Day Two in Rome

It's break time in Roma. After a full day yesterday, we pushed on until our feet screamed. We started out with a healthy breakfast on the roof deck of our hotel overlooking the Trevi Fountain. Next? The Vatican in all its glory. We saw tombs, paintings, sculptures, baptism fonts, altars, the whole works. My favorite sculpture by far is the Pieta. The David is a distant second, I think.

So after the Vatican cathedral, we walked around V City to get to the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is. It takes a while to get there, people. First you see sculptures, then paintings, then tapestries, then more paintings, then modern art, then older art...... And although the Sistine Chapel is a masterpiece, I found myself more excited to see Rafael's fresco of the philosophers in one of the rooms leading up to it. Take a look:

Lunch was deelish. Pizza and gnocchi. Next stop, the Piazza Fontana, where they have lots of street vendors, a carousel, and carts with gigantic hot doughnuts with optional nutella. Mamma mia. We headed east to the Spanish Steps, where we rested our weary bodies for a while and snapped a few pictures.

Then we sauntered back to the Trevi fountain, did a little window shopping, and are taking a break before dinner. We're dining at a restaurant called Chianti, which has both gnocchi and pizza, our two top priorities.

Break over! Dinner was fantastic. I had an amazing margherita pizza with basil and buffalo mozzarella, and I finally got to try Creme Caramel, which turned out to be really good flan. Yum. We had a delicious Ruffino chianti, and a large amaretto after we finished. (They spelled it "di Saronno" instead of Disaronno. Innnnnteresting.)

So we walked back to the hotel and tossed a few coins in the Trevi fountain before heading in for bed. I'm cheating now and seeping into the next day - Day 3 of Rome, I suppose. Kim and I were up at 3:15 this morning to get our bags downstairs for the 6:10am flight. Kendra got to sleep until 6, but then she has to work tomorrow and Saturday. Booooo.

For those of you who don't know Kim's friend (and now mine, I think) Kendra, she's a real gem. Not only was she fun and smart and a great addition to our small Italian American tribe, but she really kept our spirits up these last few days. It was hard not to be cranky all the time, knowing we were leaving our Italian home behind. Thank you, Kendra!

Now I'm somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, on my second of three flight legs to get home. Amsterdam is behind me, and a potentially snowy Detroit is in my future. When I checked my guitar case this time, the nice KLM rep (who looks JUST like my cousin Catrina) strongly advised me to take it as a carry-on. First of all, really? It's huge? Second, I totally can't. I'm at the limit with carry-ons, and they have stuff like my good camera, irreplaceable ceramics, and laptop in them. No ma'am, can't do it. She helped me out and let me check it in at an elevator that gives it a more direct trip to the plane, but she thinks it'll be broken into and/or stolen...... fingers crossed for a safe guitar return!

Saying goodbye to Kim in the Amsterdam airport was hard. She's heading to Memphis, then Strawberry, Arkansas. We've really had a charmed life here, and she sure made it fun. She'll be in New Orleans soon, so hopefully I'll be able to visit her, as well as Nathan and the Baton Rouge crew.

Ciao, Italia. A presto, spero!