Airpor t coffee in Greece is fabulous, but sadly just as expensive as airport coffee anywhere else in the world! Danny has a $5 chocolate muffin(sooz,aren't you proud of me?!) and a juice and we read and kill time til it's time for our flight. We ended up going through security 2x, when we went through the first time, settled in, then went to the food bar, the ladies coffee machine wasn't working! Uh, NO WAY! But in Greece they let you go back out and come in again! Sadly, on our second time through they found our nutella and confiscated it! Darn!!
our flight was fabulous, window seat row 8, and we watched the Greek Islands, the sea, and then Italy all appear and disppear below us. Walked into baggage past 10 policemen with riled up German Shepards randomly sniffing everyone as we walked by...even though you have nothing to hide you steal feel worried and disconcerted,you know? We exit through a door marked coming from EU nad so we have no customs line-awesome! Danny located our ride, holding up our name(love this!) and we are off in his minivan before 10:30am.
Paulo meets us at the Comfort Rome Vaticano, which will be our home for the next week, and gives us the grand tour. It is a first floor apartment on a very busy street, but this doesn't bother us. There is a front room with a couch and table and counter with espresso machine,teapot,microwave,toaster,cereals,breads,etc. and he says we can help ourselves at any time. A small hallway leads to 2 bedrooms, named after his daughters, who are 7 and 10, and we are in the Gia. It has a large 4 poster beds with those curtains on it(knowing Danny we will be closing them every night just for fun!) a small table with 2 chairs, large wardrobe, nighttables and lamps, and a large bathroom with toilet, foot washer, Danny identifies,or bidet to you, and stall shower. Perfecto! Kiss the hand! I am quite thrilled. Paulo immediately fixes me an espresso and shows us the terrace with table and chairs, and free wi-fi! All righty! Danny lays down for a rest and I unpack, read guidebooks, try to wake him,shower and change, try to wake him, finish my awful book, have a water, pray, contemplate life, and finally force him up at 4pm. He is not happy. Off we set, down the busy street, for the city center and vatican area. It is quite a long way, probably 2X as long as to the Acropolis area from our flat in Greece, but oh well. The cool thing is that most of the walk is following the ancient wall of the vatican. They are towering above us as we go, and periodically ahve interesting carvings in them. Just imagining these as forticfications in the olden days..My plan is to do St. Peters, which closes at 7pm, and I'm hoping will not be as crowded at this time. First move--climb the dome! By now D has perked up, and we pay our 5eu. and start up. Women must have shoulders covered and I have put on my sweater, but as we start the climb I remove it, it is hot inside the staircase. It twists in a circle, so tightly that you almost get dizzy as you are climbing, with slit fortification windows in the wall and sometimes a regular window about 2 ft. wide. We come out halfway up, below the dome but far above the church floor, and Danny gets his first look at the unbelievable majesty that is St. Peter's Basillica. Right next to us are mosaics, and you can see the details so clearly. Then when you look out and realize that that much detail and work is in every square inch of this enormous structure you really can barely take it in. The pictures are so lifelike, you want to reach out and squeeze the chubby foot of the angel! We walk all around the base of the dome on this balcony, taking in abbove, below and right at our noses. Mass is getting ready to begin on the very front altar. It is 5pm. A choir begins to sing, children, maybe guest choir? and four priests process in, spectacular! We make a plan to come to mass this week for sure. We exit the balcony and now the fun begins. The stairway up continues, and the stairs get smaller and smaller, and very worn, the banister goes from metal, to wood, to a rope, as we ascent the last bit almost vertically, with the walls all bending sideways because of the curve of the dome! A guidebook had said we would feel like Alice in Wonderland, and indeed we do! Danny is loving it. When you come out on the rooftop of St. Peters overlooking the square and the whole city, you are at the highest point in the city! We can see the backs of the verdigriis statues that we saw from below, and could almost touch them. The roof itself undulates as we walk across it like the deck of a ship. An order of Nuns has a small giftshop up there(how do the nuns get up to the store in their habits?) and we go in to give them some business. Danny is overwhelmed with the choices for his rosary collection, but chooses a beautiful one for Aunt Reg. These have been blessed by the Pope, the nuns tell us, and Danny can't believe it. He tells me about his choice for her, saying "the beads are a little bigger so her hands will have an easier time, I think she's been using her same one since before I was born!" It was really a sweet moment. Now we have to go down! The dizzying descent is a little quicker and soon we are in the church itself. Mass has ended, which is good, and we have our book which we read bits of as we explore the whole church. There is the pieta, which actually is behind glass now and looks smaller to me, but is still so beautiful. Danny laughs at the story of Michaelangelo signing it after he overheard some people gazing at it, trying to guess who had done it, naming many artisit prominant in Rome at that time, and never bringing up his name. He snuck in that night and carved it on a bit of sash over the Blessed Mother's shoulder so there could be no doubt! I could go on forever about this, but won't, we stay until 7pm and we are literally ushered out by a guard, and the Doors of Death are closed behind us with a load clang!(constucted after winning a contest in the 1800's, these huge metal doors are so named because they contain scenes af agony and martyrdom related to Jesus)
To our right as we exit we see that there is an exhibit of John Paul II, here in honour of his becoming Blessed, and only here until August. We go right in. It is an overwhelming multi-media presentaion of his whloe life, from childhood,through university,Nazi-stone quarry,and his whole seminary-Pope story line. As we go further in you walk through a dark tunnel where they are showing the assasination attempt in huge full color and you here the gun shots and see him go dwon about 2 feet from you face, I immediately start crying. Exiting the tunnel is the section called suffering, and it depicts Pope John Paul II as he struggled with infirmity and the parkinsons at the end of his life. How hard he worked to raise his hand to give a blessing to the gathered faithful. It is really overwhelming(crying again as I type this.) I try to talk to Danny a bit,but can't get the words out. A bit later I can, and I talk also about his love of children and how he seemed more approachable and in the world then Popes ever had, and we exit through the youth section. It was a fantastic display. "So," I ask my intrepid sidekick," back home to find a local joint or off into the city?" "To the city!" he crys, and off we set. We cross the Tiber River on a bridge with beautiful sculptures all over it and head in Piazza Navone. We end up being led down a candle lit alley to a little Taverna called il de Pucinella, where we have a delicious wood oven baked pizza margeritta and zucchini flowers. Yum! got pictures, don't worry!
When we are done I go to pay the bill, no credit cards, no large bills. Uh oh, will we be washing dishes ala Lucy and Ethel?! We come up with 11eu. for a 13.50 bill and the guy says all set, and says to Danny, "for you and you with your Mama!" All righty then! We start our tramp home, which is a good half an hour brisk walk from where we are, and are so happy to arrive home! Since the B&B only has one other room, it is very quiet and we slip into our room, change,brush our teach and laay down. Danny reads our book to me but I can't stay awake. First day in Roma---Aplus!
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