Marching through thousands of years...

I resume my Rome posting.  The temporary pause was due to the fact....Ryan finally returned to Novorossiysk!!!!  On September 19th he left, and finally, October 20th, he returned.  I love having him here, the apartment is so much less lonely, I am happily cooking up some new culinary creations (future post), and enjoying the opportunity to spend time with my love.  Welcome home, Ryan!

Blissfully reminiscing.....
Luckily, we had soles remaining on our shoes and we were up and ready to go again.  We were off to meet our tour guide at Vatican City.  The plan, march through thousands of years of history in the world's smallest country.  Impressive, intricate, incredible, beautiful, each word left my lips on numerous occasions.

Our guide, Alberto, led us through the various rooms and halls of the Vatican Museum, to the Sistine Chapel, and finally ending in St. Peter's Basilica.  You will not find any photos from inside the Sistine Chapel, but the experience, to stand and gaze at such an impressive, beautiful pieces of artwork was monumental.  We spent quite a bit of time, necks craned back, jaws hanging open, taking it all in.  Needless to say, we left with sore necks.

The vast size of St. Peter's Basilica is incredible.  Over 6 acres is covered by this massively beautiful church.  I put forth my best effort to capture the sheer size.  It was in the church's dome that we found ourselves stuck for over an hour, during our attempt to climb to the cupola.  I was not too thrilled at the time, but looking back, what a wonderful place to say you were stuck.  My mood was improved once we made our way down, and I spotted a couple Vatican Swiss Guards dressed in their fantastic uniforms.

After a few hours in the Vatican we grabbed lunch and continued to endlessly stroll through the Eternal City.  We stopped at the Pantheon, toured the interior, again found our necks aching after craning to view the large oculus and dome.  As I mentioned in the first Rome post, we found ourselves once again, walking our night walk path, viewing the various areas during the daytime, enjoying every step and turn. * Click on "enjoying every step and turn" to view the photo album. 

Throw in some coffee and gelato to fuel our strolling, an Italian leather handbag to put an extra large smile on my face, and ending our day with another delicious dinner, once again, Rome did not displease.

Even after all our enormous sightings from the day, we had yet to truly view enormous.  Next stop, the rightly named, iconic symbol the Colosseum.