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| Maryanne after she one her one and only game of Kings in the Corners. This game kept us entertained on many a train ride! |
On the 19th we left with Emily at 7:45 a.m. and went straight to the Vatican.
We went into St. Peter's Basilica, but only after Karen had to pull down her dress to reach her knees, even though it was more than appropriate! >:( The basilica was beautiful and there were several Masses going on.
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| The altar and the dome. |
Once we were done looking around inside, we went up to the Cuppola, which is the dome of the basilica. We walked for what seemed like forever up the circular steps that led to the inside of the dome. It was so cool to see the detail of that artwork up close. It was a mosaic with cherubs and flowers.
From the inside, we walked up more steep, circular steps that led to the very top, outside of the dome. From there, we could see all of Rome from all directions.
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| Hiding out on the roof of the Vatican. |
After we made our way back down a little, we shopped for gifts and stamps, which we later used to send post cards from the Vatican.
Then we were off to Florence where we bought leather at the outdoor market.
We shopped for a few hours and then had some more gelato - mango this time- and a slushy because by this time Maryanne hadn't been feeling well and the ice was good for her throat. (Side note- we also had some sort of cream gelato in Rome the day before). After our treats we walked down to the river and just enjoyed the sights of Florence. (Oops! This was after seeing the Duomo - Which was another very large church. We especially enjoyed having to cover ourselves with what seemed like hospital robes. Actually, we were dressed appropriately enough... So we just borrowed some discarded robes to play dress up for a bit.)
After walking around and taking in the lovely streets, the houses on hills, and even on the Ponte Vecchio bridge, we made our way back to the train station.
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| One of the most beautiful sights in Florence! (Note the store name...) |
On the way we stopped at an internet cafe and got in touch with Dee, who was working for a pub crawl in Florence. We met up with her for about 5 minutes before catching our train.
When we got back to Rome we took Emily out for dinner at a lovely local place. Some of her other friends were supposed to come too but they had the wrong place. Dinner was great! Karen got gnocchi and Maryanne got some sort of pasta with bacon in the sauce. We also had fresh mozzarella with ham as an appetizer and an eggplant dish to share. In Italy, and throughout Europe, you have to ask for the check and you can linger all you want!
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