Is the Pope Catholic?

Wednesday, 6/15

Well, I sure hope the Pope is Catholic because they have built for him an entire country!

Today we got up early and visited the local market, we ate yogurt for breakfast and chose a mozzarella e pomodoro (fancy Italian word for tomato) sandwich to pack in our knapsack for our trip to Vatican city. Did you know that the Vatican is it's own country? This was news to me. Yet it took us less than thirty minutes by Metro to get to that locale. Of course we then had to walk through the streets for ten more minutes to make it to the imposing wall that surrounds the city/country. Luckily we took advantage of the fact that the Pope was holding an audience at St. Peter's square to go to the museum first, while the majority of the crowd was watching the Pope wave to them from his apartment. So, the line that would normally be over an hour wait was less than fifteen minutes. And Joe was thinking, a miracle! (Sorry, couldn't resist mentioning that little inside reference to crazy childhood days with the Hall family...) We saw absolutely dazzling statues, tapestries, and frescos... ending in the spectacular Sistine Chapel. That alone was worth the ticket, no words can describe the detail, time, and artistry that went into this piece. The genius of Michelangelo is stunning. From there we proceeded to St. Peter's square where we took a few photos, but decided not wait in line for two or more hours to see St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope may be Catholic, but we are not even close. So a few photos of his front door were fine for us, besides it was almost nap time. So a short Metro ride and walk later, we were back at home in our Roma Pension for a brief rest. Before we knew it we were hungry again. We realized we have had crêpes, sandwiches, and pizza of every variety, but no pasta yet! We decided to ask our female innkeeper, who was on duty this afternoon, where she would recommend we go. First, she asked, bewildered, "What have you been eating?" And commented that we cannot survive on just pizza alone. So she gave us directions to three different local ristorantes within walking distance. We decide to trust her and went with her first choice, on the same street as the pizzeria. Of course since it wasn't quite 7:30 they weren't open for dinner yet, so our only choice was to go next door to the bar and have a drink. In Italy they have before-dinner drinks as well as wine with dinner and after-dinner drinks. Basically they have a drink for every occasion. No complaints. Being that it was before dinner, we found apertivos on the menu and asked the barkeep about this option. He insisted on bringing each of us an Aperol Spritz. He brought us orangey drinks with ice. Apparently, this was some type of liqueur that tasted like both the sweet orange and the bitter rind mixed with Italian sparkling wine. Very tasty, just the trick to hold us over until dinner. When dinner time finally arrived we sat outside and ordered sparkling water, some local dry white wine and pasta! I had some skinny pasta in a lemon crema sauce and Greg had the house fettuccine with mushrooms and peas. There was also bread and some strange corn flake, cookie, and powdered sugar dessert we were brought with the "costa" the check. This was by far the most filling meal we have eaten in Rome. We had two blocks to walk back home, thank goodness. I immediately fished into my backpack for my exercise bands and tried to work off some of 6 million calories we had just consumed. Probably the best recipe to combat that will be an evening stroll, but that will most likely result in the consumption of more gelato or even worse (better?), cannoli, which I realized last night is offered just across the street. In conclusion: is the Pope Catholic? Hell yes! Must one eat pasta in Rome? Duh!