A Whirlwind of day one.

Well, today was crazy. We had a 2 o'clock resevation at the Vatican, so we made our way to the subway and found our way over there, including a stop for some Panini. Once there we took a tour with a vatican guide and it was PACKED (not the tour, the museum). Packed with visitors, packed with art. It's like the Catholic church stockpiled whatever they could find for centuries, and decicded to put it on display. Amazing stuff, but almost too much. It was actually a really good thing we took a tour, because we probably would have missed most of it.

Without a doubt, the highlight was our time in the Sistine Chapel. Sorry - no photos (or talking) allowed. There's nothing to say about it. It's breathtaking. We were pretty awestruck and just stared in wonder for a while.

From there it was off to the biggest Catholic church in the world. St. Peter's Basilica. It's over two football fields long, and one football field to the top of the Dome. Overwhelming. Our time at the vatican was really great. I'm glad we got it out of the way early, because if it was this crowded on Friday, I can't imagine Saturday.



A couple notes - from the time we were in the airport, to the vatican, and all day really, we keep seeing these guys in Robin Hood hats, with feathers. It seems like it they are tour groups, but they seem to be very different groups of people, and there are tons of them, so I don't know. Ze might be Germans!

Anyway, from the Vatican we started walking, had some gelato, and accidentaly saw some off Rome's awesome sights. Down the road from the Vatican, there were a lot of Mercedes and Paparazzi - turns out it was the Italian Version of the Oscars, the David di Donatellos. People were excited, but we didn't see anybody we recognized. We continued on to Castel St. Angelo, Ponte S. Angelo, Piazza Navona, The Fountain of the Four Rivers, The Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain. As you can imagine, our feet are very sore right now! But we saw a lot, and plan visiting some of the sights again, hopefully at different times of the day.



We found dinner at a small restaurant not far from our hotel where we shared a bottle of red wine and a caprese salad, followed by some pasta dishes. Delicioso!

Well, it's been a LONG 24 hours since we left Philadelphia. We're ready for bed!

Buona Sera...

John and Lisa