And More of Rome:

On Tuesday we headed to the Vatican Museum. Laura became a little obsessed with seeing the Sistine Chapel, which closes around noon. On the way there we spotted lots of "Pace" flags (that's "Peace") hanging from windows all over the city. By the way, no one gave us a hard time and there were lots of Americans touring with no problems.

Sorry, but there won't be any pictures of the Sistine Chapel on our website. We weren't allowed to take any photos. Suffice it to say, it is quite amazing. It was fun to interpret each panel from Genesis with the kids. It is really hard to look up for twenty minutes (ouch!) On the way to the Chapel, we saw lots and lots of art and artifacts. This courtyard was especially pretty and we liked the sculpture of Diana the Huntress.

On the way to the chapel you go through the map room. Here Kevin and Will study a map of Italy.

When leaving the Vatican, you descend this magnificent staircase. That's Kevin, Will and Ellen in the middle. Great fun (Will did the stairs twice.) At the bottom the floor is made of marble that has sections of stone that glow when you look at them from the right angle. The kids loved it and crawled all over the floor! And they say Americans are obnoxious. We had lunch in the museum cafeteria and played Uno for awhile. Surprisingly, the kids said that we were wearing them out, and could we please just go rest in our room! Imagine! So, after a nap in the room we headed for the Spanish Steps and dinner in a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves. The dinner was fantastic and we met another family there with their R.S. book in hand! The Spanish Steps were very quiet. Pretty fountain and a nice evening, but not a lot of activity. Wrong time of year, but the positive aspect was that there were no pickpockets or gangs of thieving children that we had read so much about.

Since it was dark at the Spanish Steps, we didn't get any good photos. So here is one of Ellen and Berit on the steps. Ellen counted all of the steps (136) both on the way up and down. In fact, she's been counting steps all over Europe. (Apparently there were 736 at St. Peter's.)

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