I am more interested in the Etruscans so we head back and up another flight of stairs known as the Assyrian Stairway and turn to our right.  Wow!  This place is just crammed with amazing pieces of artwork collected throughout the centuries!  One of the most amazing groups are the pieces found in the Regolini-Galassi tomb which was excavated in 1836 at the necropolis of Cerveteri.   A tomb was found intact and from it they found everyday household items, a throne, a bed, and a funeral cart--all in bronze.  Along with that there are beautiful vases, terracotta statues, etc.  When people say that the Catholic Church owns a lot of the major art of the world, they are speaking truth!

As it is close to our assigned time for lunch at 11, we head to the restaurant.  We get in line--isn't that what a great portion of one's time is spent in?  Lines?  Yep!  Finally we head into the cafe line--as we opted for the full Italian lunch--we are in Rome after all--there is a choice of 2 pastas, chicken cutlets, salad, tuna salad, bread, cake, and water.  Not very exciting but okay and quick.

Once we have eaten we head back into the bowels of the Museum--time to head down the other wing and take the trek through the Renaissance rooms ending with the Sistine Chapel.  It is just one amazing room of paintings, frescoed ceilings, and statues after another.  Just before the Sistine Chapel is a room of modern art--people give it a glance and just keep going. What were they thinking?  Why look at this stuff when you are sated with Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Titian, etc.?  And then it is into the Sistine Chapel--the one place in the Museum one is not supposed to take photos!  Now why is that?  It's not like it really is any different?  Since it is so crowded and people everywhere have their cameras out, I take a quick photo of the ceiling and the Final Judgment at the end of the Chapel.   The Sistine Chapel was of course painted by Michelangelo at the direction of Pope Julius II.  Michelangelo didn't want to do it as he saw himself as a sculptor not a painter, but eventually he was convinced to do it.  Michelangelo spent 4 years covering the ceiling with frescoes--5900 square feet which is really amazing!'  Even with all this I was rather underwhelmed!  The chapel was crowded and of course so far away one can barely see the paintings--plus there is no place to sit so one is craning one's neck back to try to see.  Good grief!  So we wandered on out and bought a book about it so we could actually see the paintings.  Mike did say it was much brighter than when he was there in the 1970s--they have spent several years carefully cleaning the frescoes.  We also bought a DVD of the treasures of the Museum and some magnets.  As you all know I buy magnets everywhere we go.  This time we head down the spiral stairway which goes from steps to a ramp--rather scary for those of us who don't see too well!

So having finished the museum tour we head out to get a taxi and find the Pontifical University.   We finally find a taxi driver--one of the Roman con artists who charged us an outrageous amount and then dropped us off several blocks from our destination.  He told us that he couldn't drive any nearer--odd, isn't it since many other taxis did.  Once to the office we collected our tickets for the Papal audience tomorrow, listened to the nun tell us the things to do tomorrow so we can find our seats, and collected our free rosaries.  Then we got directions from one of the seminarians to get to the Trevi Fountain which is not far from here.

The Trevi Fountain is lovely and looks as it does in the movies--except it was SO crowded!  Most people think that it has been here for a long time but actually it was completed in 1762.  The site originally marked the end of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct built in 19 BC--isn't that just unbelievable?  And the water from many of these aqueducts still runs.   No cars are allowed near the fountain so one comes around a corner and there it is surrounded by buildings and just writhing with people.  People were just everywhere--we threw our requisite coins in and then sat on the edge to get our photo taken.  Apparently one can sit on the marble rim but we couldn't get close enough so we sat on the rock edge--uh-oh!  That's a no-no.  The police came and sent us away.

Before we left the area we stopped at Santa Maria di Trivio--a small church at the corner of the square.  This church was built in the 1750s and its facade is just "stuck" onto the building behind and includes several false windows.  It is thought that the name actually means St. Mary at the meeting of three roads.  Hmm.  It makes sense as there are small streets that spiral out from the Trevi Fountain.  So we wandered down one of the streets and stopped at some little shops along the way.  Then we hailed a taxi and headed back to the hotel.

Once we had dropped our books, bags, and souvenirs in the room, we headed up the street for dinner.  Pizza for all of us tonight!  Tammy had pizza a la funghi with sausage and cheese, Mike had pizza with red and white sauce, and I had pizza fungi with red sauce. Tammy had a stuffed fried squash blossom and tea to drink.  Mike and I shared a green salad and each had a glass of house red wine.  Food was not amazing but good and it was lovely to just enjoy being in Rome.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Le 2 Colonne Romana for some pastries for dessert.   This is a little spot just a couple of doors from our hotel that has pastries, drinks, food, mini-mart type stuff, etc.  It opens early and stays open late so it is very handy to have near by.  We are very tired as usual so we head to our rooms. Tomorrow we have to be up early for our visit to Vatican City and the Papal Audience.