Rome: Day 3
Disclaimer: These are all unedited and uncensored. They are raw emotion, intellect and information. I hope you enjoy my experiences.
*Miranda and Alyssa are my sisters and Thomas is my soon to be brother in law.*
We woke up early to be at the Vatican by 9. I’m loving having the internet here at the hotel because I can email Britt. We even FB chatted for a bit! How cool to have almost real time connection. You learn to appreciate the things you have when they’re not right in front of you. After another quick breakfast on the 8th floor of our Best Western, dad and I headed out. The rest stayed because they weren’t ready yet.
Little adventures with just my dad are generally a lot of fun. We rode the metro to the Octavio stop and hopped off to many people trying to sell guided tours. We passed by them because we’ve already gotten our tickets. Initially we were led to an entrance of the Musei di Vaticani which my dad was sure wasn’t where we wanted to be. So we walked along the wall to reach the chapel side of the complex.
I was shocked when my dad told me that the Vatican is basically its own country, with its own city limits and its own stamps. It’s a giant complex. After reaching the chapel side, we spoke to a police officer and found that needed to go back to the museum side entrance. It was a fun walk anyway. We headed back, dodging cars as we dashed across the street and were able to avoid some lines. We just entered into the building, through the security and now we’re going to wait for the crew. At least I think that’s what we’re going to do…
OVERWHELMED. SO MUCH ART. SO MANY PEOPLE.
I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into when entering this building. I guess I didn’t realize that shear amount of antiquities that have been collected by the Pope and his people throughout the years. We rushed through to see the Sistine Chapel before it got too crowded which turned out to be a wonderful idea on Miranda’s part because we weren’t pushed around and were able to really look at it. My dad bought a book and was explaining all the stories of the bible that were represented. Thomas split off and went to see the rest of the museum. We then went and tried to see the entire museum. Alyssa and I split off from the rest of the crew and sort of looked for Thomas while seeing the amazing art that was on display. I was overwhelmed constantly by the beauty of everything I saw. I took a lot of pictures so I can relive it later because there is truly not enough time in a single day to see all of that splendor. Another reason to come back to Italy!
We left the Vatican to go straight over to St Peter’s Basilica (cathedral) which is right next door. There was a fairly long security line and the sun was blaring. Thomas doesn’t like the sun at all so we popped up a few umbrellas to provide some shade. We almost ditched the idea to see it but my dad insisted.
What was funny was that the only thing that was cleared labeled that you can’t bring into the cathedral was a pocketknife. My dad brought one in no problem. The security was so poorly attended. A little kid walked through with his bag on his side though he was supposed to put it through the xray. So funny.
I’m glad we went into the cathedral because is was amazing. We spent only a half hour though but seeing all the art and gold was incredible. We went underneath the floor where St Peter’s remains are apparently kept. We were skeptical. There were a bunch of dead popes on display. That was creepy. All the popes are buried there with fantastically large monuments. Those guys are some important dudes! Take a look at the pictures to see more of the art. The altar is giant - like 200 ft tall! It had a cool dove on the underneath of it. There was beautiful stained glass dove that I didn’t get a very good picture of. I stood there and stared at the yellows and oranges of the glass while absorbing its beauty. I probably stared at it for 3 minutes. We continued walking through and left to continue our journey through Rome.
We chose to go to the Pantheon next. It was a few metro stops and a bus ride away. We had a very shoddy bus route map to use as we navigated our way, so we depended on the help of some nice people on the bus. Some people are very helpful regardless of where you are in the world. We got off the bus and were still a little lost. We were looking at our map and all of a sudden Alyssa exclaimed that she thought one of our destinations was just across the street. Turns out it was, and we had found the place where Julius Caesar was thought to be murdered. Beware the eids of March.
As at that same spot was a cat sanctuary, where they adopt and take care of the abandoned cats. That’s mostly why Alyssa wanted to go. There were cats scattered everywhere over the ruins and there was a shelter underneath the street near one entrance. It was a quaint little shelter but the cats were able to run free and were prancing all over the merch that they had for sale to help fund their project. We all bought some things, pet some cats, and went on our merry way to find the Pantheon.
It was only a couple blocks away and was pretty busy. It means “many gods” but had recently been converted to a Christian church. They boasted that the conversion was the best thing to happen to the Pantheon because it was now one of the best preserved ancient buildings.
It was really cool to see a hole in the ceiling where the rain naturally fell and drained into some 14 holes in the floor. There were beautiful marble statues around the parameter which I admired briefly and got some pictures. It was busy like the rest of the places we’d been and at that point my energy was seriously dwindling. Being on my feet for as long as I had my back started hurting pretty bad. There was still a lot more to see in Roma but it was obvious that we couldn’t see it all. Alyssa and dad decided to go a bit more and see some ancient bathes, what they described as bigger than the Colosseum. I’m glad they got to see it. Thomas and I stayed on the bus once they got off, rode to the San Giovanni stop, and walked our tired feet the half mile or so back to the hotel.
Once back there we split ways and I turned on Italian MTV because it’s just funny. There was an Italian dubbed “I Used To Be Fat” which I fell asleep during; I really needed the nap. I woke up to World Class Sweet 16. It was in Dubai. That girl just has so much money at her disposal. It’s crazy. I bidet-ed my feet once more before my dad got back to the hotel. They had found a cute little restaurant that had Alyssa’s gnocchi and she wanted all trip. We went for it. The waiter was like superman! He was so fast. I kinda think he wad on cocaine. I had an amazing caprese salad with the best mozzarella I’d had all trip. We had our bottle of wine and I had my calzone which was really great as well. We headed back home around 9 and went to sleep immediately.
We had to wake up at 6 for a long day of travel home. I’m on the plane from Roma to DC now with Ambien in my system. It’ll be bedtime soon. Buonanotte and arrivaderchi Italia!
