Rome Day 1

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Rome came fast from the overnight train. We got off at Tribuni, which is not the main station. A short metro ride took us to main station. Our hostel "Hostel Alexandria Downtown" was close by, found it with no difficulty. Hostel was better than I thought, nice and clean. After dumping our luggage there, we started towards Vatican.

St Peters in Vatican was our first stop. It was easy to get to by bus. There was a very very long line to get into it though, and sun was really strong. It took almost an hour to get into the basilica. It was one of the most majestic basilicas, huge interiors, covered in sculptures, paintings and what not. Another evidence of christian opulence. Of course nothing can compete with Tirupati! After taking some pictures inside, we decided to go to top of the dome. There was option to take elevator half way, or take the stairs, all 500+ of them. Of course we took the stairs. First half of stairs was ok, it did have a very old feel, almost like climbing history. Half way, you get out into a area inside the dome. From here we could look down into the cathedral. It was lined with high barbed net, blocking most of the view though. I guess they did not want people to jump off and commit suicide there, must be a popular place 😊. Its up here that you can really feel the grandness of the cathedral. From here the way up to dome becomes interesting. It becomes very narrow and as we are into the slanting section of dome, the walls start to tilt inwards. There was barely enough space to walk for one person, and tilting walls meant we were walking slanting. Very interesting. Towards the top, it gets really really narrow round stairs. The view from top was amazing. We could see lot of beautiful garden area in Vatican city. Lot of Rome was visible. It was a trip well worth all the stairs.



Then we headed towards Spanish steps. We had some difficulty finding the bus back, and it was very very hot. We found some bus to take us somewhere that I thought was close. Finding food was most important. I don't know how, but we ended up in a tiny cafe to eat panini. The cafe was really cute, decorated with little little things. Food was ok. It was my first intro to vinegar preserved things that we will see everywhere from now on. Can't say I was a fan of it. After lunch we decided to have our first ice-cream in Italy. I picked tiramisu, no surprise there. It was very good, we were hooked to ice-cream already.

After food and some relaxing, we set out to find the Spanish Steps. On the way we saw famous set of fountains. There was a little artist mela around it. Lots of artists showing their paintings and making more. The fountain piazza was lined with fancy restaurants that were spraying cold water on customers. The walk towards Spanish steps took us through a 5th Ave style street, lined with all sorts of brands and all sorts of Italian leather and cloth stores, the height of consumerism! Even looking at those I could not understand why anyone would spend $1000 on a purse (or backpack as I said once, though come to think of it, I can understand why someone would spend $1000 on a backpack, I would if I could, but I think they top off at about $600 for Arc'teryx).

Finally after long walk, we reached Spanish Steps. It was one of the biggest gathering of people I have seen. There were all sorts of people there, just hanging out, most of course tourist. It was mesmerizing. We sat and watched the activities till it got dark. After that it was time for dinner.

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