult to manoeuver the stroller, so I gave up and basked in the sun with Aidan instead 
I left Hubby and let him have a walkabout of the place.
Note the HUGE cobblestones
The place was awe inspiring and I’m glad we didn’t give this place a miss.
I shall end this post with some shots of Trevi Fountain.
We took these photos on the first night we arrived in Rome.
Legend says that if a visitor throws a coin into the Trevi fountain, he/she will certainly return to Rome!
This is probably the most beautiful fountain in the world and the illumination at night is very pretty.
We came back and it is just as beautiful during the day
I could come here again and again, and I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of it’s beauty.
There are plenty of nice cafes, restaurants and shops around the area too, a great place to escape from doing all the touristy stuff.
love the baby blue water
taken with my el-cheapo camera, what a big difference from an SLR!
Get a gelato and enjoy the view, which was what we did
The second video :
Feast your eyes on these gelato and pizzas.
I never thought I would love Egg plant pizza, hubby had the mushroom which was not as yummy.
Excuse the hungry husband in the video, we usually take turns eating so that one can attend to the little Master.
Impressive
Okay another short entry on Rome, I really don’t want to bore everyone with my rather vain photos
Lights of the Colosseum
Our hotel was just a 5 minute walk from the Colosseum so obviously we took the most photos at this place.
Oddly fragile but still standing strong
We paid 12 euros for the entrance to both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum which was reasonable but what I hated most was the queue. I wished they had a fast track for people with babies although they did have one for people taking the guided tour. We would have done so if Aidan wasn’t with us, obviously having a baby means you’ll be following his pace rather than yours.
Birds' eye view of the Colosseum
another view of the spectacular interior
The Colosseum turned out to be quite stroller friendly which surprised me a lot - you still had to manouver the odd cobblestones and steps but in general it was alright, and they even had a lift to go to the next level. So don’t be nervous about traveling with a baby, just give them plenty of milk and tickles!
Milk time
The crowd was rather overwhelming at times and it’s nearly impossible to take a photo without some stranger in it.
I think it’s best to avoid coming here in July and August – the best time to come is probably October when the weather is mild and less crowded with tourists. November is supposed to be wet but we were extremely lucky with the rays of sunshine.
It's best to stand back and think back on all its history
Daddy adoring the view, Aidan I'm not too sure why he's giggling
And by the way, if we ever come here again with a babysitter, we’ll definitely tour Rome this way,
Do it with the Segway! There were plenty of them outside the Colosseum.
We also got a good view of the Roman Forum from the Colosseum, I’ll put some photos of it in my next entry.
The road leading to the Roman Forum
And finally, 2 clips of the Colosseum taken both day and night. I really love my el-cheapo camera
I think I will split our recent holiday photos into a few entries as there are far too many photos to choose from.
I got a headache scrolling through which one to pick so let’s just start with the Vatican as we didn’t take too many there.
We took the 48 hour hop-on-hop-off bus and the Vatican was one of the places that we could hop off. To be honest it wasn’t really one of our must go places but what the heck, we’re already in Rome and I don’t think we’ll be coming back again anytime soon!
I’ll make this entry short and sweet
First a photo of my 2 boys,
Daddy and his Mini Me
It was easy to dress the boys that morning and what they wore was perfect for the mild weather.
I was the one with a wardrobe crisis – all I brought was thick winter clothes!
a close-up of their matching outfits
Sit still boy, sit still...
The piazza was surrounded in a circle by very large columns with over 100 statues of saints above them.
Vatican City
Spent a good 2 hours at the square and had no ounce of regret visiting the place.
Very beautiful indeed.
Us at Piazza San Pietro / St Peter's Square
giggles
And to conclude, here’s a 360′ view of the Square which I took with my camera.
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