Month: May 2018

May 4-6

We got into Dubrovnik on Thursday evening and met Josip, soon to become our trusted driver for our time in Croatia. We got his contact info and reached out any time we needed an Uber. Josip was young, mid-20s, and use to be a policeman. Similar to a lot of young people that we talked with in Croatia, there is little industry outside tourism. Apparently, Josip was paid only about 600 Euros per month as a cop and couldn’t make ends meet, so he quit to become an Uber driver. A guy we met later in the trip who drove us to Bosnia has two masters degrees but makes more money driving tours. We also found out that a lot of young Croatians leave to go work in Ireland, and so many have left that now Croatia has been pulling in immigrants for high season since they have lost so many young people. The high level of tourism has also made it very expensive to live in the area.

Anyway, Josip is our guy. He dropped us off at what we soon found out was the best airbnb ever. The apartment was just outside Dubrovnik at Lapad beach. And it really was amazing: clean and new with a lot of amenities and extra touches like fresh fruit and a few bonus items in the fridge. Croatia is shaping up to be awesome.

After getting settled it, we headed out for dinner at Taverna Otto. Time to get into some fresh seafood!

The next morning we were hoping for some sun! After a few rainy days in Tuscany and then rain in Florence and a forecast full of rain in Dubrovnik, we were scheduling activities around the sun. If we had any inkling that it was going to peak out, we were heading to the beach. So Friday was a “maybe” day for the beach. We woke up to some clouds, but it was looking like a potential break around lunchtime, so mom and I headed to the beach while Michael went out for a run.

Dubrovnik, so far, seems to be a super family friendly type of town. We walked past a great playground on our way to the beach and once we hit the water we saw… a slide into the water. Amazing!

There was also a place that rented out jet skis and kayaks. It is the beginning of the season, and a little cool, so the beaches were pretty empty. But I imagine this place will be just packed with screaming children running around in a few weeks. The water was fairly warm, considering, and the sun came out! Yes!!! We got a few good hours of sun before Michael finished up his run at our beach. We packed up our things and headed to lunch at a seaside cafe.

That night we went into Old Town for dinner at Restaurant Azur. It was our first time in town and we immediately loved it. The winding streets, the cute shops, the beautiful streets. Amazing.

Artistic black and white photo:

Plus dinner was great – seafood with Thai and Mexican influences:

Curries and tacos and seafood! Our favorite foods!

On Saturday we hung around the airbnb. Another great relaxing day of reading, enjoying each other’s company and playing cards. Also, Michael cooked us some fresh fish for dinner. Did I mention that the airbnb has a bunch of crazy colored lights, so we could enjoy this meal with a purple hue?

Sunday morning: First thing’s first, we hit the beach at 7:30. My weather app was telling us we were only getting 2 or so hours of sun, so we took advantage of it.

We also met this cool dog who wanted to sunbathe with us:

Then we headed into the Old Town for a mass in English at St. Ignatius!!

This is only the second mass that Michael and I have attended in English in 6 months (the other was the mass that Fr. Tom did on the Antarctica ship). It was hard to understand the homily, but it was in English and you have to take what you can get.

After mass we spent some time wandering the city. We started by walking the old city walls.

Tell me it isn’t incredible how crystal clear this water is:

Random submarine:

That’s right, every combination of the three of us in one location. We thought it was a really, reall good photo op:

#winteriscoming #youknownothingjonsnow

There were a few other notable Game of Thrones things we saw.

Quite a few scenes were filmed on the walls (see pictures above).

Shame, Shame:

Sansa Stark has a few scenes on this pier… without all the boats and tourists:

This fort on the right near the sea is the Red Keep in King’s Landing:

Lokrum Island, which we visited later in the week, was used for the city of Qarth:

The Rector’s Palace was used in Season 2 when Daenerys visited the Spice King’s mansion to request ships to carry her army across the Narrow Sea:

And I feel this general area was in scenes, but no real specifics to throw at you:

Most important, a bunch of really legit souvenirs:

So basically, Michael and I geeked out and hummed the theme song and repeatedly quoted Game of Thrones as we wandered around the city. Also I made mom watch the Stark sister scene with Littlefinger because it’s amazing even though it has nothing to do with Dubrovnik. This makes us cool among a very small group of people.

After hours of wandering around, we had another amazing dinner at a place called Proto.

We started with oysters.

For some reason, Michael took about 10 photos of us getting our oysters prepared:

Before taking this picture:

We had some amazing seafood, some great lamb chops, fresh fish and delicious port to end the meal. Incredible!

More from Dubrovnik to come!

May 3

In an attempt to grab some cheap flights to Croatia, we booked our flights out of Rome. The train ride from Florence to Rome was so cheap and easy that it just made sense.

This was my mom’s first European intercity train ride!

Since we had about an hour in Rome between when our train arrived to Roma Termini station and when we needed to grab a train back out of Roma Termini, it gave us just enough time to rush over to the Trevi Fountain.

Michael graciously stayed with the bags while we grabbed an Uber.

Need to get those coins in so she’ll be sure to come back again… or marry a man from Rome… there is no way of knowing what the tradition is. But something good, I’m sure!

Back to the train station and off to Croatia for real this time!

May 1-2

After saying goodbye to our wonderful Airbnb in the countryside, we headed back to the Florence airport to return the car. On the way, we popped into Siena for a coffee and croissant. Another cute town, but once again, everything was closed, because May 1st is Labor Day in Italy. So. Many. Holidays. We did find a cafe that was open, but for the most part, the city was really quiet.

Upon returning to Florence, we had another successful and incident-free return of a rental car and headed on to our next Airbnb. Once we were checked in, we grabbed lunch and then mom and I went exploring. First we found this parade, presumably for Labor Day.

I’m pretty sure I use to work with this guy:

We also spent a little time shopping before meeting Michael for some food and a few beers at Brew Dogs Pub.

When we got home for the night, I let Michael cut my hair. True story. My last haircut was in Madagascar, and for those of you who are diligent readers, you may remember that it was a disaster. I spent some time “fixing it” when I got back to our hotel with a pair of tiny bathroom scissors. It has now been growing out for about 2 months and is still super short. However, the back was starting to develop a really great mullet, so with a pair of kitchen scissors and a few beers in him, I let Michael cut the back of my hair. All I wanted was half an inch to an inch off the bottom section, in a straight line.

It was stressful. I was concerned. Michael got really into it and had an excess of confidence, which I attribute to the beers. He got a little crazy and took a big chunk off one section. When I freaked, he said – “don’t worry, the other hair will hide it”. Mmmhmm. When it was all over, he said in a serious tone – “let me put in a few long layers”. Funniest thing to come out of his mouth all day.

The next morning after washing and blow drying it, I have to admit: it’s pretty good. Good enough at least. I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do to the next professional that cuts my hair, but for now, it works.

Our airbnb host gave us two free tickets to the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, so the next morning, mom and I headed in that direction. On the way, we saw the Florence Baptistery of St. John:

And the Duomo:

And then we did a little bit of shopping!!!

And then, finally, we made it to the museum.

Note: that is not the real David. It’s a replica that sits outside this museum. The Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, which translates to old palace, is the town hall of Florence. Built in 1299, the palace has had numerous uses over the years, and as many names to accompany those uses. In line with many of the museums and palaces that we’ve visited in Italy, there are beautiful ceilings, beautiful statues and beautiful views.

This statue is an unfinished Michelangelo statue.

Plus another really cool map room (although the pictures don’t do it justice):

Me and mom with a bunch of fleurs de lis (I had to ask google what the plural of fleur de lis was):

And this painting that I thought was especially beautiful for all of the rich colors.

And this painting, the Nativita by Maestro del Tondo Miller:

So I just googled this painting to make sure I was calling it the right name since the name card was in Italian. Funny thing is that the common name for this painting is the Madonna of the UFO or the Madonna of the flying saucer. It has Mary and the infant St. John holding Jesus. In the back, right corner, there is what appears to be a man watching a UFO.

They don’t really know who painted the picture, but it is attributed to Filippo Lippi in the museum who is called the Maestro del Tondo Miller which is after the title of one of his last works. That is strange to me. Can’t we just use his name?

The reason I took the picture in the first place is because mom told me when we were looking at it that she believes her grandparents may have had a replica in their home. I now wonder if the replica also had the UFO!!

After the museum, we went to meet Michael for lunch at a really cool tiny place called Ristorante del Fagioli.

It was a sharing kind of meal and it was delicious. Osso bucco, pesto gnocchi, panzanella and fagioli. Panzanella is a popular Tuscan chopped salad of bread and tomatoes. Fagioli is a traditional Italian dish. This variation was very thick. I think some are more like a soup.

The meal was incredible. Everything was cooked and seasoned perfectly. Unsurprisingly, Italian food has not disappointed.

Fashion shots outside the restaurant:

Post lunch gelato:

And then a hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo to work off that gelato. Here are a few shots in the rose garden on the way up the hill:

And shots from the top:

That night, we had another great meal at Santarpia, a pizza place in a less touristy part of town. The most notable part of this dinner was when they misunderstood mom’s request for 2 ice cubes in her glass and instead brought her two glasses of scotch. Upon Michael’s prompting, the two scotches were consolidated into one ridiculously large glass of scotch:

Two days were not nearly enough, but we still have a bit of travel to do, so now it is off to Croatia!

April 26-30

After our quick trip to Rome, Michael and I jumped on a train to Florence. With so many rental cars over the past month or so, this was our first intercity European train ride of the trip. Yes! The trip was an easy hour and a half and we arrived pumped to spend time in Florence and pumped for my mom to arrive!

We headed off to check into our airbnb and then to eat (no surprise to anyone who is paying attention). Then I went out to the airport to greet mom. In classic form, it was a hurry up to wait kind of situation. I bought a bus ticket to take me the 20 minutes, but then missed a bus by just a few minutes and didn’t want to risk being late by waiting for the next one. So I took my paid bus ticket and jumped in a cab. Whomp. I got there right on time for her flight that ended up being delayed 20 minutes, only to be followed by 30 or so minutes of her trying to get through customs. Apparently the bus would have been sufficient. But it gave me time to jam out to the new T Swift album.

Just when I was starting to get worried and figuring out exactly how ridiculous it would be to try to page her through the airport security desk, she walked through the doors. Yes!

We jumped on the bus back to the city and I got to use that one ticket I’d already paid for. The airbnb was only a few blocks from the train station where our bus dropped us off and in those few blocks, mom was already scouting a new purse and haggling with the shopkeeper.

Welcome to Florence! With a few days to shop around, we arrived back to the airbnb without any purchased goods.

It was pretty late and mom was coming off about 30 hours of flying, but she still wanted to head out to dinner. So Michael found us a great little local place and we had a delicious meal to celebrate mom’s arrival.

The next morning we were on the move again. No rest for the weary! We packed everything up and headed back to the airport. But not before some coffee!

This time it was to grab a rental car for our drive out to Tuscany. We still have some issues when renting a car since Michael doesn’t have a driver’s license, I don’t have an international driver’s license, I don’t drive manual and these rental car companies typically don’t rent automatics. So it is always a song and dance to get the car rented and then figure out what is the most responsible way to navigate the waters. They wouldn’t put Michael on the rental agreement as an extra driver but also reminded me that if I get pulled over by a cop that I’d get hit with a large fine for not having the international driver’s license. That’s better than Spain who claims you “have to have it”, whatever that means. Under a very close eye, there was no way Michael was driving that car out of the lot. So that left me. Ugh.

I didn’t stall the car as the rental car worker watched on. But I did rev the engine in a pretty dramatic fashion. I got out of the parking lot and immediately was thrown onto a fairly busy street with a lot of traffic circles and merging. I survived. I did well on the highway and I even did fairly well at the two tolls even though there was a lot of stress involved. The drive was about two hours to get to Montalcino and upon entering the town where we were having lunch, I entered a traffic circle, on a hill, with a bicyclist that just cut right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and killed the engine. Luckily, there was a restaurant that overlooked the traffic circle and a dozen or so people watching as I tried to get the car started again while on the hill. It took a few times but I finally got it. We drove uphill a bit more before deciding we needed to turn around. When trying to pull off, I killed the car again. Ok – nerves are shot. The car is hanging out on the street right off a curve. And that is when I put on the parking break and got out to make Michael take over. Truthfully, there was zero chance I was doing anything productive at that point. We didn’t get hit by some act of God and I was done with my driving stint.

Time to get out of the car and eat something delicious.

After a quick bite, we popped into a winery so we could get a sip of the reason we are in this area: Brunello di Montalcino.

Brunello di Montalcino is 100% Sangiovese. The climate is one of the warmest and driest in Tuscany and create some of the most delicious (my opinion) and expensive wines in Italy (not my opinion). There are about 3000 acres of vines in Montalcino compared to nearly 41 thousand acres of Chianti in Italy. The soil is a mix of limestone, clay, schist (you’ll have to ask Michael what that is), volcanic soil and marine deposits. This diversity adds to the range and complexity of Brunellos. The aging requirements for Brunello are at least 2 years in oak and at least 4 months in the bottle before release, although the wineries varied on this quite a bit.

Our first winery was Fattoria dei Barbi and it was a great place to start. We tried a few different years so we could taste the difference in the ages. We also got a chance to try a Vinsanto which was a pleasant surprise to me. For some reason, I though Vinsanto was exclusively Greek. Not so. Apparently there is some level of disagreement between the Greek and the Italians as to which country Vinsanto really “belongs” to.

After Barbi, we headed into the historic town of Montalcino to walk around and see what was going on. Yes… and to also have another glass of wine.

Mom gets her wine straight from the barrel.

Then we were off to our Airbnb. It was a bit farther out of town that I had anticipated, so I was bummed about that, but within a few minutes of our arrival, I was over it. The place was amazing.

The home was a small complex with room for a few families. The stone building was supposedly over 200 years old and was just beautiful. And beyond being beautiful, it was full of anything we could need – full kitchen, lots of places to sit and relax both inside and outside in two courtyards, and a super modern bathroom. Amazing mix! All the feel of a historic home but all the comforts of modern living. It was just like Under the Tuscan Sun, but without all of the construction hassles.

After welcome drinks and snacks from our hostess, we…. did… something. As I’m typing this, all three of us are on a bus heading to Bosnia and none of us can remember what we did that night. After a lot of back and forth, we’re pretty sure we we went to the grocery and Michael cooked at the Airbnb.

Moving on. The next day was our big Tuscany cooking class! This we remember. We arrived and were treated to a coffee from our host, Alessandro who, along with his girlfriend, taught the class. We also took this as an opportunity to ask how to use the coffee maker shown below so we could make coffee the next morning in our airbnb.

We also walked around the beautiful grounds of the restaurant which includes a garden and a vineyard.

The class was great. They started with us out in the garden and talked through the types of vegetables and herbs that are important in that region’s cuisine.

They also spent some time talking about their history and how after the two of them traveled around the world, working in different countries, they decided they wanted to come back to their home and open a restaurant with their family. So they bought an old farm house and did a huge gut reno to create the restaurant with enough space to also do a small cooking class in the kitchen.

First thing’s first when we got into the kitchen: PASTA! Michael has made pasta from scratch a time or two but not recently and this was definitely new for me. It is also something that all three of us were really excited to learn.

A little beet purée makes pink pasta!

I could tell you that it was really challenging, but that would be a lie. They gave us a very simple recipe that was easy to follow and easy to replicate. Also, they showed us 6 or 7 different pasta shapes that we could make without buying any tools, which makes it that much nicer.

There was one tool that we used – a pasta guitar – that made perfectly sized spaghetti. It was cool, but it wasn’t cool enough to necessitate buying it instead of just cutting our spaghetti and linguine.

Here is Michael making some Ravioli!

And the whole crew hanging around:

Pasta making is definitely the type of activity that, if done properly, can take a bit of time. However, the extra effort created really beautiful pasta. This is a skill that all three of us are planning on using in the future, so everyone should get excited to come visit and have meals with us.

Besides pasta, they taught us a simple sauce, a rolled turkey dish and tiramisu. The sauce was fine – super easy, but not our favorite. The rolled turkey dish was delicious, but probably not something we’d really make again. But the tiramisu!! Yes! This is another recipe that is not terribly difficult, but seeing first hand how to make the dish was really helpful. Now once we settle back in the US, we’ll have to find a place to source these ingredients! I’m sure it won’t be a problem.

Here are our beautiful tiramisus!

Then, for the best part: lunch!

It was delicious and it gave us some time to chat with the Australian couple that had been cooking with us.

It’s a hodgepodge of shapes because we wanted to try all the different designs they showed us. The bow ties are my favorite.

Here is the rolled turkey dish. Delicious, but not as cool as learning how to make pasta.

After a wonderfully slow Italian meal, mom finally got to try grappa.

It wasn’t her favorite. Anyone who has sampled grappa can understand why.

Then we headed back through town to hit up the grocery store. Michael cooked some steaks for dinner that night and started a bolognese for Sunday dinner.

All of us loved our hustle and bustle Sunday schedule. We got up, went from town to town searching for a mass. Many of you know that you can find mass times online through a handful of different websites, often including the parish websites. This was not the case for these small towns in Tuscany. Each town had at least one church, but with no info online, we just woke up, jumped in the car and stopped at each church to see what their situation was. We found a couple of churches that only do Saturday masses. So we missed the boat on those. Then we found a few churches that were open, but no real time masses occurring. We did happen upon one mass in Montalcino that had about 4 minutes remaining when we arrived. So we got a closing prayer in Italian at least! Better luck next week.

After mass, we grabbed coffee and a pastry before heading back to the Airbnb. And then, we did almost nothing for the rest of the day. It was wonderful. Michael got in a run while mom and I sat in the sun and read for hours.

This little butterfly hung out with us for awhile.

Then we put our new skills to work and made some homemade pasta for Sunday dinner. It was awesome. We completely nailed it.

Plus, Michael’s bolognese blew the professional’s sauce out of the water. This pasta was legitimately my favorite pasta of the last six months. It was amazing!

Then after dinner we played some cards and relaxed some more. Just a wonderful relaxing day. Also, here is a picture of mom pointing at something that night. The moon? No way of knowing.

On our last day out in the country, we went into town and hit up two wineries. The first was Siro Pacenti, a relatively new producer of Brunello.

This was our first experience with a Rosso which is similar to a Brunello, same grapes, same area, but with less time in oak and less time in the bottle. So they are newer, younger wines that don’t need to be aged to be delicious.

Our second winery was the favorite for all of us in Montalcino: Baricci. Google maps dropped us off at a small building without signage. We had come to a moment that we know fairly well from these past six months: do we bolt or do we awkwardly knock on this random door and see what happens.

Thankfully, we knocked. And by “we”, I mean Michael. He bears the burden of these kind of interactions pretty frequently on our behalf. It definitely makes my life easier and is something I’m grateful on this trip. So Michael popped in to see if we could do a tasting, and if this was actually even a winery and sure enough, we were in the right place.

Baricci is a family winery, started with the grandfather

The husband of his daughter then took over and now second generation works with his two sons to run the winery. It is a very hands on family. While we were there, the second generation spoke with us about the terroir of Montosoli which is a specific hill in Montalcino that all of their vines are planted on. Montosoli is the only area that produces the grand cru of Brunello and the higher quality grapes can be attributed to the marine deposits in their soil.

While the second generation was moving some of the wine from steel tanks to barrels along with his winemaker son, the other son talked through the history of the vineyard and, of course, gave us the tasting.

What’s cool about the family? Well, when Montalcino began organizing itself back in 1967 a small number of families began coming together to determine the rules to be applied to the wine and created an organization called the Consorzio Del Vino Brunello Di Montalcino. This organization now has hundreds of wineries, but originally there were just a dozen or two. As each winery joins the organization, they get a number that they are then tracked by. Baricci was the very first winery and as such was assigned number 1. I think that’s awesome.

What is also awesome is how delicious the wines were. Their Rosso, which they call their Baby Brunello, was fresh and easy to drink and their Brunellos were complex and delicious. Michael asked why they don’t just make Brunellos since it’s the same grapes and you can sell them for so much more than bottles of Rosso. And the man told us that they don’t make the wine to maximize profits. The Rosso is a good guide for how that harvest will taste as a Brunello in a few years. Also, he said that it is much harder to make a good Rosso than a good Brunello. Since the Rosso gets produced so quickly, if it doesn’t taste right, you don’t have any time or way to “fix it”. Whereas you can leave a Brunello in oak longer or adjust the blending if it isn’t exactly right because you have several years to taste. I thought that was interesting.

What we enjoyed the most was how important family was to the group. It was just a really feel good ending to our Tuscany wine tour. Montalcino was a beautiful town and we enjoyed traveling around the area, eating and drinking.

One final note before we leave Tuscany. With the hard boiled eggs that mom and I ate on the last morning, we used the last of our black pepper that Michael and I had acquired in Chile months ago. We have consistently seen a black pepper deficit in the airbnbs and restaurants over the past 6 months and this pepper has come with us everywhere except Antarctica. You have been a great companion. Thank you for adding flavor to our lives. We will miss you.

April 24-25

After leaving Spain for the final time (this time around), we flew to Rome. Rome is one of Michael’s favorite cities in the world and it was one of the cities that we didn’t think we were going to be able to swing, but we checked out trains between Rome and Florence and realized we could squeeze two days. So we did!

For anyone who reads this on the internet, we have a tab that you can click on that lists out all of the countries we’ve been to. I qualified that for the countries listed that we’ve “both” been to, we hadn’t necessarily been together. Vatican City was the finally country that we had both been to, but had never visited together. That is no more! Now, any country that Michael and I have both visited, we’ve visited together. I like that.

Our flight from Barcelona on the 23rd was delayed about an hour and a half and it was already an evening flight on top of a very full day of driving. So by the time we got our bags and headed out, we had already determined we would have to take a cab. Our hotel has a midnight limit on check in and we were going to be cutting it very close. Who knows what happens after midnight, but the threat was there. We shared a van with a family from the Netherlands which reaffirmed our belief that people from the Netherlands are genuinely the nicest people in the world. We don’t know what causes that, but everyone we’ve met has been awesome, eager to talk and very kind.

As we rolled into the city, we saw the colosseum lit up and Michael just kept saying “I love Rome”.

We got checked in to our hotel (11:58! Boom!) and slept hard. But there was no way Michael was letting us sleep in. We got up and went for a run in Villa Borghese park. This is an outdoor sculpture park that Michael loves and I hadn’t been to before.

(Editor’s note: when I say that I have or have not seen/done something in Rome, I must note the last time I was in Rome, I was on a family vaca and I was exhausted from being a new New Yorker and working crazy hours leading right up to the trip. There were many things that we did or see that I may not remember or that I physically slept through like that train ride through Cannes. So I could be wrong when I say that I’ve never been to Villa Borghese.)

The run was beautiful – more of a stop and smell the roses type of run where I spent more time gawking at the art than actually running.

Turtles:

Bolivar – famous everywhere:

After the run, we cleaned up and headed to the Vatican museum. Both of us have been before but as anyone who has been there knows, there is so much to see that you could spend days there.

First, we found Eataly in Italy:

On our way we stopped at Pizzeria Bonci (which apparently has a location in Chicago now). It was delicious! They make these huge sheets of pizza and cut off sections at a time when you order. Then you pay based on weight. Really delicious plus interesting combinations. And Pop Beer!

And then on to the art! We did not do a tour or get a skip the line pass. What we learned while standing in the line to enter when confronted by the 20th or so vendor trying to sell us a skip the line pass:

Man selling things: Where are you from?

Mike: United States

MST: Oh!! You’re American!!! Great! No American’s stand in line!

Mike: we do

MST: no way! American’s don’t wait in this line! You have so much money! You spend all of your money!

Mike: we’re going to just wait in this line. Thanks, though!

MST: but no American has ever waited in this line

Mike and Jane laugh.

Jane: well then I guess we’ll be the first

MST: no, but seriously. I’ll give you this deal – there’s no way you’re going to stand in this line.

This went on for about five minutes with him certain that we’d give in. The line was only about ten minutes longer than the amount of time we spent talking to him. Ridiculous.

Now… finally… the art!

Some men lounging:

Some people standing in long, beautiful hallways:

Lots of gorgeous ceilings:

The Raphael rooms are a favorite of ours:

This guy was my favorite. I think the official title is “Egyptian Dog Head Politician”. No need to fact check that one.

Here were some women working on renovating a portion of this room which I thought was cool. I can’t imagine how much work goes into keeping even the unofficial art, like these walls, taken care of in a museum so large.

Map of Sicily for GDM from the map room.

After all of this, we hit up the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing. No pictures allowed, so none to post. Feel free to google it if you want a reminder. It was nice to have the headset and just spend some time being reminded of all the incredible things in the room. Detail by detail of all the panels and each section of the ceiling. It is definitely a delight, but it was also really crowded and loud. The guards kept yelling at people to stop talking and kept doing the “shhhhhh” that you get in grade school, but most people just didn’t care and kept on yapping. That meant that in addition to the noisy tourists, you also had the noisy guards trying to quiet them. Oh well. Best to ignore and get absorbed into the art.

The next time I come to the Vatican, I want to skip all of the Greco-Roman stuff. Michael and I spent about 2.5 hours looking at it. The last time I was at the Vatican museum with my family, we did about the same, possibly more. And then, we get past the Sistine Chapel and you have a ton of more recent art work. We were exhausted and just skipped all of it. So next time, straight to the chapel and then off to see new things.

I did remember specifically seeing and loving this huge piece both times that I was at the Vatican museum:

After the Vatican we were exhausted and in need of some water, as soon as possible. But first thing’s first! We had to grab our invites to our private audience with the pope!

THEN… off to grab some meats, water and wine!

We did get a chance to pop into the Pantheon – one of the few remaining pagan temples that was converted into a Church.

Lots of us in that picture… not a lot of the Pantheon. But we all know what it looks like, right?

Also, it’s where Raphael was buried:

One more touristy thing to slide into our day:

Trevi fountain!! The internet gives mixed information on what coins need to be thrown by which hands over which shoulders. We threw coins and regardless of whether we got the tradition correct or not, we’ll be back for sure.

That night, we took a bus out of the touristy area for dinner. It was really easy getting there, but we ran into a bus issue on the way back. Apparently, the bus stop that we were standing at for 30 minutes is only the bus stop on Sundays… so we were one street off. Thanks for the heads up, bus signage! So we missed the last bus of the night and had to grab an Uber back.

But the food was worth it! Delicious legit Italian food:

With the bus fiasco leaving us stranded until well after midnight, we had a tough time waking up for our appointment with the pope the next morning. Then we got on the subway and realized that we screwed up by wearing shorts. Rookie mistake. So we went back to the hotel to put on pants and try again. This meant that we were not early for our 10am meeting. But, as it turns out, Pope Francis was 30 minutes early. That meant that we were just through security as the pope mobile was driving by. We missed our close up!!

We joined the crowds and actually ended up getting a pretty good angle to see the stage. Far away, but it was great. Oh – did I not clear up this little misunderstanding? It wasn’t a private audience. We were in St. Peter’s Square with thousands of our closest friends. What a cool experience! The crowds were amazing – packed in to get as close as they could to the Pope – to hear him and to see him.

Once the ceremony started, Pope Francis did a quick opening prayer and then there was a short reading. The reading was done in Italian and then another 10 or so languages, including English. I didn’t realize that they were going to do anything in a language other than Italian, so I was pumped! The reading was from the Philippians: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.

After the reading, Pope Francis gave a homily in Italian. Then for each of the ten or so languages, the priest who proclaimed the reading in the respective language approached Pope Francis and told the Pope that all of the people who are represented by that language are so happy to be in attendance and wish his blessings on them. Afterwards, the priest responsible for each language gave a synopsis of the Pope’s homily. The main message? That through baptism we are strengthened with the oils of Catechumens which are meant to help us turn away from evil and sin. Then Pope Francis welcomed each group of people (in Italian which was then translated), telling us that he was so pleased that we were in attendance and that he was blessing each and every one of us. In addition, he was extending that blessing to all of our family and friends back home. That’s you all! You’re welcome. Also, he extended an extra blessing to the old, the sick, the young, the pregnant, and the newly married. So if you fall into that category while reading at home – an extra blessing!!

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Two things. First, the cool thing about Pope Francis welcoming us was that he named countries. So when he welcomed the English speakers, even though he was speaking in Italian, we knew that he was addressing each English speaking country – he listed Great Britain and Canada and the US and a handful of Asian countries that I think they lump into English because not every Asian language was being translated. The strange thing? He forgot Australia. Whoops. But it was cool hearing him personally welcoming us from the United States.

Second, when the Pope addressed people from Spanish speaking countries, it was the only time that he did not speak Italian. I thought that was really touching and cool for him to communicate in his own language.

So how was Pope Francis? Amazing. We love him. The crowds love him. And you can definitely feel an energy when he is around. It was a really cool experience and I would recommend it to every person who visits Rome. It’s free and easy to get tickets and it was very moving.

Afterwards, we wanted to go visit St. Peter’s Basilica, but they don’t open it on Wednesdays until the Pope gets a little distance, so we went and got the Best. Pizza. Ever. It’s true. We had it at Emma Emporio. Michael’s pizza was good.

Mine was the best. Both of us agree that it may be the best we’ve ever had.

Fresh burrata cheese and prosciutto. Amazing.

Afterwards we headed back to the Vatican to visit the Basilica.

Still crowded, but mostly just lined up to get into St. Peter’s.

Beautiful doors.

Yes – that’s carved into a door in the picture below.

And of course, a beautiful dome:

But most importantly? The Pieta.

Isn’t it amazing? This is my absolute favorite thing in all of Rome. I have loved the Pieta since I was a little girl and my grandmother would take me to the shrine in St. Louis that had a replica. Seeing the original by Michelangelo in person is overwhelming to me.

After St. Peter’s, we headed to a bar that had great craft beer and met a couple from California that we chatted with for a few hours. It is strange to be back in countries with so many tourists from the United States. After our time in South America and Africa, it is nice to have some random folks to talk to at a bar.

And that was it for us and Rome… or is it? Off to Florence tomorrow!