Pisa

While looking for a parking space in Pisa, I couldn’t help but remember Kenna’s story of driving round and round trying to get to the tower but somehow always missing it. There is a huge wall around the Field of Miracles, probably to prevent tourists from catching a glimpse without running the gauntlet of tacky souvenir stands. The closer you get to the tower, the less you can see it and the city around the tower is not all that swanky, let me tell you. That coupled with the fact that many Italian cities have hefty fines for unlucky tourists who mistakenly drive in the “forbidden” zones creates a sort of angst when approaching tourist sites. Much of the driving in Italy is a sort of guessing game, though. What is the car at the stop sign going to do? Why is the car ahead of us drifting into our lane? Why are speed limits posted? It’s all part of the fun.

We did find a spot to park and we didn’t get fined…I don’t think. They send it to your home address so since our address is posted as the man we bought the car from, we’ll find out when we take the car to resell it to him if we’ve got any fines. Again, a sort of surprise the tourist kind of sport.

The most interesting thing about Pisa is that the whole city leans, not just the tower. It is built on unstable soil which apparently didn’t stop construction and as the buildings have stood for centuries turned out to be not all that big a deal. Personally, I would feel a wee bit uncomfortable entering my sagging home each night. Is this the night the house collapses? It does add to the tourist charm.

The tower was breathtaking. It is another one of those icons that makes you feel honoured to just be in its presence. I stood on the same tower as Galileo and I was tempted…oh, so tempted, to drop something over the side…but they all came back down the stairs with me in the end. The climb to the top was like something out of a fun house. Though you can see the angle from the outside, it doesn’t have the same impact as trying to climb the staircase that spirals around up to the top. The stairs start out quite steep and then suddenly you feel almost like you are going down the stairs as you circle around. It plays with your sense of balance, making your head feel a bit woozy like three or four glasses of wine can do.

We also visited the Baptistry and the Duomo (read: church) where Galileo got his inspiration during the Sunday service. He was watching the pendulum motion of the incense burner and noticed it took the same amount of time no matter how wide the arc, (see picture below). This just creates some lovely images for me. How did he get the thing swinging? What was the rest of the congregation doing? How many were swinging? Are all sermons this much fun? And how did Galileo manage to make the connection between the party time in the duomo with measuring the universe?

The whole Field of Miracles was gorgeous, white and green. The buildings were white. The lawn was green. We did only spend half the day there, though, because we wanted to cycle the rampart walls in Lucca.

We rented bicycles and did our thing on the walls. The walls were crowded with people so cycling wasn't so much about enjoying the view as cleverly negotiating the human obstacle course. However, we managed to get around more than once. As we went for our second round, the sky grew dark, thunder rumbled and sure enough, water began to dump from above. The kids were far ahead so Tom and I ducked beneath a tree to wait it out. Most of the wall-walkers were doing the same thing and there was a certain feeling of camraderie as we all huddled together.

The rain seemed to lift after a while so we hurried to catch up with the kids but we hadn't gotten far when it became hard to see so we stopped again under a tree. We were pretty sure we were close to where we were supposed to meet the kids so we decided to make another break for it. By the time we got within sight of them, the rain was coming down so hard, sheets of water were running in rivers along the wall. The kids were both out in the deluge cycling in circles without a care in the world. Ah, youth. We managed to convince them to come down to where we had rented the cycles and huddle under a doorway. We had to yell above the roar of water falling to make ourselves understood. Finally, the clouds had spent themselves and it stopped. The sun came out and it warmed up. However, the damage was done. We were all completely soaked. We skipped the rest of the town and headed to the car, hoping to dry out on our drive home.

Our car has an unusual feature just above the rearview mirror. There is a vent of some sort, though I'm not sure why. It obviously leads to the outside because when it rains, water gathers inside and as the car turns a corner, that water turns on like a tap. This is quite hilarious to the rest of the car passengers as the tap is centred directly over me. So, as the family dried out, I endured the frequent spouts of water. I am pretty sure that Tom takes those corners hard just to see it happen.

This day was the first of many like it. The day would start hot and sunny and in the late afternoon the clouds would roll in, the wind would pick up and suddenly it would get dark. Boom! The thunder would begin, then the lightning and pretty much within an hour there would be torrential rain. It was always warm, although the temperature would drop by up to 15 degrees. We got caught in these torrents more than once but by the time we started carrying an umbrella in the sunshine, the weather stabilized. Naturally.

Florence

Florence was my favourite big city in Italy…so far. It may have been helped by the fact that we parked our car in a lot overlooking the city and walked down into it. I don’t know what it is about having a view into the city but each of the places where we’ve had a walk down into the city has left memorable impressions. Bath, Prague and Florence all stand out as favourite experiences. We visited Florence three times and each time was just as wonderful. We ate lunch at the same delicious lunch place, had gelato at the same delicious gelato place and wandered many of the same atmospheric streets.

Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance. I think I would have enjoyed the Renaissance. I certainly enjoy it today. The period of time they call the Renaissance was a “rebirth” of a love for humanism. The Middle Ages were all about doom and gloom. People toiled their whole lives to get into heaven. There were rules about what to wear, what to eat, what to say, where to live, who to marry and so on. Severe punishments were handed out for transgressions such as “gossip” and “drunkenness”. All art was to the glory of God which may not seem such a bad thing but there were rules about what THAT could look like as well. Art from the Middle Ages all looks the same: nary a countryside scene or bowl of fruit to be had. It’s all pictures of that "Lady and her Baby" as Tom has taken to saying. The church had an iron grip on the land and instead of using it to help the people flourish, the leaders became corrupt in their power and used the money to surround themselves with lavish wealth in the name of God. God’s name was used to murder and torture citizens, conquer new lands and peoples and generally keep the population terrified.

Renaissance was an awakening from the “darkness”. In fact, the term, “Dark Ages” was coined by the thinkers of the Renaissance. I think it is quite fascinating that the Renaissance took hold right in the heart of Italy, close to the epicenter of the Catholic church. The Renaissance men (women hadn’t yet gained a voice) were accomplished in a variety of areas. Leaders were charismatic people who were good looking, athletic, learned and religious. They were also rich and used their wealth to support genius. For the first time in centuries, genius flourished. This was the era of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Gallileo, Botticelli, Shakespeare and Raphael. It was finally “cool” to sit around and philosophize again. Debate was embraced and the words of Aristotle, Socrates and Plato were bandied about once more. Imagine what a joyful and promising time it must have been, filled with a sense of hope and possibility. Okay, so they were also killing each other off at a surprising rate as they all fought to be top dog, but still.

Florence was ruled by the Medici family, a family of doctors who made good. That's their house to the left. They were not nobility but managed to be perhaps the first middle class family to use the “American Dream” to claw and scrape their way into the upper class. Once there, they gloried in it. They have palazzo’s, gardens and numerous structures to prove it. They even had a covered walkway built from work to home as you can see in the picture of the covered bridge above. The walkway starts in the building in the foreground. Now that's rich. Yet, they supported genius. Without the Medici family we probably wouldn’t have Michelangelo, who was raised as an adopted son by the Medici’s. Anyone who has ever seen the Sistine Chapel knows what a tragedy missing Michelangelo would have been.

We visited the art galleries over several days. The galleries are not huge and exhausting. They actually have reasonable quantities of art spread out in understandable sequences. I loved seeing “David”. Did you know he is 14 feet tall? I didn’t realize he was so big! Imagine the size of the giant! The picture you see is not the original, of course. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum. This is a much smaller substitute idling in the same spot the original used to stand. Michelangelo “freed” him from the stone as a decoration for the top of the Duomo but everyone loved him so much he never made it to the top. Instead, he stood in a piazza where people could get up close and personal with him. He resides indoors at the Accademia now in order to protect him from the elements. We’ve seen what can happen to art left outdoors for 2000 years and it’s not pretty. I have to say, though, that while David was awesome in a “there he is!” kind of way, I liked Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne better. However, I like the message David conveys. Florence used David as their symbol of power. David is the boy who conquered a giant. His is the story that says, “believe in yourself, aim high and there is no obstacle too large to overcome”.

Speaking of large obstacles, a surprising number of vehicles drive the narrow streets with all the pedestrians. We took the picture above to show you that it is often hard to see the cars because they are mostly smaller than the people swarming around them. These are not golf carts. They are city cars. You can see the power cord coming out the back of the black one. They plug in like cell phones.

Our Home in Tuscany

I have heard from a lot of you that you are worried we have met with some ill fate. Well, 'tis not so. We have a terrible internet connection here and it is hard to upload pictures. That coupled with the fact my children are working like dogs to finish their online coursework leaves little opportunity for me to get blogs out to you. However, in the interest of alleviating your concerns, this is where we are:

We’re in Scrofiano, Italy. We've been here for the past three weeks with one more to go. From here, we've explored Tuscany, visiting Florence, Pisa, Siena and so on as daytrips. Scrofiano is a small village perched on low hill in view of several other small villages perched on several other low hills. The weather is wonderful with warm, sunny days in the mid to high 20’s. We’ve had several cloudy evenings and even a couple of lightning storms to entertain us at night but our days have been gorgeous.

The place we’re staying is just through the arched gate of the little medieval village. I think the building must be owned by the host but we are the only ones staying here right now. We are in an apartment on the second floor and have a beautiful view of the Tuscany countryside.

It is easy to forget we are in an apartment because there are two floors. The main floor has a large kitchen, large bathroom with Jacuzzi tub and a large living/dining area with windows overlooking the great view. The furniture is mostly antique. One of the cabinets in the kitchen must be at least two hundred years old. The age of the furniture gives our whole place a lovely woodsy smell. The staircase to the second floor is new but has an interesting creak to it none-the-less.
Upstairs there are three bedrooms with enough space for all of us to stretch out. The top floor is the top of the building so the ceilings of the rooms are low and slanted. This seems charming until you have to live in one. None of us can stand up straight in all parts of the room and it is incredible how much is located in the area you cannot stand up in. Tom has bashed his head a few times. There is also a full bathroom with shower. Both of our bathrooms have a bidet. The upstairs one Tom has turned into a bag lined waste basket.
Our bedroom is the real gem of the place. We have French doors leading out to a large balcony overlooking the Tuscan land. We’ve dragged a couple of chairs up to sit out and enjoy the view. The weather is warm enough that we can sit out well into the evening now, sipping our Chianti and feeling the eternal summer of our year away.

Interestingly, all of us have been feeling like coming home recently. We were told this would hit about six months in but it has been ten months now. I think it is happening because our thoughts are turning more and more to what we will return to in Canada. It is funny to feel like our vacation is coming to an end when we have about two months left! That’s longer than almost all of our previous vacations put together!

The Amalfi Coast

We spent the last four days peeking into the world of the rich and famous along the Amalfi Coast.

We, of course, stayed at a campground in a very old camper/mobile just to be sure we didn’t lose touch with our roots. The weather was cool with spots of drizzle but we did get to see the sun most of the time. It is probably a good thing the weather was not spectacular because we may not have wanted to leave otherwise.

We spent a day on the isle of Capri. This island looked a lot like you could find sirens hiding in alcoves along the coast but, of course we all know they perished when Ulysses tied himself to his mast a sailed on through them, forcing them to think they had lost their substantial charms. There is another island nearby named for Ulysses, probably as a great big thank you. I mean, who wants to perish in the arms of a slinky siren? There may no longer be seductive women creatures luring one in but their seductive song is certainly still there. The island itself seemed pretty close to paradise to me.

Once the coast was free of monsters, the Roman emperors began to take notice of it. Tiberius traded something or other for the rights to call the island his own and lived there for some time. The ruins of his palace are still there. He also made good use of the “Blue Grotto” which some of you may have heard of. This is a cave that can only be entered by lying flat in a small boat and using the waves to help wash you in. Once inside, the light reflects through the water to create an ambient blue colour, highly romantic and a powerful aphrodisiac for the ancient Romans. Perhaps for locals, too? It is thought they may have had statues of Poseidon and other water powers rising out of the water back in the day. We didn’t actually go into this cave. Being the common rabble we are, we watched others enjoy their two minute ride. They were charging around 12 euros for the privilege and for our family that would translate into about $70 for a two minute glimpse. Plus, there’s nothing romantic about packing into a small hole with hordes of tourists.

Although we missed out on the blue cave, we got to see the green cave and the white cave. You don’t lie flat in a boat but they were both pretty spectacular. We also stopped at the island for the day and did lots of walking. We took the chairlift to the top and on our arrival I heard Rhys say to Julia, “Some people would call this paradise”. I’m not sure if that meant he certainly wouldn’t or if he was awed by the amazing scene the same as me. Once again, I was moved to tears. We watched the birds fly around the cliffs below us and felt like we could see clear to the other side of the world. I can well understand why Tiberius called this home. Apparently, Churchill and Eisenhower also met here during the Second World War for a little R&R.

Our second day here we visited Pompeii. It was fantastic. It reminded us all a lot of Ephesus but not as wealthy. The columns here were made of brick covered in marble and the roads were stone with narrow sidewalks. The rich and poor lived all together with no elite neighbourhoods and you could see that this town was a working town. There was evidence of roadwork and restoration that had been happening when the volcano exploded. You can see in the picture the chariot slots in the foreground of the road and then they disappear because the road had been “repaved”. There were stones in the middle of the roads that acted as crosswalks. The chariots were high enough to rise over them. The roads were sunk down lower than sidewalk level and every night the Romans would flood the streets to clean them. The stones would allow people to cross the street without getting their feet wet. Three stones in the middle was a two way street. One stone was a one way street. They also had stones blocking entry into pedestrianized areas like the Forum. These significant features made the city feel real and the lives of the people who lived there seem more like our own. The houses even had stonework out front that took the place of doormats we have today. One said, “Cave Canem” meaning “Beware of Dog” and another said, “Have” meaning “Welcome”.

While the city came alive with these meaningful signs, the whole mood of the town was like Ordour Sur Glane, the French village annihilated by the Nazis. It had the creepy feel of “something bad happened here”. Vesuvius rose ominously in the background. The two bodies on display were eternally frozen in their death throws and it was fascinating in a horrifying way. You could feel the terror of their final moments. I didn’t realize that most of the people here escaped. There were only about 2000 of 20 000 bodies found in the city. Thankfully, most had time to get out.

One of the funnier moments in amongst the solemnity was finding the “Lego” brick. I didn’t know the Romans played with Lego too!

On our final day we drove the famous Amalfi Coast. Tom drove. The rest of us oohed and ahhed. This is a very slow Whistler drive with narrower roads and higher drops. At some points they have police officers helping cars squeeze around corners. It was most interesting being behind a camper because whenever he got around the corner or past the bus, we knew we were fine. Do you know the difference between a French car and an Italian one? The French car has a myriad of small dents and bumps on it. The Italian one has one long scrape along the side. Tom met someone he knew from work while we were in Amalfi. Isn’t Italy just the gathering place for us all? His colleague had just scraped up the side of the rental car trying to squeeze past a bus.

I’m glad we came to visit the Amalfi Coast. The towns nestle or cling, depending on where they are located. Most of the coast is cliff but it really doesn’t seem to deter human inhabitation. The area didn’t scream farmland to me, but someone along the way just saw those cliffs as a challenge as you can see by the picture. There isn't much people won't build on the side of a cliff. After catching glimpses of the resorts clinging spectacularly to the sides of the cliffs, I’ve decided our next trip I’d like to come back independently wealthy.

The Holly Mother visits the Vatican

The Vatican Museum was truly an inspiration. The statues were endless and mostly fully formed. You actually could see what the statue was meant to be holding. It turns out the Greeks and Romans DID have arms and noses. There were so many statues that one had a sense of being in amongst the people of that time. They were dressed differently and had different hairstyles but in the end, they looked a lot like the people walking down the street today. The statues were all made of various people of the day. There were no cameras so instead you’d have a statue of grandpa in the garden. Sound good, Vern? Ian? We realized we had way too few statues around our house. Guess what you’re all getting for Christmas next year?

We wandered through miles (literally) of rooms filled with amazing art, often the walls and ceiling were amazing art as well. The maps room was wonderful with huge wall maps of various places in Italy. There were rooms with frescoes painted by Raphael with a particularly interesting painting called “School of Athens” in which he honoured various figures of the day by painting them as the ancient great thinkers. Leonardo da Vinci is seen as Plato, for example. Apparently, Raphael included Michelangelo only as an afterthought. The great artists of the time competed for patron money and many didn’t get along because of this. Michelangelo was not known for his charming personality but when Raphael snuck a peek at the Sistine Chapel in progress, he realized he had to include Michelangelo in his work on the wall or so the story goes.

The Sistine Chapel was indeed worth the entry fee. The frescoes are inspirational and the fact that Michelangelo painted this for four years while standing up made my neck hurt. I am surprised that Leonardo da Vinci didn’t get into the game and invent something to support the poor man’s neck while he painted. One of the other surprises was that the chapel was not a dome but an arch over a rectangular room. I’m not sure why we thought it was a dome but it wasn’t…and still isn’t. It was almost overwhelming being in the presence of art that great. We spent about half an hour in the chapel, though I think I could have spent longer, especially if the rest of the yahoo tourists were gone. It must be quite a place when you are alone, with only the artistic visions of a genius to inspire you. Surrounded by all of those great faces and philosophical messages in the silence of your own thoughts would be a heady experience.

After the chapel, we headed over to Saint Peter’s Basilica. I have to say this was my favourite. I just loved the history attached to it. The basilica is huge. Did you know the shape of the Christian church is largely based on the Roman basilica? This particular basilica was built over the bones of Saint Peter. Saint Peter, jazzed by the resurrected Christ, came to Rome to spread the gospel to the pagans here. He was not well received and the emperor of the time, Nero, decided to kill him.

The whole area where Saint Peter’s square and basilica sit used to be a chariot race course (circus) during Roman times. During the half time break at the races, they would provide entertainment. Apparently, killing Christians was considered half time entertainment and Saint Peter was killed here. He was hung upside down on the cross because he didn’t feel worthy of being crucified the way Christ had been. There is a chapel in the basilica that is supposedly the site of this crucifixion. He was buried not far from where he died and the mound was secretly observed as a memorial until Constantine converted the whole empire a couple hundred years later and then the huge basilica was built. There is an Egyptian obelisk in the centre of Saint Peter’s square that watched the crucifixion when the area was a race course. I avoid saying “circus” because let’s face it; if you have visited Saint Peter’s square you know it is still a circus, just not a chariot race track. The obelisk was brought back when Egypt was swallowed into the vast Roman Empire.

Bernini had a hand in most of the architecture and decoration inside the church, although the famous Pieta by Michelangelo also lives there. It is protected by bulletproof glass after some maniac with a hammer tried to add his mark to it. Bernini has a lot of amazing works throughout Rome and would have had more but the Pope who championed him died and the succeeding Pope didn’t like him. Same old story: it’s not what you know but who you know.

We saw two Bernini statues in the Gallery Borghese that were just amazing. The gallery isn’t part of the Vatican and you need a reservation to get in. It was well worth it. One was “The Rape of Proserpine” and the other was “Apollo and Daphne”. I think those may be my favourite works of marble so far. The statue of Hades and Proserpine showed where Hades fingers were biting into Proserpine’s flesh as he held her. That and the tears on her face made the stone practically look alive. Painted, it must have been eerily real. In the statue of Apollo chasing Daphne, Bernini managed to freeze the movement of Apollo in such a way as to make it look real. His clothes are flying out behind him and his foot looks as though he is just pulling it in for another great stride. The leaves on the branches growing around Daphne also look delicate and alive. Rick said they actually make a ringing sound when hit by a hammer. I’d like to know who decided to hit the statue with a hammer.

One other titillating tidbit about the gallery: the Cardinal who was responsible for gathering all the art there was a piece of work in his own right. He stole much of the art there through nefarious means. At least once, he had the owner of the art thrown in prison on a trumped up charge and then offered to let the owner out for a few of the owner’s precious art pieces. Another time the piece disappeared out of a home and reappeared some years later in his, acquired as a “donation” to the church. So you really couldn’t work up too much sympathy when you learned that Napoleon had “purchased” a lot of the collection under force. When Napoleon fell out of favour, the art couldn’t be returned because it had been paid for. It is at the Louvre now. I guess the prohibitive costs of the art prevented even the wealthy from buying it.

After our previous whining about the high costs and mediocre quality of museums in Rome, we realized we had saved the best for last. Skip the rest of the museums and blow your art budget at the Vatican and the Gallery Borghese.

Roman Vacation

We found a cheap apartment just outside Rome which was nice but increased travel time. The good news was we didn’t have to drive. Drivers in Italy push insane European driving to new heights. Just when you think you have seen it all, someone does something else. You think the North American drivers are pushy and sometimes rude? A red light here may mean stop to some or simply a challenge to work on their Mario gaming skills to others. Signaling someone behind you that you will be merging into their lane is unnecessary because they can’t see your rear bumper anyhow.

Motorcycles are above the law, needing neither to stop nor follow lines on the road. They can ride between lanes. They can come up in front of traffic at a red light and scoot on through. They can merge into your lane and out again without even looking to see if you noticed and usually not one but many do this at a time. They are never-ending ribbons that wave through traffic; ribbons that you mustn’t hit but you never quite know where they will blow. It adds a unique challenge to the driving task.

Our travel time into Rome without a car was about half an hour…after we figured out the multiple trains, subways and buses to take. Prior to that, it varied to up to two hours. It was all good, though. When you are on vacation, time isn’t really important. We have nowhere to be at any particular time so if it takes two hours, we just get to see more interesting places.

We visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill on day one. The Colosseum was anticlimactic. We had seen so many already and the audioguide in Nimes, France really couldn’t be beat. This was just review. Palatine Hill is where the Roman Emperors lived. Each one built another palace to try to outdo the one before. There isn’t much left of these today but the Hill is quite lovely. The Forum was my favourite part. Just walking down the stones that the emperors and Romans had trod so many centuries earlier was quite a thrill. We saw the burial memorial to Julius Caesar. His assassination took place elsewhere in the city as the senate was meeting at an alternate location that day.

The best part was the Hall of the Vestal Virgins. They were charged with keeping the “home fire” of Rome burning. This tradition had come from a time when fire was hard to come by. The earlier Romans (pre-Empire) lived in huts and kept a central fire tended 24/7. This tradition had been saved even though Rome was now greater than its collection of tribal huts. The virgins were interesting too. They were selected at around 6 years old and had to live in this location for thirty years. They were not allowed to have sex and if they were faithful to their task they would receive a huge dowry at the end. If not, they were tied to a funeral car and paraded through town, then taken to a crypt and buried alive. It wasn’t completely heartless though. They were given a lamp and a loaf of bread before they went into the crypt. Seems like a bit of an incentive to stay true to the cause to me but apparently several didn’t make it.

We visited many churches which were just over the top amazing. The ceilings and walls were still painted and the statues were exquisite. We saw Saint Theresa in Ecstasy by Bernini. He even had a hole in the ceiling so light would shine down on the statue. It was great. We saw the Pantheon where the empress Marguerita is buried. She’s the one who gave her name to the pizza. We saw the first church named after Saint Mary.

We did both of Rick’s walks around town. They were excellent and the high point of our time in the city. We found the admission prices had gone up significantly and some of the museums were not worth the price. The Trajan Market museum was nothing but a couple of videos, really. The rest of it you could see from the outside. That cost the family 22 Euros WITH the Roma Pass. The Capitoline Museums cost the family 40 Euros after the 18% discount with Roma Pass and while it was good, it didn’t have the bang of the Vatican. Kids didn’t get discounts and with the admissions being so high it left a bitter taste in our mouths. We found the statues and architecture outside were just as interesting. The Roma Pass was 25 Euros each and while it was worth it because of the transportation included, it really didn’t pay after the first two sights. Paris was much cheaper with a family.

The fountains and monuments on the streets of Rome are eye candy. We saw the Trevi fountain and made our wish while throwing a coin over our shoulder. It was built right on the side of a palace. Imagine having that water sound in your home all day. I wonder what it would look like on our house? We saw the Four Rivers fountain by Bernini. Each statue around the fountain represented a major river on one of the four known continents at the time. There was the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube and the Rio do la Plata. Heard of the Rio? It’s in Uruguay. We saw the Victor Emmanuel Monument, built to celebrate the unification of Italy in the late 1800’s. They took a long time to unify. Portugal got to it around 1100. At any rate, the monument is huge and white and looks like a poorly matched denture in amongst the faded grandeur of the real pearls. It is quite a controversial piece and while it is fantastic in its own right, it borders on tacky and boastful rather than glorious. Then again, how do you top the amazing historical monuments of an empire to celebrate bringing a country together? We sat on the Spanish Steps with the hordes of teenagers, lovers or otherwise. We ate at the first McDonalds in Italy.

And of course, we visited the Vatican and Saint Peter’s Basilica. We’ll save those for another blog.