After a good night’s rest, we awoke a the crack of noon and set out to explore a bit more of Rome.

We walked down the road a bit to the Basilica Laterno, one of the original seats of the Catholic Church prior to the Vatican City being built.

They have confessionals with kneeling pads on each side, many have a language on the front, presumably so the priest can understand your confession.

The ceiling was covered with gold, very likely real gold. Painting were on every flat surface.

We then decided to go across the river to see a few things, walking down the streets, enjoying the sites. Unfortunately, we went down a road that angled a bit more than the one we wanted to walk down, both of which went off the bottom of our map. We ended walking about an hour and a half, before we came across a Metro station that we didn’t know about. We could have taken the Metro and saved ourselves a bunch of effort.

On the way, we saw our first gas station. It seems strange to not have seen any so far.

Finally we reached the river, then met a couple from Holland with two kids. We all walked towards a large church, but somehow missed the entire thing. Seems impossible to over look something of that size, but we did.

We also wanted to see a fountain nearby, but following the map, it was not anywhere on that road. Very likely on one of the very steep side streets that we were too tired from walking to climb.

Being so late in the afternoon and being nearby to the Vatican, there should be fewer people, so we followed the river there. It was also closer to the Metro than the station we had passed, so there was going to be less walking. Or so we thought.

We walked into St. Peter’s Square and up to the portico of the chapel, only to see we were on the exit side of the barriers. Circling round to the other side, we got into line and went through security. But instead of going straight into the chapel, we somehow end up in line to go to the top of the dome. OK, that seems cool, until Mom spots a sign stating there were over 300 steps to the top of the dome’s cupola. Oh, no!

The Pope was performing a service while we were there.

A quick walk up the road led us to the Metro, with a straight shot back, no transfers needed.

After more than six hours of walking, we had earned a good Chinese meal and a good night’s sleep.