Well, we have had a very spiritual Sabbath day. This morning we grabbed a quick continental breakfast here at the hotel. They have the usual cereals, danishes and juices, but also sliced ham and cheese (so that was nice). One of the big drinks here is "orange juice" from blood red oranges. It's quite strong and really tangy.
At 8am they picked us up for our "monument tour" that came with our hotel package. On the tour we saw Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona (place of the closing scene for the movie "Return to Me"), the Pantheon, and St. Peter's Basilica. I was blessed by the Pope today....saw him in person and had him bless me out of his library window...seriously! We just happen by chance to be going on this tour on Sunday, and every Sunday that he is there and he provides a brief message and blessing to the people in the plaza. He speaks first in Italian for 3-4 minutes, says and sings a blessing in Latin, then speaks a brief message (30-45 seconds) in about 6 different languages (including English). Then he blessed us again with his genuflect and waved to us. My tour of Italy is officially blessed.
St. Peter's Basilica is something else...Wow, there is some magnificant sculpture and marble work there. My favorite part, however, was seeing Michelangelo's Pieta. There is Mary in all her faith offering up her Son's deceased body to God. What a gorgeous and touching work! I bought myself a little porcelain of it as a souvenir. Speaking of souvenirs...I found Vickie's nativity today too. It is made by Fontanini which is supposed to be "the" company in Italy; Also learned that St. Francis Assisi invented the idea of a nativity here in Italy...Who knew? The one I really loved was the handcarved wood for 2500 euros...unfortunately, I just couldn't find it in my budget to get that for her or for myself. It was absolutely beautiful beyond words.
I also got a children's book of the Ugly Duckling in Italian (I have one in Japanese too). I'm silly enough to be excited about that. I also got a gold medallion of Pope John Paul's international (non-denominational) symbol of peace that he designed to give to his attempted assassin (who was a Muslim man). I really liked the story of it, and it will make a nice necklace.
We stopped for lunch along the way at a place that turned out to be a wallet gouger. 70 euros just for an appetizer, soda, and a pasta dish for two of us. It was tasty, but not THAT tasty. Live and learn, I suppose.
We rode the bus back to the hotel mid-afternoon. I now know how to ask where the the bus stop is (Dove firmatta bus?) but I can't understand what they answer! We figured it out because he then repeated it in broken English. Oh well, effort is important, eh? We came back to the hotel and had a nap...we were both exhausted. And now we are starting to plan the rest of our week and think about dinner. We are thinking brick oven pizza tonight. Bella notte.
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