Well dear readers, I'm back in the saddle. I'm going to finish up the Roman adventures for you today, sit back, relax and if possible - grab a glass of Prosecco. :)
You may need to retrace your steps back a few blogs to recall the events of the first two days of Rome, but we began Day #3 with quite the overcast sky and lots of rain. On the docket today though was something exciting - touring the Vatican! We had scored tickets for ourselves ahead of time, thinking we were quite smart and would be able to get into the 'speedy' line. Not as true as we had hoped. We took the underground subway over to Vatican City (quite the hike if walking, especially with puddles everywhere) and proceeded around the walls of the City to where the line was forming. Forming was an understatement. The line to get into the Museum
wound around the Walls of the City for a few blocks. This line that we got into was, in fact, for all of us who had printed off tickets beforehand. A separate line for the poor saps who didn't plan ahead stretched many blocks longer. Both lines were easy to spot, with the multicolored umbrellas of all who were waiting standing out amongst the bare City walls (see right). We found out quickly that our line only appeared daunting, it was moving very fast. Within a half hour or so we are at the doors. We were glad to be out of the rain, which made for quite the chill in the air.
Once inside we got searched, more than once and got to show the contents of our purses, to all the lovely security people. No, we weren't smuggling anything into Vatican City, so we were allowed in. :)
I do not know the extent of Vatican Museum knowledge you have, but I had very little before we visited. I found out that it was a HUGE museum filled with THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of art and artifacts that the Catholic church (magically!) found in their possession over the centuries. (Hmm...how does one manage to get ALL of these items? I'll let you figure out your own answer to this one.) Needless to say, there was so much to see in the Museum that you could spend your entire day wandering the halls and looking at the art. We started in the Egyptian wing and checked out the mummies on display. (How odd are we that we dig up old bodies and display them to others? Ironic too that one religion felt the need to display bodies of an entirely different
religion who truly honored the way they buried their dead.) It was interesting to see the tombs and the artifacts. Egyptian history has always been something I've wanted to know more about. The mystery and traditions, not to mention the art are fantastic to learn about. (See upper left)
From there we wandered into the 'Classical art' which was hallways and hallways of Roman statues and sculptures. (See right) Very fun to look at, and the details on some of them had you
simply staring in wonder (see left and check out the hair - amazing!). I snagged pictures of quite a few. Another one of my favorite features of the museum were the ceilings. Every ceiling was beautiful, whether it was a painting or a sculpture or simply surrounded in an intricate molding. The entire museum was one, big, piece of art. (Below, upper left is my favorite painting of the day which was actually a ceiling in one of the rooms. I'm unsure of the artist, but to me it was simply beautiful to crane my neck up and stare at. Below upper right is one of the paintings in the Raphael rooms, explained below. Lower left is a photo of one of the many maps of Italy, which lined the walls of one LONG room. We gave Italy two thumbs up! Lower right is another beautiful ceiling. How these artists painted this masterpieces is beyond me.)
Our feet were starting to tire as standing in line and then an hour or two of SLLLOOOWWWW museum walking always gives way to aching feet. It was about lunch time and we found our way down to the Vatican Museum cafeteria. As one would expect, it was a bit pricey, but we were so hungry that we didn't care much. I got a lovely piece of pizza (something new and different) and it was wonderful. As our blood sugar came back to normal we decided to head back into the Museum.
Our main goal was to see the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the Vatican Museum. There are signs pointing the way from the time you enter the Museum. We decided to start following the signs...which we weren't anticipating would take us more than a few hours to do. The directions/arrows lead your throughout almost the entire Museum, and past some wonderful pieces of art. We saw some truly colossal statues of Roman/Greek gods and goddesses, more beautiful ceiling paintings and even the Raphael rooms. Yes, the Raphael that the Ninja Turtle got his name from - that guy! He had painted all the walls and ceilings in a few rooms of the Museum, and were gorgeous and extremely detailed. Very surreal to be in a room surrounded by a masterpiece such as those. The path to the Sistine Chapel, at this point, was becoming a solid
line. It was many people's goal, apparently. We were at a snail's pace in no time. Right before we got the Sistine Chapel we went through Religious Modern Art. I must say, this was by far the strangest art I've ever seen and at this point, and we all were SO tired of looking at art that it was even more unappealing. We were MORE than ready to get to the Sistine Chapel. The line took us down flights of stairs...then back up flights of stairs...around hallways and through tiny corridors...all of which lacked any art until finally we got there.
The Sistine Chapel, as I had learned in AP Art History back in high school, is in fact quite small. The ceiling is also quite high up, so it's very hard to see the details that we know so well from our textbooks. Also, there is NO photography, video or anything of the nature allowed. From the time we entered the room - which had people packed in like sardines, there were
guards in every corner all yelling the same thing in a monotone voice. In your head, think of Italian accents and very bored sounding people: "NO PHO-TOS...NO VID-DI-O...NO PHO-TOS...(usually interspersed with) YOU SIR - NO PHO-TOS!!! (and swift movement to said person's side to enforce.) Well, I'm not much of a rebel, anyone who knows me can attest to this. But dang it - I was in the SISTINE CHAPEL! There was NO way I was going to leave without a picture. So holding my camera at about waist high and pointed up to the ceiling...I snapped two (one can be seen above). I also got a fantastic shot of Michelangelo's Last Judgment (photo right above), which is one of the large walls of the Chapel. For ONCE, being short was great. No guard could spot my head, let alone my camera. (HA!) I was not singled out for my "PHO-TO" before we were pushed and pulled out the exit by the crowd. TRUE SUCCESS!!!
We thought we'd be able to easily exit at this point, but it took a whole half hour to find out way out of the Museum. It's truly a maze in there. The final stretch to the door is down this spiral staircase, which is also a true architectural piece of art in its own right. We laughed to ourselves as we spotted the even longer line of poor, wet people waiting outside. They had hours of waiting to get in, AND hours of waiting to see the most celebrated part of the Museum. We chuckled all the way to our lunch spot - some slices of pizza and drinks split amongst all of us, as more of a snack. It was then we wanted to go see St. Peter's Basilica. It was still raining, so with our umbrellas hoisted, we made our way into St. Peter's Square. Lines were the theme of the day, as the line to get into the Basilica wrapped all
the way around Bernini's colonnade's inthe Square. Carolyn went to see how long this particular line would take us, and we were told it'd be over an hour wait. After spending the entire day, basically, walking and standing we just decided to not do the Basilica. We were all bummed, as this was one of the main things we wanted to see, but we were all extremely tired and slightly cranky from the loooonnnggg day; it was the best solution. We did stop and take some photos though. (see above left)
On our way back to the hostel, we decided to stop at the Castel Sant' Angelo. Again - for the Angels and Demons fans out there, this is the 'final spot' where the movie goes - where the cardinals were held. It was neat to see the angel on top, with that arrow pointing down into the depths of the 'Castel'; a visual that in the movie gets zoomed in on. We took pictures of St. Peter's Basilica and Dome from far away and of the Castel up close. We then took the Bridge of Angels (see upper right), which connects to the Castel, back towards the center of Rome. (Above left is standing on the Bridge of Angels with the Castel in the background, and the angel on top is just barely visible.)
We then split up and headed back to our individual hostels, to rest our very tired feet. It had been a long day of historical facts, tons of pictures and very sore feet. We decided to meet up with the boys at our usual spot - the train station - to decide where to go for dinner. (Below is the Dome of St. Peter's - the tallest, from floor to ceiling, it the world)
Now is where the cool, "it's a small world" part of the trip comes into play. If you recall, back in my Poland blog, I explained how Carolyn and I had met Elliot, a seminary student from St. Thomas who was studying in Rome. Well guess who we ran into, in the middle of the Rome train station. Yes - Elliot! I'm not used to getting my name called out, (how many Betsy's do you know, really?) let alone in Europe. But I heard it, clear as day, in the middle of the train station. I turned around to see Elliot! We all exchanged hugs and remarks of the randomness of seeing each other again. He told us he was waiting for some friends who were to be arriving on the train at anytime. We asked if he knew of any great dinner spots - as he was studying there. He told us there was a fantastic pasta spot, his favorite in fact, right next to the train station. He pointed us on our way and we waved goodbye with rumbling stomachs.
We found the little restaurant, after walking past it a few times. We were greeted by an elderly Italian woman, who reminded me of Strega Nona. (The Tomi dePaula books) She didn't speak a lick of English but showed us to a table in back and handed us each a hand-written menu. The restaurant looked like her kitchen, with old, colorful wallpaper, only 8 or so tables and the hand-written menus on varieties of paper. We sat down at a table next to two young guys, who were able to converse in excellent Italian with our host. It was easy to see she enjoyed chatting with the two guys and they were obviously complimenting her choice of wine - which they were sipping. After trying to decipher the menu, we decided to ask the guys if they had any recommendations. They responded in English - and we immediately understood they were American. They told us they came often, and to get the 'special' - which changed every night. After conversing for awhile, they told us they were studying in Rome - as priests. (Just like Elliot.) We told them we knew of someone doing the same thing - and recounted meeting Elliot and running into him in the train station and his recommendation for us to come to this particular spot. They looked at us funny, and said they knew Elliot! In fact - it turns out - these were the friends Elliot was waiting for at the train station! They couldn't find him and had to
decided to come to his favorite restaurant in hopes he would come there too. One of them dashed back to the train station to try to find Elliot but came back without success. We decided to push our tables together and chatted about their lives as priests and the delicious pasta we were shoveling down. We actually ate gnocchi again; this one was a tomato-based sauce and was absolutely fantastic. (See right - although it may not look it, one of the best meals I've ever tasted. Italian food has become my absolute favorite of any place we went!) The boys, it turned out, were both from St. Thomas as well and knew my friend Paul too. It was a crazy, wonderful night.
We ended the evening talking about mass the next morning. The guys told us we should come - as the Pope would be speaking to the crowd (in the Square) at noon, right after mass. The whole group decided that would be a wonderful thing to do - and we decided to go to mass beforehand too. Not only would it be neat to attend mass in the Basilica - the largest interior of any Christian church in the world and regarded as one of the holiest places on Earth - but we would get to skip that long line we saw earlier that day AND get to see the Pope on top of it! We were all extremely excited to go, and knew we would get a true glance into the Catholic world the next day. We said goodbye to our new-found friends, and made our way home to the hostels. We set a time to meet up the next morning for mass, knowing in the early afternoon we would need to be on a bus headed to the airport. What a fantastic way to end our trip in Rome?!?!
Day #4...up next!
Day #4 started off with us all packing up our bags. We wanted to be ready to head out as soon as we got back to our hostel post-Mass. Bags packed, us girls headed to the train station. We waited...and waited...and waited. The boys were notorious throughout the trip for being LATE for our meeting times. As it was the last day, and we were NOT missing Mass, we left without them. If they wanted to go, in our minds, they'd meet us there. We made our way to the subway and took it all the way over to Vatican City, yet again. We walked into St. Peter's Square to find the line much more manageable and actually moving. The sun was even, slightly, out! We patiently waited as we got shuffled into the Basilica. (Picture at right is right outside, before getting into the line which you can see way in the background, right up against the Basilica)
After mass we tried to make our way outside as quick as possible - to get a spot that provided a view of the Pope's Apartments, from where he would be speaking. We came out to a PACKED St. Peter's Square! It held thousands of people - 150,000 was the estimation from the media. (see right) We found out later that there were a few different groups there that day, protesting certain beliefs/messages the Pope had recently brought to light within the Catholic church.
We found a spot where we could see and then the Pope started speaking. He spoke a few different languages throughout his speech - all heard through speakers throughout the Square - talking to 'his people' in the Square. Every now and then we would see his arm sticking out his window, blessing those in the Square. From our view we could only see his arm, so all my pictures have this little white-robed arm sticking out of the window. (See left) I even took a video - so neat to think we were listening to the Pope himself.
time, but we knew with the crowds, the subway would have taken quite awhile. It was fun to see all the sights of Rome, one last time, on the way back to the hostel. Our final stop was to grab one last gelato! (see right)
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