June 22

This has been a phenomenal day!  We started with Vatican City... We got to bypass the 1000s of people waiting in lines and go right in.  We toured some of the galleries...like the tapestry gallery which is full of...you guessed it, tapestries!  The Candelabra gallery, and one that I didn't hear the name that was considered the heart of the Vatican museum.  It has a huge copper globe-like thing that was a symbol of the idea that Vatican City is the heart of the world.  There were more...

Next... The Sistine Chapel!  Oh my!!!

Our guide told us it was the same size as Solomon's Temple.... The Pope (I think it was him) only wanted it decorated with frescoes...not gold or jewels.  He asked Michaelangelo to paint it, but he felt others were better painters...seeing himself as a sculpturer and an architect.  The Pope liked him and wanted him to do the painting...which, of course he did!  It took him 4 years to paint the ceiling... And then later, it took 6 years to paint The Last Judgement which is one full wall.

We had authentic Italian pizza for lunch ...everyone had their own pizza !  But first ...for an appetizer, we had mussels!  If you know me, I do not eat them-no way... But what do you do when you're a leader and have been talking about trying new things????  Well, I ate 4, that's FOUR of those delicious little critters as did most of the delegates!

A majority of us stayed around this square for awhile ... while others went back to the Vatican with Amir to pick up their backpacks that had been checked while we were on our tour.

"What a great dad!" many of our delegates were saying.

These guys were EVERYWHERE trying to sell sunglasses, purses, etc...

Matching hats and fans~

Our appetizer of mussels!

They played for us at lunch...and then the little boys came around hoping for coins...which our delegates gave.

Look at all the cell phones up taking photos of the musicians!

 From lunch, we took the subway to the Spanish Steps.  Before taking off, the delegation was broken up into groups for their next activitiy... maneuvering through the streets of Rome to find answers to questions...they had 2.5 hours to find 5 sites and answer questions.

We then rode the subway (the delegates were SO excited to ride it) to the Spanish Steps where they were divided into 6 teams for a scavenger type hunt through Rome. Each team was given a quiz and 2 maps...and they had to maneuver theirselves through the streets of Rome to 5 different monuments and answer questions from each site.  We were all to meet at Piazza Navona in 2 hours!  They all made it, but not necessarily after finding ALL the monuments.

 The Spanish Steps

 Crowded streets of Rome

 Roasting chestnuts!

 Trevi Fountain

Dinner and gelato was next...then our coach ride back to the hotel.

Well...there was LOUD music playing near the hotel when we returned.  Come to find out, it was a senior citizen dance club.  Guess who joined the party?  30 of our 39 delegates went and danced with the members of the club...and with each others.  It was SO much fun!  I'm totally bummed that I can't get the photos on here right now.  I definitely will when I return.  Nick had a little short Italian lady that danced with him a lot!  The girls all wore dresses and the boys dressed up too.  Steve, Amir, and I went and Lynne and Jodi stayed back with those who didn't want to go.  What a great time it was...definitely we elevated those senior citizen's views of American teenagers!  They moaned when we left....

We're off to a new destination in the morning!

We'll miss you, Roma...it's been an amazing time!