France & Italy 2021 {Day Eight ~ Rome & Vatican City/ Day Nine~ LHR}

Monday, December 20th was our last day before going home.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then walked right out the door to our first destination, the Pantheon and it's Piazza.  There is no cross on the Pantheon so it is on the obelisk in it's piazza.

I was not expecting to be so blown away by the Pantheon.  I think because I didn't know much about it, but if you look at the facts, it's hard not to be:

(1) It was an Roman Temple originally and has been a Catholic church since 609 AD

(2) The temple burned and was rebuilt by Hadrian around 120 AD

(3) It was the largest domed building for 1300 years until the Duomo in Florence was constructed

(4) It is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world

(5) Each granite column out front weighs 60 tons and was quarried in Egypt and hauled up the Nile and across the Mediterranean to Rome

The roof of the Portico 

It is the burial place for the first two Kings of Italy and also Raphael

After the Pantheon, we set out to walk to the Vatican.  The narrow streets were just so charming.  I though I took pics, but really only this one.  I guess I was too busy looking.

We crossed the Tiber River at the Castel Sant'Angelo...

You can spot St. Peter's from the bridge...

The street leading up to St. Peter's

We had a 10:30 tour of the Vatican Museum.

A view from inside the museum of Rome...

The map gallery with maps that show the regions of Italy...

Venice...

Now we were in the Renaissance Wing of the museum...

The Liberation of St. Peter by Raphael

The School of Athens by Raphael

While Raphael was painting this room, Michelangelo was down the hall painting the Sistine Chapel

The last stop of the museum was the Sistine Chapel.  No photographs are allowed in there, but it's a must see.  The Vatican museum was very uncrowded like most places during our travels.  The guide kept saying "I'm just so happy for you" because we were getting to see it uncharacteristically uncrowded.

After our tour, we left the vatican museum and grabbed some paninis at a restaurant across the street, and then we walked to St. Peter's.

The Vatican's Swiss Guards

Looking out at St. Peter's Square

Inside St. Peter's was pretty uncrowded as well...

The Nave can accommodate 60,000 worshippers

Here under the dome and bronze canopy is Peter's tomb.  

This didn't photograph well, but there is a Bernini dove window in the middle

The tomb of Pope John Paul II was moved here to the chapel of San Sebastian after he was beatified in 2011...

Michelangelo was 24 years old when he completed this pietá.  This is his only signed work.  Allegedly he heard some pilgrims praising this pietá but giving credit to another sculptor, so he grabbed a chisel and chipped his name in the ribbon on Mary's chest.  Specifically "Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence did this".  It is behind bulletproof glass now because in 1972 a man with a hammer began hacking away at it (damage was repaired)

The Papal Symbol: with the triple crown in the middle which symbolizes the triple power of the Pope as "father of kings", "governor of the world", and "Vicar of Christ", and then the keys of heaven or keys of St. Peter...

Another Swiss Guard

We then took a taxi back to the hotel.  I got into an argument with the taxi driver because he turned off the meter at some point and tried to charge us way too much.  This happens at least once a trip, which is why I often just prefer Uber.  

We had gone back to the hotel to take our "get back to America" tests.  I'll post more about what we used in my tips for traveling during COVID post, but we were able to do them in the room and we both had to do a video chat with someone who observed the test.  Here we are with two devices going and both our tests waiting on the results...

After our negative tests (!) we headed out to walk to the other locations I wanted to see.  We stopped for one last (mini) cannoli...

Trevi Fountain

Then the Spanish Steps

We walked around and looked at the decorations around all the high end stores and streets in the Spanish Steps area, and bought bought some truffle oil...

As we headed back toward the hotel, we took in the spots after sunset...

Trevi after dark

"and thence we came forth to see again the stars" ~Dante

The dinner spot we wanted didn't open until 7:00 so we walked around the Pantheon and caught an opera in the streets...

I stopped recording because I had a moment of "oh my gosh he is coming toward me" panic, but he was just coming to stand on the wall behind us for his finale...

We went to Armando al Pantheon for dinner.  I don't have any good explanation, but for some reason I didn't make reservations.  Even though we were the first people there after they opened their doors, they had no tables inside available.  We were able to eat outside with heaters.  It was a bit cold, but OMG so worth it!

We knew about this place because this was one of the restaurants Stanley Tucci featured on his CNN Finding Italy show (again, why wouldn't that tell me we needed reservations!?!)...

Stanley had featured the cacio e pepe so that is what we both got (I got mine with a pork cheek that they also talked about).  This is the stuff of dreams.  It was beyond amazing.

After dinner, we walked across the piazza to "our" gelato place where we indulged in the large size gelato.  We had to take it to the room to eat it because I was too cold to sit outside any longer!

We had to pack up and go to bed after that.  We had a very early flight the next morning.

On the 21st, we had a stop at London Heathrow.  You know I was excited about that.  I was able to shop at Fortnum & Mason (even though they only had 1 of 3 things on my list).

I'm not joking when I say this is one of my favorite meals.  I love flying through London just so I can eat a Chicken Salad (not like our chicken salad) sandwich and crisps.

Since we were in London a couple of days before Christmas, we had to finish off with a mince pie.

That's a wrap on France & Italy 2021!  Thanks for following along!