Italy November 2005 - Day 7 - Rome

Rome

Our second day in Rome dawned and I had a sore throat. Uh oh. I just barely skirted a sickness before we left (I either wasn't sick or kicked it). Well, maybe it was just a dry throat.

We planned to spend the morning in Vatican City at St. Peter's basilica and the Vatican Museum. We took the metro down and started in St. Peter's square. It was actually much smaller than I had thought it would be. I remembered seeing the images on TV of all those people crammed in the square (though it's actually round) after the pope died. It is a large area, but there were just so many people! It wasn't so busy when we were there, thankfully.




We got into the line to get into the basilica. We had to go through a security checkpoint. It had to be the worst crowd organization I've ever seen. There was one big mash of people, probably 10 heads across squeezing down into two security screens. The problem was that with such a big area for the "line" people would just squeeze and mash and get in front of people waiting longer. Then there were the tour groups just tromping their way through. Right as we picked which screening line we were going to get into, they closed the gate right behind us. Roger was the last one into our line. Whew! Boy were the people behind us mad. They had to get into the other line.

St. Peter's Basilica is the church to end all churches. It is absolutely massive. The inside is ornate and lovely without being too overly gaudy. I still think my favorite church was the Duomo, but Roger really liked St. Peters. Inside there are saints and popes in various crypts. I have to say that it was just slightly disturbing. There was one body in particular garnering lots of attention. There was a line to see him and offerings of flowers. No other bodies had this. We never did identify who this was. We walked around the entire perimeter of the church and also saw another one of the Michelangelo's famous works of art - The Pieta. The work is behind glass and hard to see since some maniac took a hammer to it in 1972. I understand something similar happened to the statue of David. What's wrong with people?





We left the church and went down into the grotto below where many of the popes are entombed, including the recently deceased Pope John Paul II. When I heard on the news that his only specification as to his burial was to be under ground, then I heard he was in a tomb in the grotto, I wondered how they were fulfilling his wish. I can now report that he is indeed underground. So the grotto, technically is underground, but actually, his tomb is the only one that we saw that was actually in the floor instead of a raised stone sarcophagus. There were many people in front of his tomb, praying, crying, paying their respects. We're not Catholic so we moved on rather quickly.
We left the grotto and went back into the square where the line to get into the basilica was markedly longer. We came at just the right time! We walked out of the square and around the corner to the Vatican museum. Home to a large collection of art, artifacts, and of course, the famous Sistine Chapel.




By this point, I knew I had come down with a cold or something and so we didn't linger overly long in the museum. Not to mention, by this point, we were feeling a little tired of museums. However, the Vatican Museum does house a large collection of Egyptian, Roman, and Greek artifacts, including some rather impressive mosaics taken from the Baths of Caracalla. Unfortunately, those mosaics are on the floor and trampled by probably thousands of people a day. It was a little sad to see them there.
We made a beeline for the Sistine Chapel. As you are going through the museum, you are allowed to take photographs. As you get through some parts, you can take photos, just without a flash. When you arrive at the Sistine Chapel, no photographs or video cameras are allowed. I dutifully put my camera in my bag and we entered the chapel marveling at the ceiling and also, the not often mentioned paintings on the walls, of which Michelangelo also painted the largest of those. The ceiling was hard to see and almost didn't seem real from that distance, but I still enjoyed craning my neck and seeing the brilliant work in person. I'm also glad I got to see it after the lengthy restoration in the 1990s.

Remember how I mentioned there was no photography or video cameras allowed? There were flash bulbs going off in there like it was the red carpet at the Oscars. People were snapping away despite numerous signs and verbal warnings. Now, I don't know why you can't take a picture without a flash (I understand that flashes can have a deleterious effect on the work) but rules are rules. It was really sort of annoying seeing people break the rules with wanton abandon. Finally some of the security guards started telling a couple of people to stop and I made a rather loud comment, "Can't people read!?" Even though reading was not required as there were many large pictures of cameras with big red X's through them.

Feeling annoyed and progressively more ill, we left the chapel and headed for the Spanish Steps. We arrived at this apparently famous tourist attraction feeling a bit let down. What's the deal with a bunch of steps? We didn't really get it so we moved on to Trevi Fountain, stopping for some lunch along the way.




By this point I was feeling pretty horrible and really quite cranky. In Italy, there are guys that try to sell roses to you. They come into the cafes and set the roses on the table and then anticipate that you are going to pay for them, or they come up and stick them in your face or press the roses into your hands. It is really forward and rather annoying. When we arrived at Trevi Fountain there were a lot of people there. I couldn't believe how many tourists there were, but the worst thing was the rose guy. As we came to the fountain, I was extremely awed by the size of the fountain. When you think fountain, you get a picture in your mind of a largish bowl and water is flowing in some capacity or another. This thing is like an entire building of flowing water. It is really enormous. As we found a place to toss our coins in (legend has it you toss a coin in and it means you will come back to Rome) a rose guy came up and stuck roses in my face and tried to put them in my hands. "Grazie, no." I said. He persisted. "No," Roger said. He persisted. We probably had to say no about 5 times between us with increasing sternness until he went away and since I was already feeling grouchy and sick, this did not improve my mood. He left and I flipped in my coin before Roger could tell me you are supposed to toss it over your left shoulder. Oh well. I watched Roger toss in his coin.

We headed back to the hotel because I needed to take a rest. I was starting to feel feverish and really bad. I think it was the flu. We rested at the hotel, then got up and went back to the same restaurant for dinner that we ate at the night before. Instead of champagne, we got free bruchetta with tomatoes, olive oil and fresh herbs. After our second delicious meal there, we were again offered dessert wine, but we declined (at least she hadn't poured it this time).

We went back to the hotel and I took a hot steamy shower to clear up my increasingly congested nose, then we went to bed early in preparation for our early flight to London the next morning.

Click here for Day 8.