More Roman food and...an unexpected visit to the Vatican

Walking down Via Giulia to the Farnese palace to visit the French Embassy we passed this sign on a  large, serious looking building...

not sure if this is a special section of the police department in Rome but some very official looking uniformed men were standing at the door and there were many unmarked police cars parked in the area(they had a blue removable light on the roof).

After our visit we went out to dinner in a popular and very good restaurant:

it is located on a small street close to the river and the Ponte Umberto I. Here is what the table looked like for antipasti :

and my plate:

celery in olive oil and vinegar, fennel, spiced mushrooms, olives, zucchini fried and then tossed in olive oil(pretty much my favorite), eggplant two different ways, fritatta, spiced cooked beans and Roman style meatballs...just looking at the picture makes me hungry all over again!

We went over the Ponte Umberto I and from there you can see St. Peter's Cathedral:

Today, Tuesday, we visited the Vatican. I am going to show you some of the things that I liked...I was amazed at how extensive the art collection is and also how much walking we did from section to section. I wonder if the pope ever goes over for his own private stroll through when the gates are closed in the evening?:

I loved the colors in this particular piece. It was in a group of several angels playing musical instruments. 

Then there was this wonderful icon among many others:

It was really quite small but really appealed to me.

Then what about these pieces of Etruscan jewelry: a necklace

and a breast plate:

The map room was really quite beautiful with a decorative ceiling and maps of the Roman empire painted on the walls. This was a really long gallery and every inch of the ceiling was covered:

Here is part of the map of Provence...you can see Carpentras, Venasque, St. Didier, Pernes among other towns in one my own favorite parts of the world! It was great seeing this.

We even had to have a photo in front of it...JC looks like he has a mission in mind:

There was also this very interesting angle of Corsica. I think it is painted from the perspective of how it might look from Rome??? See Bonifacio at the top? 

There was some Matisse and an interesting contemporary piece made from screw-off tops of bottles in metal. I forgot to note the artist's name unfortunately:

here is a detail:

A few views out of a window and down a long staircase hall:

St. Peter's peeking around the corner:

Of course this is not even the tip of the iceberg and if you want to really see what is in the Vatican I suggest you get to the library and find one of the many books filled with the art. There were people taking constant photos or walking around with a movie camera perched on their shoulder but I just wanted to take a few pictures and then BE in the place with the art. I think I can always remember what it felt like even without a million pictures.

Here are the guards outside of the Cathedral...they seemed to be enjoying themselves... I like those bold stripes that is for sure! The sleeves are interesting too.

Et voilà... tickets from the Farnese (large one on top) and the Vatican...it was an adventure!