Saint Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica was until recently the largest Christian Church in the world and is the burial place of Saint Peter the apostle. It is very impressive and has the sculpture of Mary with her son Jesus in her arms after the crucifixion. It is titled The Pietà. Michelangelo completed this when he was only 24 years old. It is very moving to see this in person although it is now behind protective glass after being vandalized in 1972. It is quite large although you can't tell this from the picture. The creative genius of this man is so impressive!

It is immense and can hold up to 60,000 people. 

I know these pictures don't do it justice but at least you can see the immensity and grandeur of the basilica. If I ever come back, I would like to do the early morning tour before the main crowds and tours begin and take time to take it all in. 

The Vatican City

The Vatican is a city state surrounded by the city of Rome. It is considered the smallest country in the world. It is home to the pope  and a spiritual center for Roman Catholics around the world. The museum is home to an incredible art collection including the Sistine Chapel with the famous paintings by Michelangelo on the ceiling. ( pictures are not allowed in the chapel and talking is not allowed when in there, so no pictures for you but it is impressive ) This is where the famous painting of the creation of man, Adam, is found. It is so crowded everywhere you only see up when you are as short as I am.

Here are a few pictures for you:

We took a group tour to skip the lines: the long line of people are waiting hours to enter. We went right in, so worth the money.:

The famous Saint Peter's Square: everyone has seen this on T.V. or in a movie. It is much bigger than you think it will be.

A few of the sights we saw during our tour.

I will do one of Saint Peter's Basilica next but it was so crowded we didn't stay long. With few people it would be a place you could spend hours in. It is the largest church in the world.

As you've noticed we are continuing to blog to catch up with all that we saw and did on this adventure, so stay tuned. 

Swiss Alps Experience

Zeb and Ivy and families - you'll never guess where we went yesterday. 

Gary and Linette took us over to Lauterbrunnen, which is about an hour or so from where they live. This is where you guys camped with the waterfalls, etc. BUT, instead of going into the valley, we boarded a train that goes up, and up, and up. We stopped at Wegenalp, looking straight across at Eiger, Münsch, and Juan Frau - The Top of Europe. We were up in the snowcovered mountains we looked up at last summer when walking in the valley.

Eiger

Münsch

Juan Frau

The lookout tower. Now I have to go back and watch the old movie, The Eiger Sanction. 

Gary and Linette.

Switzerland Visit

We have taken a side trip to Switzerland to visit Linette and Gary (Denise's cousin). It has been great to unwind from the trek, visit family, and see a part of Switzerland. First, I will show you a fun little activity. There are small dairies everywhere here and they have found an easy, no muss way to make fresh milk available to the locals. Of course I had to experience this, so off I go with my little pail and my milk money. 

You set your pail under Bossy, deposit your coins, ...

And Bossy delivers.

And your off for home with your pail of fresh milk. You can't get much closer to milking the cow yourself. The cows are just behind the door.

I drank more milk than I usually do because it was so good, and I wanted to have the excuse to go get more. It took me back a few years and I thought about John, the milkman from my childhood. 

The Palio

I am going to go back in our adventure to when we stayed in Siena. We both like Siena as a town. It has great history and is not a big city, but a fairly large town. The people there seem pretty friendly. We stayed in a B and B there that was over 400 years old. It was renovated and updated, but they kept some of the original timbers, etc. There is a famous large piazza there called the Piazza del Campo. We have read about the famous bare-back horse race that takes place in this piazza. The race is called the Palio. It takes place twice a year and has been going on continuously for over 400 years. The various contradas (read districts) compete against each other in the race. The race is wild and wooly. The riders have few limitations. They can hold up, hit other riders or horses, etc. It is common for a few horses to cross the finish line riderless. There used to be about 17 contradas competing, but things were so out of hand that a couple hundred years ago they cut the number who could compete. Now there are 10 competing contradas. Seven qualify from previous races and the others compete for the three remaining spots. The Palio was kind of brought to life for (even though it didn't take place while we were there) by hearing an emotional conversation about it in a ristorante. We found that one of the owners is somewhat of a celebrity of the race. So, we pursued the subject a little.

This is one of the owners and his daughter who is a waitress in the ristorante. Notice the picture of the Palio on the wall. Look in the bottom right corner and you will see this man. It looks like a running of the Bulls pic. On another wall is a photo of another year, and there he is again. It was fun to see their excitement when talking about the race. It is very competitive and emotional for the natives. 

The ceiling in our bedroom. Large timbers with cross beams and a tile floor above. 

A rooftop shot of part of the city.

This is the Piazza del a Campo. They are preparing for a large district event. They put up a large stage, speakers, etc and filled the piazza with row after row of tables and chairs enough to sit and feed thousands complete with table coverings and seat cushions. They had a huge contingency of workers who set up an assembly line fashion operation. They sang while they worked. You had to love it. 

Final journey of the Via Francigena

As we began this journey at the beginning of September, I remember how excited I was. I remember as we took that first picture in Verres with our packs on, ready to begin our trek, wondering how we would look and feel at the end. 

It has been a learning experience that I want to write more about but for this blog I want to share a few pictures of the last few days before and as we came into Rome. We did not take very many pictures the last day and the trail was very poorly marked. This meant we were unsure many times of our journey that day. 

In Sutri we were treated so well by the couple that owned the B & B. They invited us to lunch with them and treated us as if we were good friends. They had only been open since July and were excited to meet each guest that came their way. This helped us prepare for our last leg of the journey. We were to walk the day we left but it was raining so he drove us to the next town to our B & B. Riccardo thinks maybe the Lord is preserving my feet. They seem to take a beating with very many miles.

We spent a cold day at our next place, it rained all day and they built a fire in a fireplace the size of a small room. It did eventually throw off some heat and although they advertised a restaurant, they did not have one this time of year. They did feed us well, for a price, when they realized we had counted on this since they were several miles from town. The next morning it was still raining so again instead of walking the owner graciously gave us a ride to the next stop on our trek, La Storta. Our B & B hostess picked us up to drive us out to the agriturismo, again outside of town. 

This place was extremely beautiful, with a hotel just opened. The restaurant they advertised is only open on the weekend but she graciously made sure we had a lunch and dinner, for a price of course. We were happy to pay each time as we were out in the country. She also upgraded our room to a suite with an antique wooden tub since we were the only ones there that night. So the night before our final trek we treated ourselves to a long soak.

The next day we walked into La Storta and caught the train to the next town to take a few miles off our journey that day. We should have ridden it a lot further because the map was a bit misleading for the distance. The trail went through some towns that were not very nice and the trail was very poorly marked. At one point we were at a crossroad and had just turned the corner when a car drove up to the intersection and asked us if we needed help. We told him we were walking the Via Francigena and he pulled over, got out of his car to give us very clear directions in broken English. Again, divine intervention as we had just turned the wrong way at the exact moment he pulled up. He had walked it and knew just how to tell us to go with the added benefit of staying off a very busy main road.

We walked for many miles and finally came to a park shown on the map. It was obviously part of the Via but the signs have not been kept up and vandals have obscured many of them. Again, we were not sure the direction we took was correct. As we climbed up and then back down we could finally see Rome and knew we were almost there. The following pictures were taken as we came off the hill into Rome. We were very excited but also very tired. We had already walked about 10 miles and Rome was still in the distance. A very kind Italian man that lived beside the park took this for us and wished us Buon Viaggio!

A beautiful close up view from the distant hill of one of the domes. 

We walk into Rome, turn our data on to see where our B & B is and how far. It is still over 2 miles and after trying to figure out the buses we give up and walk since we know nothing of this city or the sections and streets. All said and done we did our longest trek of the trip, 14.31 miles. Waiting for us though was a very nice room with a pretty sun porch, a bottle of wine, another tub to soak in, and a very kind hostess. That is me on the couch, hiking shoes off and not to move again until dinner time.

Yes, we had to walk to a restaurant, but we celebrated our final walk and enjoyed the wonder of it all. 

We did it! Although  differently than we originally thought, it is still very satisfying. We are pelligrini! As Riccardo often said during our trek, "All roads do indeed lead to Rome."

Last night in Rome

Denise and I ate a big lunch in the Jewish Ghetto so we decided to just go have wine and something light for our last evening in Rome. Found a great little hole in the wall place called Angolo Divino. This guy had the biggest wine selection I have seen in Italy. We got his recommendation and then had cheese and meats with his recommended wine and a very decadent chocolate dessert. It was a good finish to our visit to Rome. 

Denise at our table in the back left. Fun, intimate place for a relaxing snack, wine, and dessert.

Dessert. Baked on order, with chocolate filling and a pear cream sauce on the side. I don't think you'll find it on anyone's diet list.