out and about: Day 12: Rome

St. Peter's Basilica and the Tiber River

Today we intended to get to the Vatican for an 8:30 AM opening to find that it didn't open until 9:30 but that meant we were pretty close to the front of the line so when 9:30 came we hardly had to wait. The Vatican is amazing! We only did the museum and the Sistine Chapel in the morning. I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. We got audio guides and walked around the bronze pinecone courtyard before seeing the vast art collection including statues of Roman gods and goddesses, tapestries, very old maps of Italy painted on the walls, and Raphael's paintings on the former papal apartments among many other works! The pinnacle of course was the Sistine Chapel. Honestly I didn't know what to expect but I guessed it was going to be a grand dome of sorts with a lot of extravagant gold but it wasn't. I'd say it was even better! Upon entering I immediately gazed up at the ceiling and saw the creation of Adam. I was so surprised to find how three dimensional it all looked. I don't know if it is famous for that but it felt like the angels were statues. Our audio guides told us all about Michelangelo's four year endeavour and the judgement and the ceiling before we left for a walk through a few piazzas. Unfortunately we had to get back to the hostel by 2 PM for my course registration so we came back for St Peters basilica later.

After experiencing the nightmare that is registration and having a quick lunch from the grocery store we set off again at 3:30 PM for the basilica. We enjoyed the sight of St. Peter's square while we waited in line for maybe thirty minutes before entering the basilica. The basilica was set for Holy week with thousands of chairs set up on top of the tens of thousands in the square. I was surprised though that the basilica didn't have pews. It was quite large--I'd say comparable in size to the basilica in DC or even some of the Duomos we have seen. Once we exited we saw an exhibit on the history of the bible with some of the oldest copies of torahs and certain editions of the Bible in the world. I was surprised to learn that Nazis used to cut up torahs and make them into shoe inserts, satchels, and table cloths. I had no idea.

Our next stop was the Castle d'Angelo where the Pope (many years ago) would go to in case of an emegency via a special walkway from the Vatican. I think some Popes lived there as well. Then we walked through more piazzas and saw Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps before getting lost in the winding streets looking for a place to eat. We eventually stumbled across a great Italian restaurant with a twelve euro menu which included some bread, amazing lasagne, a small salad, some pistachio pork, and a glass of red wine. Such a great deal and so delicious! We took a walk after dinner by all the sights again to see them at night before ending our day with a photo shoot at the coliseum and some gelato. Mmm...

Rome is really cool. I didn't know what to expect when coming. The drivers here are very aggressive, the trees are very tall with few leaves or branches appearing before about 30 feet up, and there are roads going right past the Coliseum. I suppose I was expecting it to be a rather remote location but everything is crammed into a pretty small area. You can walk from the Vatican to the Coliseum in a little over an hour I suppose. It seems like a safe place to me and you can always find pizza at a ridiculously reasonable price almost anywhere. I guess that's all I have to say for now! Thanks for reading :)

This is the courtyard of the Vatican museum. The sphere rotates and is there for decoration.

The pine cone (I forget the significance) (left) and the whole pine cone courtyard (right)

Castel d'Angelo

Piazza del Popolo

Brendan was shopping for lunch supplies (nutella and jam) and I found the largest bottle ever. Not like I hadn't seen one before, but I just hadn't held one. hah