Imam singing...in Rome?

February 13: You know you’ve spent a fair bit of time in a Muslim country when… On one of our days exploring Rome last week, we walked into a church only to find ourselves in the middle of a service. Jonah looked up at me and said excitedly, “Imam singing!” If only the pope could have heard that one!

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks with plenty to do and see in Rome, while making arrangements to make a quick stop home before heading to Uganda.

Our last couple of days in Istanbul were fairly gray with intermittent rain. On Friday the 30th, Jonah and I made our way to the modern shopping mall to buy him a pair of new shoes. We realized that it was getting increasingly difficult to put on his size 5.5 wide shoes, so I used the Stride Rite online sizing guide and discovered that he was wearing a pair of shoes a full size too small! At the mall, Jonah was thrilled to be getting new “outside shoes” as he calls them, since he wears a different pair of soft-soled shoes in our house. And he actually had an opinion about which shoes he liked best. We settled on a pair of blue high-top shoes that make his feet look a bit like clown feet but which he seems to love, love. From the shoe store to the arcade with the little cars to ride, we had ourselves a busy morning.

The next day the three of us took the boat over to Dolmabahçe Palace, which served as the administrative and residential center of the Ottoman Empire from 1853 until its demise. The palace is a beautiful part of the European shoreline, and great views of it can be seen from the ferry boat to Beşiktaş. On the ride over, Jonah saw a guy wearing headphones, and he said to me, “Not our dada, not ours.” I think the only person he’s noticed with headphones before is Jeremy, which is why he was making the distinction. It turned out to be our last ferry ride while in Istanbul, a journey we all still miss taking.

On the whole, the palace interior is not as grand as you would think it should be, given the domination of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, it was built in the empire’s dying days, which might account for the painted representations of molding on the ceiling rather than actual molding. A handful of rooms, however, are quite stunning, including a reception hall with humongous chandeliers (also with a lovely wood-carved table that Jonah asked to sit at to eat), the sultan’s private room where he relaxed as guests arrived with its brilliant red interior, and the huge, ceremonial room with its enormous dome and beautiful frescoes. The gardens of the palace are quite nice, right on the Bosphorus, with a fountain that Jonah loved. Turns out he’s a fountain guy too. He can stand at any given fountain for a VERY long time, even if he can’t get his hands in it.

Before heading back home for Jonah’s nap, we went over to Ortaköy for a mediocre lunch at a restaurant along the water. Though the food wasn’t great, the view of the Bosphorus was fabulous as was the people watching with many families out enjoying the weekend. During Jonah’s nap that day I packed, as per our last-day routine. Then I ran a couple of errands to get us ready to go—buying a few books for Jonah at the great nearby bookstore with a fabulous selection of books in English and dropping off the recycling.

At the bookstore, the saleswoman started to speak to me in Turkish. When I told her I only spoke English, she told me that I looked Turkish. At the Grand Bazaar the week before (two weeks before?), two different people told me that I didn’t look American after I told them where I was from. One guy said I looked like I had some Spanish origin. The other guy started talking to me in French so obviously thought I was from France. Go figure. One of the interesting things about Turkey is that there is no single Turkish look. There are so many different ethnic groups in Turkey that it was often hard to tell whether someone was Turkish or a tourist. The safe guess usually was the former. Sometimes we’d be on the ferry and I’d swear the language I thought I’d for sure hear coming out of some woman’s mouth would be English, and then I’d hear the native Turkish words flow forth.

On the recycling bins front—if they are even collected separately and not considered trash, I’m still not quite sure—they are not exactly located in a convenient spot. I had to walk probably a half of a mile all around the shopping district near us to make my way to the bins with both hands holding multiple plastic bags full of glass and plastic containers, paper, and a couple of tin cans. I got plenty of awkward stares, of course.

We awoke early the next morning—5:30 am—in time for our 6:30 am taxi pickup. We got Jonah up about 15 minutes before we left so that he could get some extra sleep and so that Jeremy and I could get the rest of our stuff together. We had talked to Jonah for a few days before we left about the fact that we were moving to Italy, a place where he would eat great pasta. We explained that we needed to say goodbye to kitty cat because she belonged to the girl—Ahmet’s daughter (unfortunately we never learned her name, so she was just “the girl” from the picture in the house). I was a bit concerned about how he would take leaving kitty cat, so we’d bought him another little cat for him to start getting used to during our last week in Istanbul. Even with the new cat though, Jonah was quite attached to kitty cat.

After getting Jonah dressed and ready, just a few minutes before we needed to head downstairs, I told Jonah that we needed to put kitty cat back in the girl’s room. He headed to the room, put kitty cat on the bed, said, “Bye bye,” and walked out. Back in the other room, he said, “Kitty cat stay here.” “Car?” he asked. I told him that we gave the car to the boy who lived in our building because it was too big for our suitcase. “Raul kitty mouse?” he inquired. “He’s packed in your suitcase,” I replied. Later in the taxi, perhaps out of a desire to return to kitty cat, or perhaps because it’s something he says often these days, “Go home, peez,” Jonah said.

As we drove to the airport at sunrise, the views of the Bosphorus were stunning. I’d not realized before how narrow the Bosphorus really got past the first bridge away from the old town. Wow. Really makes you realize why they want skilled local captains bringing the huge ships through. Jonah was mostly interested in the different colored lights everywhere and noticing motorcycles and cars driving by. “Red light stop!” he said, a new thing he learned from our play class at Gymboree. He understands the whole red light/green light distinction, but sometimes he yells out, “Red light go!” It’s a good thing he won’t be driving for a while…

The flight to Rome was a quick two hours. We ended up with a row to ourselves; Jonah liked having a seat of his own. He did the usual—cruise up and down the aisles, open and close the window shade, look at the magazines in the seat pocket, play with his cars a bit. Thankfully we’d all eaten a late French toast breakfast at the airport (in the same restaurant in which we ate on our way through the airport to Israel—with the same waiter) because the food on the airplane wasn’t great and Jonah rejected it altogether.

We took a taxi to our apartment on the south side of the Vatican, about a 10 minute walk to St. Peter’s, where we met the owner of the place and his daughter. After heading out to explore our neighborhood, we quickly discovered that Sunday was not the ideal day to arrive in a mostly-Catholic country. Most stores are closed, and even the supermarket by us closes at 1 pm on Sundays. No bakery, no restaurants, not much of anything was open.

We found a mediocre pizza place for lunch before heading over to St. Peter’s plaza, walking toward the Castel Sant’ Angelo, and back through the neighborhoods west of the Tiber River and north of the Vatican. We found an open restaurant for a yummy early dinner, and Jonah enjoyed his first huge bowl of penne pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. He loved, loved, loved this and practically ate the entire bowl of it. We walked back home through St. Peter’s plaza and got great views of St. Peter’s Basilica at night. Just beautiful.

Our second day here we decided to hit some of the big sights—the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. We picked up a weekly bus pass for me and individual ride tickets for Jeremy, found a local bakery and bought some delicious croissants (Jonah now asks for his daily “muffin” when we leave the house), and headed to the Forum. We found our way to Via dei Fori Imperiali, a road built during Mussolini’s reign that wiped out old medieval streets and neighborhoods, sadly. We peeked over the barriers to see the Imperial Forums with its 2nd-century Trajan’s Markets, a tiered Roman shopping center.

After much wandering around, we finally found our way to the entrance to the Roman Forum just off Via dei Fori Imperiali. I wish I could say we diligently took the book and walked up and down the ancient Roman streets figuring out what exactly we were looking at with each turn. But, Jonah wanted to roam around, and we wanted to check out the ruins fairly casually, so we looked at the book a couple of times before stuffing it back under the stroller. Jonah loved running along the old, stone pathways, climbing up stairs and onto ancient hunks of carved stone, and sitting down in spots that seemed comfortable to him. He also wanted me to take pictures of him. “Piture! Piture!” he’d say.

From the Roman Forum, we walked to the Colosseum, which is just an insanely huge and impressive piece of work. Begun in 72 CE and inaugurated eight years later, the Colosseum was built by 70,000 Jewish slaves. Under the Colosseum was a labyrinth of passages—now visible from the stands—for contestants of the gladiatorial games and storage space for the sets, scenery, and other items needed for the contests. The main use of the Colosseum was barbaric; slaves and prisoners of war with no armor were pitted against gladiators. Once captured or disarmed, the loser of the combat would either be executed on the spot or spared, depending on whether the crowd thought he’d fought valiantly. Then there were the animals. During the 450 years of the Colosseum’s use, something like 9,000 animals were killed. Several breeds of African elephant and lion became extinct during this time. After 523 CE, the Colosseum fell into disuse and disrepair. Just outside the Colosseum sits the Arch of Titus, built to honor Vespasiano and Titus and to commemorate their victories over the Israelites and the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Because we’d already bought the Roman Forum/Colosseum combo ticket, we sailed right through the entrance, past the line of people waiting to purchase tickets, and into the Colosseum. Not having to wait in any lines has been the upside of coming to Rome during the winter rather than the summer, actually. We walked along the top level of the Colosseum. Jonah mostly wanted to sit in one place and hang out, so we managed to coax him into the stroller. It was starting to get cold, and we wanted to head to the center of town to find some food.

We caught a bus to Via del Corso, where we looked for a cell phone store to buy SIM cards for our cell phones. Then off to find a place for lunch. While we were waiting around the cell phone store, Jonah must have fallen asleep in the stroller. At some point, I looked down at him and noticed him snoozing away. We thought about waking him up so that he could eat lunch and take a nap at home, but we decided to let him sleep and instead enjoy a lunch out as though we had an ever-sleeping infant rather than an ever-active toddler. We had a relaxing meal of Panini sandwiches before Jonah woke up. He has an initial 30-40 minute deep sleep once he falls asleep, and next to nothing can wake him during this time. But if he’s not in his bed, he always wakes up after this first stretch, even if we’re driving in the car. And if he is in bed, he’ll fall back to sleep, although his sleep can be much more easily interrupted during the post-40-minute-initial-stretch of his nap.

Because Jonah had slept, we decided to walk around the historic center of Rome for a bit after he had a little lunch. We strolled through the narrow streets and stumbled upon the Pantheon. Seems difficult to stumble upon something so large, but it’s tucked away on a lovely, little piazza down the narrow streets of the old center of Rome. The existing structure was completed in 125 CE under the authority of the emperor Hadrian. Remember Hadrian? No friend to the Israelites. He’s the one who built a Roman temple for the worship of pagan gods on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on top of the Second Temple that had been destroyed some sixty years earlier in 70 CE. Hadrian also outlawed the study of Torah and many other traditional religious practices.

The Pantheon has changed considerably since it was first reconstructed under Hadrian. It was consecrated as a Christian site in 609 CE and dedicated to Santa Maria ai Martiri. A thousand years later, the bronze roof was stripped from the ceiling of the portico by Pope Urban VIII and melted down for the baldachino in St. Peter’s Basilica and the canons of the Castel Sant’ Angelo. It’s impressive in size and has some nice frescoes, although it wasn’t as interesting as other churches we saw later in the week. I think I prefer the Gothic- and Baroque-style churches and their ornate décor because they’re so different from most synagogues and even most modern churches of today.

From the Pantheon, we headed over to Piazza Navona with its three large fountains. The piazza is the former site of athletic events and chariot races, falling into disuse overtime. In the mid-17th century, Pamphilj Pope Innocent X had the area redeveloped with large palaces surrounding it, the construction of the church of Sant’ Agnese in Agone, and three fabulous fountains created by Giovanni Bernini. Jonah was getting grumpy by this point, so we took the bus back home. He only rested in his crib that afternoon, but he was happy to do so for well over an hour.

Within our first couple of days here, we quickly discovered a few things about Rome. There are virtually no playgrounds here. I mentioned that in my last, brief post, but it’s worth mentioning again. No playgrounds. This is heartbreaking for Jonah. Every day, first thing in the morning he asks for a playground. Every day I have to explain that we’ll be taking an adventure and finding a place to run around. We’re also surrounded by more furs here than I’ve seen in decades…or ever. Where’s that red paint? Rome is a bit Barcelona, a bit Florence, with a Catholic twist. At least in our neighborhood, there are nuns, priests, and other Catholic clergy everywhere. They’re quite helpful in assisting me to get Jonah on and off the bus in his stroller. Other than the nuns though, most people wait to see if I need help before jumping in and assisting me—those that offer, that is. In Turkey, people jumped in and helped me without waiting to see if I needed help. It’s a different approach. We seem to have left the land of smokers, which pleases me greatly because it’s nice not to constantly smell like a smoker myself. Tons and tons of people ride Vespa scooters or some other type of motor scooter. You can find a few organic products in the supermarket, but you otherwise need to find an herbolaria (I think that’s the Spanish word for the Italian word I can’t remember…) that stocks a number of random organic products. I found crackers, oatmeal, granola, pasta, little fruit bars, and hand soap for us.

On Tuesday, Jonah and I hit the streets of Rome solo. Our main goal for the morning was to find a playground. We took the number 116 bus through the back streets of the historic center of Rome, which was a treat in itself because of all we got to see, and managed to get ourselves to the Villa Borghese. The former grounds of the 17th-century palace of Scipione Borghese, the Villa Borghese is comprised of a collection of parks, gardens, museums, woods, a zoo, and a lake. It’s Rome’s largest central open space. Seems like it should have a playground. Honestly, the vast area could spare about 100 square feet to put up a little play structure. But, no. After wandering around a bit (since I wasn’t exactly sure where the bus let us off), we found our way to Casina di Raffaello, a children’s center with activities for kids from ages 2 and up. Turns out the activity for kids Jonah’s age (we called him two for the day) is playing in a room with large, cushion blocks that the toddlers can move around. It cost us three Euros to get in, and Jonah’s interest lasted for about 10 minutes tops. Snoozer! We did find some adorable little people figures (made by one of my favorite toy companies, PLAN Toys) that I bought for Jonah.

Outside the children’s center is a cute, small play area, but it’s not your traditional playground. There are no slide and swings, but it does have some pretty cool things to climb on. Jonah liked it well enough. Perhaps more importantly though, we met a very nice woman (Almaz, pronounced Alma) who takes care of a boy a few months older than Jonah named Nicholas. She was a wealth of information—giving me directions to a store that sells organic products in the center of town and confirming my suspicion that, in fact, Rome does not have playgrounds for the most part. We talked about how happy we both were to see Obama in charge back home. She grew up in Italy (originally from Eritrea), but has lived in the states for quite a long time it seems. She came back to Italy to be near her ailing mother. In any event, Jonah loved running around with Nicholas and throwing rocks into fountains with him. It was very cute. I got Alma’s phone number to get in touch with her if Jonah and I returned to the park because she takes Nicholas there almost every day.

That afternoon while Jonah slept, I headed back to the center of town to get some organic products, happened to pass by a store where you can buy Catholic clergy outfits if you so desire, and popped my head into a beautiful church, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome’s only Gothic church. The church’s vibrant blue ceiling covered in frescoes and the gorgeous marble adorning columns made it quite a sight to see. I took Jeremy back there later so he could see the place for himself.

On my shopping trip, I was also in search of some toys for Jonah, particularly a decent size truck for him to push around. Instead I discovered that there are very few toy stores in the center of Rome. One guy told me that most toy stores were outside in the suburbs, and that it would be hard to find a good selection to choose from in town. Oy! No playgrounds, no decent toys! I managed to find Jonah a new shopping cart. It was the floor model, so I talked the salesperson down to 20 Euros from 26 (from about $34 to $26). Given that this was at Imaginarium and not a street market, I was pretty impressed with myself. Still it felt like a ridiculous amount of money to spend for a toy I found in Istanbul for the equivalent of $7. Anyway, I was feeling desperate… I lugged the fully-assembled stroller around in a huge plastic bag (plastic bag, argh!), in addition to a bag full of organic products, and I was ready to collapse from exhaustion when I finally got home. Jonah likes the stroller, although he discovered he could take the basket off and stand on it like a scooter. He’s always asking us to push him around on it.

The next day Jonah and I went on a church tour around Piazza Navona. We ducked inside four churches and hung out on the piazza, watching the fountains shoot water out in every which direction. We started at Sant’ Andrea della Valle (not right near the piazza but near the bus stop at which we got off to head to the piazza), a church boasting the city’s second-tallest dome (after St. Peter’s) and considered one of Rome’s most Baroque churches. The frescoes are fabulous. The one creepy thing was the wax figure of a dead clergyman that lay in a glass box under an altar.

From the church we headed over to Piazza Navona, where Jonah liked jumping in the puddles. A cute old guy came to chat with us (all in Italian, as I nodded and smiled) because he was quite taken with Jonah. We saw him a couple of hours later in a totally different location, where he stopped to chat again and let Jonah pet his little dog. Made Rome seem quite small. We visited the church right on the piazza, Sant’ Agnese in Agone, apparently built on the spot where a 13-year-old girl was martyred for refusing to marry. The church is perhaps more interesting from the outside than the inside, although it does have gorgeous frescoes in the dome and beautiful marble elsewhere.

Back to the piazza and the other fountains before walking through the narrow streets to the church of Santa Maria dell’Anima. Now the German national church in Rome, its many frescoes and rich decoration leave not a blank space on any wall or part of the ceiling. In this church, Jonah wanted to sit and read a book on a bench for kneeling. We did because they didn’t seem to mind, and we were quiet. Looking at a skull on one carved tomb, Jonah pointed and said, “Donkey!”

We got lost in search of the last church because of its tucked-away location down a little street. Santa Maria della Pace has a grand exterior and fairly plain interior (at least as compared to the others we’ve seen) but with some frescoes by Raphael. A few art history classes seemed to be checking out the interior of the church while we were there.

On Thursday morning we made a somewhat-impulsive decision to take a vacation from our sabbatical as described in my last post. After much scurrying around at home to buy our tickets and such, Jeremy decided to come enjoy the beautiful day with us rather than work. We headed over to Castel Sant’Angelo, designed and built by Hadrian as his own mausoleum. Papal authorities later converted the building into a fortress and built a passageway to link it with the Vatican as a refuge in times of siege or invasion. It was used as such several times, including during the Sack of Rome in 1527 when Pope Clement VII holed up there for several months. The views from the top of the castle are fabulous. Since there were only clouds high up in the sky, we were able to see quite far in all directions.

From the castle we also spotted the playground on the grounds below. I’d read on a “Rome Mama” forum post that there was a playground there, but we’d not seen it when we were there on our first day in town walking around the area. We were all a bit grumpy our first day in town, so we didn’t look particularly hard I guess. In any event, with Jonah in the back carrier on my back, I pointed out the playground. He was beside himself giddy. We found our way out of the castle and down the rocky path toward the playground. On our way, we passed by a group of Asian tourists who were taken with Jonah. So Jonah had his millionth photo shoot of our sabbatical with adoring tourists. The playground had all of the essentials—swings, a slide, and a few different stationary things on which kids can sit and rock back and forth. He particularly liked the camel and motorcycle rocking things. While at the playground, I met another mom who went to UCSB for a year (on a year abroad from university in Rome) during my time there. Very small world.

The next day Jonah and I explored a district called Monti, a cobbled quarter with narrow, picturesque streets. We strolled through the neighborhood before making our way to San Pietro in Vincoli, home to Michelangelo’s Moses, Leah, and Rachel and, of course, the two sets of chains purported to have held St. Peter when he was in Jerusalem and in Rome, which people believe miraculously joined together. When I told Jonah we were going to see Moses, a prominent figure in our Torah, Jonah asked me to “read it, read it”. While walking up the stairs to the church, I started to take Jonah’s hand, saying, “Why don’t you hold mommy’s hand to go up the stairs?” He replied, “Own self,” because he preferred to do it on his own. Once inside, Jonah was mildly intrigued by Moses, Leah, and Rachel, but mostly he wanted me to read him another book while we sat by the beautiful gold and rock case housing St. Peter’s chains.

From this church, we walked over to the 5th-century basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, considered one of Rome’s five great basilicas with the city’s best-preserved Byzantine interiors. It was indeed beautiful, although some sort of ongoing renovation work kept us from getting as close to the altar as I would have liked. Plus, there was a service going on in a side chapel, so there was another section from which we were prevented from exploring. It was during this service when Jonah declared that he heard an imam singing… On our way out the door, Jonah handed a woman in need of help some money. She had no nose, and he kept looking at her and seemed to be a combination of curious and frightened. By this point, it had started to rain, so we dashed to a bus stop to catch a bus to a more central location from which to transfer to a bus that would get us home. On the bus ride home, Jonah was playing with his cell phone toy. He pretended he was on the phone with someone because I heard him say, “Hayo! Mhhhmmmm… Goo bye!”

That night we went out to dinner by Piazza Navona, after enjoying the early evening scene a bit on the piazza. Every dinner out means penne pasta with butter and parmesan cheese for Jonah, a meal that makes him beyond happy. The waiter brought our food first, and when Jonah looked at the table to see that he was the only one with no food, he said, “Where mine go?”

After dinner, we strolled around the area, passing by the Pantheon again, which looks beautiful at night, and making our way into the church of the Gesù, the first Jesuit church built in Rome in the 16th-century. The church has served as a model for countless Jesuit churches all over the world. It’s absolutely beautiful inside, particularly the truly stunning frescoes on the ceiling. We didn’t get to walk around the church because there was a service in progress while we were there, so we just sat at the back for a bit and enjoyed the view.

On Saturday, we made our way to the remarkable St. Peter’s Basilica (Basilica di San Pietro). You have to go through security and a metal detector to get in, and in the summer the line apparently can be horrendous. We had no lines so sailed right through security, put Jonah in the back carrier on my back, and went into the basilica (after dropping off the stroller downstairs). The current 15th/16th-century structure serves as the principal shrine of the Catholic Church, built to replace the 4th-century building located on the site of St. Peter’s tomb. There’s a lot one can write about St. Peter’s. It’s jaw-dropping spectacular inside, particularly if you like the various styles incorporated into its design. We took our time strolling through the basilica, headed into the grottoes to see the tombs of many popes, including Pope John Paul II, and left before the masses arrived to get over to the Vatican Museums.

Again we managed to escape lines, which can normally zig and zag with people waiting at least an hour on any given day in the summer. Our guidebook’s recommendation to quickly make your way to the things you want to see in the Vatican Museums—in our case, the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms—was a good one. It didn’t mean we got in and out of there quickly or easily, since signs to the Sistine Chapel deceivingly make one believe that it’s right around the corner when in fact it’s about five football fields’ worth of walking away. Jonah went in and out of the stroller in the museum, content to sit on various benches and “taxis” as he called them (raised platforms with signs on top describing the particular Raphael Room in which we were standing). We made our way through the hall of maps, which at first I thought was the Sistine Chapel, or at least the grand entrance to it. No, we still had about a mile to go at this point. The hall of maps was in its own right truly stunning with its frescoes, richly-decorated ceilings, and maps displaying the different regions once under Vatican control. The Raphael Rooms were magnificent with their frescoes. The Sistine Chapel was amazing, although the sardine-packed room made it not such an ideal place to have Jonah roaming around and a bit difficult to take in its splendor sufficiently.

On Saturday evening, we headed into a neighborhood on our side of the river called Trastevere. This neighborhood was the artisan area of Rome in classical times and, taking leave of its more recent working-class roots, the area is being transformed into an artsy, gentrified spot today. We strolled through the narrow streets and made our way to the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, considered the first Christian place of worship in Rome. Rebuilt by Pope Innocent II in the 12th century, the church has some of the most amazing mosaics I’ve ever seen. Truly stunning. From here we found our way into a restaurant before the downpour of rain started. We had a mediocre dinner and the nicest of wait staff, all of whom adored Jonah. Beautiful views of the river and St. Peter’s lit up at night and off to catch our bus home.

Rain was again predicted for Sunday, so we thought that taking one of these hop-on, hop-off bus tours around the city to see some of the remaining sights we hadn’t seen would be a brilliant idea. We figured we’d just stay on the bus and see the big sights through our window. Well, it was a total bust and an expensive one at that. It’s the first place we’ve bought into the hop-on/hop-off bus thing, and I presume it will be our last. Maybe with older kids and a different kind of trip it would have worked out better. Even if the bus had gone the route that the map indicated it would go (thereby enabling us to follow where we were and anticipate upcoming sights…not so on a Sunday when traffic is diverted from this street and that one), the bus was freezing with no heat, the windows were fogging, and the descriptions given via headset were virtually incomprehensible (yes, the English version) and with too little detail. Jonah, however, was quite interested in the headset and listening to the descriptions. Perhaps this a good sign of things to come on our LONG airplane journey home.

We eventually decided to bag the bus and hopped off by Piazza del Popolo, one of the anchors of Via del Corso that we’d not yet seen. Within about 30 minutes it turned into a beautiful day. We strolled through the piazza, stuck our heads in the perfectly-paired churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. Then we headed over to the 15th-century church of Santa Maria del Popolo, housing some of the best Renaissance art of any Roman church with works by Raphael and Carvaggio, among others. We hung out in this richly-decorated church until a service was about to start, when we made our way out.

We took the tram to St. Peter’s piazza in time to see Pope Benedict XVI bless the masses below. It was interesting to see the people who had come to witness the pope’s noontime appearance from his window, people who had traveled from other countries with their churches. The Pope gave his blessing in countless languages, including English, so we could at least understand that part of his speech. After the blessing, it seemed that he launched into a sermon. By this point we were already at one of the fountains for Jonah to enjoy and then heading home for lunch. After Jonah’s nap (or did he decide not to nap that day?), we went to the castle’s playground for Jonah to have a chance to run around a bit and finally enjoy a beloved “paygown”. He’s fearless in his riding of the rocking toys, shaking the thing like a mad man. He also loves to go high on the swing, yelling out, “Higher, higher!” as we’re pushing him.

Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day! The sun was shining bright, and the sky was a beautiful blue. We took a walking tour through the old Jewish ghetto in the morning. Unfortunately, there’s not anything left of the ghetto, since it was all bulldozed just before the turn of the 20th century. Perhaps this was understandable, given that the area was rife with sanitation problems due to its having been built below the water level right by the river. We strolled through the Jewish ghetto, passing several kosher restaurants and a couple of Judaica stores, before making our way to the huge synagogue and Jewish museum. Sadly, no pictures were allowed of the synagogue, so you’ll just have to take my word that it was quite something inside. It’s the only square dome in Rome and is ornately decorated inside (though far less so than the Gothic- and Baroque-style churches around the city). We also saw the Spanish synagogue in the museum, which is still in use as well.

As in most countries in which Jews have lived, the Jews of Rome were discriminated against off and on from the very beginning, with periods of great shame and tragedy (including the enslavement of Jews) and periods in which Jews were allowed to participate in public life and given the same legal rights as other Romans. The ghetto’s origin dates to the time of the Counter Reformation. In 1555, Pope Paul IV decreed that Jews must live in a tiny, segregated, walled community, wear something indicating that they were Jewish (a yellow hat for men and yellow shawls for women—at all times outside the ghetto and sometimes inside the ghetto), be prohibited from owning real estate or being called by any title of respect (such as signor), and were effectively restricted to business dealing in old clothes and second-hand goods. Thus began the ghetto period in Rome, which lasted more than 300 years. Each Saturday, selected members of the Jewish community were forced to go to a neighboring church to listen to proselytizing sermons. This church, the outside of which we saw, still stands.

With the accession of Pope Pius IX in 1846, the gates and walls of the ghetto were removed, although the pope soon after enforced other anti-Jewish restrictions. With the capture of Rome by forces for the Unification of Italy in 1870, a royal decree abolished all restrictions based on religion from which Rome’s citizens had previously suffered. At the turn of the century (1904), the king of Italy had a new synagogue built for the Jews, not because he liked the Jews but as a slap in the face to the existing pope.

People speculate that roughly 40,000 Jews lived in and around Rome during the height of ancient Roman civilization. By World War II, the number hovered around 10,000. Close to 2,100 Jews perished at Auschwitz. Although the Pope at the time was asked to make public statements against the deportation of Jews, he didn’t.

In 1967, about 3,000 Jews arrived in Rome from Libya. According to our tour guide of the synagogue, the influx of so many Jews changed Rome’s Jewish population—not just in size but in the extent to which the community is observant. Now roughly 15,000 people strong, the Roman Jewish population supports eleven Orthodox synagogues (six Italian Jewish synagogues, four Sephardic synagogues, and one Ashkenazic synagogue). From what we learned, the Italian Jewish tradition differs somewhat from the Jewish traditions, melodies, and such with which Orthodox Jews elsewhere are familiar. This is because of the influence of the Vatican, the papal authorities forbidding certain phrases to be used in prayer books, for example. In one prayer in which the person reciting the prayer indicates his or her thankfulness in not being a non-Jew, the Vatican required the words to be changed so that the prayer reflects the person’s thankfulness in being a Jew. It’s a slight change, but you get the gist of what the papal authorities were trying to do.

From the synagogue, we walked toward Piazza Farnese and Campo de’ Fiori. We stopped by a church along the way, San Carlo ai Catinari, where there was a nativity scene with baby Jesus (of course) and the sound of water running as though to recreate the scene of Jesus’ birth by the river. Jonah liked the sound of the water, and as I started to walk away (with Jonah on my back in the back carrier), he called out, “Jesus and water more!”

Jonah liked the fountain in Piazza Farnese, the accordion player who was entertaining the diners at an outdoor café (to the tune of Hava Nagila, among other tunes—got a two Euro coin from me for that one), and the open market with its fruit and vegetable, houseware, and meat/butcher stalls. We eventually found a restaurant to eat at after trying to hit a spot recommended by Su that wasn’t open for another half an hour. The weather was lovely, as I mentioned, so we ate outside in the Piazza Farnese.

That afternoon while Jonah napped, I went back to St. Peter’s to climb to the roof for the spectacular views of the city and inside the Vatican walls below. You can’t actually get in to see the rest of what sits behind the Vatican walls, so being able to see the administrative buildings and beautiful gardens from the top of St. Peter’s was intriguing. Getting to see the mosaics in the dome close up also was fabulous.

On Tuesday, Jonah and I went to check out the catacombs at the church of Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura, dedicated to the same 13-year-old girl martyred for refusing to marry and built over her grave (though her head apparently is in the church on Piazza Navona). The 7th-century church was later updated in Baroque style with beautiful mosaics and an ornate ceiling. The highlight though was the 3rd-4th-century catacombs stretching seven kilometers over three levels. Our guidebook describes these as the best-preserved and least-crowded in Rome. Indeed, Jonah and I had our own tour of the catacombs with a very nice guide who helped me get Jonah in the back carrier. Jonah liked rubbing his hand along the walls as we walked. I was interested in the very small spaces for the bodies. (The guide said ancient Romans were small people.) Wealthier families had little rooms where their members were buried. It seemed like we got lost in the maze of the catacombs, but we somehow found ourselves underneath the altar of the church and eventually back into the main section of the church where a funeral service was taking place. No photos allowed in the catacombs, so I can’t show anyone what I saw (except on a postcard I bought).

From the catacombs, we hopped in a taxi to get to the Pincio Gardens in the Villa Borghese. I couldn’t find a quick enough bus route to get us there in time to get to what my guidebook said was a playground at the gardens. Total bust on the playground (perhaps because of the renovation work going on there right now), but we did find a carousel with little cars, buses, motorcycles, you name it, on which Jonah loved riding. We took three turns on the carousel—about all I could handle without barfing (Jeremy just told me this was age…thanks), and then Jonah just went from one car to the next because they actually moved around on their own even when the carousel didn’t rotate. He LOVED that! He thought that was the playground, so he was a happy camper. The rain was starting, so we quickly found our way to the little number 116 bus that took us through the backstreets of central Rome before catching another bus home.

On Wednesday we took our last central-Rome-church tour, starting at the 16th-century Chiesa Nuova, a church we’ve passed countless times on our bus rides to and from the center of the city. Another highly-ornate Baroque church, it doesn’t reflect the wishes of its founder, St. Philip Neri, who spent his life tending the poor and sick and didn’t want the church decorated at all. It’s quite beautiful inside though.

From here, we strolled through the narrow streets of the city center to get to Palazzo Altemps, a 16th-century palace that houses a branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano and the best of its fabulous statues. I succeeded in getting Jonah into the back carrier on my own (how’s that for skill?), and we clomped around the museum to check out its collection. One room contains a frieze telling the story of Moses. We peeked into the palace’s former chapel before making our way onto the second floor terrace, only to see chunks of hail falling from the sky into the courtyard below. Glad we weren’t caught in that!

When the hail turned to a light rain, we zipped over to the church of Sant’Agostino, where we couldn’t stay long enough to really take in its beauty. The smell of chemical cleaners and construction work was enough to clog a lung and kill a few too many brain cells, so we hightailed it out of there for fresher air. Off to the French national church of San Luigi dei Francesi with its Caravaggio paintings, where Jonah enjoyed sitting on a bench and sliding around.

We tried to get into the church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza but were told it’s only open on Sundays. So we headed over to Piazza Navona, where Jonah again enjoyed one of its fountains. With the sound of thunder and a flash of lightening, it seemed like a good idea to head for the bus stop to get home. I managed to get us to the bottom of our hill before it really started to rain, but then I had to push Jonah up a narrow sidewalk, trying to balance my umbrella in one hand or on a shoulder with my chin resting on it. Eventually I gave up on the umbrella and started to run uphill, getting drenched along the way.

Having done most of the things on my list that I wanted to do (knowing that I had a limited amount of time here), yesterday we ventured over to Explora (Museo dei Bambini di Roma). I’d called Almaz the night before to see if she and Nicholas wanted to meet us there, and we made a play date for the morning. Jonah and I walked over to the Vatican so I could pick up a gift at the souvenir store, where the nuns took to Jonah immediately. We were the only ones in there, and the three nuns who were working at the store fawned over Jonah. One of them asked me if she could take pictures of him (of course, I said, wondering how many people across the world now had photos of my child); another gave him a key chain. It was quite sweet, and Jonah was in a jolly good mood, knowing we were going to some type of playground.

From the Vatican, we walked to Piazza del Risorgimento to pick up the tram to take us to Explora. Jonah loved riding in his own seat (as he always does). The tram dropped us right by the museum, and we enjoyed the outdoor play area before meeting Almaz and Nicholas inside. Explora is adorable with miniature versions of everyday places, including a supermarket and kitchen, in addition to a big (real) truck in which to sit, turn the steering wheel, and move the stick shift, and a cushion play area to tumble around upstairs. Jonah loved sitting in the truck and could have stayed there all morning possibly. He also loved the supermarket, where he was pretty set on putting about 20 boxes of cocoa powder in his cart. I eventually convinced him that he might want some other products, including fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, yogurt, and chicken. You can put your produce on a scale and print out labels with the price to stick on your bags of fruit and veges. The whole set up was too precious with a cash register and all.

Jonah had a little slip and fall incident in the cushion play area, which left him with a red imprint of Velcro on his upper lip. He got over it quickly though and kept making his way up the offending ramp so he could go down the slide multiple times. He and Nicholas mostly did their own things, but Almaz and I still got a chance to talk a bit. It’s too bad I didn’t have time to get to know her better on this trip. She’s such a lovely person and so wonderful with Nicholas, and Jonah too.

Today Jeremy took the day off, our last in Rome. We decided to check out a couple more churches and visit a nice garden in the Aventine Hill area. A few minutes outside, however, quickly made us reassess the day's plan. It was quite cold, too cold to spend much time outdoors. We'd not yet seen the Capitoline Museums (made up of two separate palaces connected by an underground passageway), so we caught a bus to check them out. Turned out that a strike by some of the museum employees necessitated the closing of much of the museums, including the entire Palazzo Nuovo. Regardless, there was plenty to keep us interested and occupied, and Jonah had plenty of indoor space to walk around. Aside from a few interactions with one grumpy museum worker (perhaps he too should have joined the strike), we were left to wander the place by ourselves, the only ones visiting it seemed.

The collection of the Palazzo dei Conservatori did not fail to impress. It included stunning frescoes, fabulous statues (including the bronze ones of Marcus Aurelius and the head and hand of Emperor Constantine and the stone foot, hand, and other fragments also believed to be from a gigantic statue of Constantine), and ancient artifacts from Capitoline Hill, the highest hill in Rome and the spiritual and political center of the Roman Empire.

From the museums, we went to check out a couple of nearby churches. Rome's most ancient basilica, the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli is decorated with many beautiful frescoes and, unlike any other church we've seen in Rome, dozens of chandeliers. Jeremy didn't care for the chandeliers, but I liked them. I mean, it's already ornate, so what's more stuff in there going to do to the overall look?

Onward to the little church of San Pietro in Carcere, best known for the Mamertine Prison beneath it where important "enemies" of the Roman state, including notable Jewish figures (Aristobulus, 1st-century BCE King of Judea, and Simon Bar Giora, a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome in the 1st century CE), St. Peter, and St. Paul, among others, were incarcerated and, in some cases, executed. Not much to see in the prison; it's tiny and dark down there, not a place you'd want to spend any time.

From the prison we headed to the bus stop to catch our bus home. During Jonah's nap, I packed our bags, seeing all of the things that I'll be happy to leave in California before we hit the road again.

Tonight we went down to the 18th-century Trevi Fountain, which we had not yet visited since we arrived. Wow, what a mob scene! That's where all of the tourists have been. It's stunning and beautiful, of course, especially at dusk. After standing in the cold for a few minutes and taking in the view, we headed straight for a restaurant to enjoy our last dinner in Rome. Jonah was excited for his pasta and kept asking to "eat dinner, eat dinner". We found a cute little spot across Via del Corso on a narrow street we'd not before walked. More than the restaurant, how adorable the street was! After a good meal, we continued along it until we hit a gelato shop, which we couldn't resist even in the freezing cold. So we spent our last mintues out on the town, licking our ice cream cones (while Jonah ate a plain cone, which he loves) and briskly walking to the bus stop.

I realize that I've described our mornings (and some nights) in Rome in great deal. Our afternoons here have mostly included taking walks around our neighborhood or playing inside if it’s too dreary to go outside. Jonah definitely misses having a playground nearby to go to after his nap. A couple of times we went to the castle playground and St. Peter’s piazza (and inside the basilica) to get out of the house, once to the supermarket and for a walk along the main shopping street in our neighborhood.

Rome has been much more enjoyable than we thought it might be. We were expecting something more like Athens, which would not have been a great place to be for two weeks (far from it), but instead we found a great city in which to see many interesting historical, archaeological, and religious places. It's been a fabulous two weeks. And now we're ready to go home...at least for a short break.

As would be expected, Jonah changes every day. He can now spend a much more concentrated period of time with one toy. In fact, he often spends up to 2.5 hours just sitting in his crib talking to his animals and reading a book rather than actually napping! He tends not to throw things around the way he used to, unless, of course, he’s exhausted in which case he’s like a little tornado. He’s also stopped putting absolutely everything in his mouth. He has a better understanding of what things are so I think isn’t as much in need of coming to understand it by mouthing it. He certainly still puts things in his mouth, but the reduction in this behavior is huge. Jonah’s problem-solving skills also have changed quite a bit lately. He figured out that he needs to pop up the front wheels of his shopping cart in order to keep it from getting stuck on the carpet covering part of the wood floors in our apartment. He hadn’t figured this out when we were in Istanbul, despite the many times his shopping cart became immobilized when pushed up against the carpet there. He still has us kiss his head when he bumps it. More recently, he had one of his new little figures kiss it.

Jonah also has had some priceless one-liners, in addition to saying other funny and cute things, including:

“Oh, shoot! Hair on it!” as he pulls a piece of fuzz off of his toast.

“Bye bye, dada. Going shloofy,” as Jeremy gets Jonah ready for his nap.

“Other way, dada!” This is something he said twice in the context of telling Jeremy that he’s not putting the key in the door the right way and when Jeremy was taking a picture of Jonah and me with the camera positioned to take a vertical picture.

“I love you, kitty cat! I love you, kitty cat!” as he sits in his crib with his cat.

“I love you, mama,” after giving me my morning kiss in Istanbul after he’s dressed and ready to go into the living room to play.

“Move over,” as he sits either on the bed or at the table and wants to get closer to something or someone.

“Mama?” as he sits in his stroller with his hand up or out ready to hand me something, said with a certain tone in his voice that makes me know that I have about five seconds to take the thing he’s trying to hand me before he just drops it. At least he doesn’t just drop it!

“Sit right there,” as he instructs his kitty cat to sit in a particular place.

“Milk in the nose,” when he somehow got milk up his nose.

“Mommy’s shloofing in bed,” as he heads into the other room, and I’m still lying in bed.

“That tickles, dada!” as Jeremy is trying to change his clothes.

Jonah: “In car, peez,” as he tells us that he wants to get into one of his little cars. Jeremy: “We can’t. Why not?” Jonah: “Too big!”

“Jesus, shadow, get out car!” as he lets his wishes be known about one of his little cars.

“Wheels up against the wall,” when he pushes his shopping cart against the closet. (Are you noticing the heavy emphasis on shopping carts? I’m trying to encourage another person in our family to enjoy things related to being in the kitchen…).

“Mama’s shoes…dada’s shoes also,” as he moves our shoes from the front door to another location in our apartment.

“No eh-day-der in apartment,” (that’s “elevator”) as Jonah sits in his crib spewing out miscellaneous thoughts he wants to share either with his animals or himself. No, there isn’t an elevator, and we carry his stroller up six flights of stairs a couple times a day.

“E-i-e-i diamond!” which is a line he sings often while sitting in his stroller, combining the words of “Old MacDonald” and “Twinkle, Twinkle”.

“No, don’t like it,” after he tastes Jeremy’s orange. “More,” despite the fact that he said he didn’t like it.

“Mommy, get the cheese!” as he lets me know what else he wants to eat for lunch.

“Going down,” as soon as he came to our bed in the morning. “What's going down?” I asked. “Sun going down,” he replied. “Actually the sun is coming up right now because it's the morning, and the moon is going down,” I said. “See it! Move the curtains,” he urged me.

“Plug it in,” as he holds a plug adaptor that he'd actually never seen before. Somehow he knew what it was supposed to be used for.

Jonah: “Kitty cat in!” as he tries to get his kitty cat into his little car. Me: “It can’t go in. Why not?” Jonah: “Tushy too big!”

“Hi baby, nice meet you. Okay, bye bye,” as he has a conversation with the picture of the baby on his bag of diaper wipes.

“Take it off it,” which is a line we hear often about anything from his wanting his sleep sack taken off him to one of our watches being taken off. The “it” is either Jonah, Jeremy, or me.

“Hawo! I miss you. Mmmmhhhmmmm… bye!” a conversation he had with someone on his play cell phone while we were on the bus one day. This was too cute.

Me: “Funny goose!” Jonah: “Funny bunny!” knowing that I usually call him either a silly goose or a funny bunny.

“Dan’ (dance) party!” he called out, after I sang a Michael Jackson song, danced around, and explained that we were having a dance party. Jeremy and I then sang a Beastie Boys song, which Jonah liked, but he was not into any of the songs from the Grease soundtrack. “No!” he said when we tried to sing “Summer Lovin’”.

“I hold the cat,” he said to Jeremy when Jeremy was holding Jonah’s kitty cat.

“Too heavy,” as he held the guidebook in one hand.

Jeremy: “How was your shloof?” Jonah: “Good.”

“Electricity…energy…natural light,” a string of words he rattled off when turning on and off a floor lamp, having heard me explain to him on numerous occasions that we didn’t need this light or that one because we didn’t want to waste energy or electricity and that there was plenty of natural light coming into the apartment from the sun outside.

“Hold it,” as Jonah let us know that he wanted a spoon I was using to mix his yogurt with honey. Jeremy replied, “Mommy needs to hold it right now.” “Want to hold it,” Jonah said, making sure we knew that he actually wanted to hold the spoon.

“Wunny babbit!” along with tremendous laughter from both him and me, as Jonah intentionally changed the first letters for “bunny rabbit”.

“One time!” he pleaded, when I let him know that we couldn’t press all of the emergency and disabled buttons on the bus.

Jonah: “Happened?” Me: “A truck went by.” Jonah thinking something different, “That’s a bus.” A few minutes later, “Happened?” asked Jonah. Me: “It’s an airplane.” Jonah: “That’s a hel-copter.”

Waving at himself in the mirror and seeing his reflection wave back, “No Jonah!”

“Not working right now,” explaining to us that he couldn’t hear any sound from the headset with the tour explanation from our hop-on/hop-off bus.

“Give money us,” as Jonah wanted to hand the bus driver some money.

“See, see, see, see, see, see!” any time he wants to see something that he can’t see at that moment, often drink of food in a cup or bowl.

“Famy! Famy!” something he’s said many, many times in a pleading voice after we let him know that we were going to visit our family soon.

And almost two weeks later, Jonah is still requesting “Go home!” or “Home, peez,” because he really misses our Istanbul apartment…as do we.

The absolute cutest exchange of late must be this one though: Jeremy sneezes. “Happened?” asked Jonah. Me: “Daddy sneezed.” Jonah: “Daddy, bless you.”

Well, folks, that’s all for now. I won’t be back on the air until we get to Kampala in mid-March, just in time to celebrate my birthday with a little matoke and waragi.

Picture descriptions: In front of St. Peter's Basilica with the nativity scene in place; Jonah rocks out to 50s tunes in pink Cadillac in video arcade at Istanbul shopping mall; Jonah LOVING his cheese bread on the ferry boat to the palace; Dolmabahçe Palace; same; by the Tiber River with St. Peter's and the Castel Sant' Angelo in the background; St. Peter's Basilica at night; Roman Forum; same; Colosseum; same with Arch of Titus through the opening; same; piazza by the Pantheon; Pantheon; children's center at the Villa Borghese; small playground outside the children's center; a place to buy your outfits if you're part of the Catholic clergy; church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva; church of Sant' Andrea della Valle; Piazza Navona; church of Santa Maria dell'Anima; view of St. Peter's from Castel Sant' Angelo; Jonah running to playground on the grounds of castle; playground at castle; neighborhood of Monti with view of Colosseum in background; church of San Pietro in Vincoli; Piazza Navona with church of Sant' Agnese in Agone in background; Jonah loving his penne pasta; inside St. Peter's Basilica; Hall of Maps at Vatican Museums; church of Santa Maria in Trastevere; Piazza del Popolo; church of Santa Maria in Montesanto; that's the Pope!; street in old Jewish ghetto; church of San Carlo ai Catinari; outdoor market at Campo de' Fiori; view from roof of St. Peter's Basilica; carousel at Pincio Gardens in the Villa Borghese; church of Chiesa Nuova; Palazzo Altemps; church of San Luigi dei Francesi; Explora; same; same; Capitoline Museums; same; church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli; Trevi Fountain; Campo de' Fiori; playground at castle; same; walking around our neighborhood.