OK, our tour concierge said we'd been going great guns, but we should rest Sunday morning. And we sort of agreed; we were exhausted. So we kicked back, leisurely morning. But I contacted our wonderful personal shopper Barbara to see if Joey and I could do a quick shopping before the concierge arranged a tour of the Jewish Ghetto and Trastavere. Barbara was available, and drove us to a wonderful handmade shoe outlet where I purchased shoes and a handbag...then we headed to a place for a windbreaker/rain jacket for Joey, then another stop that didn't bring us any luck. : (

Back to the hotel for our deluxe tour - we began in the Basilica Santa Maria in Cosmedin, right next to the Mouth of Truth or Bocca Della verita that you might remember from the movie Roman Holiday. People were lined up for a block to put their hand in the mouth. We did not. (And it was right across the street from the temple of Hercules.) However we did go into the little church the Basilica Santa Maria, and it was a lovely little church that had some of the bones of Saint Valentine in a little box under the altar. Our guide told us the story of Saint Valentine that I did not know – Valentine was not supposed to perform marriage ceremonies but he did anyway, and when he was caught he was put to death for having performed marriage ceremonies. That's why he's called the patron saint of love.

We were concerned about the possibility of rain, but that didn't turn out to be the challenge: Since it is Passover, everything in the Jewish Ghetto was closed except for a couple of clothing stores (we looked in but nothing caught our eye). Our guide was quite knowledgeable, and was pointing out buildings that were closed saying if it was open, you would see inside this, that and the other. It was such a shame, because it wasn't her fault but we were not happy looking at closed buildings. We said what the heck, let's go to the pantheon instead – it's always open and it's free to the public. So we took a taxi to the pantheon and low and behold – it was closed. We tipped our poor tour guide who was quite distraught and told her it wasn't her fault but thanks, good bye. Being totally ****** off, we sent a text to our concierge level deluxe tour operators and said we cancel the tour – we cancel the dinner – we will be on our own from now on. Having noted that there was a choral and string ensemble performance at one of the churches this evening, we said what the heck we have lemons? Let's make lemonade. So we went to the musical concert and had a wonderful time. Our wonderful shopper Barbara, when she found out about our canceled plans, suggested her husband's favorite restaurant that was open on Sunday, and even made us reservations, and when we arrived we were treated like royalty. We had appetizers that were totally Roman, fried cod, fried zucchini flower with cheese inside, and crispy artichokes. Then then each couple shared a course – Vicki And Joey had veal breast with baby roasted potatoes, Lillie and Art shared risotto with porcini mushrooms and grilled prawns. Lillie had C******nay, Joey and I had amarone. Then we ordered lovely desserts – apple pie with hazelnut ice cream, and a very interesting creamy pie/cake with crispy layers. The waiter did not know what it was called however he brought us Limoncello to end our meal. Fabulous fabulous. And excellent end to a kind of a rocky day.