Thursday was an early day as we had a "beat the line" tour of the Vatican at 8am.
We met our guide at the entrance. We had a bigger group this time, with 12 people in total on our tour. Our guide was very nice, her name was Barbara and she told us that she was from a little town near Venice. Her accent was not really a typical Italian accent though, it seemed a bit Spanish to me. Super Handsome noticed that it was different as well.
We wandered though kind of quickly and really just got a highlight of some of the statues, tapestries then the map hall. We went though the modern art that was displayed without even a whisper, which was disappointing. I did see a few really nice works by Matisse as we walked quickly through on our way to St. Peter's.
Before we got to the Sistine Chapel, we had spent time at the beginning of our tour learning the history behind the paintings on the ceiling and the walls. She had to tell us everything before we went in because talking was not allowed in the chapel. No pictures were allowed. We got to the Sistine Chapel and it was a little chapel that was very full of people.
Then we headed to St. Peters's Basilica. For beating the crowds and doing an early tour we learned quickly that there were lots of people touring. So much for beating the lines! Our guide told us just a very few things about the basilica and then met us at the end. I have to admit that I was very disappointed, especially since as we were wandering around (with our head phones on) we were able to hear other tours that we going on. Our tour guide ended up being a disappointment, she was from a different tour company then our other two guides and she ended up being the worst, especially since we did hear the other tour inside St. Peter's while she waited at the exit for us.
Then we headed out and tried to go back to the church where we saw the skulls. We wanted to go in and do a tour of the items that the monks made with the bones. But when we got there, there were nuns praying inside and there was no place evident of where they were displayed. We headed back and decided to go for dinner. We stopped at Dino e Tony's to find out that we were a bit early for dinner. So, we rested back at the hotel and came back for dinner at 7pm.
We walked in and we were seated by Tony, I think. Dino, we saw later, he was cooking. He spoke little English and talked to us in Spanish, Italian and some English. We started out with antipasti. He brought us one of everything. Regular pizza, pizza with gorgongaza and fish, prochuitto and salami, along with a few other dishes as well. Tony came and cleared our plates and kept shoving things on Super Handsome's plate as the kids and I giggled.
Second course was pasta. We got gnocchi with tomato sauce (reminded me of ravoli sauce) and then penne carbonra. Kid 3 loved the gnocchi! Youngest Son ended up having a small fit about the food and which we quieted down. We told him that he better get eating as he was going to hurt Tony's feelings. At the point Tony returned and found to his dismay, my younger sons were not so excited about the pasta without sauce! So, he took away their penne dishes to add sauce to them, muttered under his breath the whole time. We giggled just at the hilarity of the situation!
We were stuffed too full to eat the third course of meat and veggies. But Tony did manage to get 3 of the boys to take a dessert! Oldest Son and Youngest Son had tiramisu and Son 3 had PannaCotta.
We wandered though kind of quickly and really just got a highlight of some of the statues, tapestries then the map hall. We went though the modern art that was displayed without even a whisper, which was disappointing. I did see a few really nice works by Matisse as we walked quickly through on our way to St. Peter's.
Before we got to the Sistine Chapel, we had spent time at the beginning of our tour learning the history behind the paintings on the ceiling and the walls. She had to tell us everything before we went in because talking was not allowed in the chapel. No pictures were allowed. We got to the Sistine Chapel and it was a little chapel that was very full of people.
Then we headed to St. Peters's Basilica. For beating the crowds and doing an early tour we learned quickly that there were lots of people touring. So much for beating the lines! Our guide told us just a very few things about the basilica and then met us at the end. I have to admit that I was very disappointed, especially since as we were wandering around (with our head phones on) we were able to hear other tours that we going on. Our tour guide ended up being a disappointment, she was from a different tour company then our other two guides and she ended up being the worst, especially since we did hear the other tour inside St. Peter's while she waited at the exit for us.
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| St. Peter's |
Then we headed out and tried to go back to the church where we saw the skulls. We wanted to go in and do a tour of the items that the monks made with the bones. But when we got there, there were nuns praying inside and there was no place evident of where they were displayed. We headed back and decided to go for dinner. We stopped at Dino e Tony's to find out that we were a bit early for dinner. So, we rested back at the hotel and came back for dinner at 7pm.
We walked in and we were seated by Tony, I think. Dino, we saw later, he was cooking. He spoke little English and talked to us in Spanish, Italian and some English. We started out with antipasti. He brought us one of everything. Regular pizza, pizza with gorgongaza and fish, prochuitto and salami, along with a few other dishes as well. Tony came and cleared our plates and kept shoving things on Super Handsome's plate as the kids and I giggled.
Second course was pasta. We got gnocchi with tomato sauce (reminded me of ravoli sauce) and then penne carbonra. Kid 3 loved the gnocchi! Youngest Son ended up having a small fit about the food and which we quieted down. We told him that he better get eating as he was going to hurt Tony's feelings. At the point Tony returned and found to his dismay, my younger sons were not so excited about the pasta without sauce! So, he took away their penne dishes to add sauce to them, muttered under his breath the whole time. We giggled just at the hilarity of the situation!
We were stuffed too full to eat the third course of meat and veggies. But Tony did manage to get 3 of the boys to take a dessert! Oldest Son and Youngest Son had tiramisu and Son 3 had PannaCotta.
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| Wine and two pasta dishes. Wow! |
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| We were telling Cian he needed to eat because he was hurting Tony's feelings. Here Tony is trying to get him to eat! |
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| Waiting for dessert. |
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