Finishing up the trip, Thursday and Friday, September 29-30, 2022

So it turns out that the Roman Senate met in several places, one of which was in the Roman Forum. The meeting place where Julius Caesar was assassinated, however, is a ways away and hidden underneath a street at Largo di Torre Argentina.

See in the photo above there are several temples' ruins on the site.

But toward the right in this photo are some trees, beyond which are the ruins of the Senate meeting place, the Theatre of Pompey, where ol' Julius was stabbed to death. Et tu, Brute!!

And in these ruins is a cat sanctuary. Yes, channeling the spirits of Julius Caesar and his murderous countrymen are all kinds of cats! Look at the beautifully patterned coat on the tabby in the photo below. I suspect he is Caesar reincarnated.

And then my Sammy's ghost, living his best life...

And three more kitties. I swear, there are no duplicates here.

I was in heaven. As you might expect, I now follow the cat sanctuary, Gatti di Torre Argentina, on Instagram. I could have stayed there for the rest of the day, but Kathie was anxious to get to the Trajan Forum. More ruins...

Here is Trajan's Colonna, backed by an ominous sky.

We hightailed it to lunch, where Kathie again had her new favorite - tonnarelli cacio e pepe.

From here we hustled over to the Ponte Sant'Angelo to meet my teammate's daughter and first mama of my kitty Calcifer. She is doing a term in Roma for school, lucky girl. It was so nice to see her!

On the way home, we came up on this poor tired tourist. She had just had enough!

Luckily, there was an angel nearby to raise her up.

One last wave to the Castel Sant'Angelo, this time from the back. By now we were dragging and couldn't seem to find our way out of the site. Oh look, there's the bridge by which the pope escapes!

Dinner around the corner from the hotel, followed by a run back through the rain to pack and plan how I was going to get home the next day through the hurricane.

Hurricane aside, we had really nice weather on this trip and saw lots of beautiful scenery and nice flowers (oleander, prickly pear cacti, jasmine, plumbago, bougainvillea). The Italian bread wasn't as good as I remembered it, but the pasta and cappuccino more than made up for it! On our way to the airport early on Friday morning, we passed the Circus Maximus. How did we miss that? Oh well. Arrivederci, Italia!

What could be left? Wednesday, September 28, 2022

What could possibly be left after visiting the Vatican? With two days until our flight home on Friday, you know we found more stuff to see.

On Wednesday, we went back to St. Peter’s Basilica for a more leisurely visit.

We happened to witness this little parade. We didn’t catch the saint’s identity, so you can make up whatever name/story you think suits.

We caught lunch in a little place. Now I can't remember what I ate but I had a lovely Coca-cola while Kathie read up on what Rick Steves had to say about Rome.

The Colosseum. Woof, I hated the Colosseum. HATED it. All of the people taking selfies and merrily being tourists in a place that had seen so much violence and bloodshed, apparently unaware of the ancient suffering and bad vibes hovering around them. Kathie took some nice photos but I think this one is the best, showing the “basement” where the fighters and beasts would have awaited their fates.

And then a hop, skip, and jump over to the Roman Forum. Here’s a tourist ambling along on Palatine Hill.

That particular tourist took a bunch of photos from the hill. I like these.

In the photo just above, the pinkish brick two story in the upper left was the senate building. Remember this.

Back down in the forum itself, she got a lovely shot of the surviving columns of Il Tempio dei Dioscuri (the twins Castor and Pollux).

I was more interested in more mundane ruins, for example this shot that I call "ancient building components graveyard". Much like our Home Depot or Lowes.

Remember the senate building I referred you to above? It was NOT the senate where Julius Caesar was assassinated, which was a shock to at least one of us. Remember this for tomorrow's post.

Walk, walk, walk. We wore ourselves out trying to find our way out of the darn place, so we ubered back to the hotel for a quiet dinner.

"I made this," or Tuesday in Roma, September 27, 2022

The breakfast buffet at our Rome hotel was nothing to write home about, other than the fact that it way beat out the Hilton Garden Express (and I love the Hilton Garden Express) and you could pour your own cappuccino from the machine. Kathie and I got so we were sucking down two of those cappuccinos at each sitting. I would weigh a ton if I had one of those machines.

Then we took off for Piazza Navonna. Amazing what you might pass along the way.

And then we have three guys and a dog. I don't know how Kathie gets away with taking strangers' photos like she does.

Here's what I know about the Piazza Navonna. Built in 1st century A.D. on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, where there were "games" (I figure more animal slaughtering). Oy vey, the auras these places must have. Nowadays, a gazillion tourists flock to see the Baroque Church of St. Agnes and three fountains - Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi by Bernini, Fontana del Moro by della Porta, who also created the Fountain of Neptune (couldn't find the Italian name for that one).

That last one looks like we might have been in Pisa, but we weren't and here's proof - the Pantheon, right around the corner from the Piazza Navonna.

"I made this," said Agrippa.

Why were there so many tourists on a Tuesday in October? Why, oh why? I don't know but I love that oculus.

And then we have the Colonna di Marco Aurelio...

...and the Trevi Fountain.

Too many tourists! We had elbowed our way up to get that last pic and were trying to get a good selfie when another tourist offered to take a photo for us. She took a crap photo, handed back the phone, and then weaseled into our primo spot while we were looking at the phone! I think she was a professional tourist.

Janie had asked for a pic of the Spanish Steps.

Be sure to not sit down, though - the Spanish Steps police will fine you if they catch you sitting down.

On the way back across the river to have some lunch before we were to meet Francesca, we passed the Castel Sant'Angelo.

We had lunch at a little place close to the Vatican, where I had tonnarelli cacio e pepe, Kathie had some rice and shrimp thingy, and a couple of adolescent boys lunching at the table next to us - sans adults, mind you - ordered lasagna.

We met Francesca at 2 p.m. and went through a mob or three to enter the Vatican. Kathie took LOTS of photos. Here's the bronze Sfera con Sfera (Sphere Within a Sphere) by Arnaldo Pomodoro, 1990, in the Cortile della Pigna (Pinecone Courtyard). I thought it was cool.

And the Chiaramonti Museum, full of Roman portrait busts. A week later, an American tourist, supposedly upset that he wasn't allowed to see the pope, knocked over some of the busts and, well, busted them up. Embarrassing.

Apparently there are 24 Vatican museums. I liked the Gallery of Maps. Here's Francesca pointing out something on the map of Sicilia.

And this here tapestry on the left had Kathie all agog. The eyes of the character in red (I'm a little red-faced that I can't remember - Kath, was this supposed to be Jesus?) appear to follow the observer while s/he's walking by. There is, however, a rational explanation for this phenomenon but I'll leave that to you to look up.

Ah, the Sistine Chapel! We and 500 of our closest friends packed into the Sistine Chapel to bend our necks out of whack to see Michelangelo's famed and fantastically beautiful ceiling. Not how I remembered it from 50 years ago but what does an 18 year old know? Of course, no pics allowed, so you're on your own to look up whatever you can find on the Internet.

On to St. Peter's Basilica, the largest Christian church in the world. Overwhelmingly beautiful.

On this spot in 800, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the HRE.

This is Bernini's Tomb of Pope Alexander VII in the south transept. Pretty cool. You should go read about it.

Here is Bernini's Baldachin over the remains of St. Peter. Supposedly.

And above that...

Awe inspiring. But nothing can prepare you for the Pieta. Oh, the Pieta. Just the sight of her choked me up. Michelangelo sculpted her when he was 26 years old. How did such a young man capture such beauty and emotion? Beyond all comprehension.

The sight of her, for me, was the highlight of the whole trip.

But we're not done. Outside, the Vatican guards were yucking it up.

Cute. And Bernini's fountain in the Square with the Vatican post office in the background.

A last selfie with Francesca and an evening view of St. Peter's Basilica. With so few tourists, it almost looks lonely.

On our way home, we again passed the Castel Sant'Angelo. This evening shot reminds me of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons book.

It is beautiful. One of my favorite sites in Roma.

Wrap-up on Sicily, Monday, September 26, 2022

This resort was also very nice. We had a suite with a tiny balcony, so could enjoy sunrise before breakfast.

Oh look, there are those people again, across the way from our balcony! Oddly, the lady has a prickly pear cactus growing out of her head.

We both enjoyed a two course breakfast with cappuccino. Here's Kathie's:

Then we walked around the grounds a little before taking off to the airport for our flight to Roma. We took some great photos but these are my favorites: proof that the wheel was invented in Sicily, and a perfect little red blossom (crown of thorns, or euphorbia milii).

Arrivederci, Sicilia! Next stop Roma, where we arrived kind of late at the Hotel NH Collection Roman Giustiniano and had (what else?) pasta for dinner. Tomorrow, the Vatican!