Europe – Day 3

Last night - a couple of pictures

Dinner with our friends - Barb, Barb, David, Jeff, Vera & Ed

5 in the back seat - Jeff, Vera, David, Barb & Ed underneath!

We had to get up early today as we had to be at the Vatican by 9am for our tour of the Vatican Gardens.  We ate upstairs on the roof first as the sun was breaking and what a great way to start the morning.

Out into the Rome morning we went, walking the two blocks to the subway and went to the Vatican.

The tour was amazing as we were walking in the gardens that the Pope’s had walked in the centuries past.  The gardens take up ½ of the Vatican grounds and we spent 2 hours with our guide walking through them – it was an amazing experience.  We did not see any of the Pope’s; however, one of the ladies on our tour fell and broke her femur.  When the emergency vehicle came, we found out that there were 3 on the grounds at that time.  Probably not bad when we found out that 25,000 people visit the Vatican every day!!

Then we went into the Vatican Museum and then to the Sistine Chapel.  We had been there before, but it is always amazing to be inside the Vatican.  We then went into St. Peters Cathedral.  To show you how big the Vatican is, when we left the Vatican Museum, we took a cab to the other side to St. Peters.  It took the cab about 10 minutes to get there in the city streets.  We were glad we didn’t walk.

After walking around St. Peters, we walked up to the subway station and took the subway back to the hotel.  We had been gone for 8 hours and almost all of it walking.

To get back into shape, Ed iced down his knees while Barb took a short nap.  Barb is still struggling and Ed’s knees hurt so we don’t walk as fast as we used to this trip

Palm trees in the Garden

The English Maze

A fountain in the Gardens where the former Pope lives

One part of St. Peters

The ceiling in one of the hallways in the Vatican