Six Days Left in Rome

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

We have six days left in Rome. What did we do today?

Well, today is Paul's 10th birthday so it was lots of fun and excitement! We started by heading over to St. Peter's with John, Aunt Kathy, and Barb. Yesterday was a national holiday in Italy, so many people made a 4 day weekend. There have been tons of people in Rome all weekend, but apparently they have all headed back to work. We had St. Peter's almost to ourselves today! Fantastic!

We started by climbing to the top of the dome. Aunt Kathy, Barb, and Grace took the elevator to the base of the dome, and then climbed the stairs, but we took the stairs the whole way. It was over 500 stairs! The view was spectacular! Look for a blog entry on this in the next few days. We descended the dome and toured the Basilica and then the crypt below. This is where Pope John Paul II is buried.

After St. Peter's, we headed into the city center for pizza for lunch from our favorite pizza place - Remo's. We ate pizza in the piazza in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva and then went to get gelato. I think Paul got an extra big 2 scoops because he told our friend at the gelato place that it was his birthday.

We came home for naptime/downtime and then had dinner. Paul's favorite meal is penne with ham and asparagus. For dessert we didn't have cake because the oven here is too unpredictable. Instead I got a recipe from one of the secretaries in the ND program. Paul had a birthday pie - Nutella pie. (For anyone who doesn't know - Nutella is a chocolate spread that is the consistency of peanut butter. Europeans spread it on bread or toast for breakfast.) For birthday candles we used a candle that Paul got at St. Paul's Outside the Walls. It was a delicious pie.

What an exciting day! Only six days left!

-Terri