July 27, 2007 - 1,102 steps to a fabulous view

11:00 pm

We are sitting in the station waiting for our train to leave in 45 minutes. Today has been ok. We slept in… however, when I woke up about 7am our room was steaming and I was sweating so I went and go t the clerk guy and asked him to turn on the AC. I went back to bed about 30 minutes later when it cooled down a bit. We woke up a few hours later and had a frustrating time trying to book a hotel for tonight. I kept searching and couldn’t find anything under $300/ night (until I figured out that was for all 3 days). But still, $100/ night it a lot. So after me being grumpy, we just decided to show up and hope to find a room, so we packed up and left w/o any plans.

While in the subway station waiting for the train to go to Fiumacino, I remembered that I wanted to go back to St. Peters so we went the other direction instead. We went and I sat and read psalms aloud while Bwige walked around and took pictures. Just wow. I am still amazed at its size.

Then came the ascension. We climbed all 551 steps to the very top… it started with very wide steps, then normal steps, then steps with slanted walls when we were getting closer to the top so that you felt drunk. Then came the steps that were tall and almost vertical. I huffed and I puffed the whole way up and I almost blew myself down, but we made it. WHAT A VIEW! It was spectacular, Rome as far as you could see… I will post the panoramic when I get a chance.

Then when coming down, the first set of steps was the same as the last. However, this time it was vertical going down. Very very steep and difficult. I really don’t know how some people get down it. The steps ended and we came out into St. Peters. Yah! I got to see the chapel one last time.

Our next little adventure was to go to Fumaciano to get our bag (we hoped). We boarded the train and rode to the airport. When we got inside, joy of joys, the Delta desk was closed. We were told they were going to open tomorrow morning. Arg. So we wondered around for a while longer asking various people and finally (after about 3 lines and 5 people) got our bag back! AND THE PEASANTS REJOYCED! We actually danced around just because we had our clothes back in our possession. I have really learned that you don’t appreciate things until they are absent. We are always told to appreciate what we have, but it’s really difficult when it’s always right in front of us… *pauses to kiss wife*

So having our bags, we booked an overnight ticket to Barletta. The train should arrive at 5:45. We don’t have a sleeper car or anything so we will just sleep in the seats, but having clean clothes in our bags makes it worth it.

Oh, and for dinner tonight we had yummy new things. Bwige tried the lamb, which was very good, and I tried the rabbit, which was excellent and came in little balls. They weren’t like ground up and made into balls, they were just little spherical pieces of meat. Yum yum yum. I tried the white wine and my compliment of it was that I didn’t hate it. So I think I’m getting better… maybe by the end of the trip, I’ll be neutral towards wine. HAHa.

Well, our train should arrive soon, so I will see you later!