rome, 2013 (kids in the eternal city)

this is how we usually observed sophie in rome

back from rome, all feeling a bit sad to be gone from there. it was sophie's first visit to rome; it was gus' second (first was when he was three). hopefully, we'll all be back very soon...if i were more clever i would figure out how to live there on a more regular basis...but i'll be thrilled to have any time there in the future.

i shot an obscene amount of photos in rome--i'm trying to edit. this group is gus and sophie running around the city, getting to know my favorite place on earth and hopefully coming to the ONLY LOGICAL CONCLUSION that rome should become their favorite place, too! i'm kidding, of course...but they did love it. more to come soon!

what does sophie see...?

...uccelli! thousands upon thousands upon thousands of them.

the birds were migrating through rome to africa. every evening they congregated in the sycamores lining the tiber; every morning they left, in a matter of seconds, just after sunrise. they were deafeningly loud and created a phenomenal mess, but it was an incredible display to see them form and reform flocks.

still, it didn't dissuade her from being around them

it makes me so happy to see my children taking pictures of anything

and even happier to see them getting along!

augustus at the ara pacis

sophie under the weight of the res gestae augustae

gattopardo! sophie acquired him at the zoo--we found out two seconds after i took this picture that he had a squeaky-toy whistle inside of him, and as we were walking through a dog park she threw him at me when the dogs came running!

sophie and gattopardo looking longingly at the sweets of ladure...

...then resting for a bit on the spanish steps

playing hide and seek at our townhouse (gus lost this round)

sophie at a calcified fountain

la famiglia al colosseo

and a very happy bunny

gus and sophie playing catch with an orange in my roman happy place, parco savello

sophie discovered her own happy place in rome about an hour after setting foot in the city: largo argentina's cat sancturary

she is well on her way to becoming a proper gattare (cat-person) of rome

and now what does sophie see...?

...la papa! pope francis passed within about 10 metres of us riding his most impressive convertible popemobile--he even stopped and kissed a baby right in front of us. and it goes without saying that the bodyguard is saying to some comely italian, "hey baby, i got your eternal paradise riiiiiight here."

for the most part, they really did get along very well :)