Italy – Rome, Castel Sant’Angelo

After the Vatican we walked to the Castle. While walking there we heard and saw this guy playing the piano and trumpet. How talented is that?

As we walked around the Castle to find the entrance we found a bunch of parakeets. My sister told me she had seen them but we hadn’t see any yet. They were all over at the castle. It was pretty cool to see the birds as I’ve only ever seen them in zoos.

We didn’t have tickets to the castle so we had to stand in line for a bit to get in. They were probably the most strict here about COVID. We had to show our passports, COVID vaccines, wear a mask of course and have our temperature taken.

As we entered the castle and started walking around we were already in awe. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family in the 2nd century. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. There is a mile long passage way from St. Peters Basilica to the castle. More great information about the castle found here.

The art in here was more whimsical, I personally really liked it.

Thought this Jesus had a bit of a hippy look to him.

Greg and Jayse really liked to see the firearms.

The fresco in here was really funky. Sea creatures and half human half sea creatures. I thought it was fasinating.

Let’s get a closer look.

And old piano.

Check out the tatas on those creatures!

That face is a bit creepy.

As we kept traveling up levels we got better and better views of the city.

The only selfie Jayse took the entire trip.

How cool to see a catapult and balls still!

This fireplace was so large, I made Jayse stand by it to get an idea of how big it is.

The large statue of the archangel Michael, which gives the castle its name, is particularly dear to the Romans; it’s a reminder of the terrible plague that hit Rome in 590 AD and, according to a legend, ended thanks to the miraculous appearance of the angel.

We made it all the way to the top of the castle, where we had an amazing view of Rome!

In the bottom right of this photo you can see the passage from the castle to St. Peters.

Here you can see Victor Emmanuel II National Monument and behind that the Colosseum!

We spent a few hours at the castle. It was just so interesting. I think we all felt it was a highlight of the trip. It was just very easy to envision what happened here. When you watch a lot of movies and TV with castles and battles in them it was cool to actually be at one and picture what it must of been like.

After the castle we headed back to our AirBnb so we could decide where to eat. That didn’t really help us. There are just so many options and it’s hard to know what one to pick so we just wondered back out and stopped at one that looked good.

Our waitor asked me brother if we’d like to start with an appetivo – brusheta and bufala. He said sure. We all tried a bit of it. The bufala is a type of mozzorella cheese made from buffalo milk. It was like a gusher. When you cut into this big round ball of cheese some of the milk was still in the center. I thought it was alright. Greg and Hunter thought it was really good.

We ate the rest of our meal and then the bill came. We found out that the appetivo was $81 euros! The bufala alone was over $10 eruos each – they brought us 5 and it was $60! Yikes – oh well when in Rome.