This morning while Phil worked on school stuff, I walked down the street looking for a quick breakfast. I bought some fruit and snacks at the alimentari that we had gone to earlier in the week. The shop was busy with locals doing their shopping. Quite a few people had full baskets of groceries, more than I expected. There were still a few though that seemed to be buying just enough food for one day.

On the way back to the apartment, I tried a different shop and found fresh croissants and other pastries, With those and a Coke for me and a to-go espresso for Phil, I had everything we wanted. This sales clerk didn't speak English, but with a little bit of Italian (I'm better with food words than any others) and some pointing and gesturing, he understood what I wanted, I remembered to take my own bag for the groceries this time.

Today we spent our last full day in Rome by walking to another country. We visited the Vatican which is just two subways stops and a few blocks walk east of our apartment.

Philip and I slept late since we didn't have any appointments until the afternoon. Not knowing how long it would take to get through security at St. Peter's (turned out to be 15 minutes) and find our meeting point (10 minutes), we arrived in time to look around the basilica for a short time before our afternoon tour. We went on the Scavi Tour which is a special tour of the second level below the basilica. St. Peter's grave is directly under the altar. Historians, scientists, and theologians cannot prove, but generally agree, that the available evidence is accurate to say that they have found the actual grave and bones of Peter.

Before we started, our tour guide, Jonna, asked if anyone suffered from claustrophobia. Some of the spaces were small and the passages narrow, but most had fairly high ceilings which helped the feeling of having airspace around. As we made our way through the underground necropolis, we could hear the Gregorian chants filtering down from the level above. It was just a bit spooky, all in all, the music, the lighting, the secret places, the bones....

At one point in the tour, we saw through a grate in the floors above all the way up to the dome of the basilica. I had seen the grate from the top earlier, but I didn't know what it was. After the tour, Phil and I went back in the basilica for another look and found that grate again, this time knowing what was below.

After our visit to St. Peter's, we walked up the Via della Conciliazione looking for a restaurant. Although this is a heavy tourist area, we didn't see many restaurants. We stopped at the Universal Bar for salad and pizza which were just fine. The pizza here is always very thin with a crisp crust, lots of cheese, but not much of the other ingredients ordered.

Feeling rested and full, we walked on up to Castel Sant'Angelo for what Rick Steves calls a "stair-stepping workout". After all the stairs we have done this week, this one seemed pretty easy. Most of its stairs are thin and seem to be just slightly sloped, making the climb easier than the usual ancient stairs which are high, but not very wide and must have been made for people with short feet.

The views from the terrace and, higher up, the rooftop are wonderful. It's high enough to be above many of the landmarks, but not so high that they are hard to see.