Monday morning

I'm the only one up in the apartment right now. I woke up, took a quick shower, and decided to catch up.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I was the first one out of bed then too. I got up around 7:15, and went around waking everyone else by singing "That's Amore." Unfortunately for them, the only lyric I know is the first line - "When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's amore." So I sang it nice and loud in my best Dean Martin imitation.

Everyone seemed to love that.

-- back to today -- sounds like Nicole and Dylan are up, and Dylan is taking a shower.


And back to yesterday - I told everyone we had to get up to go see the Pope. It was pouring down rain. Coming down in buckets. But we had to get moving. Even with tickets, it would be tough to get a decent seat to see the Pope canonizing the four saints.

Note to self - look at one of the tickets to list all four of the saints at some point.

After about an hour and a half, we were all ready to head out. Pretty good time considering that there were 11 people who had to get themselves ready to go.

We started walking down the street in the pouring rain. Some of us had umbrellas. Jan and I were lucky - we remembered to pack ours. And Renee found a decent sized umbrella in the apartment that she laid claim to. I think we had maybe four umbrellas between the 11 of us to start with.

As we were walking towards the Vatican on the street near the apartment, we saw a guy walking towards us selling umbrellas. I think the group ended up buying another five. I'd say it was a miracle if not for the fact that his price was 5.00 Euros per umbrella.

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a little "bar" near the Vatican. Coffee, sandwiches, cornetti, etc, and we were all ready to head out again. When people were suprised at the price, I told them it was expensive because we sat down. I thought I told everyone the "standing" price was cheaper than the "seated" price, but I guess it slipped my mind. Next time around, they'll know you have to pay about double the price for an espresso that you order seated at the table versus the price you pay standing at the espresso bar.

We walked to the Vatican, and the crowds weren't that bad. No doubt the rain kept the throngs at bay. We managed to find a pretty good place to sit, maybe 150 yards back from the altar they set up outside for the canonization. Mom led the charge and found us the seats. The only problem was that this tall guy stood in front of us and seemed to refuse to want to move. Nicole took care of that in pretty short order by "accidentally" bumping into him over and over again with the tines of her umbrella. Eventually he got the idea and moved the hell out of the way. I think he feared that the woman half his height standing behind him was going to impale one of his kidneys.

We got to hear the Pope give his blessings for the saints. As he mentioned the names, you could hear people around the square give up a cheer for their own favorites. It was really cool, but we were getting soaked in spite of our best efforts to stay dry. The rain was really coming down.

So we left before the ceremony was complete, and headed back to the apartment to dry off and get ourselves back together.

From there, a group of us (Mom, Renee and Paige, Taran, Nicole and Dylay, and I) headed out to a supermarket a few blocks away to do some shopping for essentials. Especially coffee and toilet paper. The place was packed because apparently it was the only market in a 300 mile radius that was actually open on Sundays.

We trudged back, groceries in hand, and had a nice lunch around the table. I bought a couple of bottles of Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine from the Veneto) to toast Jan's and my anniversary. 18 years. I have no idea how she's mananged to put up with me so far.

After lunch we walked to the Metro to journey down to the Colosseum stop. I dragged everyone a few blocks away to go see Basilica San Clemente, where I led a tour down through the various levels of history there. What was really cool was the fact that a choir was practicing on the "new level" (12th century AD), so we listened to them for a while before heading down.

Once we got our tickets and headed down to the 4th Century AD section, which was the early Christian church, a family heard me explaining what was there and asked me if I could would give them a tour too. So I had a group of about 16 people following me around as I explained a little bit of the history of the place. Good thing I read up on it and had actually visited the place before.

We went all the way down to the lowest level, built in the 1st Century AD, and I explained how we were actually at the ancient Roman street level, about 60 feet below the current street. Everyone seemed to get a real kick out of it.

Afterwards, we did a quick walk around the Roman Forum. Jan was a bit tired, so she waited for us while I gave another tour for our group. I showed them the flowers that people put on the supposed "grave site" of Julius Caesar every March 15h (the anniversary of his assination). I also showed them the Senate House (Curia), and one of my favorite things, the marker celebrating Diocletians 10th anniversary as emperor. The marker has the inscription "Happy 10th Anniversary Caesar" carved into it in Latin.

From there we headed back to the apartment again on Metro, then we all went out for a nice dinner at a place that we didn't intend to eat at. I was actually trying to find a nice little trattoria Jan and I had eaten at that is across the bridge from Castel Sant'Angelo, but I got a little lost trying to find the place so we just stopped at a random pizzeria that had pretty decent food.

Then back to the apartment (after gelato, of course) for a good night's sleep.

It seems like more people are up, so I'll close. I think we're going to go to the Sistine Chapel this morning. We'll see what happens from there.