A Scrap of Life

Today started with a long walk from our hotel to Vatican City. We left really early so we had time to stop by a few churches we found on the way. We also passed by some beautiful buildings. When we arrived at the Vatican, we split off and headed first to the museum. We listened to a Rick Steves audio tour for most of it and saw some cool things.  The Sistine Chapel was pretty cool, but it was packed with people! My favorite part actually ended up being the spiral staircase when leaving the museum, so I think that explains how impressed I was  with the museum. Lol Here's the spiral staircase from the top... ... and looking up from the bottom. Up next was St Peters Basilica. It took us a bit to get in but we spent quite a lot of time looking around. Between the two spots, we spent about 3 hours in Vatican City. Before heading back, Brian stopped and chatted with three police officers. He gave them each a patch or a coin and they were so impressed, one of them took the patc...

We woke up super early this morning so we could hop on an early flight out of Sicily. It was sad to say goodbye to Jimmy and his family. We loved our time spent with them. I hope one day when they settle down we can live somewhere nearby and enjoy regular time together. Our 6:55am flight took off and we landed just an hour later in our next destination, Rome! We caught this amazing sunrise with Mt Etna in the background after takeoff. We arrived in Rome early and grabbed a taxi to our hotel right in the heart of Rome. Thankfully they had a room available so we were able to unpack and freshen up before heading out. We wanted to get a feel for the city so started with the Rick Steves audio tour. We saw so many gorgeous fountains and obelisks along the way.  One of our favorite moments was turning the corner and seeing the Pantheon. This was gorgeous inside and out.  We decided to eat at one of the restaurants where we enjoyed some margherita pizza and fresh made pasta, a...