The Vittorio Emanuele monument is immense and imposing, not yet 100 years old. Not particularly elegant, but you sure couldn't miss it. It's definitely a landmark, helping to orient you from anywhere free of twisty streets.

Our first night we were a bit less adventurous than we became, and ended up casting about from the Piazza Venezia (which the monument caps) looking for a restaurant open on Sunday that wasn't off a reasonably main street. Just up from the piazza was an organized protest of some sort. The red flags made us think perhaps communist, but we were never sure. They didn't sound happy, though it was all quite civilized and surrounded by police. We finally ended up eating in a Chinese restaurant which was very slow of service, but quite good. The food was a bit different from run-of-the-mill American Chinese, though not hugely so. We were glad to catch a couple of cabs back to the hotel.

At 9:00am the next morning, Monday, a tour van picked us up and took us to a Pirelli-sponsored tour of the Vatican. This is Frederico, as we line up to Conquer the museum. He was quite an entertaining tour guide. We met most of our fellow award winners here.