Dito what says!

I love getting to do that!

Anyhoo, breakfast, followed by bus ride to Vatican City (and no, elsaf, the Pope didn’t sit down next to us…). [BTW, dad, if you are reading this, Gary says “Hi!” And Gary says to me, he doesn’t like me, he loves me!] Scavi was brill (albeit humid), the Basilica was pretty. While Judi sat out the Cupula, several of us took the lift up to the first dome level, then climbed the 320 steps to the tippy top. The view from up there was beautiful and worth the stepping! The climbing down was harder for me, however, due to slight amounts of vertigo. And when I got done, my left knee wouldn’t stop shaking.

Judi, Tammy & I went on a nice (expensive) guided tour of the Vatican Museums. The guy (from Toronto) was funny & informative. We were to get lunch at the American Bar while his partner bought the museum tickets, but I was overheated (see earlier paragraph re: stairs) and could only take a nice bottle of bottled water in. The art inside the Vatican Museums is amazing. The school of Athens by Rafael was magnificent, and entire books are written about the brilliance that is the Sistine Chapel.

Judi’s feet were killing her, so we headed back to the room where I got extra special bonus friends’ points by getting her (and me) some gelato, rubbing her feet, and getting her a foot bath. Then I went out shopping – and got myself another gelato. 🙂 I bought a kitty cat clock whose tail swings as the pendulum under the clock. Very cute & only €15!

It was nearing suppertime, so I wrote postcards to several folks and stamped them, then woke up sleeping Judi to head down for supper. We ate at another tourist trap (this time by the Pantheon) and I got crepes with ricotta & spinaci. Yummy! The waiter put on a €2 service charge, a 15% tax, and then tried to milk us for more of a tip (when he bitched the whole time about how difficult it was to handle a group of 12 people). He robbed me of €.17 in the bargain, the bastard! 😉

After supper, it was time for more gelato, then back to the hotel to sit in the guest lounge drinking up all the wine everyone bought (I tried 2 drinks of each wine and didn’t like any of ’em. But the pinot grigio was the least nasty one.) Judi drug me out to get more gelato, but all I did was have a sip of her frappe and decide that tomorrow I’d get a chocolate frappe. Then back to the lounge, and eventually to type this up. We have 21 minutes to go on our card! Wish us speedy typing tomorrow night!