June 13, 9:30 am, Home B&B
Another night with little sleep, but since Alfred wants to see the papal address, we are leaving early this morning. Fortunately, I did get some sleep, and the time spent with friends last night was definitely uplifting and encouraging!
June 13, 12:00 pm, Vatican Museum
Well, going to see the papal address was, interesting. Trying to find the place to pick up the tickets was like a great game of guess-and-go-seek. Then, once we got them we waited for over 15 minutes for them to release us into the checkpoint area. Finally, we made it inside the building, where the pope had already been speaking for about half of an hour. I just sat against one of the columns away from the crowds while Alfred watched for a while. Then, we headed out and to the Vatican Museum. Usually the lines are quite long--they can extend several blocks. When we went, probably partly because of the papal address and partly because Wednesday is not a crowded day, we had no wait at all. It was fantastic!
In the museum, we saw some a whole lot of things I certainly wasn't expecting from a Catholic city's museum. Everything from ancient Egyptian mummies to Etruscan vases to Salvador Dali paintings. I have gotten rather tired of visiting museums, and was quite content on the whole to just sit and wait for Alfred to see things in the rooms where he wanted to spend some time. The highlights for me were the Rafael frescos, the Rafaello tapestries, and the Sistene chapel. The artwork there was unbelievable. For me, though, the rest was forgettable. I will say, that making fun of the extensive Etruscan pottery collection was rather amusing. Good times.
As we were leaving the museum, we started down a double circular stair/walkway. Alfred made the completely off-the-wall comment that it would be a great place to release 10,000 ping-pong balls. He is so weird =P.
June 13, 2:30 pm, Home B&B
Got home, took a shower, ate lunch, going to take a NAP! I am wiped out!
June 13, 6:30 pm, Home B&B
Getting ready to go out for a "dressy" dinner, courtesy of our amazing Aunt Denise! We love you!!!
June 13, 8:30 pm, Rustichella restaurant
We went all-out on dinner tonight. Antipasti buffet, seafood risotto, grilled shrimp, home fired flat bread, house sparkling white wine, tiramisu and mousse. YUM! My favorite parts had to be the risotto, which was absolutely fantastic, and the tiramisu, although Alfred's mousse tasted quite fabulous as well. I did forget about the fact the tiramisu contains coffee...hoping I'll still be able to get some sleep tonight. We leave tomorrow by 9 am to make our train to Florence.
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