Rome Again!

Wow - what a jam-packed day this has been! Sarting with a 6:15 wake-up call (is this a holiday?) with our first tour date at the Vatican Museums at 8:00. Wednesday is the day that the Pope sometimes gives an audience so our Tour Guide didn't know for sure what our itinerary would be today. Sure enough, the Pope was going to appear in St. Peter's Square, so the Basilica was closed for security reasons. We did a speed tour of the Vatican Museums - to do them justice you really would need weeks - then walked as quickly as a group of 43 can over to the Square to be processed through security and get in place for the Pope's appearance. Good thing there are big screens in the square because he was pretty far away (I have a couple of pictures of him driving in, pretty much just a white head in the distance.)

From there we went to the Colosseum and the Forum - again just incredible how old these ruins are but you can still learn so much about that period of time from the remnants. Speaking of remnants, in our spare time Dennis & I went to the catacombs - that was very interesting to learn about the burial practices of this time (I'm sure Dennis will blog about this and the adventure involved in the journey). I have to tell you whenever we've taken a taxi here, I just have to either shut my eyes or really focus on the surroundings. I'm amazed there aren't more accidents, you hear horns blaring all the time - I also am thankful I don't have to worry about a learner driver either. Agressive doesn't even come close to describing it but I guess at least they really seem to pay attention to each other.

We ended our day by visiting St. Peter's Basilica - the Pope was gone so security was relaxed. That's a huge building' and quite the experience.

Then we found a little restaurant near our hotel - I had the best Fettucine Alfredo ever - it didn't taste like anything I had ever had before. That and a little cheesecake was the perfect end to a great day.