AmEx debacle aside, all is going well here with Ms. Packratty in Rome.
The SCAAVI tour was amazing . We were able to see into the area between two 1st century AD walls that they believe were erected during the persecution of the Christians as the only marker of Peter's grave. Placed there you could see a plexiglas box that contains the bones that were found there under three successive altars all under the present altar of the basilica. Peter or no, it was quite amazing as was the rest of the necropolis. Pagan and Christian graves - amazing frescos, mosaics, all preserved for millennia because they were buried to make a level foundation for the first basilica. The guide was a graduate archaeologist - very knowledgeable and very very chic. The Swiss Guards in the Michelangelo designed uniforms make the English lads in the bearskin hats look pretty shabby. Rome is crawling with priests even more so than normal because Benedict is making some cardinals in the next few days - the Romans have very little patience with the swarms of clerics although more for the throngs of nuns.
The Vatican tour was too short, I plan on going back and seeing more of the museum. The Sistine Chapel was beyond amazing and, surprisingly, the Japanese and German tourists were far far ruder and badly behaved than the Americans. We are still the worst dressed, though.
Food is fabulous, whether pizza bianco from the bakery across the street or from a tavola calda near the Vatican. And the coffee is DIVINE. Roman cashiers are obsessed with getting the correct change and their faces when presented with a 20€ or larger bill is striking.
Pantheon is beyond amazing and Ms. Packratty is unabashedly in love with the Roman Metro.
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