We went to the Vatican today and made our way around long lines people-- mostly people hawking their individual goods. Most of them told us it would take three hours to get to the Vatican and we needed to buy their special tickets and have their special tours. Ultimately, we waited only about 20 minutes to get into the Vatican where we walked through at our own pace.

The artwork and details were just beautiful. The Vatican museum is HUGE! The amount of Christ-centered art is astounding. Many of the sculptures, tapestries and paintings were mesmerizing.

The Sistine Chapel is incredible yet it took us somewhat by surprise. It was breathtaking but smaller than we expected and darker because the low light protected the frescoes. It was so crowded we were just bubbles in a sea of people and were slowly pushed across from one end to the other.

After a few hours in the Vatican, we thought we'd go to see St. Peter's Basilica but the lines appeared to be really long so we decided that we would go shopping. We spent our time just wandering the city streets and just enjoying Rome.

We took a late afternoon nap and then for dinner we returned to the Trastevere where we had a wonderful meal in a small and very authentic Italian restaurant where they served fantastically great food. Virtually no one spoke English. We just had a great great time enjoying wonderful food in a charmingly real setting.