Our last full day in Rome and another brilliant blue sky!
This morning we went searching for the church of St. Cecilia. I was pretty interested to see this church as St Cecilia is the patron saint of music (her feast day is also on my birthday!)
It was enormous! I couldn't get over how "just another church" to them was so huge.
Inside there was a nun practicing her organ ... a bit of a treat. It was really beautiful.
We wandered over a bridge that connected us to the old Jewish/Gothic area. We found a cafe and sat in the sun to enjoy our espresso. After a little mosey around we hopped on a bus (hoping it would take us to the Vatican) and made our way there for a tour of the inside.
Stopping for lunch near the Vatican we then headed to meet our tour guide. Thank god Todd had booked .. it was chaotic. Chaotic doesn't even cut it actually! The line stretched halfway around the block!!
We were able to skip it which was great but even our tour guide was saying how crazy it was. Rookie error visiting the Vatican on Holy Thursday I guess!!
We swung back to the Colosseum for one last look!
In the evening we had the chance to meet some of my Mum's family, who are Italian and live in Roma.
Annalisa had said "meet us out the front of the statue. We'll be in a blue ford fiat".
When we arrived there were three blue ford fiats parked and I suddenly realised I had no clue what she looked like!
We worked it out though .. she waved at us when she pulled up and said we looked like "lost Australian's" ... the fair skinned, tall pair of us gave it away I guess.
She took us to a restaurant on the outskirts of town that still serves traditional roman food.
It was bizarre ... and wonderful! I met my Mum's cousins Annalisa and Francesco, her other cousin Nicola and their wives and partners. Their broken english made us laugh at times .. trying to translate things that we just couldn't work out ...
They were so in awe and shocked when we showed them Todd's old family farm on the map. They couldn't believe the amount of space ... "Mumma mia!"
Annalisa is also a musician so it was really interesting talking to her and learning more about a very strong musical link that runs through the Torrebruno family.
A really special way to end the Rome trip.
