The Vatican

Today called for a trip to a new country... The Vatican.
We decided to walk on the other side of the river to stay in the shade, get some good views and pictures, and to avoid the vendors a little bit.

 This was a restaurant, but we decided not to stop.

Eventually, we crossed the river and after passing by the most aggressive tour guides, head hunters, whatever you want to call them, we arrived in the square.

If you are annoyed by timeshare salespeople in Vegas, they are nothing... nothing compared to these vultures.  I tried being nice, but they will not take no for an answer... even after a third "no".  My advice is to not talk to them at all.  Each time that I stopped to take a picture, which only takes me about 5 seconds with my new camera, I had THREE people bug me.  They were trying to give me "free advice" on how to avoid queues (The European word for standing in a "line".)

I tried, "non, grazie.", I told them that I already had a reservation that skips the line, I even told them that I just got done seeing the Vatican and none of it worked. They simply tried to sell me on a different museum that they could help me with... Crazy.

Here is the famous Vatican Post Office that everyone talks about.  We stopped in and got their famous stamps as well.  I could make a better stamp with Microsoft Paint or a dot matrix printer, but hey, we got em.

They were cleaning the pillars and statues around the whole square, so I made sure to get a picture of the un-restored area.

Here is an attempt to show the line to get into the Church.  The two pictures don't include the line under the monument or inside.  From what I could see on the outside, the line was well over a 1/4 mile long and 5 or 6 people wide (not including the monument or inside).  It pays to plan well to save time and money on a vacation.

 Ah, yes, I didn't stand a chance when we passed this.

A few shots of the humorous parking situation in Rome.  Can't find a spot?  Just park behind other people or on the sidewalk!

 One of the aquaducts that feeds Rome.

On the way back, we noticed that they were continuing to build more and more clubs and restaurants along the river.  These were not here only a few hours before and this is at least a kilometer from where we were last night.  Each year, the city of Rome build a beach along the riverfront for the people of Rome to hang out.

Back to Piazza Navona for a light lunch, because we are going to Pietro tonight.
The pizza was wonderful and the house Chardonnay was one of the lightest that I have had.

The artists of the local market.

Ah Pietro.  Our favorite restaurant in Rome.  Simone was a hoot as always and we treated ourselves to some fine Amarone and a Barolo and the girls got their "3rd bottle standby" of D'Avolo Nero.

Go to 6/22/13