Monday was a fresh start, complete with complimentary croissants. What our hotel was lacking in shower space, it made up for in breakfast. And that was really the turning point of the trip. Good sleep and good food.
We wasted no time after stuffing ourselves and immediately set out for Vatican City via the metro. The metro was crowded times ten and quite fun. It let us out a few blocks from our destination and, just past twenty men trying to sell us camera selfie-sticks and fast passes, Saint Peter's Square was before us.
It was big. Saint Peter's Basilica was even bigger. I loved the Swiss Guard and their uniforms. One uniform (the red, yellow, and blues ones) takes 32 hours to complete and weighs almost eight pounds. The blue uniforms are used by new recruits, if I remember right.
We beat the lines and got right into the basilica.
OVERLOAD. We are not art people by any stretch of the imagination but we walked around for over an hour, listening to an audio guide and trying to take it all in. I can't say much else other than it was impressive and blew my mind trying to imagine the building process.
We opted to explore a little further and climb the dome, which stands taller than a football field is long.
Taking the stairs saved us four euros...so this was our view for a while:
Greg was too tall for most of the doorways.
There's a break at the roof of the basilica that allows a close-up view of the inside of the dome. The mosaics were awesome. I've decided I'm a fan of mosaics.
Then things got a lot more stuffy and claustrophobic on the actual dome climb. Doing this during the summer must be miserable.
Obviously the views were worth it. My fear of heights was at bay for most of the climb, but I was trying to silence the voice in my head questioning the structural integrity of an almost 400-year-old dome. It seemed solid...
I was suffering from quite the cold so I couldn't spare any of my Kleenex for this window. And definitely not my headphones!
The Vatican Museums were next. A 15-minute walk around the wall and past even more selfie-stick and skip-the-line ticket sellers. I had purchased tickets ahead of time, wanting to avoid the lines, but there weren't any. We skipped lunch to save money and instead snacked on granola bars dipped in Nutella before tackling the miles of exhibits that lay before us.
It was overload again. My favorite was the mummy woman. I stared at her for ages, amazed at how well preserved she was. Her hair! That was cool and I forgot to take a picture.
I tried so hard to be mature and appreciate everything I was seeing like an adult, but fatigue set in real quick and I lost it.
Man petting alligator with foot.
Greg wants this bath tub.
Ok, still loving the mosaics.
Hercules...with removable fig leaf. Most of the statues have strategically placed fig leaves that were added when modesty became an issue. But the cool thing is this Hercules statue was struck by lightning and then given an official burial. Like a person! What the what? Is was unearthed in 1864 with the remains of a lamb.
Every. Single. Crevice. There is art in every single crevice in ever single degree of direction in every single room. Don't forget to look up! Don't forget to look down! Look out the window too! It just made me feel guilty. Like I needed to stand there and appreciate everything the way it should be appreciated. But my body was DONE STANDING. Would it hurt to have benches??
Basically, this museum caused a lot of inner turmoil. Most especially in the paint galleries, the Raphael Rooms, and the hallways lined with tapestries.
The modern art hallway that they force you to walk thru to get to the Sistine Chapel left me with even more questions. One of the pieces looked like my popcorn ceiling had it been attacked by a territorial gorilla. At least that's what I got out of it? Clearly most art is wasted on me.
But, I will join every person ever in saying THE SISTINE CHAPEL. We got a nice seat on the wall and sat there for almost an hour listening to an audio guide and taking it all in (aka resting). Incredible to see that in person and be amongst so much history. Granted the whole chapel still overloaded my circuits but now I can imagine the election of a new pope better. It has a setting.
Adam and Eve had pet dogs!
Hours and hours of stand-shuffle-stand later we came to the famous spiral staircase exit. Pretty cool.
Even though it was closed, we decided to wander over to the Castel Sant'Angelo and pedestrian bridge.
Then finding dinner became critical path. I'd downloaded the Trip Advisor Rome City Guide and it led us to a good one. Though led is loosely used because the locations in that app are not spot on so it mostly led to much guessing and second-guessing and escalating hanger levels. But we found it!
We were the only ones in the restaurant because most people don't eat dinner until 8ish and it was 5ish. The waitress was really surprised when we told her we wanted dinner. Greg ordered spaghetti carbonara and I ordered eggplant parmesan. Both knocked our socks off. Though I'm dumb and was expecting mine to include some pasta and not just be eggplant covered in cheese.
The bacon in the spaghetti carbonara at this place was inspiring and there will be attempts to recreate it back at the Hall House.
Now, the Pantheon!
It had been raining so the floor was wet. I looked all over but never noticed the holes in the floor that are supposed to drain the water. We listened to another audio guide and loved it. Built almost 2,000 years ago and still the largest unreinforced concrete dome. If you stuck a 142-foot diameter basketball in there it would fit perfectly, touching all the sides and the floor.
The Pantheon is one of my favorites from Rome. Bonus that it was free.
We killed the evening walking all over the Centro Storico. Christmas lights! And then took the most scenic route back to our hotel thru the ancient ruins, including the Forums of Trajan and Augustus. This was by accident. I was just trying to take the most direct route "home", and BAM, ruins.
Rome is so cool like that.
The Il Vittoriano monument is huge. Built in 1885 to commemorate Italian unification, it houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In this picture, if you look just left of the bottom of the Christmas tree, you'll see two dark figures guarding it. We passed by this monument every day and one night were lucky enough to catch the changing of the guard. It's every bit as cool and ceremonial as the one in Arlington.
Finally done!
Have a great day :-)
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