Italy day 2
I
have awaken at 630am. We slept with the windows wide open last night. The view from our window is of the buildings around us – and overlooking the courtyard down below us. Despite our building being on a very busy street, the courtyard muffles the sounds of traffic. All I hear are the birds singing and the church-bells ringing. I decided to head out and walk around a little bit – mostly because I didn’t want to disturb John as he was sleeping. I walked up to the Piazzo Repubblica and around the fountain. I ended up going into the Basilica just in time for the daily mass. I found that it was easy to follow along even though the mass was in Italian. It didn’t seem to phase anyone that I was praying in english! After the service, I returned to the B&B and then John and I headed down to the Cafe Byron for our morning cup of cappuccino. A short while later Aunt Sondra and Uncle Randy joined us and we just relaxed until lunchtime – which we enjoyed at the Cafe Byron. I am thinking that we are becoming well known at the cafe! By 1pm, we were ready to head off to explore a little bit more of Rome. We picked up a taxi and headed off to the Vatican City. John worked things out and we ended up with a private tour guide for the four of us to see the Vatican museum, sistine chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. It was so worth it! We started at the Vatican museum – the entrance of which is almost half way around the Vatican city. We walked along the walls of Vatican City – quite a hike. Agnus, our tour guide kept us together and we made it through security and down to a small cafe area at the entrance to the Vatican gardens. We sat for about 20-30 minutes and learned so much about the history of the Vatican and some of the things that we would be seeing. I was a bit surprised to find that Agnus was actually from Poland! From there, we entered the museum. It was very overwhelming to see all the art, statuary, paintings, frescos, and more on display. It was quite crowded, so that made it difficult to wander through and just take it all in. What would be interesting would be to have a guide book that explains each piece to reference as you walked through. Eventually we made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was actually much bigger than I thought it would be. Even though there were signs stating no photography, the guards were allowing pictures with no flash and I was able to snap some photos. One of the things I found fascinating was the small door to the chimney that is used when the Cardinals are in conclave to vote on the new pope. It was rather high up and the walkway to it seemed very narrow. I would love to have been able to go up to that area! Leaving the Sistine chapel, we made our way to St Peters Basilica. Unfortunately, a large area of the church was closed due to a special mass being held. Included in the closing was the grotto of St Peter, which was an area I really wanted to see. Perhaps next time! After we left the Basilica, we wandered around the square, taking lots of pictures. I was finally able to get a picture of the four of us together. I began to realize that we had walked for hours and there were LOTS of steps! After a quick taxi ride back to the B&B, we ended up again at the Cafe Byron where we had a leisurely drink before heading off to dinner. As we were sitting at the Cafe, it became quite cool and breezy. Then the rains came. Earlier in the morning, before John and I went the the cafe, there was a downpour rain for about 30 minutes. I had checked the weather report on weather.com and found that there was an 80% chance of rain the entire day, into the next. Despite that, the only rain we had was then, and in the evening. We decided to go back to the Hotel Quirinale restaurant again and the rain stopped just as we were leaving the cafe. It did rain again as we ate, but stopped in time for us to go back to the B&B. We had another scrumptious dinner – Uncle Randy had his pizza – I had the pasta with lobster and asparagus. John gracious shared his tuna plate with me for the second course. For dessert, Sondra and I had the creme brulee and John and Randy had homemade ice cream. We all decided that we needed to come back to this restaurant when we came back to Rome at the end of the trip. I knew that things would be more expensive here – eating at restaurants and such – but the overall cost of things seems more expensive as well. There is a McDonalds on the corner and the price of a McChicken sandwich is 6.90 euro – about 10 dollars. I was afraid to see if this is the price of the sandwich or the meal – either way it is quite expensive.