Is not possible. So don't try it!

That's probably an obvious statement, but I still felt the need to make that clear. Unfortunately, that is all the time we had there. From Mexico City, we flew to Catania, Italy to pick up Auston's younger brother Caden who had been there with the Phoenix Children's Chorus. Then we all flew to Rome to meet up with their Mom Nancy, Aunt Alison and cousin Brian. We had about 24 hours to see Rome before we began making our way to France via train to visit their cousins who live in France.

While there is just far too much to do and see in Rome in such a short amount of time, we certainly made the exhausting attempt. We knocked out the two key things on our “must see” list: Vatican City and The Colosseum.

In Vatican City, we visited St. Peter's Basilica. While I can't say I was particularly moved in a religious sense being that I am not Catholic, I just had to appreciate the antiquity and representation of it all. The most surreal thing for me was seeing the tomb where the Apostle and first Pope Saint Peter is said to buried. It's astonishing to think about it in a historical as well as religious context.

From there we went to the Colosseum. I found this interesting because standing in front of it you realize it's one of those iconic images that represents Rome. You've seen it your entire life in various books, movies, postcards and shows. Staring at it I almost felt like it was just another picture rather than it truly being there. I felt the same thing when I saw Stonehenge many years ago. Just an  interesting sensation.

I hope we'll have the opportunity to return to Italy in the next couple months since we were just passing through on our way to France. I feel unsatisfied about it, but lucky to have seen and experienced as much as we did. And if we make it back, we might even treat ourselves to Italian Villa Holidays for a more authentic experience. Mostly we are just happy to be with family again. Traveling with them has been a refreshing change of pace from being a lonely twosome.

You can check out the photos here.