We had a friendly lady cabbie this morning from the airport to the hotel who mentioned that the Pope is in town and would be giving a blessing at noon today. We dropped our bags at the hotel around 9:30 and strolled our way to the Vatican. With a stop for breakfast we, along with tens of thousands of others, made it with 10 minutes to spare. He spoke from the balcony window. It was amazing and we marvel at our luck. Mostly we knew we’d having bragging rights that no one in our group would have. No one said  we are above being shallow. It is actually the second Pope we have seen, but that is another story.

We stopped at numerous places on our way back to the hotel. It takes exactly  zero effort to run into some fantastic ruin, reconstruction, wall, fountain, etc. that has been around for 2,000+/- years. Some new-ish buildings have even incorporated columns, for example, that are ancient. Romans were into repurposing long before we were.

As we were making our final approach to the hotel, who did we walk right into but the Junior Mongeons who had arrived from Venice on the train, had checked into the hotel, and were off to look for a quick snack. They invited us to join them, but we decided to get checked in and put our feet up for the 45 minutes remaining before the group meet-up at 3.

Our fellow travelers are all Americans and seem very nice. The group leader, Jamie, is a Brit who is very personable walking encyclopedia … FULL of amazing facts about art, history, politics, architecture, and government. He wowed us right off with a trip orientation and a walking tour before our four course dinner.

We have been up for 36 hours and the bed is looking like a welcome treat. We opted for twin beds throughout the trip since we had no idea what sizes Italian beds come in.