Friday August 18

Knowing it was going to be a hectic day, we quickly had breakfast and hurried out of the hotel. We checked out of the hotel this day and had tickets for admission to the Vatican museum at 10 AM, so we needed to rush! We made it just in time, didn't even have to wait outside in the line. We saw some tapestries, sent some mail, looked at a lot of religious art, saw some contemporary art (including a Klee, a few Dalis and a room of Matisse). Most of it wasn't really contemporary, but compared to the rest of the museum it was! We visited the Sistine chapel and St. Peter's basilica, without needing to wait in any lines. If I ever go back (or if anyone reading this ever goes there, remember this:), I need to remember that I exited the Sistine chapel on the right, where it is labeled for tour groups to exit. That brings you right to St. Peter's Basilica, and you bypass a crazy long line. We saw some pope tombs and looked at some more religious art. After we left, we got pizza at Bonci Pizzarium, which I think was the fancy pizza place near the Medaglie D'Oro (the residence I lived in when i lived in Rome). It was really good. We also got these Arancini-like fried things that had spaghetti with red sauce and mozzarella in them! Also, it turns out that Bonci (who wis a very famous pizza man) just opened a pizza place in Chicago, so now we have to go there for pizza, as it's a little closer than Rome. We then took a bus back to the hotel, got our stuff, and took the subway to Termini. We picked up the rental car, and Mike drove us to Orvieto while I read for grad school. Beautiful, beautiful scenery! We checked into the hotel and drove up to the foot of town. We took escalators and elevators up and walked around, visiting the square and duomo. We got drinks in the square and then went to Trattoria Del'Orso, and got their tasting menu which included truffles on the soup and pasta! We got to try a typical local pasta dish, some chicken and a side dish with greens, onions, pine nuts and olives. We had some delicious wine and saw so many cats! We walked around some more and heard faint sounds of singing when returning to the car. We never found out if people were doing karaoke in town or not. It was almost like a siren song, and we didn't want to get lost at sea (or, in the countryside next to Orvieto). Back to the hotel for bed!

Did you know that there were guinea pigs in the Garden of Eden?