Prior to starting the Camino this week, we visited Rome for the first time to meet up with our good friends, see the city…and for Dave to run the Rome Marathon (or the “Maratona di Roma” as Dave insisted on calling it, using a very irritating attempt at an Italian accent).

Key highlights for us…

Vatican City is very cool.  (Get used to the highly descriptive nature of these posts).  On our first day, we took an early morning tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.  We were lucky to beat the crowds…so fewer people observed us looking up with our mouths wide open.  Very difficult not to be awed by the Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, the Pieta and Bernini’s Bronze Canopy.

The rest of the Eternal City is also very cool.  Since we will be doing a bit of walking the next few weeks, we walked extensively through the City for maximum sightseeing and training purposes.   We had perfect weather to see the Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain.  According to tradition, Sarah enthusuastically tossed a coin over her right shoulder into the Fountain to ensure that she would one day return to Rome.  (Plus, I am pretty sure she has already depleted our Delta Skymiles account to book a return flight).  Video link below…

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Food in Rome is good.  (Yes…probably not going to get a lot of Trip Advisor links with sharp insights like these).  We tried our best to find a bad meal…but were unsuccessful.  Besides great pasta, pizza and fish, it was artichoke season and we ate some version at every meal (salad, fried, marinated, sautéed, whole, sliced).  We offset this huge intake of the vegetable with hourly ingestion of some flavor of gelato.  Sarah also discovered Italian Sambuca.  When we see family and friends at Christmas, please don’t ask “Why do I smell licorice?”

Ciao.  Grazie.  Cappuccino.