Day 2 - Visiting Rome - All in One Day!

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Today was our first full day of our tour and our first real test of our stamina. It's an early start day, as they expected us at the bus by 7:30 AM ready to head over to St Peter's Basilica. Breakfast at the hotel opened at 6:30, with a good sized breakfast buffet. The eggs, bacon and pastries were great, the orange juice, not so much, but this isn't Florida. And of course there was lots of coffee. We both slept great last night, jet lag is almost over and we're ready to hit the trail! By 7:30, we were all at the bus and ready to go, before one of the women failed the "Fashion Police" test and was sent back to her room to change clothes. Evidently her knees were visible, and that is a serious fashion faux-pas that could prevent her from visiting the Basilica. It's still a working Catholic Church and the dress code is strictly enforced.

A few minutes later we were on the road, heading for St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, just a few miles away. Today we were also issued a magical device called a "Vox", which is basically a digitally compressed portable radio that you wear around your neck with an earpiece so that the tour guide or local guide can talk to the group without shouting. It works great, and allows the guide to explain what we are seeing without interfering with all the other groups that are basically doing the same thing. When we arrived at the Vatican, the line to the metal detectors was not very long, but as a group we were able to bypass the regular line and pass right through. We met our local guide, Carlotta who turned out to be wonderful! She was articulate, funny, and extremely knowledgeable about everything we were seeing. Anna, our regular tour guide, left to finalize arrangements at the Coliseum, and left us in Carlotta's more than capable hands. She explained all she could about St Peter's Square and the Vatican buildings from the outside of the Basilica, but there was actually a Mass going on inside, so we could visit, but she was not allowed to talk to us until 9:20 after the Mass had ended.

So we were left to explore St Peter's Basilica for about 45 minutes, and it is really magnificent. The statues are beautiful, especially Michelangelo's Pieta, and the main altar is immense and overwhelming! There was a priest hearing Confession, but only in Italian and Spanish. Probably just as well, as there just wouldn't be time to hear my Confession and still make it back to the bus. We even managed to make it down below the main floor to the basement catacombs where the past Popes are buried. We could take all the pictures we wanted in the Basilica, but there was no photography allowed of the tombs. At 9:20 we met up again with Carlotta, and she went over parts of the Basilica now that she was allowed to speak. It was somewhat crowded, but the fact we got there early helped us beat some of the crowds. I did notice some of the other tour groups, and there was a mixture of groups similar to ours, and others that were either larger or less organized. Most notably, Trafalgar showed up with 3 full bus loads of people with multiple guides, which I'm not sure I'd like, and the most rag-tag was a large group from a cruise ship that came as a shore excursion, who were showing up just as we were leaving and at the time when the crowds were huge, so I'm not sure I would like t experience Rome as a shore excursion.

When we left the Basilica after seeing all we wanted, we made a quick stop at the Vatican Gift Shop, where you could get all kinds of Vatican souvenirs. Some were serious religious items that you could actually by, sent over to have blessed and then delivered to your hotel for no additional charge. Lots of rosaries and medals were popular. Being a non-practicing Catholic, we opted for the more traditional refrigerator magnet with a picture of Pope Francis smiling and giving a "thumbs up". You don't see one of those every day, and for 5 Euros, I wasn't about to pass it up. By the time we left the Basilica at about 10:00, it was amazing how long the lines had become. According to Carlotta, people in line could expect to wait for 1-1/2 hours or more to get in. The only way to do it is either to get there early or as part of a group that could skip the line. And from what I could see, some of the groups seemed to be able to skip the lines better than others, though I'm not sure why.

When we left the Vatican, the next stop was an optional trip to the Colosseum. We did a little sightseeing from the bus on the way, but by the time we got to the Colosseum, we were ready for the next stop on our tour. The lines at the Colosseum were huge, and they were also very complicated. There were just lines and signs everywhere, and I'm sure we could have figured it out, it seemed daunting if we had not been part of our tour group. Again, Anna and Carlotta came through with quick entry. We just followed them past everyone, put our stuff through the metal detectors and were inside the Colosseum within minutes. Carlota was awesome again with pictures of what the original Colosseum should look like, explaining life in early roman times, and explaining it's construction, use, history, and pointing out some of the modern reconstruction. She even showed us the remains of the original toilet system and how it worked.

We were lucky today as the weather was a little overcast, with occasional light showers, and a good breeze. This made the Colosseum very comfortable, but it was obvious it would be sweltering in there on a calm, hot day. We did get about a half hour of free time for any additional exploration of the Colosseum on our own, or to buy souvenirs, but there weren't any good t-shirts, and by 1:00 we were ready to go. We did a little more sightseeing on the bus as we headed back to the hotel for a quick break and some lunch before heading out again at 3:30 to the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We dropped our stuff in our hotel room, and headed out to find some pizza. Luckily we spied a little hole in the wall restaurant just a block down from our hotel. We dropped in for a pepperoni pizza and a couple of diet cokes. The pizza was great, with a nice spicy tomato sauce.

After lunch, we went back to the room for a quick rest, while I figured out how to get the pictures off my camera and onto the laptop. At 3:20, we were back at the bus and ready to head for the Vatican Museum. Since we were also going to the Sistine Chapel, it was time for a visit from the "Fashion Police" again to be sure we were all dressed correctly. Everyone passed this time, so we were off to the museum. Since we were eating dinner together after museum, Anna handed out name tags so we could better get to know each others names. This was helpful, especially since we didn't know the names of the couple we had dinner with last night who turned out to be Russ and Julie. She also replaced our "Vox" radios with a cheaper but similar UHF radio which turned out to be rented from the Vatican Museum itself, and the only type radio allowed within the Vatican Museum. Since they were provided by the Vatican, the local guides have nicknamed them the "Holy Radios".

The Vatican Museum was another case where it was the afternoon and the lines were extremely long, stretching down the block, and around the next block, but as usual, we just walked past everyone and right into the lobby of the Vatican Museum where Anna handed us each our tickets. Again, Carlotta showed up to guide us, and this time she enlisted the help of Paulo, one of the Museum Guards. He was able to get us into areas closed to the public where we were the only visitors, and helped us bypass lines within the museum to the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Museum is huge! It has elaborately decorated ceilings and all kinds of marble statuary. The area we entered which was closed to the public contained mostly marble statues and ornamentation that were rescued from the Parthenon in Greece. There was also an 1800 year old mosaic from the floor of a Roman villa.

After the Parthenon section, we headed over to see great halls lined with statuary, another with tapestry, and another with maps from ancient Rome. There were also various sections of religious artifacts We also visited the outside gardens with some additional outside displays. There was one in particular that looked a little out of place with the rest of the displays, and it was a large outdoor sphere of contemporary art that was located on a courtyard between the buildings.. Carlotta was obviously not impressed with the piece and remarked that the name of the artist, when translated from Italian meant 'tomato", and so the large round sphere was disdainfully known as "The Tomato", at least it was to Carlotta.

Our last stop was a visit to the Sistine Chapel. It is a very simple building from the outside, but inside are some of the most beautiful paintings of Michelangelo and frescoes of Botticelli. The guard Paulo was very helpful in bypassing most of the other groups and individuals in line to get into the Sistine Chapel, but the last few hundred feet and the last couple of staircases were just a sea of humanity. The Sistine Chapel is an actual working church, which is the reason for the dress code. But also, since it it a holy place, there is no photography allows and also no talking. Once we stepped into the chapel, it was completely filled with people. Periodically, an announcement would remind everyone that this was a holy place and that everyone should be silent. It gave me flashbacks to the Catholic nuns in elementary school! The guards would also come up to people and admonish them not to take pictures. This is very difficult to enforce when everyone has a smartphone Fortunately, all the artwork of interest is high on the side walls, and on the ceiling, so the crowd does not interfere with viewing the artwork. It really is magnificent! It's just so amazingly large. I had seen many examples of artwork similar to Michelangelo, but always at a smaller scale. This is just immense! I was also bad, and managed to sneak a couple of pictures surreptitiously without getting caught. I've always had a little trouble with rules.

As we were gathering up to get ready to leave, we did have a little excitement as the daughter of one of the mother/ daughter combos couldn't be found. I'm not sure where Abigail went, but her Mom, Valerie seemed much relieved when Abigail turned up! By the time we finished up in the Sistine Chapel, it was getting close to 6:00, the Museum closing time. It turns out that after the museum closed at 6:00 when everyone had left, the Vatican restaurant had set up 3 tables for us in the courtyard and we had our dinner in that special place as the only people at the Vatican Museum. It was really a special treat and dinner was delicious! It gave us a chance to try out our new name tags and get to know each other a little better. We both have been pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone is, and how great we all get along. Anna is doing a spectacular job!

On the way back from dinner,, we went past a few more of the sights of Rome, and I was able to get a few more pictures, and still get back to the hotel by 7:30. Tomorrow, we leave Rome and head north to Florence. Rome is such a great city, we could easily spend much more time seeing the sights, but tomorrow the adventure continues!

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