When in Rome!We are in Rome, home of the Vatican and a boat load of old stuff! It is 27 centuries old after all, so there was no shortage of stuff to see. For such a small town, it is HUGE! Such a cool place. It is so easy to picture Romans in togas wandering through grand structures and pantheons. Oh, and there are fountains and statues everywhere! To top everything off, we had 3 nights and 4 glorious days scheduled in Rome!
After finding our “good deal “hotel, an adventure in itself, and not really in Rome (it was way out there-like an hour commute to the city centre), more like the East Bay is to SF, we headed out for a bite to eat- Italian of course. We ended up by the Spanish stairs and in the high end shopping mecca of the city. Good thing it was late and the shops were closed. Didn’t matter since I don’t have a credit card anymore- thanks Barcelona. Window shopping is more our budget anyhow.
On the sightseeing bus
After a good night sleep, we hit the ground running. First, jump on the sight seeing hop on, hop off bus. We found this the best way to get an overview of the city, and see a lot fast. It was so hot, hot, hot (100) in Rome and even hotter on the top of the double decker open top bus. We were melting, really that it literally looked like I wet me shorts, I was sweating so bad. Anyhow, we blazed though, seeing many centuries of stuff, literally, and made it back to our hotel around 11:30pm. Wow, very tired, but we popped in our copy of Angels & Demons, all excited to watch it again, as we are headed to the Vatican tomorrow. Alas, it was in Thai or Chinese, hmmmm. That’s what you get for copying it! Oh, and the subtitles were crazy bad/wrong English.
Old downtown Rome
the Coliseum
One of many great statues
Memorial to fallen soldiers
Forming our plan for Saturday, along with some Internet study on the places and dress codes, we turned in. First up, Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica. This was absolutely beautiful. The scope of the design, the structure, the sculptures- Michelangelo’s La Pieta, the bronze alter, the marble floors, the mosaics….
Vatican City Saturday was our dedicated day for the Vatican. Although we had seen the outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, we hadn't really explored the city. Packing our day packs, I stuck in my dress and non-tank top, sleeved shirt. After trekking over to the Vatican, changing into my dress in line, and making it through security, almost. We forgot the wine opener and Brian had to hide it at a street vendor shop. (Okay, so god needs some protections, who knew?), we were in. The cathedral was amazing. Directly in the entrance was Michelangelo’s La Pieta.
Michelangelo’s La Pieta
Look at the size of those Cherubs!
I’ll let the pictures tell the story, but it is massive. And yeah, we climbed to the top of the dome. After a quick stop at the post office and a Mass schedule check, we decided to take a quick break. It was 36 degrees C that day, so very hot again. Off to the Sistine Chapel but alas, it was closed (at 4pm on Saturday!). Bummed we headed off to see some other amazing Rome sites – the four fountains, the president’s house, the Trevi fountain.
Taking a break at one of the many sidewalk cafes
One of the four fountains
a street in Rome
the Trevi fountain
Wandering several miles through the city eyeballing churches, high end retail and sidewalk cafes, we stopped into a cute little wine/spirits shop for a cold beer and are treated to free tastes of Grappa, olives, oils, balsamic vinegar’s, & cheeses – Yum! We could have stayed their longer, but we had a schedule to keep and it was already getting late! Off to the next large fountain/square before dark. Starving, we ate pizza while soaking our feet in yet another fountain before riding the train out east to our hotel.
The yummy olive, oil and grappa store
Our last full day in Rome, we went to the Flea market and then jumped into a streetcar to see the pope. I did after all, promise some people a good word would be put in, you know? It was Sunday, but he was on holiday at his summer house - dope! God 's right hand man takes a vacation? I guess everyone needs a break. We did manage to catch the morning mass on the jumbo tron in the square. It was still very goose bump inspiring, even in the five languages, none of which I fully understood – Latin, German English, Italian, and French! Oh,and I’m not really religious but it's was still so cool.
Wow, if that's suppose to by Jesus behind the pope, he's hot!
The great thing about Rome was that you could take a picture every 20 seconds or sit in amazement for a half hour without blinking.
