Let's Go! Day 7

Wednesday September 26^th

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

This day started out exactly as the day before only we had Americanos and changed up our pastries.  The guy behind the counter scoffed when we ordered two Americanos as if to say, “typical.” We knew Americano meant coffee and water but didn’t know it got the name since Americans couldn’t drink the strong European espresso.  WEAK! 

We caught the 40 to Vatican City just like the day before but man was it crowded.  We had gotten tickets for the papal audience the day before which guaranteed us a seat but it was first come first serve so we got there at 8:30am even though it didn’t start until 10am.  We sat next to a precious family from Denmark who spoke great English.  The dad was a professor who spends a lot of time in the states.  There was a group of students from Pope Benedict’s home town and they had a huge banner to tell him so. 

When he came out, he rode around in his Pope mobile and came so close to our seats.  He is so precious!!!  He seems really small and fragile to me.  He walked to the stage and sat in his chair.  They did the daily readings in seven different languages (Italian, French, English, German, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish) and the pope gave a homily in all those languages too.  He addressed all the groups present, one by one, and said a blessing over us and all the gifts we had brought for a blessing.  He said to extend this blessing to our families and friends back home.

After the papal audience, we walked outside the walls to a pizza place I spotted the day before.  It was over the counter pizza by the slice and weighed for payment.  We sat outside on the steps where they had mats piled high for everyone to use.  There were so many people crowded onto just a few steps.  I loved it.  We had cheese, veggie, potato, eggplant, etc. etc. 

After lunch we went to the Vatican Museum. Once again, our guide book rocked and walked us through the whole place, explaining significant statues and paintings.  Some of our favorites were the hall of maps, Sistine Chapel, The School of Athens, and the Immaculate Conception.

Hall of Maps

Immaculate Conception

This was on the ceiling!  So cool!

School of Athens

Sistine Chapel

After leaving the Museum, we went back for another slice of pizza and a coke.  We walked the Via del Corso and its amazing shops until we ended at the Spanish steps where we rested our feet.  We went back to Trevi Fountain in the daylight and it was still just as crowded. 

For dinner, we tried another recommendation from Marco.  It was a little café in an alley.  We got there at 7 which is much earlier that they typically eat in Rome so we had the place to ourselves.  We had wine, bruchetta, soup, and bread before eating our main meal.  Joe had rigatoni and I had spaghetti and meatballs!

After dinner we walked to the Coliseum.  It was so beautiful lit up and so big.  I love the movie Gladiator and can’t believe it actually happened here so long ago.  We met a precious Egyptian guy who didn’t speak English.  He was trying to take a selfy of himself and his son and we offered to take it for him.  He was so thankful that he wanted  a picture with us too.  He got his son to translate and told us that he was from Egypt and he was a Christian.  With all the persecution in Egypt right now, he was very proud to say it.

We made our way back to our Gelato café and enjoyed some vanilla mint.  MMMMM!!!