So, I'm updating our blog. We have been in Italy for 7 days and we love it. We're in Florence now and I can hardly remember Rome. Let's see...our first day of sight seeing, we reserved time at the Villa Borghese from 9:00-11:00 a.m. We had a cappucino and amazing cream pastry before entering this well organized and beautiful museum. It had a large collection of Caravaggio paintings and my favorite Bernini sculpture, Apollo and Daphne. I actually cried at the sight of it and fell in love with several of his other sculptures on display.
Then we wandered through the park, past Piazza dei Polpolo, and down to Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). I cried here too. It was absolutely breathtaking. We quickly came to realize that in Rome, we could anticipate a "wow" moment when we saw a slight recess in the street. Sure enough each corner we turned wowed us again and again.
We continued across town to The Pantheon (also incredible) and Piazza Navona (more Bernini sculptures). We bought a painting of Tuscany from a adorable old man who has been painting and selling in Piazza Navona for 38 years. Then, I put in a quick call to my dad while Patrick tried to find the best deal for our rental car.
That night, we met Paula and Renato, the couple we met on our biking tour of the Mekong Delta. They live in Rome and offered to meet us for dinner and give us a driving tour of Rome. We ate at a wonderful pizzeria in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome. They even made us a cd of their pictures from the Mekong trip (since ours were lost with our camera).
The next day we slept in a bit (8:00) and then subway-ed it to Vatican City. The museum was huge, so we purchased an audio tour (these have become our new best friend at every museum in Italy). It was very interesting and guess what I did when we walked into the Sistine Chapel? Yup, cried. Now these weren't bawling cries, just slight tearing in amazment. St. Peter's Basilica was also incredible (again running out of adjectives here). We climed the 200+ stairs to the dome to see the views and down to the basement to see where Pope John Paul II was laid to rest. All very inspiring. We called Patrick's mom for her birthday from St. Peter's Square (see picture). We wandered from Vatican City, across the river to a random pizza place and then into a bar. The owner was from Rome but lived in Canada for several years, so he spoke perfect English. We talked and laughed and Patrick got to watch some basketball.
We started early the next day with the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We had purchased a book with pictures of these archaeological sites and pictures of what they would have looked like back in their day. It really helped us to identify each site and imagine what the entire area must have looked like.
Then we traveled out to "new" Rome to meet my cousin Meg's uncle Donnie. He is a brother in the Marist Order. He explained his work, we shared our story, and we had a wonderful lunch with the other brothers. It was a unique experience to add to our memories of Rome. Thanks Donnie and Meg for hooking us up.
We went back to downtown Rome and realized we hadn't seen the Spanish Steps (we walked right past them...careless).
Then we walked down to Il Campo (Piazza Campo de'Fiori) and had dinner at a little ristorante. After a nice meal, Patrick paid the 45 euro bill with a 50 euro bill. Just as the waiter was bringing back the change, Patrick was motioning to me to say "good point" about something I had said. The waiter thought he was saying "keep the change." The service charge was already included and we were only planning on adding another 1 or 2 euros for tip. It was hysterical!
