Carol's Travels

After breakfast Mohammed took us on an early morning walking tour along the steep cobbled walkways as vendors were setting up their wares.  It is true that the city is painted blue.  

Women were washing clothes in the spring-fed stream that provides pure water to the city.

After the walking tour, we took about a 45-minute drive through the Rif Mountains to a farm for our home-hosted lunch.  On the bus ride there, we stopped to take pictures of a lady herding goats along the road to a grazing location.

Our host, a farmer, proudly showed us his gardens.  He  grows vegetables all year to feed his family, and he sells his honey and olive oil.  Hosting lunches for tour groups such as ours has made it possible to build some more buildings on his farm.

His wife and he have a 20-day-old baby girl and a 2-year-old daughter.

After he served us tea and delicious homemade cookies, he graciously answered all of our questions about his way of life.

For our meal we were first served appetizers: olives, eggplant, and tomatoes. Then for the main course, we had tanjine of goat and veggies.  After that, we ate tanjine of vegetables that had been picked and prepared by some of the people in our group.  

After lunch, Mohammed signaled for me to bring out Cha-Cha-Cha.  She sang the song to introduce herself, then gave a bag of California-made saltwater taffy to their cute little daughter.  She was fascinated with the puppet, and they interacted for at least thirty minutes.  The group then said goodbye.

This morning we met a special guide at 7:30 for a private tour through the Vatican Museum.  We walked to the entrance — no one else was ahead of us in this line.  She gave us a lot of background information about the Sistine Chapel at this time because no talking is allowed in the chapel.  No photos are allowed either.  At 8:00 we entered the museum and she pointed out some art work until we got to the chapel.  It was not crowded, so we got to sit and look up at the ceiling and walls without straining our necks.

When I was there in 1983, they were cleaning the ceiling.  This time the colors were vibrant, especially the blues.  Michelangelo painted the ceiling in five years, essentially living in the chapel.  Later he painted the front wall.  Rafael painted the side panels.

Michelangelo considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter.  Below is possibly one of his most famous statues.  A mad man tried to destroy it in the 1970’s so they repaired it and shielded it from visitors getting close.

In a lower level of the Vatican there are tombs of popes.  St. Peter’s Tomb is there, but no pictures can be taken of it.  Here is St. Nicholas’ tomb.

The Vatican Museum

After the museum, we walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch.  I had a delicious eggplant dish.  Then we walked to Lodovico’s favorite gelato place.  They make their own gelato with fresh fruit.  I had a cone with dips of strawberry and peach gelato.  Delicious!

We took taxis to the square near the house of the President. A president serves a 7-year term in Italy.  We met our local guide, Toni, there.  We then walked to the underground archaeological ruins of the City of Water.  Below you see the bathroom.

Trevi Fountain was next.

We passed a Pinocchio store.

Gelato break!

Just around the corner from Don Nino’s Gelato was the Parthenon.

The beloved artist, Rafael, was buried here.

One of the oldest libraries in the world:  Biblioteca Angelica.  Still in use today, they use the card catalog system.