Day 25 (6/29/11):

Liz arrived this morning!!! I had a bit of an adventure getting to the airport, but ended up arriving just minutes before Liz walked through the gates and I was able to welcome her to Italia!

It was about 11:45 a.m. when we left my apartment to begin Liz's first day of sightseeing. Luckily, it was also the feast day for St. Paul and St. Peter, so I didn't have school! We really could not have planned it any better! So, our first stop (of course) was the Vatican to see what activities were going on in St. Peter's Square to celebrate. When we arrived we had just missed the end of the celebratory mass in the Vatican, but the Square was still packed with people! After a few minutes, the Pope appeared at his distant window and began his blessing to the crowd. What a cool way for Liz to start her vacation!

Afterwards, we began our big walking tour of the city. I showed Liz Castel Sant Angelo, the bridges leading towards the castle and the Vatican, my school!, Piazza Navona (where we stopped to get a gelato and cool off in the shade for a bit), and several other things. On our way from Piazza Navona we stopped inside the church of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Wow! How gorgeous!! Of all the beauty in the interior, though, the most fascinating part of the church is the cupola… which is fake!! It took us a minute to figure it out, but the top section of the church is painted to appear as though it is a rounded dome, but it is actually just a flat circle on the ceiling!

From there we walked towards the Trevi Fountain and each threw a coin in. I know, I know… I already threw one. I figured the more I throw the better chance of coming back, though!

We also stopped in the small church on the corner near the Trevi. It was small, but interesting. Several of the side chapels were heavily adorned with silver hearts, too. I'm not sure if it was particularly for the feast day, or if they're always there, but I hadn't seen so many in one church before!

Our next stop was the Spanish Steps, where we just briefly stopped to admire them and people watch a little. We were pretty tired from all the walking, though, so we didn't climb up them. Instead we looked for a little place to sit and rest a bit. We found one in Piazza del Popolo, and had a little mini-aperitivo for a bit. We had a great view of the "identical" churches in the Piazza, too! I love that they look exactly alike, but one is round and the other is oval. The architect took painstaking care to try to make them look as identical as possible, even with the differences in the land they are built on.

Eventually we made our way back to my apartment and got ready for dinner. Liz had an awesome recommendation from someone to go to Dino & Tony's, and it happens to be just up the street from my apartment! What a fun place!! You arrive, sit down, and someone asks you if you want wine. Once you answer, the food just starts coming! We had antipasti of fried meat & olives, salami and prosciutto, fried ravioli, fried mashed potatoes, and and a spinach & cheese something-or-other. Then we ate a pizza with 3 different toppings - eggplant and green bean, regular tomato sauce, and gorgonzola cheese. Then the pasta came! A garlic sauce on one with chunks of meat and cheese, and another with a meaty red sauce that tasted like it had been slowed cooked for intense flavor. Yum! We were so full, we had to say no to dessert, but with our check came free limoncello! We were happy, full, and exhausted by the time we left and made the short walk back to the apartment.