| Rome | ||
| August 5-7 | ||
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Day One Sunday, August 6 |
Day Two below | |
| A beautiful city, but certainly not Mike's favorite in Italy (by the end of Day One). While the day went smoothly, the evening ended poorly. We started at the Basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City and toured all of its features for a few hours, waiting for Pope Benedict XVI to give his Sunday address. Because it is summer, he broadcast from Castel Galdofo, instead of from Vatican City. This probably helped us more than hurt our experience by keeping the crowds smaller. | ||
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| Are these angry ducks squeezing his head? | Vatican City | Mike and Bill D. from the Dome |
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| St. Peter's Basilica | Crest of Pope Benedict XVI | Pope Benedict XVI give his Sunday address at noon |
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| Pope John Paul II's tomb | Steve and Bill show the narrow staircase of the Basilica dome | Steve and the Vatican City |
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| Trevi Fountain |
Templo Andriano looks like this place was damaged in some attacks |
Spanish Steps |
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| Tomb for Emmanuel II |
Pantheon (not the Parthenon) |
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The evening ended by meeting with Eliina and Ed in Vatican City and then
going to grab a drink at some local place. If you ever need to
define the term "pushy", this would be the place to go.
Mike ordered an
appetizer of bread and the waiter asked him if he wanted a salad.
Mike thinks, "Uh,
if I wanted a salad, I would have said to bring me a salad as well."
If this was an isolated incident, We would have blown it off, but he did it
to everyone, and then another waiter asked us similar questions.
"Leave us alone, signore!" At the end of the evening, we asked for our bill and three requests later, a woman finally came over to give us their calculation of what we owed. For some reason, the two bottles of wine we ordered for listed as being 33% more expensive than the price listed on the menu. Hmmm. What would you do? Well, end of story is that we got them to drop the price to what we ordered, and despite the waiter telling us that tip was not included, they got what they deserved in tip - ZIP! |
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DAY TWO (Monday, August 7) |
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| Look at this line | The grounds of the Vatican museum | Pope John Paul II's tiles in the floor of the museum |
| The Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel was the beginning of our morning. We fortunately skipped breakfast and went straight there to get in line. We were there around 7:55 for an 8:45 opening and we were already around the corner in the line, but before we moved, the line had already wrapped around two other corners (you might be able to see them in the picture to the upper left) | ||
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| This is one long hall | Mom looks at a Map of Italy | Some Papal woodshop tools |
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| Judgment Day |
Creation Panel in the Sistine Chapel (and yes, we know you aren't supposed to take pictures) |
Took a close up of the center (these last two pictures were lightened with Photoshop) |
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| Constantine's Battle | The Story of Constantine's Battle | Looks like Nephew Jonah fighting a duck |
| After the Sistine Chapel, we headed to the Coleseum and surrounding area. We took the subway to get there. Kind of dirty, very hot, and lots of graffiti. | ||
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| Here it is. | View of the inside | Beneath the fighting floor, there were chambers for the slaves and gladiators |
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| Another View | These used to have stands on top of them | They seem to be attempting to reconstruct portions of the Coleseum |
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| Portions of the wall and its many elements | There are lots of arches allowing for easy entrance and exit | From a different angle |
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| Damn Aggies messing things up everywhere | View from the Palatino | View from the Palatino |
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| Column and Stairs | Grounds of the Forum | Some Cute little girl and her daddy |
| The man above later asked Mike if he was from San Antonio (must have read the shirt of StMU Law). He just graduated from UTexas Law, but had finished his last semester at StMU and this trip to Italy was his Bar Exam present to himself and his wife and kids. Very small world. | ||
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| Another view of something old | Marble pillar, ruins, and trees | View from the top |
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| Ruins Ruins Everywhere | Monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II | |
| For the close of the evening, we had an eventless dinner at the cafe at the door of the B&B. At the conclusion of the dinner, we topped it off with shortcake and tiramisu and Mike placed a candle on top of Dad's dessert and we sang. I'm thinking the neighbors were kind of caught off guard by this impromptu celebration. But they all gathered around when we pulled out the Papal pie spatula that Pope Benedict XVI allowed us to use for this occasion. | ||
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| In order to stay within fire laws, we only lit one of the candles | Billsy blows out the 61st candle on his "cake" | Papal Pie Spatula |