Rome: Vatican and Ancient Rome

I didn’t sleep well.  I’m always worried that the wake up call won’t happen, or I’ll sleep through it.  But, the wake up call rang at 7:00 am sharp.

Marie and I had breakfast of 2 cheese and ham sandwiches with pineapple juice.  We packed a croissant and apple pastry in a napkin before dashing to the Metro station at 8:00 am.

As rehearsed the day before, we took the Metro from Barberini to Ottaviano and dashed to the Enjoy Rome office within half an hour.  After checking in first, we waited for the rest of the “English Group” to filter into the office.

With everyone sorted, we followed our tour guide Jeanette into the Vatican Museum.  Jeanette memorized all of our names and from where we came by using repetition and good natured teasing throughout the day.  As the heat of the day rose, whenever we came to a shady spot, Jeanette would have us stand/sit in the shade as she explained, with the use of her iPad, the artwork and/or architecture we were about to see.

We went from the entrance past security x-rays toward the Vatican courtyard near a café.  We then entered another courtyard with the newest edition: a large rotating orb.

In the shade of the Braccio Nuovo,

Jeanette discussed Michelangelo and each of the panels of the Sistine Chapel.  Alas, the Sistine Chapel was not the next viewing destination.

We entered the Vatican viewing the West side of the building, a long corridor of galleries:

• Gallery of the Candelabra
• Tapestry Gallery
• Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
• Map Gallery (Circa 1500s, 85% correct)

And in the end…

The Sistine Chapel:  Breathtakingly beautiful.  When visiting, you are reminded by the entrance security guard “Silence”, “No photos!” and “Keep moving”.  Marie and I sat for about ten minutes on a seating ledge built into the walls on one side, just taking in the art; then crossed the room to sit about 7 minutes on the other side before joining our group near the exit at 11:10 am, as instructed by Jeanette.  After waiting for two stray members, we proceeded to Saint Peter’s Basilica – also breathtakingly beautiful in an over-the-top way.

From Saint Peter’s Basilica, we viewed Saint Peter’s Square as it opened up to us with each step forward.

Noon:  We said goodbye after returning our headsets.  Jeanette pointed us to the bookshop, the post office as well as showing us the way out of the venue.

Marie and I first visited the bookshop so I could purchase a comprehensive book on the art and history of Rome and the Vatican, some postcards and a silver rosary.

We then proceeded next door to the post office.  We took turns sitting at a large wooden desk to write out our postcards.  I purchased stamps and Marie deposited the postcards in the yellow mailbox outside the post office.

From the Vatican, we trekked back to the Metro to return to our hotel room for a quick change before going back out to catch the Metro at Barberini, transferring at Termini to the Colosseo stop to meet up with our next tour at 2:00 pm at the Colosseum.

2:00 pm at the Enjoy Rome meeting spot outside the Colosseum Metro station behind the green newsstand were our instructions.  There were several groups at this location.  Luckily, I remembered the face of our guide from this morning.  He pointed to our group with Francesca, or tour guide.

We followed Francesca and her red umbrella to the Colosseum entrance, where we sat in the shade of the entrance as they sorted out which of us had tickets from Enjoy Rome and which were purchased in advance by persons not realizing that Enjoy Rome was providing the tickets, because they were confused that the website said that the tickets were a separate charge from Enjoy Rome’s tour charge.

The Colosseum is quite a feat of engineering.  According to Francesca, it was designed to allow emptying 5000 people in 30 minutes.  There is a whole underground system of cells which held the prisoners and animals schedule to fight.

There was a system of sponsors who owned the gladiators and it was a political or business decision whether the emperor chose to kill the loser.  It all revolves around money.  Some things never change….

An hour later, we stepped outside of the Colosseum to view the ruins of:

• Arco di Constantino (Nepoleon’s inspiration for France’s Arc de Triumph)
• Arco di Tito
• Palantino
• Foro di Cesare

Continuing west down via dei Fori Imperial past Largo Picci to see:

• Mercati Treland, a marketplace/mall designed by a Spanish merchant
• Colonna Trelane
• Piazza di Trevi to see the famous fountain

At this time, we took a 20 break for a gelatina, the Italian equivalent of an Icee.  We followed Francesca into a small shop, sidled up to the tiny counter and ordered a refreshing lemon gelatina.

When our break was nearly up, I asked Francesca if we had enough time for Marie and me to toss a coin into the famous fountain.  Francesca said yes and that she’ll wait for us at the corner.  Marie and I had a hard time making our way through the throngs of tourists to the fountain and then a harder time getting a space for a photo of us tossing our coins.

When we returned to our meeting spot, Francesca and our group were gone!  Marie thought they traveled east, but we lost the transmission of Francesca’s description of points of interest along the avenues.  We then headed west.  Francesca’s voice grew stronger.  At one point I heard Francesca ask if anyone wanted a photo or water and that they would be “at the fountain”.  I stopped to ask a policeman if there were a fountain nearby.  The policeman replied yes and pointed west.  His partner said the Trevi Fountain was east.  I explained that we lost our tour group going to a fountain and we’d already been to the Trevi Fountain.  The first policeman said that an English tour just left, pointing west.  Marie and I walked fast through the streets.  I spotted Francesca’s red umbrella two blocks away.

We caught up with the group just as they stopped at a fountain in front of the Pantheon.  Francesca looked at me as I said, “You left without us!  We followed your signal.”  Francesca was apologetic.  She repeatedly apologized and explained she had confused us with the Australian mother/daughter members who left the tour at the Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon was so unexpected:  I had always related it as a famous building of a series of columns with a triangular roof.  I hadn’t realized we’d find a church behind the columned entrance.  This church held artist Raphael’s tomb.  The center of the domed ceiling was open to collect rain through a series of pin holes in the marble floor.  The walls contained artwork that would rival any cathedral.

Two blocks away, we viewed the Palazzo Madonna.  Next to that, we beheld the Fountain at Piazza Navona, Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers).  Francesca was still feeling bad for leaving us behind and making us run to catch up, since we were listening politely while flush-faced and sweating.

Our “three hour tour” was complete at nearly 7 pm.  After returning our guide radios (“keep the earsets as a gift/souvenir”), Francesca and our group parted.

Once again, we were left to check our maps to determine our location to the nearest Metro and/or our hotel.

We were nowhere near a Metro station.  Fortunately, we were closer to our hotel than the Metro station.  Marie’s ankle and heels were aching; she wasn’t sure she could walk all the way back to our hotel.  It was decided we would find a taxi to give us a lift back to our hotel.

A few blocks from Navona, we found a taxi rank.  We chose a car/driver that looked safe, but were told we had to take the taxi at the front of the queue.  We didn’t like the looks of that driver and didn’t want to wait until our choice came to the front.  We walked toward our hotel with the intent to catch a taxi along the way.

We were surprised that the streets were closer that they seemed on our not-to-scale stylized hotel map.  By the time we saw a taxi, we were two blocks from our hotel.

7:46 pm, back in Room 103.  I called dibs on the shower first.

After Marie showered, her phone rang.  Chad was Skyping (not confirmed wifi calls were free).  Marie took the call in the bar/lounge outside our room while I journaled.  Marie returned frustrated that a woman came into the lounge area to watch TV while Marie was trying to have a private conversation.

We stepped out for dinner, intending to eat at a restaurant on our block.  An employee/owner outside a restaurant about four blocks East of our hotel hailed us to view his menu and showed us the homemade pasta in his window.  We said we’d “think about it”.  He gave us his business card.

Next door, a young restaurateur hailed us with the same spiel, but his prices were half as the last restaurant’s and Marie and I thought he looked like an Italian David Tennant.  He (we’ll call him “David”) said it was his family’s restaurant.

David sat us at a table located in the back left corner of the restaurant.  David was very attentive, eager to get us anything we wanted “special for you, not just anybody.”

I asked for a vodka cranberry.  He didn’t have any cranberry juice.  So I ordered a mojito, since he suggested/listed it as a cocktail they could make.  Marie had trouble deciding on a drink, not knowing cocktails.  She likes peaches, so she ordered a peach martini.

David then took our order of minestrone, one meat cannelloni and one spinach cannelloni special for each of us.  David then reached over to take away the other restaurant’s business card that I had placed next to my fork.  David said, “This is no good.  They’re not even Italian!”

David’s father came to us asking Marie if she wanted her martini sweet or dry.  Sweet.  He then went to the display window to take a fresh peach from the display.  I saw David leave, then “stealthily” return with a mojito in hand.  Minutes later he emerged from the back with a tray containing my mojito and Marie’s martini in an ice cream glass with chopped peaches in a martini.  It was amusing to see the lengths they took to please us.

The minestrone soup was made with rice instead of pasta.  Our cannelloni arrived two meats on one plate and two spinaches on another.  David suggested that we just transfer one to the other’s plate, so we can have one of each type.  No matter, it was all good.  So good, we sopped up our sauce with bread.  No room for dessert, but we asked for a cola to go for Marie.

Back in Room 103, I journaled while Marie Skyped with Chad.

Tomorrow’s a rest day, but we want to order ham and egg omelets for breakfast, so we can’t sleep in!