Day 5 - Rome, Italy

FINALLY!!! My last Rome posting! Here it is November and I am finally finishing up posting the pictures from our trip. Unfortunately, as I was looking through the photos, I couldn't remember all the details. Someday I will get better and write in a journal as I travel. Someday ...


Thursday, March 24th

Jared's conference was over and the first thing we did during our last day in Rome was take a tour of the Vatican. The picture below is of me and Flat Stanley at the back entrance of the Vatican Museum.

The Vatican Museum was full of lots of art and sculptures and other historic things to look at. We didn't see it all. There was so much to see. Our first stop was to the Sistine Chapel. And boy was that incredible. We wanted to get there first because we heard the tourists pour in and it gets packed. We heard correctly. We did get there before the crowds and we were able to sit and really enjoy the paintings. No photography was allowed in the chapel, but is was so beautiful! The paintings, especially the ceiling looked 3D, it was neat. I couldn't believe that those paintings were Michelangelo's first painting and he was forced to paint them! They were incredible! After the Sistine Chapel we walked through some other rooms full of paintings by Raphael. And saw some other things in the museum. Below is just a few pictures from the Vatican.

The Pope's carriage back in the day .

There was an interesting story behind this statue but I can't recall it.
:(

The stair case to exist the museum:

Next we had lunch. I had the famous no sauce pizza we heard so much about. It was really good. Just mozzarella cheese and zucchini.

We drank with just about every meal. They drink a lot of coke in Europe, I have never been a coke fan but I craved it when we got back tot he States and our coke just isn't the same as Europe's coke!

The Vatican's Guards

In front of St. Peter's Basilica.

This was our next stop, we went inside and walked around the chapel. We however did not go up into the dome or down into the catacombs. Maybe next time :)
The roads and walkways in Rome are mostly stone and the unevenness of it killed my back. It ached before noon each day, so the thought of climbing all the stairs to the dome was not appealing and we were short in Euros by the last day anyway.

Inside the Basilica:

A crystal coffin of one of the Popes

St. Peter with the Keys to the Kingdom

This is the lists of Popes showing their line of authority dating back to St. Peter, the apostle. I found it interesting that there were a lot of gaps with years of no Popes.

This was an interesting find:

Next we walked the cobblestone streets through the heart of Rome.

We had some really yummy gelato in this ally.
Getting some water from a Roman drinking fountain. So pure and good!

The Pantheon:

It was really neat inside! Jared loved the architect of this round building with no ceiling. The floor has a small slop to it and there are drains to catch all the rain water. Very cool.

Tomb of the first king of Italy . There is always an Italian guard guarding this tomb.

Tomb of Raphael


And finally we made it to the St. Peter in Vincoli (in Chains) Basilica

These are the supposed chains that bound Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem:

Also housed in this church is Michelangelo's famous Moses Sculpture:

Finally that evening we ate, for the second time, at a little restaurant near our hotel with some of Jared's friends from Belgium. We enjoyed catching with them and the Bruschetta at the restaurant was to die for !!! That is all I wanted to eat. They had this garlic olive oil dip with red pepper flakes. It was so yummy!
We loved how this family owned restaurant did their checks. Once we were ready to leave the waiter recalled what we all ordered and wrote down the prices on the table cloth, then added it up. And some to the figures were written different then we write in the USA. It was fun and different.

So when I went with Jared to France and Belgium back in 2008 he was given a spontaneous interview and we went into the process of moving to Belgium as a temporary assignment. That fell through at the last minute mostly from miss communication. However those steps lead us to Virginia and we know each step was directed by the hand of the Lord. It was an interesting time in our life.

During this dinner with foreign friends, Jared was offered the chance to apply to a Belgium job again. His friend is a manger and very much wanted Jared on his team. And Jared really wants to live in Europe for a period of time. He loved his experience in Belgium and wouldn't mind one day working there. So we went into a whirlwind of thought processing as we contemplated taking a job and moving to Belgium once again. March and April gave us an emotional workout. We wanted to go to Europe, but was it right? We loved Virgina and we hadn't been here very long. Jared processed with the application and to my relief it failed quickly. He didn't have enough schooling for the position. His Belgium friend was going to try and break a few rules but we said no. The timing just wasn't right.

I joked with Jared afterwards that I will be a little bit apprehensive about travel to Europe with him again. Both times I went it resulted in a job opportunity. :)

So that is all of our Rome trip. It was a fun place to visit and I would do it again. I hope to see all of Italy some day. I loved the little bit we did see.