June 24 - Mouth of Truth, Castle Sant' Angelo Museum & St. Peter's Basilica

After watching Roman Holiday with the girls before we left, we knew that inserting our hand into the Mouth of Truth was going to be a big stop for us!  Today was the day.  Jack took the girls to a museum close by while I stood in the line.  It was surprisingly fast moving and I had to let a whole bus-load of Korean tourists ahead of me to give Jack and the girls time to arrive.  Once we took the obligatory photo, we toured the attached basilica and then went to lunch.  You know you are in Europe when the secondi menu items are pigeon, cuttlefish, sweetbreads, cod, anchovies and veal tripe.  I’ll have the cod, please!  Interestingly, each table had little matchbox toy cars on them as a decoration, something that the chef enjoyed as a child.  They came in very handy indeed – it’s all the girls played with for our entire meal!

After that, we stopped at Castle Sant' Angelo Museum and then went on to St. Peter's Basilica.  The girls climbed all 320 steps to reach the observation area of the dome!  There was a little nervousness as we started up and a whole lot of high-fiving when we got down!  Nice job, team!  We then toured the basilica itself and it is splendid!  Jacqui was having a hard time enjoying anything at that point and Natalie just wanted to run so we had to pack it in.  It threatened to rain all afternoon but we managed to avoid a downpour!  After coming home for a bit of chillax time, we headed off to a restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner.

Jack took the girls for gelato while I stood in line at the basilica and Jacqui said "I think I'm maxed out on gelato!  I don't want any!"  What?!?  How are we ever going to convince them to bend to our will if we no longer have gelato with which to bribe them?!?  Luckily Natalie (who pronounces it gelacho) and Charlotte have not abandoned this sweet treat.  And Jack, who gave up ketosis the moment we left home for SFO, is always looking for an excuse to indulge!