Day Three--The Great Gelato Fiasco

Inside the Coleseum

Inside the Forum

And people say my son looks like Hans....

Before total boredom paralyzed him

Inside the Forum

And...I know how much my huge audience has been waiting for the next installment in the great Rome 2008 Saga...Part Three or "The Great Gelato Fiasco":

Day Three was ours and ours alone. We had decided not to take the tour's option to visit Pompeii. It was a wise decision as we later found out it was a three hour bus ride, two hours in Pompeii and a very lame supper. We figured that the kids would be bored with Pompeii.

Strangely enough, they were bored with the Coleseum and the Forum, too. Hmmmm. Really weird that a 4-1/2 year-old and an almost 3-year-old wouldn't "get" the marvels of Roman architecture. I know, I know--you're all saying "Well, whaddya expect?".

I remember my parents taking us to some places that we did not appreciate. Case in point: the hours we spent in the car to go see the battlefield at Little Big Horn. I'm certain that my siblings will agree that that day seemed endless...to go see a few gravestones in the middle of the rolling prairie. Of course, now that I know more about Custer, etc. it would be kind of cool to see...but at the time, I was bored stiff.

Anyway. We stayed behind while the bus went on to Pompeii (the side trip also cost 80 Euro per person, which was another reason we declined), got a taxi and headed back to downtown Rome to actually enter the sites we had walked past the previous day. For awhile, everything was fine. Barring the light rain, we weren't having any problems. See the above picture of Josiah jumping for proof of this statement.

Somewhere in the Coleseum, the whining started, and the dragging of feet, and the foaming at the mouth. We did a whip through the interior of the building (still didn't see Russell, damn!) and then headed down the street to a little cafe to have some gelato. See, because I've been told that gelato in Italy is like heaven on earth and that all children love gelato.

The little people perked up when I explained that gelato contains neither toes nor gel, but is actually ice cream. Josiah picked out a strawberry cone, Annika also. When I returned to our table with our coffees and gelatos, Josiah took one look at his cone, threw it onto the table and burst into tears. Everyone in the area came to a halt, turned around and stared at us. The very polite British couple at the table next to us decided that parents of children who have tantrums are deaf and proceeded to tsk-tsk and exclaim over our decision "to get ice cream for children on such a cold day". Blah, blah, blah.

Needless to say, we understood that we had reached an impasse (much like Custer) and that it was time to head back to the hotel. Defeated. We had hoped to see the Pantheon again and tour its interior. No such luck. We spent a long afternoon napping in the hotel and waiting (and waiting) for the supper hour to roll around.

I ate Josiah's abandoned gelato and let me tell you, it was great.