The Last 5 Days

Where did the week go! We leave Rome today for Capri and I still have four days to show you! So below are highlights from the rest of the week here in Rome which consisted of the Pantheon, Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Borghese Gallery and lot's of wandering the streets. I'm sorry I don't have time to write more or any captions to accompany the pictures.

Oh, how I will miss Rome! The thick crowds of tourists and the restaurants hawking their menu's to get us to eat there I will not, but Rome was amazing. I week here was definitely long enough, considering we saw all the sites we wanted to see in three days, but the extra days left many hours to wander and get away from the masses to really experience the peaceful, more local parts of Rome. Every meal was fantastic, we did have our first experience with some terrible gelato, and I finally got to have some authentically Roman spaghetti carbonara.

We are now off to the Isle of Capri where we've rented a little cottage for a week. The owners were lovely as they live here in Rome and we had to go to their house the other night to get the keys, maps and information. It will be a two hour train ride from Rome to Naples where we will then take a boat from Naples to Capri. We can't wait for the peace and quiet. Also, the cottage does not have internet so unless Rich's "personal hotspot" on his phone works, there won't be any posts until our second week at a different rental. I think this makes Rich a little nervous. I think it's fantastic. Time to pull out the deck of playing cards I brought and have some good, old fashioned, non-connected fun!

The Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

A Pantheon Column for scale.

The Spanish Steps...you're suppose to climb them, but we're not sure why,

The piazza below the Spanish Steps was beautiful.

This is supposedly in the top 10 best pizza places in Rome, a family-owed bakery.
That's the caprese pizza and each pizza is about 4 feet long and they chop off square slices
with one big chop of the knife. It was wonderfully fresh and delicious.

The pilgrimage is over! We've made it to the Vatican.

Mailing a postcard home....like everyone else does, since the Vatican
is it's own country. It was more of an experiment to see if it makes
it home before we do.

St. Peter's Basilica through the Vatican Gardens.

Two interesting facts: The sculpture is supposed to represent the world in the outer sphere and the Vatican
City in the smaller inner sphere. The entire sculpture is also the same size as the ball at the very
top of the spire on St. Peter's Basilica dome which is in the background.

Our wonderful tour guide in the sculpture gallery of the Vatican Museum.

An unknown fact to me: Most of the ancient sculptures once had color whereas
now they're all natural stone color. On some sculptures the eye color will survive, like
on this one of the Goddess Athena.

Inside the tapestry room of the Vatican Museum.

The Map Room, where frescos of all the different regions of Italy are painted along
the walls.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica.
One of the most amazing places I've ever been in.

Part of the ceiling.

The entrance. Look how tiny everyone appears!

We were there at 5:00 a mass was going on behind this giant pulpit structure,
so we got to have some mood music with the organ during our tour.

It was the prettiest church I've ever been in.

So long Vatican City! It was a pleasure!

The Villa Borghese, home of the Borghese Gallery.
If you see one museum in Rome make it this one. It was absolutely amazing.

And then Rich found a buffet for lunch.

After the buffet we went back to the Trevi Fountain to toss a coin in with a wish.

There are vines like this all over the city.

Then we found a whole street of stores selling priest attire and church accessories.
We had no idea such places existed but I guess how else would a priest get his clothes.

On Saturday we went to the Borghese Park right next to our hotel to escape the crowds.
It was like Central Park just less crowded.

I read and Rich flew paper airplanes.

St. Peter's at night.

One of the more interested dinners in the old Jewish ghetto, but highly recomended on Trip Advisor and Zagat.
The fried artichokes as an appetizer are famous but it was a little strange eating the whole leaf.

At one of the top beer bars in the world, according to Rate Beer.com
I have to say, the "Weird Grape" was really good, and I hate beer.

And perhaps this sums up just how touristy Rome is.

Love.

On our last day we decided to make a stop by one more church, for good measure....
we picked one that's down the street from our hotel that always seamed to have a
waiting crowd out front. Reason for the crowd? The crypt, with the remains of
over 4000 friars, none of which were actually six feet under. The bones were everywhere.
On the ceiling, the walls, stacked. Some full skeletons still had their friar robes
on. It was wonderfully creepy but what had been done with the bones incredibly
creative and artistic. Pictures weren't allowed. Sorry.

Last dinner in Rome!

Arrivederci a Roma!