Saturday, May 3 - Rome

We had to get up a little earlier than usual today because Barbara was coming at 8:30. Troy was so tired. This was the first time I could ever remember getting up and being ready before Troy. I went to breakfast by myself because he was still ironing his clothes. Today Barbara wook us to the Trevi fountain, a market, the Pantheon and the Castle of Angels. We also went in a few churches and she told us interesting facts about those. One church she pointed out to us had a deer's head on the top and a cross coming out of his head. Some man who had been a pagan was out hunting deer when a bolt of lightning came down and he heard Jesus telling him he should convert. So the story goes. ;-) There was a cafe across the street from there that was world famous for it's coffee. In the doorway on the floor was a mosaic of that deer head with the cross again. I took a picture of it. The market we went to was huge and seemed to have every fruit and vegetable imagineable. It was so colorful and smelled really good. I aksed Troy didn't it make him want to try some of it and he said no! Goofball. One church we went in had these paintings on the ceiling that were 3-d. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant'Ignazio) The angel's wings looked like they were sticking out from the ceiling. There was a dome that wasn't really a dome. It was flat but you could NOT tell. It had a window painted in the center that seemed to move as you changed your position in the room. We looked at it for so long and just could not get over that it was painted. It was amazing. They had a cardinal on display in a glass coffin. His face and hands were covered with a silver mask but beyond the edges of the face mask, you could see bare skull. That was wild. There was a wooden sculpture that was in a big circle. In the center was a large church. All around the edges were tiny little churches representing all the different countries in the world. The artist's idea was that eventually all religions should become only one religion with one truth with Jesus as King. Hmm, I think he's onto something. ;-) This man was 70 when he started building this thing and it took him 30 years to do it. He died 2 months after it was completed at 100 years old. The Pantheon was also very interesting. What was the coolest thing to me was the big opening in the top. When it rains, the water comes in and there are drains in the floor for that. It looks a column made of water when it rains really hard. On the summer solstice at noon, it looks like a column of light as the sun is straight above it. How cool is that? The Castle of Angels was the big round fortress where the popes would run to hide anytime the city was under attack. There was a wall that connected the Vatican to the castle and a tunnel or hallway inside that wall that allowed them to pass from one place to the other. Very smart. Our tour with Barbara was to finish at 12:30 and we started the Vatican museums tour at 1:15. So she helped us find our meeting point for that and said our farewells. We hated to see her go. She was a lot of fun. We were in a trou group of 9 people plus a guide for the Vatican. That place was so crowded and by that time, I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad that I just mostly concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. The only thing I was really interested in seeing anyway was the Sistine Chapel. That rom was shoulder-to-shoulder packed with no a/c on. I began to feel dizzy and claustrophobic. I eventually found a place where I could sit down against a wall and that was a little better. The last thing we walked through was St. Peter's basilica, which was huge. We walked all over the lower part of it. You could climb the 300+ steps to the top of the dome but there was no way that was happening. After that we took a taxi back to the room to rest a bit. Troy washed a lot of clothes that evening too. Our plan for that night was to go to the Spanish Steps and then figure out what to do for super. The steps were crowded with people just hanging out. It's a good place for that. We went to the top and took a left and walked along that street for a bit. We came to a really pretty restaurant called Ciampini. We had to wait about 30 minutes but it was worth it. The service and the food was very good. I had baked Mediterranean seabass with tomatoes and mozzerella. It came with veggies and I had classic Tiramisu for dessert. It was SO good. We were in there for two hours. I think it was about 10:30 when we left. We headed back to the room after that. Another long day.

17797 steps walked.
7.065 miles
892.4 calories burned
2:53 hrs walked