Rome Day 3

August 30, 2009

Sunday morning Tess and I got lucky because on the last Sunday of each month, admission to the Vatican Museum is free. We got to see the Sistine Chapel and the Michelangelo rooms. Once again I was blown away by the mass of beautiful artwork owned by the Catholic Church. Many of the pieces I saw were thousands of years old and still in good condition. Creating some of these pieces without modern technology blows my mind.

After the long walk and crowds of the Vatican Museum, Tess and I enjoyed lunch in Piazza Nuvona and made friends with another 60-year-old couple. We decided after this encounter, that neither of us is really 21. We are most likely at least 50 in spirit because these are the friends we attract. We did some looking around in Piazza Nuvona and I bought a beautiful painting of Rome.

In the late afternoon, Tess and I did some packing and then headed back to the Pantheon for dinner. We had a fantastic dinner and looked out over what could have easily been a Hollywood backdrop. The moon was rising above the pantheon and for most of our meal there were a couple men singing opera and playing their instruments. Our Italian waiter took a liking to us and bought us both roses from a passing vendor. He also took pictures with us and was calling Tess his girlfriend. Much to our dismay, all this talk did not lead to a discount on our meal. With our roses in hand, we headed back to Gellati to bid farewell to Rome properly, with gelato. Once there, the servers took a liking to us and tried to steal our roses and my ticket for ice cream. These men again took pictures with us and teased about my lack of understanding for the Italian words for the flavors of gelato.

A long, hot walk back to the hostel where we promptly fell asleep was followed by a very early morning to catch our plane back to Berlin.