Sunday, Dec. 16
I couldn't believe it when I opened my eyes and looked at the clock and it said 10:00... I had slept 12 hours and if we didn't get moving we were going to miss breakfast in our hotel. Apparently I was tired :) But after a strong teapot of coffee and a croissant I was ready to do some more sightseeing.
The day was warm and mostly sunny. We started with a few pics outside the Pantheon before we began a leisurely walk to Vatican City.
There were lots of things to see on the way- here is the Tiber River.
We finally arrived in St. Peter's Square and it... was... packed... we figured it was because it was Sunday and lots of people would be going to mass and sightseeing, but then I remembered reading in my Rick Steve's book (that man knows his stuff!) that the Pope gives his weekly blessing around noon on Sunday... it was about 11:50am...
And sure enough, at noon, a red cloth was laid out of the window and after a few minutes the Pope made an appearance to cheers from the crowd. He rattled off something in Italian, and then in French, and we decided that even though we weren't catholic and we had no idea what he was saying, that is was a perfect way to start our day!
When we had enough of listening to the Pope, we decided to get in a line that was moving behind us. We didn't actually know what the line was for, but when we got close enough, we could see that it was a security check (like in the airport) and on the other side was a way into St. Peter's Basilica and a sign giving directions to the cupola. We thought it was a great day to climb to the top of the cupola. For 7 euros each, we could take the elevator quite a way up and then climb the rest of the way to the top. I was regretting that decision about 155 steps into it. It wasn't very crowded with people, but it was claustrophobic and you had to lean sort of sideways as to not bump your head on the dome and we had no idea how far we really had to climb. But, I tried to suck it up since there were 6 year olds and 80 year olds climbing alongside me. And then, we arrived!
(Here I am hanging on for dear life as I was pretty sure I was never going to catch my breath again.)
It was a breathtaking view (pun intended) of the city and worth the climb. And I discovered that I am great at going down steps. Adrienne on the other hand, not so much... we had to stop half way down so she could sit down and not pass out. Yes, we are an awesome pair. While we were descending and trying to distract Adrienne from the waves of nauseousness that were trying to overtake her, we discussed that maybe we should get some lunch. On the airplane from London to Milan, I had met a government official from California who told me about a pizza place near the Vatican that we should try. So, if we ever made it back to earth, that was going to be our next stop. When we got to the floor of the basilica, we had to spend some time looking around. It was so gorgeous. We could have spent a couple of hours in there and still would not have seen all of it's beauty.
After wandering around the church, we decided that yes, we were starving and it was time to eat. So we found a local with a smartphone who looked up the name of the restaurant for us and indeed it was just a few blocks away. As we headed out of St. Peter's Square, there was a store that I wanted to go into. I found a lot of treasures to bring home for gifts in there and Adrienne was able to confirm directions to our lunch restaurante. Here we are in an authentic Italian pizzeria. This was Adrienne's personal pizza... mine was just as big... and they were delicious!
When we were done eating we walked back to our hotel to refresh ourselves and leave our packages. Then we set out again for another evening stroll. Adrienne had seen a few shops the night before that she wanted to go into on Corso Street.
We eventually made our way up to the Piazza de Popolo. I had read that there was a nativity display near this Piazza that featured "100 Presepe's". (Presepe is the Italian name for nativity.) We were able to find it, buy tickets and go inside.
The presepe's were amazing! I was wishing that I could share it with my friend's from church- we would have "oohed" and "awwed" over each nativity. Some were so delicate and fragile, others were made out of pasta, some moved, some were made out of clay, others were made out of cornstalks. It was a great treat for me. Especially after I had been looking forward to seeing the huge nativity display in St. Peter's Square, but if you look back at that picture, you will see that to the left of the Christmas tree is where it was supposed to be... unfortunately, it wasn't unveiled yet and I was a little bit disappointed.
When we were finished at the Presepe display we decided to go get dinner back at Il Falchetto. This time I had lasagne and Adrienne had gnochhi. It was a delicious meal that we topped off with a chocolate cake dessert. Then it was back to the hotel to check emails and skype with the kiddos at home. Another great day was finished in Italy!
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