Behind the T-walls: Roma R&R part 3

I needed to get this last draft finished, because Andrea's posting about her trips to Tunisia and Lebanon and the UK, and I haven't posted anything about my trips to Morocco and Babylon yet! I'm still stuck in March! So here's a final recap of my pictures from Rome!

This post kind of got away from me, what with all the pictures. I guess I could have split it into two, but nevermind that. Just read, watch the video (below), and enjoy!

This is the square where they dropped us off after the cooking class. I just took off on foot and and decided to see what there was to see!

The Church of the Four Fountains:

There's a church near the Presidential Palace, Quirinale. Of course I went inside:

Walking from the Quirinale to Piazza Barbero:

Stumbling upon (but no ON) the Spanish Steps, and the Trinità dei Monti church as the sun was starting to set:

I know it's probably a little intrusive, but I really couldn't resist the composition here. I probably watched these young lovers for 10 minutes, maybe it's because I felt so lonely in the eternal city, it was nice to see some affection there.

The next day, I got up early. I couldn't wait to get to Mass at the Vatican! Greeted by the Shepard. Seriously, after months of not having access to Mass (because I'm in Iraq), it felt like coming home. This may be the biggest church in the world, but I felt completely at peace here.

Peter receiving the "keys" from Jesus.

The Pieta.

The only black marble statue in the Vatican - Saint Peter and the Keys to Jesus' Church.

Saint Helene

Saint Andrew

Saint Veronica

Click me! This is a panorama of one of the doors to the Vatican showing something like the 12 contortions of prayer of a saint, or something like that...

After confession, adoration, and Mass, I decided to take a tour of the Dome.

 

I took the elevator most of the way up to this point, and then I walked up a bit farther. I got to see the underside of the dome pretty closely, and also the mosaics on the sides of the wall.

 

This was before I realized the horror that was to come. After this I went up the stairs I've ever seen in my entire life (I don't think Andrea could have done it, seriously). Spiral, narrow passage (barely enough room for one person, and hardly enough space for my tiny feet), and NO HANDRAIL. Also? You can't turn back if you get too scared because there is an army of people behind you! At the last part, all that there was was a rope hanging from the ceiling in case  you needed to hold on. I think they should hand out beatification to anyone to makes it up there, cause seriously...seriously, I was terrified.

Unfortunately, you don't get to be called "blessed" after making the trip, but you are given a view like this: 

And this! 

Going down was not nearly as scary as going up. I don't know why they couldn't just let you go up and down the good, easy stairs. Anyway, on the down, I stopped to look again at Saint Peter again:

Then, as you leave the Vatican area (on the way to the Castel Sant'Angelo) I passed this statue of the story of Saint Catherine of Siena

Once on the Angels Bridge, at the base of the fortress, I took time to listen to some street performers too!

These guys were great! Have a listen (FYI Andrea, they're playing Für Elise, in case you'd rather pass) :

From the bridge, I was on the lookout for a chocolate shop I'd heard about. I am so glad I can read a map! Unfortunately, the shop wasn't there anymore, so I just spent time being touristy:

Ciao!!!

The Pantheon, of course.

Then, continuing to Piazza Navona, where I enjoyed the fountains there: 

I finished with a late, leisurely lunch, and then walked back to my hotel. I had a flight the next morning! I can't wait to go back to Italy!

Easter Dessert Celebration

In my rush to say what a marvelous time I was having on my latest travel adventure I completely forgot to post about my Easter dessert celebration. Similar to my sugar coma birthday (in idea if not scale) I had some friends over for dessert. I gave up all junk foods during Lent and what I missed the most was sugar. So the day before I left the country for 2.5 weeks I decided to make a bunch of desserts.

I started out making what I call a Chocolate Covered Strawberry cake. This is the same as the White Chocolate Passion Fruit cake of a few years ago but with strawberries. This one is more fun though because you can put the fruit between the cake layers-a little hard to do with the neon yellow goo that is the passion fruit.

Between the two layers of cake I spread first a generous amount of ganache then put strawberry slices into the ganache. I let it sit a little while in the fridge to cool before putting on the second cake layer and more ganache. Once the top layer hardens it's ready to be covered with the white chocolate mousse.

Next I made German Chocolate Brownies. I used a box brownie mix (I think they're really good) and added shredded coconut and pecans. Then I made caramel as I did for the Rita Hayworth cake and poured it into the brownie batter.

Lesson learned: next time I'll pour the caramel in strips the short way rather than the long way. More caramel per square that way.

I also made raspberry macaroons with a recipe I got from Smitten Kitchen. Hers turned out much prettier than did mine but they still tasted good. I used frozen raspberries instead of fresh ones and I wonder if that was the difference. I'll have to try making them again soon. It was a really easy recipe since you're just blending things in a food processor which I appreciated as mine rarely gets a workout.

 Adding the sea salt to the coconut

 Then almond extract

 Next egg whites

 Finally raspberries

 I have a feeling my batter was too wet because of the frozen berries so I also had a hard time scooping it out onto the parchment paper-and I had to bake them longer than her recipe indicates.

In addition to these I also again made the lemon goat cheese cake with wild blueberry compote (from Sugar Coma), dipped strawberries in chocolate, cut up some of the left over caramel and put it out with fleur de sal and melted chocolate, and put out some cheese (which I didn't make).

Thanks to everyone taking home leftovers I didn't waste anything and the few pieces of things I was left with I ate for breakfast and lunch before leaving on my trip!