Visiting the Vatican Museum

     It's about 6:45 am on Saturday morning and Jim is sound asleep while I enjoy my quiet time with a cup of coffee; it's still very dark outside.  A perfect time to write about yesterday.    Jim enjoyed his four hours at the Vatican Museum.   He took loads of photos with his new IPhone...but in order to get them into my computer...no, I don't have a Mac...I had to email them to myself from his phone.  Must be an easier way but I've not figured it out yet.  We have an IPhone, my android phone, a mini IPad, and two laptops with us...if only they all worked together!  I am also attempting to learn how to blog from my phone....it's a Samsung Galaxy Note 4...easier said then done so I'm doing this blog on my laptop.

     The first of four photos on the slideshow are from Jim's phone yesterday in the Vatican.

  He took some lovely ones but in the process ran out of power early in the day.  Thus, he didn't get my text about having left the apartment for a walk to the park so when he decided to call it a day earlier than expected he arrived home to a locked door! 

     I enjoyed my morning working on the computer and then researched the route to a huge park that is only about forty minutes walking distance from our apartment.  I noted all of the streets that I needed to follow....sent Jim a text...that he never opened due to a dead phone from too many photos and videos...all started on my quest.   About twenty minutes into the walk I decided that I must have missed my first turn and turned around.   Walked all the way back to our street deciding to go back to the apartment and check the route again on my computer.  Actually, I think I could have checked it on my phone with the Rome Map App that I have but didn't think about that.  Just before turning down our street for some reason I turned around and there was the street I'd been looking for!  All I had to do was cross the street and the name had changed to the one I was looking for.  So back on my journey I went heading downhill.   In Rome you are either going up or down hill it seems.   I walked all the way to the Piazza Pio XI.  I was at the park but decided to turn around rather than going further, will save the visit to see the Villa Doria Pamphilj that sits on the edge of the park for another day.  I'd not heard from Jim for hours so decided I'd better head back up the hill.  I'd easily walked three miles; I'd turned on my "Map My Walk" app earlier and was delighted to find that it works here in Rome.

     I should have gotten a photo but didn't; as I walked up to the apartment, there sat Jim.  He'd decided to come home earlier and had been waiting about twenty minutes for me.  So glad I'd decided to stop by the apartment before going grocery shopping as planned.   Soon I was off again to the large grocery store to shop for dinner; Jim is cooking tonight.  Actually made two trips as I forgot to pick up a bottle of dressing for the salad; when I returned my only choice was a bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar...we must be in Italy!

     Enjoyed the rest of our afternoon before checking out the kitchen to figure out what pots and pans we had and how to work the appliances.  We managed and Jim prepared our dinner using the tools available.  I did the clean up afterwards.

Did I mention that we're on the ground level of the building so we don't have stairs to climb; a nice change that we hadn't expected.    We even have a small patio that we can enjoy.  

     During dinner I mentioned that sometime during our three weeks here in Rome I wanted to go out at night to show him how beautiful the city is when it's dark and the building have their lights on....there's magic in the darkness.  We decided to go tonight to see the Vatican as that is the closest one to our apartment.  We bundled up, the day had been warmer (still needed jackets) but the night air is cold; two layers plus hats, scarfs and gloves.   We walked to the bus stop and caught the number 49 bus...it's a block from the apartment.   A short ride...less than ten minutes....and we were at our destination. 

     The piazza was nearly empty and the lights were beautiful.  We each wandered off with our cell phones taking photos and suddenly I realized I could no longer see Jim.   I looked and looked and looked....soon I walked towards the Obelisk in the center and stood under a light post.

Suddenly I thought...I'll send him a text!   Yep....it worked....soon I had an answer.   He was just on the other side of the Obelisk; soon we were back together.  I mentioned that we need to establish a meeting point when we enter a big area like this!

     After taking way too many photos we walked back to the nearest bus stop that was just across the street from he entrance to the Vatican Museum.   It was about quarter to eight and our bus drove past us as we walked so we knew that we had to wait for the next bus; and they don't run as often in the evening as they do during the day.   I opened my phone and turned on a new app that I'd loaded at home for Rome Buses...I clicked on the option for the bus nearest to my location and it told me that a bus would arrive at 8:27 pm.   We waited and sure enough the bus pulled up to our stop right at 8:27 pm.   The magic of technology...it's wonderful when it works!

   Soon we were home; on the way we rode one stop past our street so that we could check out the restaurant that our apartment owner had told us about.  Found it easily now that we had the name.  It's a tiny little place but good prices and Riccardo tells us very good food; so we'll definitely have dinner there one night.   

     We enjoyed our dessert of sharing a chocolate bar plus a yogurt before calling it a night.   It's been a good second day in Rome and Saturday brings a journey together on the Metro outside of the walls of the city center.  Hope you're enjoying our journey as we see Rome on a slow pace!

The link to my photos:    https://picasaweb.google.com/117895434014273629374/Blog2Rome2015?authuser=0&feat=directlink

If you see the slideshow here remember that if you click on the photos it should take you to the large version of the photos in Picasaweb....