A birthday, shopping and a variety show

Emilie had a birthday party to attend in Frankfurt today and so I suggested we drop her off and go shopping on the Zeil, the city's car-free main shopping area. If he was lucky, I would even allow David to buy a birthday present for himself. There was a new pair of house slippers waiting for him at home, but something else would be nice.

And we did just that. The first store we went to was the newly opened Claire's Boutique. It was shoulder-to-shoulder people, with shoppers politely pushing their way through the store, and Micaela and I had to wait in line almost 5 minutes for our turn to look at the earring carousel. If she hadn't finally bought a set of earrings after all that, I would have screamed.

After some yummy KFC, our main objective was to hit the international section of the bookstore Hugendubel. Along the way, we watched some skateboarders doing their thing and found out that there was a skateboarding shop around the corner.

James was in heaven as he checked out the rows and rows of boards, wheels and all their parts, and clothes. But what a pitiful display of helmets! Only one helmet rack. And there were only six helmets available in the entire store. To be fair, they were to get some in over the next few weeks, but there was a much more impressive wheel replacement section than helmet section. And why were we there? To buy James a new, larger helmet, of course. We had not been able to find a single skateboarding helmet in any other store, sporting goods or department store, for the last few months. It is apparently not skateboarding season. And not one of the six helmets on display fit him.

We shouldn't have been surprised by the lack of helmet selection. We have never seen a skateboarder here sporting one and most teenage and adult bikers don't wear them either (little children usually do, even though there is no helmet law). James is always complaining that he feels like a geek at our town's skatepark being the only kid wearing a helmet. But by now, he knows my retort by heart: A cousin of mine was killed when he hit hit head the first time he set foot on a skateboard and a physical therapist who specialized in brain damage once told me, "If you ever saw what I see everyday, you would always buckle up in the car and wear a helmet when you know you should." We'll have to make another trip to this store next month.

And then on to the bookstore. We entered the international section and my heart skipped a beat. There on the shelf was People magazine. I had no interest in buying the magazine, but just seeing it made me all giddy. And the English-language selection, well, it just made our day! We let each of the kids pick out a book (James got the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Micaela got Confessions of a Shopaholic) and David and I will share some Bill Bryson books and a few other amusing-looking books about an English guy and his French girlfriend traveling through the U.S.

At one point, David disappeared and then reappeared with this package. What could it be? Certainly something spicy.

None other than pretty big Red Hot Chili Gummi Candies from the local gummi bear shop. Can't wait to dig into those!

The crowd kept growing throughout our shopping expedition and we found out that it was the grand opening of a new indoor mall along the Zeil. By the time we left, we felt like we were in the middle of a frantic Christmas shopping crowd. We picked up Emilie from her party and headed home.

For dinner, David requested Taco Salad and then we had presents. Surprise!! The books you picked out earlier today at the bookstore and some new house slippers (which were too small). Time for the birthday cheesecake! It turned out fine, though I was happy I ended up with the large piece of rubbery Jello in my slice (from when I had allowed the Jello to set) and not the birthday boy's. We even sampled the chili pepper gummis and take our word for it, they were hot. In fact, parts of my tongue are still burning.

David was flicking through the channels on TV when I told him to stop. "Wait, that was Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson!" And so began an evening of watching the most bizarre variety show we have ever seen.

Wetten, dass..? (German for "Wanna Bet..?") is the most successful television show in Europe, has been around for 28 years, and is broadcast live six to seven times a year from different cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It can easily attract 50% and more of all German speaking viewers on that evening. Any American network would kill for those numbers.

We recognized the host Thomas Gottschalk as the fellow in the Haribo gummi candy commercials, but Wetten, dass..?, is his main gig. With his purple suit and exuberant manner, he reminded us of Willy Wonka.

The core gimmick of the show are the bets: ordinary people offer to perform some unusual (often bizarre) and very difficult task. The other major attraction of the show are the top-ranking celebrity guests. Each of the guests must bet on the outcome of one of the tasks and are offered a wager, usually a humorous or mildly humiliating activity to be carried out if they lose.

So, here's the rundown of tonight's show. The first guests are a very uncomfortable-looking Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, in Germany to promote their new film Marley and Me. They begin with an interview (there is German voice over when Jennifer and Owen answer in English), and then find themselves milling around about 20 sled dogs. Thomas the host (who speaks excellent English by the way) speaks almost all in German, even when addressing them directly and Jennifer and Owen keep looking off to the side, where there must be a teleprompter translating for them, along with their earpiece. Thomas then announces the bet. Will the blindfolded dog trainer be able to recognize five of her dogs simply by the sound of them lapping up water? Jennifer says yes, Owen says no. So the bet is on. If the trainer succeeds, Jennifer and Owen must eat a dog biscuit. The stunned look on Miss Aniston's face is priceless. Owen looks just confused.

The trainer is blindfolded and one by one, five randomly selected dogs are brought next to her to lap water out of a miked bowl. And she guesses all five dogs' names correctly.

At this point the host approaches Jennifer and Owen with dog treats. Jennifer protests that she had said the trainer could do it, but the host ignores her and says that they are "a team. Just like the dogs." and to their credit, they each take a bite. Here's a link (sorry, you'll need to copy and paste) to a very short clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuiNJOcc2ms&feature=related

For a laugh, copy and paste the link below and fast forward to 3:50 to see Jennifer's and Owen's reactions to being told they may just have to eat a dog biscuit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yOKwM5BX4g

At the beginning of this next clip, you see Jennifer and Owen eat the biscuit. If you listen, the host compliments Jennifer by telling her, "You're easy." Excuse me? Ah, the little nuances in language make things so interesting. (He means that she is a very nice guest.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gP0aDOXYlE&feature=related

A rock group performs. Then, the next celebrity makes his entrance: a German film maker who won an Academy Award and as he is being introduced, the host mentions "Die Academy Awards...Brad Pitt und Angelina Jolie..." Poor Jennifer. She can't catch a break. So, Thomas and the fellow chat and you see Jennifer whisper something to Owen and Owen just shrugs as if to say, "I have absolutely no idea what the heck is going on!" Here comes the bet. Could this woman at the Dusseldorf Airport change the front tire of a motorcycle in less than 2 minutes while perched on it as the driver holds the bike in a wheelie position going over 100 mph down a runway?.

Of course she can.

Duffy ("I'm begging you for mercy") sings a song that, sadly, isn't Mercy and features strange dancing men playing violins. When she is finished, Thomas asks Owen, who looks totally lost now, to present Duffy with a huge bouquet of flowers.

And now, the next guest: Boris Becker, the tennis star, and his new fiancée. Thomas actually teases Boris for having strayed from her the previous year, before she managed to entice him back. More uncomfortable moments. More "what exactly is going on looks" pass between Jennifer and Owen. And the bet: Can this 12 year-old boy identify which of 30 soccer shoes is in his mouth by smelling, biting and licking it?

The boy is blindfolded and Thomas picks out a shoe and proceeds to stick the toe into the boy's mouth. The boy smells, bites and licks five different soccer shoes. And correctly identifies the brand and number of each one. OK, now this is just weird. It gives you an uneasy feeling in your gut watching this, the same feeling I had watching David Letterman host the Academy Awards years ago.

That is Jennifer's and Owen's cue to leave. And they look mighty relieved to be going. Something tells me their agents didn't quite know what they were getting their clients into.

But they missed Boris having to jump through a heart of fire for losing his bet!

The show just went on and on. For three hours! More guests, more bets, cars being crushed, a guy throwing darts at balloons while hanging upside down, more singers...

...including a very famous one in drag mode...

...men playing Jenga with only their breath...

...and more humiliating punishments for the celebrities.

A very interesting evening indeed.

Lemon Cheesecake: How hard could it be?

Tomorrow is David's birthday and he always requests his favorite dessert: Grandma Nylund's Lemon Cheesecake. Last year, however, he needed to settle for something else. Why? Good luck finding lemon Jello and any brand of graham crackers (or anything closely resembling either of them) in a German grocery store.

Our friend Dina and her kids came to visit last month and she asked us beforehand what she could bring us. I didn't hesitate: a box of lemon Jello, graham crackers, and evaporated milk (which they may have here, but I wasn't taking any chances). You can find the other ingredients, such as Philadelphia Cream Cheese, no problem.

The cheesecake isn't the easiest dessert to make. The jello must be dissolved and chilled, but not allow to set; the bowl, mixer blades and condensed milk must be chilled before mixing or the whole thing could fall flat; you have to remember to allow the cream cheese to soften, and the hardest part: you have to know when to stop mixing the different sets of ingredients or else the cake may lose its fluffiness. With this recipe, timing is everything. I know from experience all that can go wrong.

So, imagine me making the cake today. One false move and the cake would be toast as I only had one box of Jello. Plenty of graham crackers, but the Jello was key. Halfway through the recipe, I realized I hadn't bought enough cream cheese and I needed to walk (yes, walk) back to the store for more. In that time, the Jello set. Argh! I microwaved it to melt it back down, but then had to worry that it might be too warm and throw off the cake when I mixed everything together.

In the end, it all seemed to go together fine and now must chill in the fridge overnight. But I have to say that I haven't felt stress and panic like that in a while. The things I go through for my husband!!

Fasching

For several weeks leading up to the Fasching (Carnival) celebrations, stores here resemble American stores during October: costumes, wigs, candies and facepaints are all on display. This holiday, though, is about being silly, not scary, so you'll have a hard time finding a vampire or witch outfit. No problem, though, finding costumes of clowns, cowboys, convicts, and Pippi Longstocking. I was struck again this year by the very large displays of realistic-looking handguns. They just seemed....out of place.

Last Thursday was the Women's Day, the day womenfolk traditionally take over and is best known as the day ladies cut off men's ties. Some even attach the pieces of ties to a belt around their waist to display their trophies. This year, following the example of many German men, David simply went to the office tieless.

Emilie dressed as Mulan for the Fasching party at her school on Friday. Don't adjust your settings. Emilie face is indeed yellow, but it was due to facepaint, not illness.

On the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, many towns and cities have crazy parades and we posted an entry last year of nearby Hofheim's parade. But the rain and chilly temperatures this year kept us warm and dry at home.

Sleeping Beauty was Rebecca's costume of choice for her Fasching Party at Kindergarten.

All the dragons, pirates and princesses played, danced and scooped up the candy the teachers would toss at them. Here the kids are twisting on little swiveling discs. No broken bones reported.

Rome Day Four: The Vatican

Today was our last day in Rome, and we needed to be out of the apartment first thing. We all got up dressed, packed, ate the last of our cereal, bread and leftover pizza and said goodbye to our temporary home.

I was surprised when James asked me, "Now, who exactly is this Pope guy whose place we're gonna see?" I replied, "You know, the Pope, the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church." James then asked, "What do you mean 'head'?" and then "But, I don't get it. Of what church and where?" This went on with me explaining about the election of the Pope, overseeing the Church system throughout the world, etc. He still wasn't quite getting it, the whole international thing had him thrown, I think. It was only when I said, "James, he's the top dog at the Church, for the whole world. There is no dog who is topper," did he say, "OK, I get it." Hmmm...do I need to go to confession for comparing the Pope to a dog?

Our tour at the Vatican Museums was for 9:30 and this morning we took a city bus. As the bus wove its way through the rush hour traffic, we observed for the last time, the perilous ways of the Roman driver. So often, two streets would merge into one, with no traffic light, and it was another game of chicken between all the vehicles. The scooter drivers would be intimated by nothing -- not car nor truck nor bus. There were either the bravest or most reckless people in the world.


I wanted so badly to capture the versatility of the SmartCar, but these two pictures I took this morning fall short of it. As you can see, SmartCars are so short (3 feet shorter than the Mini Cooper), they can park either parallel or perpendicular to the street. Several times I saw a perpendicularly parked SmartCar, it's back flush up against a wall, parked in between two parallel-parked cars, with what looked like just a few inches between all of them. How did the driver exit his car? Through the sunroof? Ah, well, these photos will have to do.

At the Vatican Museums

Today's guided tour would take us through several different buildings of the Vatican Museums, which are considered some of the greatest in the world. Over 4,000,000 people visit the museums every year and we seemed to fall only slightly short of that figure today.

Sign right at the entrance door. I turned to the kids and said, "Good thing we didn't wear our swimsuits today!"

The statue Laocoön and His Sons is the origin of the Vatican Museums. This 1st century BC sculpture, upon the recommendation of Michelangelo, was purchased by Pope Julius II and put on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery in a Roman vineyard. Laocoön was a Trojan priest who warned the Trojans not to accept the Greek wooden horse. In punishment, the gods had him and his sons strangled by sea serpents.

Apollo Belvedere (around 350BC) was prized for its idealized, perfectly proportioned portrayal of the human body. From the mid-18th century, it was considered the greatest of all ancient sculptures and it was Napoleon's greatest boast to have looted it from the Vatican.

The Belvedere Torso, dating from the 1st century BC is a masterpiece of realism, as opposed to idealism. The contorted pose of the torso and musculature were highly influential on Michelangelo and Raphael.

Our tour guide told us a very interesting fact: in ancient Rome, these sculptures would have been painted "like Playmobil toys," with eyes like those of a china doll. In 2004, the Vatican put on an exhibit, recreating these statues, some side-by-side with the plain marble statue.

Nero's bath. Our tour guide at the Palatine explained that this red marble (Imperial Porphyry), used all over Rome thousands of years ago, came from a single quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. There are no other Imperial Porphyry mines in the world.

A section of Raphael's The School of Athens. Plato, the white-bearded man with the raised hand standing under the arch, was painted in the likeness of Leonardo da Vinci. The sulking man near the bottom resting his head against his hand was Michelangelo.

Raphael's self-portrait in The School of Athens is the young man in the black hat gazing out at us.

There were also more contemporary works of art. We were all struck by this 1971 sculpture that seems to be floating in thin air.

At the end of our tour, we entered the Sistine Chapel, the site of the Papal conclave, the ceremony by which a new Pope is selected. Absolutely no photography allowed. And everything 15 minutes or so there was a recording asking people to be quiet. The Chapel was shoulder-to-shoulder people and just seconds after we all hushed, the buzz of conversation would begin anew.

The Sistine Chapel's fame rests on its architecture, evocative of Solomon's Temple of the Old Testament and on its decoration which has been frescoed throughout by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Botticelli. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission, and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today...

...the ceiling with its scenes from Genesis and painting of prophets, and...

... especially The Last Judgment, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.

The kids knew just what they wanted to look for upon entering the Sistine Chapel. Our Italian guide had told us Michelangelo painted every figure in The Last Judgment, as she pronounced it -- "nekkid," including Mary and Jesus. This was scandalous. The Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, said "it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns." What was the offended Michelangelo to do? Why put da Cesena in the painting, of course!

And so here is da Cesena in the lower right hand corner of The Last Judgment as Minos, one of the three judges of the underworld, complete with ass' ears and being bitten by a snake in a very sensitive area. Micaela and James located him immediately. When Baigio complained to the Pope of his portrayal, the pontiff explained that he had no jurisdiction over hell and that the portrait would have to remain. After Michelangelo's death, an artist was commissioned to add vestments and loincloths to all the figures.

From the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the Delphic Sibyl, legendary Greek prophetess. Her last prophecy was said to be the birth of Jesus Christ.

One of the most famous images in the world, The Creation of Adam

The downfall of Adam and Eve

From the Last Judgment St Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom (being skinned alive and then crucified upside down) and his flayed skin. Michelangelo, reflective of the feelings of contempt he had for being commissioned to paint The Last Judgment, depicted his own face in the skin.

Micaela, James and Emilie were real troopers through this tour. The tour guide even complimented them on their attentiveness and good behavior. But, it was so crowded that they could often not see what our tour guide was referring to. And, truthfully, the kids had seen so many sculptures and paintings and had listened to so many tour guides by this time, this was just one more old building housing a lot of old stuff. David said that having everyone in our group using a radio and headphones to hear our guide was probably our saving grace. Micaela, James and Emilie were all excited to hook the receivers on their belts and listen to our guide through their headphones. The Vatican, in an effort to keep the crowds quiet and respectful, has all the guides using this system so they wouldn't need to shout. There were also plenty of people doing self-guided tours with special headphones. They didn't seem to fulfill their purpose, though. We were met by noisy crowds everywhere we went.

Micaela and James pleaded to visit the Egyptian exhibition in another section of the museum, but we needed to watch our time and had to say no. It was on to the Basilica of Saint Peter.

Michelangelo is considered St. Peter's principal designer. Completed in 1626, it took 100 years to construct.

The basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people. Its size made it very difficult for an amateur to photograph.

Catholic tradition holds that Saint Peter's tomb is below the altar.

Michelangelo's masterpiece The Pietà. There are many theories regarding why Michelangelo made Mary so young-looking. One is that youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity. Another theory is that the viewer is actually looking at an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary's youthful appearance and apparently serene facial expression, coupled with the position of the arms could suggest that she is seeing her child, while the viewer is seeing an image of the future.

The Pietà is situated on a high pedestal, protected by a bullet-proof acrylic glass panel that keeps viewers at an unfortunate distance. This is due to a 1972 attack on the sculpture when a mentally disturbed man attacked the Virgin with a hammer, causing damage to her arm, nose and eyes. It's a shame. We could not get close enough to really see the detail of the sculpture, not even a good look at Mary's face, and it was set so high, you could not even see Jesus' face.

Out front, James posed Emilie holding up the obelisk.

And that was it. Too short a visit into the basilica, but it was time to collect our luggage and head off the train station for the first leg of our trip home.

As we sat, eating one last snack and bowl of gelato at the airport, David and I talked over what went well and what didn't. Flying standby actually worked fine this trip, both there and back (we had already been assigned seats); our apartment was perfect; the pizza wasn't as good as we expected, but the gelati was even better; after our first two days of gloomy rain, we had brilliant blue skies; I thought we could have done without the very expensive and nausea-inducing 4-D movie on the first day, but David reminded me that the kids enjoyed it; we should have done the Vatican Museums with a less-expensive self-guided tour; I wished we had ventured down among the ruins of the Forum, but David said, to the kids at least, it would have just been another bunch of ruins; it was the right decision to bring the stroller for Rebecca, even if half the sidewalk was blocked by cars and scooters and we had to backtrack around them to cross a street; when I said that the guided tour I took of St. Peter's years ago was so great, I wish we could have done it with the kids, David just shook his head in amusement and asked, "Are you kidding?"

The only thing nagging at me was that we didn't see the Capitoline Wolf, the iconic sculpture of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus that the kids had taken quite a liking to. It would have meant paying another expensive entrance fee and traipsing through another museum. My regret was lessened somewhat when I read that the sculpture, long believed to date from the 5th century BC, is now under scrutiny. Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating has found that it was probably manufactured in the 13th century AD.

All in all, we congratulated ourselves on a great trip, even if we were just winging it.

Rome Day Three: The Pantheon and The Palatine

I am happy to report that no children (or grown-ups for that matter) suffered from nightmares last night stemming from our tour of the Capuchin Crypt. At the time, Micaela and James were more interested in figuring out which body part certain bones were from rather than thinking about the bones coming from actual people.

The kids got a kick out of working our building's old-fashioned elevator.

David was the only one brave enough to push the pedestrian crossing button. We were happy just to have a pedestrian light at all. Here in Rome, zebra or pedestrian crossings with no traffic light don't mean a whole lot. I said to David at one point, "The orderly way people drive in Germany makes Rome look like the wild wild west!" In fact, I had renamed pedestrian crossings "pity crossings" because a driver had to take pity on you for you make it across the street.

In Germany, drivers come to a screeching halt for pedestrians. Here in Rome, it doesn't matter if you're in a the pedestrian crossing zone halfway across a 3 lane street; cars, scooters and even buses will zoom right by you. I even saw a very elderly lady stranded in the middle of a 4 lane street, with vehicles going about 50 mph passing within a foot of her. A driver with some sense finally stopped and let her cross. Even then, if one car stops, it's no guarantee others will to let you make it all the way across the street, though they usually do.

It's a constant game of chicken, and with each crossing, we're getting bolder and bolder, inching our way further and further into the traffic. I just would have thought that having four kids in tow, including one in a stroller, would have given us an automatic pass, but no.

The Temple of Hercules Victor dates from about 120 BC. and is the earliest surviving marble building in Rome. This area was the cattle-market for ancient Rome but before then, Hercules had had some nasty dealings here with a local bad guy named Cacus involving cattle. The Temple of Hercules is the object of a folk tale claiming that neither flies nor dogs will enter the holy place because they detect that Hercules had once rested his famous club here.

Our first stop today, directly across the street from the Temple of Hercules, was the church Santa Maria in Cosmedin, built in the 6th century and located on Piazza della Bocca della Verità (Square of the Mouth of Truth). Our objective wasn't to see something inside the church, rather something outside in its porch.

So, how many of you have seen Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953)? That film first brought the legend of the Mouth of Truth to English-speaking audiences.

This marble carving is thought to be part of a 1st century ancient Roman fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover, portraying a pagan god. The most famous characteristic of the Mouth, however, is its role as a lie detector. Starting from the Middle Ages, it was believed that if one told a lie with one's hand in the mouth of the sculpture, it would be bitten off. The piece was placed in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin in the 17th century.

We were second in line waiting for the porch to open, and by the time it did, there were two busloads of noisy tourists behind us. Emilie chickened out, and with good reason. Dave stuck his hand in the mouth, declared that he loved his children, but when he pulled his arm out, his hand was missing! He grabbed his wrist and screamed in terror. The Italian teenagers waiting behind us laughed heartily. His hand was magically restored from his sleeve moments later.

As we were leaving, we noticed that the church had another claim to fame.

Inside were relics of St Valentine. There are apparently three different St. Valentines, but seeing that we were only 2 days away from St. Valentine's Day, it didn't matter to us which St. Valentine we were seeing.

Time to catch the bus. We needed to do a dry run for our busy morning tomorrow. We had tickets to visit the Vatican Museums tomorrow, but there was no way we were going to be able to get everyone up, fed, packed, find a place to store our suitcases (probably the train station) then cross from one end of the city to other in order to be at the Vatican by 9:30. There was no way. So, I was going to see if they could let us take a tour today or ask if they knew of a place closeby where we could store our luggage.

We made it to the Vatican, but in the end, the receptionist told us it was impossible for us to change the date or time of our tour, but there was luggage storage right there at the museum. Perfect. That would save us a major headache. Back on the bus!

The Castel Sant'Angelo. This tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian was built around 135.

Emilie and what could be the world's smallest delivery truck. It's hard to tell from this photo just how tiny it was.

The Piazza Navona plays a part in the upcoming Dan Brown movie Angels and Demons. The square was covered with artists wanting to sketch tourists' portraits (someday we should just do it) and sell artwork of Rome.

An acquaintance had once told me that every time she and her husband took a trip, they bought a print as a souvenir. Their home was decorated with artwork from all over the world. More recently, my friend Kathy showed me the watercolors she buys on all her trips. What a great idea! I had bought some watercolors of Germany on our trip to Neuschwanstein and here in this square in Rome, we picked out four small monochromatic sketches on fabric of Roman sights. We have to have something to show for having lived in Europe once we move back!

Micaela, James and Emilie posing dutifully, if not happily, in front of the Fountain of Neptune.

Just a block from the square was our next destination: the Pantheon, originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign. It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It is also the oldest standing domed structure in Rome.

Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church. People tossed coins at this manger scene, with the Baby Jesus being the main target. Only a few coins managed to land on his little legs and tummy.

The building has many small niches, lovely statues and painting and we also saw the famous Renaissance artist Raphael's tomb. There is something about being in this round building that was so soothing and welcoming. It was definitely my favorite sight in Rome.

The Pantheon's central opening (oculus), the Great Eye, opens to the sky. When the doors are closed, the oculus admits the only light.

Detail of the fountain outside the Pantheon

Eating McDonald's, listening to a saxophone player and surveying the crowd outside the Pantheon. I was happily surprised by the fact that the McDonald's was modestly trimmed (no huge golden arches on the outside) and that my burger didn't come with pickles and onion bits for me to scrape off.

The bus took us past the square Largo di Torre Argentina with its ancient ruins. This is the place Julius Caesar is believed to have been killed in 44BC.

The Circus Maximus was first used for mass entertainment before the 2nd century BC. Chariot races were the most important event here and the Circus could hold 270,000 spectators. One gruesome detail I had learned on my previous visit was that early Christians would be crucified along the edges of the Circus and then lit as human torches to shed light on nighttime events. The last race was run in 550AD.

The Circus Maximus still occasionally entertains the Romans. The Rome concert of Live 8 was held there in 2005, as was the Italian World Cup 2006 victory celebration, when over 700,000 people packed the park. On July 14, 2007 Genesis gave a free concert at the Circus in front of 500,000 fans.

Today we saw people jogging around the track, playing soccer and exercising their dogs. Hundreds of thousands of spectators were not present.

The building in the background is the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill.

We made our way back to the Colosseum area for our tour of the Palatine, the "Beverly Hills" among the seven hills of Rome. People have lived on the hill since 1,000BC, but more recently, it was the home of many affluent Romans of the Republican period (510 BC – c. 44 BC) and then of the Roman Emperors.

Entering the Palatine Palace area. In fact, the word palace comes from the ancient Latin word for the area palatinus.

We had to climb many steps to begin our tour, so this ancient drinking fountain was well used.

According to Roman mythology, the Palatine Hill was the location of the cave, known as the Lupercale, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf that kept them alive. According to this legend, the shepherd Faustulus found the infants, and with his wife Acca Larentia raised the children. When they were older, the boys killed their great-uncle (who seized the throne from their father), and they both decided to build a new city of their own on the banks of the River Tiber. Suddenly, they had a violent argument with each other and in the end Romulus killed his twin brother Remus. This is how "Rome" got its name - from Romulus.

Hippodrome of Domitian. This arena would have been too small for chariot races, so it was probably used for horse and foot races. It had been lined with statues, which are housed in a nearby museum. According to our tour guide, we would see a great deal of material from the Palatine, include the marble used to decorate this arena, at St. Peter's. The Vatican doesn't like to hear the phrase stole material from other locations. It prefers the word recycled.

James standing on some of the rare marble flooring that still exists.

Detail from a column or wall

Octagonal foundation of a fountain

View of the Forum, the central hub of ancient Rome, including the 1st century Arch of Titus, from the Palatine Hill.

Ruins of the 4th century Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, the largest building in the Roman Forum.

The Temple of Romulus (4th-century AD). The original key still turns in the original lock of the original bronze doors of the temple. In the 6th-century AD, the temple was Christianized.

Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, became Rome's first emperor in 27BC and saw himself as a new founder, Romulus and Remus combined. He wanted to build a new residence on the Palatine Hill in a place which was sacred for the city of Rome. Legend has it that he chose to built his new home over the Lupercale, the cave where the she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus in 771BC. The cave had long-been a sacred place to ancient Romans. Every year on February 15, a Roman pastoral festival, ancient priests killed a dog and two goats and smeared the foreheads of two boys from noble families with the sacrificial blood as part of the Lupercalia celebration. The ceremony survived until 494AD, when Pope Gelasius put an end to the tradition.

In January 2007, archeologists were working to restore Augustus' decaying palace and drilled down to survey its foundation, right underneath this scaffolding. You'll never guess what they found.

A cavity. And not just any cavity. They had found a cave whose vault is encrusted with colorful mosaics, pumice stones and seashells. The center of the ceiling features a depiction of a white eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus. Archaeologists are still searching for the entrance of the grotto. The cave is fragile and at this point can only be investigated with endoscopes and laser scanners.

This discovery does not prove that the story of Romulus, Remus and the she-wolf is true, but it does indicate that this is the cave believed by 1st century Romans to be the Lupercale. That's good enough for me.

I was overcome by how old everything was around us, material we could actually touch. I said, "Can you believe this, guys! Don't you just want to hug something?" So, with some prompting, James hugged a hunk of marble.

I double dog dared Em to crawl into this hole, underneath sharp, pointed bricks. As I took pictures, a security guard, the only one we saw the whole time there, walked by and mumbled for us to be careful. Timing really is everything.

View of St. Peter's from the Palatine.

Striking carved pleats on a statue in the Palatine Museum

Preserved wall paintings

Just another stroll under an ancient structure as we headed home

Sculptures on a bridge that are so old, the features have eroded away

It was now 4:30pm, the kids were hungry and we were three hours away from eating dinner. What to do? David mentioned that we had not yet had our daily intake of gelati, so we ate more ice cream while sitting outside in 45-degree weather. We did not hear a single complaint.

Making our way back to the apartment, we came upon a restaurant with a sign that read "Nonstop service." David wondered, "Does that mean they're serving dinner now?" Indeed they were. We knew that once we were back in our toasty warm apartment resting our tired feet, the kids would not want to venture back outside to hunt for dinner. So, ten minutes after finishing our gelati, we filed past the restaurant's hostess whose minute-long enthusiastic welcome was liberally littered with the word bambinos!

Becca immediately put her napkin to good use.

Em would not be outdone. If you click on the photo, you can see remnants of the very recently consumed chocolate gelato on her face. On second thought, you may not want to click on it.

One thing we had learned from our first dinner in Rome was to bar the kids from ordering soft drinks. That first restaurant seemed very reasonably priced until we got the bill. Each 8-oz sized Coke had cost about $6.50. That was more expensive than the wine David and I had ordered. The kids would have to settle for water from now on.