Saturday, June 4, 2011

Through the Eyes of a Child

Our son Ryan joined us for the last leg of this trip, spending a week in Spello with us, and now Rome. Ryan is a renaissance man; a sports writer, with a love for history and art, this visit to Rome has been fun for Dr. C and I to watch Ryan take this amazing city of art, history and culture by storm!  I realized today that we are all children when we discover a new place.  Seeing Rome through Ryan's eyes has been a joy!



Today we took a tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.  Ryan and the guide we hired were having a great time talking history, and when she asked about different popes and artists he had the answers.  She told him he should consider being a guide in Rome.  (from her lips to God's ears--think of the road trips for Dr. C and me!)  She took this photo and told him it looked like all those painting were springing from his head....love that!




Seeing your children enjoy something that is a passion is so satisfying as a parent; I love watching Ryan discover new things here, stepping into a church off Piazza Navona and marveling at the Baroque sculpture and the fact that the church doesn't make the guide books, even though the art is amazing.  BTW, the performance art in Piazza Navona is in a class all by itself, you have to be here!



As we left St. Peter's today, I realized that Ryan would be back, and the reason is that there is so much more to see; it's not just a church, it's also a museum of history, and there are new things to discover each time we come.
Of course this city, isn't just about the art, and history it's also about the people and the FOOD!   We've had some amazing pizza here, and the pasta amatriciana is awesome!  Tomorrow we head to another tour, this time of the ancient sights:  Colosseum, Forum and Pallatine Hill. I'm convinced that small tours are the best way to see any place properly, that way you can go back and see them again with a different eye.  Forty person bus tours have been all over the city today, and none of these people looked like they were having any fun, especially the woman in front of us as we were in line to go to the Sistine Chapel, who kept telling her daughter that she was afraid they would miss the Sistine Chapel (when we were on our way there)   I'll be back with more in a day or two, until then, enjoy your weekend.

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