We began our fourth day with our wonderful treasures from our trip to Campo de' Fiori. The boys decided on chocolate chip muffins and Joey and I had some yummy iced pastries. So delicious! We had hoped to get breakfast there one more time but our timing didn't work out. Next trip :)
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Thankfully, Vatican City was a quick walk from our place and an easy way for us to spend our first full day out in Rome. We walked around the St. Peter's square before heading to the Vatican Museum for our 9:00am tickets. On our walk, we passed a LONG line wrapping around the building of people waiting to get a ticket. It costs a little more to book ahead and get a time slot but it was so worth it to not make our kids wait in that long line. We got audio guides for the boys and picked up the treasure map to help hold their interest as we went through the museum. The map has about 40 things to look for and Joseph loved searching for the different art and artifacts as we went through the museum.
I vividly remember seeing the Sistine Chapel on a trip in high school but I did not remember the Vatican Museum and all the wonderful pieces of art it contains. The boys did a great job of listening to their guides and hear about each painting. Joseph loved realizing that he was seeing works of art by Raphael (Transfiguration, above left), da Vinci (St Jerome, above right), and Michaelangelo and connecting that to the names of a certain foursome set of fighting turtles.
We sent some mail to our Catholic cousins from the Vatican City post office. Hope they make it!!
After a wonderful day of sightseeing, we decided dinner should be a quick walk from our place. We were excited to have a traditional Italian pasta meal and found Da Gildo just around the corner from where the boys and I ate lunch on our days out. Since we got there right when they opened at 7, we had no problem getting a table. We had a lovely meal outdoors while a violinist serenaded us.
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view of Rome from one of the gallery windows
gallery of maps
No pictures in the Sistine Chapel but it is such a surreal experience. So hard to take it all in while being ushered through with so many people but it is breathtaking.
After a long morning, we headed back to our place to regroup before convincing the boys to head back to Vatican City to see St. Peter's.
Michaelangelo's Pieta
a sweet American group took a family picture for us
Pasta Carbonara and Pizza for the boys
waiting for the check and remembering that in Italy (like Scotland) it's best to go ahead and ask;)
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