Roma – Vatican City

Two countries in one day!

We are scheduled for a tour of the Vatican on 2.7 – we decided on 2.6 to take a dry run and figure out how we are getting to the meetup. We took the metro – wow, that was a crush of people. Unbelievable.

When we got to the tour office, we didn’t go in, just turned around to get on with our day. Instead, they opened the door and invited us in. We said, “nah. We are just making sure we know how to get here, we have a tour scheduled tomorrow”. He looked us up in the system to make sure all was in order. He asked if we would like to move the tour up and take a tour now. A PRIVATE TOUR! Yes, sir! So, off we went to the Vatican with Marco. Who was a FANTASTIC tour guide. We learned so much and had a marvelous tour! I cannot recommend him enough.

After the tour, we bought a couple of postcards and some stamps at the Vatican and mailed them. Haha, unless you are Jim’s mom or our grandsons, you didn’t get one, so stop checking your mailbox.

We wandered over to Campo di Fiori. We heard about an open air market there. We stopped and had some suppli. This is deep fried rice balls that have various fillings. While we are glad we tried them, we don’t need to have those again 🙂 The open air market was quite disappointing. Rather than let you wander around and look at their goods, the vendors were very aggressive – we don’t enjoy high pressure sales tactics, so off we went.

We had ventured pretty far from the metro station, so we decided to leisurely walk back. We stopped at a bar for aperitivo. We asked the waiter where a normal guy would buy some sunglasses. Jim left his at home and it has been quite bright. I chimed in, “not Fendi, Prada, Gucci.” He drew us a little map to the Rinascente. We laughed when we got there as it was seven floors of high-end luxury items – and the three I mentioned above were definitely represented. It was fun to people watch though, they were dressed to the nines and really enjoyed their shopping.

But, the waiter had not steered us wrong as in the home goods department we found some sunglasses for Jim. The brand was IZPIZI. If you read that with Italian phonetics that is “easy peasy”.

After our shopping, we stopped for a sandwich to have at home. TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND steps for today. Our dogs were barking.

Last night I went to bed at 8:30 pm and woke up at SEVEN THIRTY! What?? Jim thought I was dead. I am delirious. I had messaged our host for an early check-in. While we were sleeping, she said 9 am and to let her know right away. This is so unlike me. The jet lag (for me) is brutal. Jim not so much. I messaged her back and said we were on our way.

We frantically packed and caught a cab at the Termini (less than a 5 minute walk) to our new digs for the next 4 days. Melina met us and showed us around the house and then her husband showed us around the area. He took us on a 2 hour tour and even bought us an espresso at the end. It was fantastic!

The local bus stops right in front of our house and then goes to the town center and stops at the Circus Maximus and the Colosseo. We took the bus on a little sight seeing tour. We never got off, it was well over an hour and we really enjoyed the route.

Meanwhile, some officials got on board to check tickets. Some lady argued with them for at least 15 minutes. They got off with her at the Termini. She was still arguing with them while we pulled away.

As I knew it would, it seems like this time in Rome is slipping away. It’s already time for bed. Hope I don’t sleep 11 hours again!

parleremo presto