Garden of Life: Italy::Travel Day & Day 1 in Rome

Ever since Tyler began planning his study abroad semester, we also began making plans for our family to go and visit him in Italy. After many plans and much waiting, the day finally came to leave on our vacation.

We left Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

And flew to Toronto, where we had a 3 1/2 hour layover. The boys rested a bit. :)

Finally we boarded our 8 1/2 hour flight to Italy. This was the longest flight that the boys have been on.

Happy to be in Italy. {Thursday morning around 8am.}

We then headed to our hotel. Traffic is crazy in Rome!!!

It is not easy finding European hotel rooms big enough for a family, but our first hotel in Rome {Hotel Canada} was great! I would definitely stay here again. It was a nice hotel, clean and in a great location. The boys rested for a bit and then we headed out to explore the city.

The views from our hotel room window.

Our first stop was to find some lunch and we decided on a pizzeria. I love how all the restaurants in Italy have indoor and outdoor seating, and with the weather so nice we chose to sit outside.

Strolling through the streets.

We headed to the Colosseum.

The views everywhere are just amazing!

We headed back to the hotel.

Because of the long flight and the 7 hour time change, we had missed a night of sleep. We were going to take a nap and get a little rest before meeting up with Tyler later in the evening. Jake and Drew fell quickly asleep. I was all ready to nap as well, but thought I would check my email once more. I had an email (our only way to communicate with each other since our cell phones don't work in Italy) from Ty saying his plans had changed and he could meet now. I was so tired, but there was nothing that was going to keep me from seeing my boy! :)

Tyler said he would take the Metro (subway) from his apartment and meet us at our hotel. We let Jake and Drew keep sleeping and Pete and I went out to the front of our hotel to wait for Tyler.

We visited in the hotel lobby for a bit so we could let the boys sleep a little longer. Tyler was showing us on his map where his apartment was which was only one metro stop away.

His key to his apartment. :)

Then we headed up to our rooms so Ty could ~~surprise~~ wake-up his brothers.

After a little more visiting, we headed to Tyler's apartment so he could show us where he has called home these past couple of months.

But first we stopped at the grocery store where he has been shopping. The neighborhood grocery stores are very tiny and packed with people, but the prices were very cheap.

Tyler showing us his favorite tortellini noodles. :)

We couldn't get over how cheap the wine was in the grocery stores!

Tyler wanted us to try a few things, so we bought a couple of things to bring back to his apartment.

On to Ty's apartment.

His front door to his Rome apartment.

This is their kitchen area.

And one of the two bedrooms. (This was their last evening in their Rome apartment and so it was a mess because they were in the process of packing up and moving out.)