This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence. I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.
Today we are going back to the Vatican – this time as tourists. I have booked a walking tour of the Vatican Museum with “Angel Tours Rome”, another of Rick Steves recommended tour companies.
We retrace the route we took yesterday, catching the metro to the “Ottaviano – San Pietro” station, and walking to St. Peter’s square where we are supposed to meet our tour group. When we are all gathered, we are split into through groups of about 12 – each with our own guide - Kenneth – a Scot is out guide.
The tour is wonderful, and Kenneth is very entertaining – sometimes a bit irreverent. During the tour we “lose” 6 of our group – we get separated during one of the crowded sections – not sure where they went – but they had been concerned about our finish time, as they had another tour to get to.
As we now only 6 people – Kenneth offered to take us on a tour of St. Peters after. Technically, he was not acredited by St. Peter’s as a tour guide, but with such a small group, we could pass as a group of friends touring the Basilica.
St Peter’s Basilica | |
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After our tour of St. Peter’s, Kenneth recommended a local restaurant – off the beaten track – not even in Rick Steves, and we all went there for a lovely traditional Roman lunch of Pasta, Salad and Pizza. The six of us split the bill, and treated kenneth to lunch as his “tip”.
We were exhausted by then – our 2 and a half hour tour had been 5 hrs, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap, before heading down the Via Nationale for some “shopping”, followed by dinner at Restaurant Target – next door to our hotel.
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