Last day in Rome and traveling home
After the guy finally left we freshened up and set out for our walking tour of Rome, courtesy of my niece, who served her mission in Rome. She had given us a bunch of recommendations and Josh put them together and led us off. We started at the church of St. John, which had awesome statues of the 12 apostles in it and actually on top too. It was a beautiful church and must be a popular one because there was security there. Then right next door was a church that claimed to have stairs in it that Jesus himself walked up in order to meet with Pilate. They wouldn't let Lily in because her knees weren't covered and then we get in there and if you want to go up the stairs (which are marble but covered in wood) then you have to do so on your knees. We walked up on the other side but they were very strict and wouldn't allow pictures and you weren't supposed to talk so it felt a bit much to me and then we turned the corner and there was a gift shop. For some reason that really bothered me. If it is such a sacred space, why are you trying to sell me postcards? I was skeptical that the stairs were actually Jesus stairs so that added to my negative attitude but if they are real then that is amazing that we (well, not Lily) have seen stairs Jesus walked up.
Then we tried to go see another church but it was closed for the afternoon so we moved on to gelato. It was super delicious! I got black cherry and apricot and both were good, though I preferred the black cherry. Josh got quattro formaggio and said it was all right but not amazing. Then we ended up back at the monument to the fatherland that we had seen on our first day but we all really liked it so we walked around it again. Then we walked to another church and I believe this is the one with the mirror in it. There was a line in the church and it was to take a picture with this mirror in the middle of the church that allowed you to take a selfie with you and the really amazing ceiling. It cost a euro and yet there were at least 30 people in line. What a racket! Or I suppose a very creative way for the church to make money. Certainly the most creative and in touch with their audience church.
Then we went to the Pantheon. It was amazing to see a building so old and I thought it looked super cool from the outside. We went inside and it was less impressive since it is a regular Catholic church and all of the statues were of Catholic saints, not people in scripture, so we didn't know any of their stories. We looked around for a bit and then went to the restaurant across the square from the Pantheon to have what Tatum recommended as the best carbonera in all of Rome. We got a bowl of pasta to share and some focaccia bread and they were both incredible! It was such a moment we had sitting there across from the Pantheon, a building built before Christ to honor the Roman gods, eating our amazing pasta and bread and paying for a liter of water. :)
Then to a church that had three original Caravaggio paintings, one of which I was familiar with and probably his most well known, The Calling of St. Matthew. He is known for his use of light and I like how his painting look so real and dramatic; it was cool to see them. Then on to a square with cool fountains and another church that was closed for renovations. Then by a judiciary government building and we saw the Tiber River and then we went to Tatum's favorite pizza place. It was out of the way and certainly not a tourist spot so that was cool and it was pretty tasty. Then we took an Uber back to the church that was closed earlier in the day because it had a statue by Michelangelo of Moses. I'm glad we went back because it was a beautiful statue. I am so amazed that sculptors can see something in a block of marble and chip away at it until that vision unfolds. That seems so much more complicated to me than creating something out of nothing, such as painting. It was really neat to see the whole tomb that he designed but the best pieces was Moses.
Then we decided to go see the Central Park of Rome, the Villa Borghese. We usually feel like gardens are good for residents but not that interesting as tourists, but it was a lovely walk and we found an amazing overlook to a famous square and also the Vatican. We walked around and down into the square and tried to find some gelato to end our day but none of it met with our standards (you have to have the stuff in the canisters with lids, not all piled up) and so we took an Uber back to our apartment, took showers and slept so wonderfully in our huge bed.
We were up at 6am to walk to the cafe where our host had promised us a free Italian breakfast. That includes a pastry and coffee. The lady at the cafe was so confused when we told her we didn't want coffee. She kept listing off different kinds and making sure we understood it was included so we finally told her we didn't drink coffee and she was speechless for a minute. She finally asked if we wanted milk, which we didn't really want but that we could at least drink so we said yes. We sat outside and they brought us our pastries and three hot and frothy milks, which was funny to us because of course we expected it cold. The pastries were delicious and the milk made me sweat on the inside and then we walked back, picked up our luggage, got a ride to the train station, rode a train to the airport, waited in line for an hour to drop off Lily's bag, then waited for at least an hour and a half to board our airplane. It was totally delayed and no one was telling us what was going on and the airport people were less than helpful. We finally got to board and then Irish stewardesses were yelling at us to just take seats and they would sort it out later so we could take off; they didn't want us to miss this window we had.
Luckily we made it out and got to Dublin just fine. We grabbed lunch but then realized we couldn't take it through to the American section so we wolfed it down and then we had to go through security and a passport check point before we could go to our gate. Our flight home was long but we stayed awake and watched movies (my sound worked this time--yeah!) and read and chatted and ate their somewhat weird food. We landed around 7pm and took the shuttle to the hotel where we had parked and then drove home, arriving just before 10pm.
We chatted with the kids and Debbie for a bit and we were happy to hear all had gone well while we were gone. They had fun watching all the Toy Story movies and then she took them to see the fifth one in the theater, they played lots of Wii Harry Potter, went shopping, went to Kristi's house to swim and do cake decorating, went to the library and Emma had dance. Brandon also went to the air show with the Howells and Emma had a camp meeting. We were all pretty tired though so we got to bed pretty quickly and the next day when I drove Debbie home we had a good talk about the trip and also her time with the kids. I'm so grateful she came and was willing to watch them and that everything went well. They had called to wish Josh a happy Father's day the first Sunday but after that Debbie and I would just text a bit in the evening when I was back on the ship and had Wifi. I only had 150 minutes for the week though so I would send a few pictures and make sure all was well and then get off the Wifi and my phone. It was actually great that only Josh had internet most of the week so the kids only used their phones to take pictures.
It was a wonderful trip that will also be special to us. It was a great time with Lily and Curtis and I enjoyed just being together without really having to parent them. They were very enthusiastic and fun about everything we were doing and I was impressed with how interested they were in the old churches and art and history and culture of places about which they knew very little beforehand. There was no complaining and it was great how they were nice to each other and willing to try anything new. We had great food, great weather, saw amazing things and enjoyed the time together. We feel extremely blessed we were able to make it happen. Emma and Brandon are already planning their trip!
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