The morning of our last day in Rome was supposed to be very straight forward. We had tickets to take the speed train right back to the U.S. Navy base in Napoli. We were staying outside of Rome, so we hired a cab to take us to the train station.

We had a good breakfast at our Hampton Inn that morning, and a reasonable cab fare. All was going to according to plan.

Then our taxi driver started to ask us about our plan, and he realized we did know about the train strike. (Of course, there would be a train strike). He kindly told us about buses that also can take you to Napoli, and we decided that was our best option.

That is how we ended up on a bench at the bus station in Rome, with dozens of buses, none of which had empty seats available to Napoli.

Alan and I agreed we might as well find a new hotel inside Rome and change our plans.

You can find good deals these days just looking on Google, so that is what I did. I found an excellent looking, highly rated hotel in the very center of Rome called Hotel Impero.

We booked a reservation online, called a cab, and headed on over to the new hotel.

This was such a welcome change. Staying outside of town was an extra hassle, having to constantly hail a cab over to Hampton Inn. Even in Naples, we were staying on post, so we had to rely on the Alibus to get anywhere.

Here at Hotel Impero, we could just step out the front door of the hotel and walk to almost any tourist attraction in Rome!

Plus, we were a block away from the train. Everything was suddenly so much easier and more affordable.

My best travel tip for when you don’t have a car is to pick a hotel right in the middle of wherever you want to be, and stay there!

Plus, I loved the ambience of the Hotel Impero. Most of the buildings in Rome have been there forever, and this hotel was no exception. The man at the desk said that the hotel and all of the surrounding area belonged to Mussolini’s government a hundred years ago.

We arrived earlier than check-in, since our plans had been flipped upside down, but the staff was so kind and welcoming about it all. We sat in the small bar area while they made sure our room was ready. After a short wait, we went up the tiniest old school elevator with a bell hop. The hotel has many turns, so he guided us to our room.

The whole place had the vibe of the early 1900s, and I loved it. This place was perfect for me. Everything was decorated and plush, and it seems like there were antiques everywhere.

Plus, I finally felt like I was staying in a real Italian hotel. The Hampton Inn was nice and offered all the comforts of home, but it had less of the authentic Italian experience, you know?

This place even had these enormous weighted keys and multi-level maze-like hallways. I adored it; I really did.

Once we’d gotten our things all situated, we headed across the street for lunch. There were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Everyone talks about the food in Italy. As a person with food allergies, I do not get the same level of enjoyment out of restaurants.

Having no choice but to be gluten free is such a bummer when you are traveling. Yes, Italy is health conscious and has many places with gluten free options. But still, we had to ask everywhere we went and choose based on that.

Thankfully, I did still manage to have many gluten free pizzas and even one gluten free pasta dish. Alan printed out this celiac statement to explain my problem in Italian, and he would show it to places. It was so sweet of Alan to do that. He really looked out for me.

On our third day in Italy, we covered so much ground on foot. Our favorite place was the The Basilica Of St. Mary Of The Angels And The Martyrs. That one was such a big deal, and we took so many photos that I have to save those pictures for my next post, which will be dedicated only to the basilica.

Here are a few other places we saw.

The photo above is an elaborately carved sarcophagus. True art connoisseurs would probably be baffled at our attitude, but we did not know much about what we were seeing. If you love sculptures, you would enjoy the museum, I’m sure.

We saw many unusual things that we did not know they were.

This was the view from outside the museum. So much of Rome was this cool.

This was outside the baths of Diocletian, but it cost extra to go in, so we passed on this one.

This was close to our hotel too. We had the perfect location.

After touring the museum and the basilica, we just started walking around Rome. We took off on foot headed towards the famous Trevi Fountain and took photos of a few cool things we saw along the way.

This was another one of those buildings that looked important, but we had no idea what it was.

Orange trees grew along the street.

The Trevi Fountain itself was lovely and in tact and definitely the most densely crowded place that we toured. People packed in there. That’s why the photo is a close up. I was trying to cut out the crowds.

In retrospect, I should have taken a distance shot so you can see how many people there were.

We enjoyed picking out a few souvenirs in the little alley shops near the fountain.

After all that touring, we went back to our hotel and napped. Alan woke up from the nap and went out and visited a few stores. I have no memory of what he was shopping for. He probably brought back some food. I said, “I know we are in Italy, but I don’t even need to eat tonight. All I want to do is sleep and rest my feet.”

So that was what I did. I never did go back out that night. It’s a good thing too, because the next day we headed to Pompeii. I love that we saw Pompeii, but it turned out to be our roughest day by far, and you can bet I will be blogging about it soon.

To read about Rome day 1, see this post, with the Colosseum.

For Rome Day 2: The Vatican, click here.

The post Rome Day 3: The Beautiful Hotel Impero Saves the Day appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

It’s easy to feel happy and hopeful when life is going pretty well. Sure, life is hectic always with little boys to take care of, but at least you can find some sort of ‘normal’ in that. We are all healthy. Things have been okay. Isn’t it funny how easy it is to shake your head at the whiners when your life looks pretty good? I think it’s pretty common to become annoyed with people who are going through a hard time and are constantly whining about it.

Proverbs 14:20:

“The poor is hated even of his own neighbor:  but the rich hath many friends.”

There are many Bible verses that echo that sentiment.

No, we are not poor, not even a little bit. However, hard times do come to all of us. I have been without a place of my own since June 13th. Alan has his little hotel room in California, but the boys and I have gone between my parents’ and Alan’s parents’ houses in Alabama. We’ve been sleeping in their living rooms, invading their beds and kitchens, and in general totally disrupting their way of life.

THANKFULLY, both sets of them seem to be happy to have us. My parents were terribly sad to see us leave last week. (Sorry, ya’ll!! We do miss you!)

The thing is it’s been 40 days now, and we are ready to have our own place to call home, you know?

No problem, right? My house is mine in only one more week. We pick up our keys on August 1st. Hurray! Plane tickets are purchased, and movers are booked…..

WAIT! Not so fast. The current tenants have decided to delay a week. Oh, now, isn’t that cute?

grrrr

Do I get angry? Do I cry into my pillow and pound my fists on the floor? *Sigh* Why bother? That’s just life. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “Life is just a series of problems to be solved.” Ha! It’s true, and you know it! But as Alan’s dad recently said, “It really is just a series of problems to be solved, but thankfully there are enough good moments sprinkled in there to make it worth it.”

🙂 Sprinkle. Sprinkle.

chubby baby cheekies and Daniel quotes: At least I still have those!

Watching Joshua study animals and checking out Caleb’s latest fort–that he has constructed–in the hallway, blocking all hallway traffic…..how I love it.

children on slip-n-slides, mint Klondike bars, hearing from someone who says that they enjoy reading my blog, and big giant hugs from my handsome and amazing husband (I MISS that right now!) These things DO make it worth it.

Plus, we’ve had bonus grandparent quality time, so at least we haven’t been living in a hotel all this time!

So what now? Will we rearrange Nonna’s plane ticket for later? Will that work? She was going to help us unpack, but there will be nothing to unpack until at least August 11th. I actually will have to live in a hotel for 11 days…..yikes! Is that even possible with four children???

Ya’ll! How is this four kids/hotel thing going to work? Anyone have any advice!?

The thing about problems is that they DO happen to everybody. Do you think I’m excited about spending two months (when it’s all said and done) of this year, basically homeless? Do you think I’m not worried about how this anxiety is affecting my children? Let me tell you. They are greatly affected.

We all have hard things to deal with sometimes, right? The important thing is HOW we handle our problems. You probably think I’ve handled this well, but that’s only because you haven’t had to live with me. Ha!!  Not kidding. I have been impatient with my children and probably also a slightly ungracious house guest. I do want to do better. It reminds me of that country song, “Heaven knows she’s not an angel, but she’d really like to be….”

Thank you so much, Mom and Dad, DaddyO and Nonna, for helping us through this time. Thank you to my brother for driving Alan’s truck across the country!

I hope to do better than my best through the rest of this stressful moving process. I hope to tackle the difficulties while still managing to share God’s love with others and decrease the amount of sighing and complaining.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog. It has been the perfect outlet during these years of figuring out the whole parenting/military life thing! I know it bothered a few of you when I made the blog public last year, but thank you for sticking by me anyway.

Now let’s just pray the tenants don’t push this back any more, or we will have to find another house. I really have my heart set on living on the military base. I like the efficiency of the move-in/move-out system. I also like the whole “no security deposit” thing. Pretty awesome, huh?

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”        Psalm 34:19

“though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:24

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