June 27 - Sistine Chapel, Aperitivo & dinner in Monti

Knowing that Natalie would get nothing out of being schlepped through the Vatican museum to see the Sistine Chapel, Jack took the older two alone.  Natalie and I hopped a cab and went back to the only 'museo e bambino' that we've found in all of Rome.  The Explora museum!! She was very offended when we split from daddy and the girls but was absolutely gleeful when we arrived at Explora.  The Vatican crowd had a good time - thanks to the kid-centered audio guide and the promise of gelacho.  While looking for an exit, they stumbled on an underground exhibit room containing all the pope-mobiles through the ages!  Fun!

  

We reconvened back at home and gratefully escaped for date night - back to the hipster Monti neighborhood.  We opted for public transit and it took an hour to go 2 miles!  We were not prepared to give up our aperitivo for that bit of bad luck so we cancelled our 8:00 dinner rez and sat down for a snack and cocktail in the lively Piazza Della Madonna dei Monte.  I'm getting used to the bitterness of the classically Italian cocktail -- the Aperol Spritz -- and I love the salty nibbles with which it is served.  The people watching in this open air bar / hangout was unparalleled!  Check out the picture of the guy in the sandals - only a young and handsome Italian hipster could pull those off!!  And even then ...

Next stop was the Palazzo delle Exposizioni featuring a comprhensive exhibition of American pop artist David Lachapelle's hyper-realistic photographs.  The experience was unsettling in a way.  The juxtaposition between the heat and sensory overload of the daytime in Rome and the cool, white silence of the museum was jarring, made even more so by the startling nature of the artwork itself.  We left the museum at closing time (10:30 pm!) and walked through the cool, sepia-toned, evening streets of Rome to our restaurant. By some magic, the graffiti and grime that is so exhausting during the day, fades into a tranquil veneer at night and you're left with a feeling of otherworldliness that is difficult to describe but utterly enchanting!  

Our dinner at Urbane 47 was a welcome break from classic Roman cuisine and we topped it off with gelato at our old favorite, Fatamorgana.  This is our second Saturday night at this lively gelato joint and the people watching at the Piazza degli Zingari is the best!  I'll take this over watching hawkers selling selfie sticks at Trevi Fountain any day!

Ps - Charlotte lost a tooth yesterday and we learned this morning that the tooth fairies here bring Euros!!