When in Rome ... Easter Sunday & the Vatican

The weather forecasts were for a drizzly overcast day.  Fortunately the weather got tired of this, and after sprinkling overnight and a cool morning, the sun did its bit and came out for the day.

I played Easter bunny in the morning and then Roger and I went for a walk down to Ponte Milvio bridge.  This is a medieval bridge but recently it's become the focus of attention.  In Italy a couple of years ago, a movie came out where the lead hearthrob, at the end, went down to this bridge and placed a lock on it with the his character name and his 'girlfriend's' name on it.  Apparently, the next day, young couples all flocked to the bridge just to be there, and some did leave locks.  The craze continues, and we've also noticed these locks in other parts of Rome as well.

We had a wonderful family Easter lunch at Pat & Mimo's - 13 for lunch.  We have become accustomed this week to their feasts, and this was no exception.  A wonderful happy experience as by this time we knew all the family.

Then in the afternoon we went to the Vatican.  These days it seems you have to queue for everything, but it was the quickest moving queue and took about 10 minutes.  Once inside, the singing was amazing as there was a mass in progress.  Certainly added Easter atmosphere.  Leanne came out with a crook neck and her mouth still open - this is only her 5th European church she's been in, and she is completely overwhelmed.  After leaving the Vatican - we did spent quite a long time there - we did our usual and wandered back through some very picturesque alleyways, had our daily gelato, and caught a very late bus home.  We had all decided we were still too full from lunch to be wanting any dinner, and we'd had large gelatos each anyway.  Unfortunately, by the time we got back, I was in dire need of something.  So we went up to Pat & Mimo's apartment and Pat & Sue asked if I'd like a sandwich.  I thought they'd come out with something like a peanut butter sandwich.  You could tell I wasn't well because I'd obviously clearly forgotten their meals.  Pat said she had a "little smoked salmon" and so out came some wonderful crusty toasted bread piled high with smoked salmon.  The others looked at this and thought it would be rude not to join me.  Within minutes it seemed, Pat had whipped out another tablecloth from her collection and the table was covered with dishes of lasagne, sardines, mixed salad of carrots, tomato & fennel drizzled with olive oil (actually extremely tasty), a dish of mozarella & tomato that Mimo had just pulled out of the oven (talk about seriously good ....), a home made 'salami', plates of brie and gorgonzola, a home made chocolate & coffee gelato dish, fresh strawberries, liquer easter cake and easter eggs.  This was all at 10:30pm and while I did have my "sandwiches" the rest of us all tucked in with gusto.  Pat and Mimo are totally amazing - they enjoy all of this.  As we obviously do!