Yeesh. Rome is exhausting. We already covered day 1 here and day 2 here, now we're on day 3, and then there's a day 4 next week. I would've loved to have crammed this all into one post, but there's just so much to see and so much to say because, hi, it's Rome and there are millions of things to say.
On what we knew would be another tiring day of endless walking, we left the hotel around 8:00 and made way toward the Vatican. We'd inquired about tours, and most folks agreed that tours were the best bet: You could skip lines, breeze through the museum seeing the highlights, pop into the Sistine Chapel, and then they drop you off inside St. Peter's - and during all of that you would hear information about the history of it all from a professional tour guide. We planned to do this.
On our way we strolled past the Quirinale, which is like the Italian White House, although not terribly impressive when you consider what else is in Rome. We then passed Trevi Fountain again, which was hilariously hidden by scaffolding - lucky for us, we weren't that excited to see it in the first place - and made our way past the Temple of Hadrian (or the remaining facade, really). In looking back through my photos, we made a pretty strange route, as we then passed the Pantheon and got gelato, swung through Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori - where we noticed dozens of places offering American-style breakfast - before heading north toward the Vatican.
Once you step out onto the street in front of the Vatican, you start to recognize the enormity. It's giant and it's upsetting, but we'll get to the upsetting part later.
On what we knew would be another tiring day of endless walking, we left the hotel around 8:00 and made way toward the Vatican. We'd inquired about tours, and most folks agreed that tours were the best bet: You could skip lines, breeze through the museum seeing the highlights, pop into the Sistine Chapel, and then they drop you off inside St. Peter's - and during all of that you would hear information about the history of it all from a professional tour guide. We planned to do this.
On our way we strolled past the Quirinale, which is like the Italian White House, although not terribly impressive when you consider what else is in Rome. We then passed Trevi Fountain again, which was hilariously hidden by scaffolding - lucky for us, we weren't that excited to see it in the first place - and made our way past the Temple of Hadrian (or the remaining facade, really). In looking back through my photos, we made a pretty strange route, as we then passed the Pantheon and got gelato, swung through Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori - where we noticed dozens of places offering American-style breakfast - before heading north toward the Vatican.
Once you step out onto the street in front of the Vatican, you start to recognize the enormity. It's giant and it's upsetting, but we'll get to the upsetting part later.
Still really far away
We wandered closer, taking photos, noting the incredible amount of souvenir shops, and agreed to a tour and began. It was informative, fun, and crowded. We walked through a lot of areas that are now a blur and I took several photos that are also largely a blur. I would've liked to spend more time in the Vatican Museums, which were full of unfathomable amounts of art, including some famous pieces like Laocoon and His Sons. It's a staggering piece, and it's one that I remember vividly from high school. What's more, there's a replica in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (which I was lucky enough to have visited a few years earlier) except I didn't know it was a replica, so I was extra-strength confused upon seeing "the original" here in the Vatican Museums.
There were rooms upon rooms upon rooms of various things: Busts of emperors, kings, and popes, sarcophagi, lion-sculptures, statues of the gods, suits of armor, domed rooms with intricately painted ceilings, vaulted ceilings everywhere, men riding horses (sadly, no horses riding men - would've been pretty progressive in those days), and an enormous hallway - hundreds of meters long - with tapestries for a long stretch and then map-paintings of the different regions of Italy. Phenomenal. I loved that.
Some very cool detail of the claws into the neck on this...thing
This photo was taken somewhere near the middle of the hallway's length. That small light middle-bottom is one end of the hall.
The tour continued and we were given strict instructions about the Sistine Chapel: No talking, no photos. That's it. We pushed in and it was kind of awful in there: Every five seconds a security guard would shout - and I mean shout - "SILENZIO! QUIET, PLEASE! NO PHOTOS!" It did not add to the majesty. Additionally, people are crammed in to an uncomfortable level, and all of them are looking up, which is physically uncomfortable and encourages bumping-into-strangers. The paintings were pretty cool though.
Then we were led out onto the porch of St. Peter's, where we immediately decided we were going to pay the extra 5 euros and go to the roof. This was the best money we've ever spent. Going up is the coolest. Tons of stairs, then you get to walk around the base of the dome inside the church - allowing you to see the intricacies of the mosaic-work 200 feet off the ground that no one will ever see from the floor. This was part 1 of realizing how insane and idiotic this building is.
But then you keep going up and you get the incredible thrill of walking up the dome. This means the walls are curving as you go up the stairs on the edge of the dome (inside) - you have to lean sideways in order to keep walking up and the "hallway" is only about 3 feet wide; fat people and claustrophobes are strongly discouraged from choosing this route. Once you get to the top though...boy is it worth it.
Go ahead and zoom in on this one. There's a lot to see
Fantastic. We hung out for a few minutes, jockeying for position to take the above photo as well as one directly down the middle of the street, and then we headed back down to take some photos with the statues of old popes that line the roof of the front of the building. After those photos (none show faces, sadly, as the faces point toward the round-square), we popped down into the church.
This is where I get angry.
The church, it seems, should be a venue for helping people and affecting positive change in the world. St. Peter's Basilica has taken billions - and I mean billions - of dollars of materials, artwork, land, time, and everything else you can think of and put that money into a building instead of helping any person who needs help. This building has marble pillars wider than most apartments, three story windows with stained glass, Michelangelo's la Pieta, and other art-works that would sell for millions but are by artists you've probably never heard of. It is disgusting. Of course, it's a majestic, beautiful, wonderful building, a marvel of engineering and true beacon of the ability of humans to create, it's a place I'm incredibly happy to have seen. It's just also an embarrassing display of wealth and power for an institution which should have some interest in empowering those who need the presence of others in their day-to-day lives.
Michelangelo's Pieta - also, that's not a window, just a reflection in the protective glass
A roughly 45x25 foot pillar that costs more than your house
It's hard to tell, but there are people in front of the building for scale - it's about 380 feet wide here
Anyway, we left in a drizzle and ate at a lovely sandwich place nearby called Panino Divino. Everyone should go there. By the time we were done eating the sun was going down so we began the long trek back toward the hotel, making stops at the Pantheon for gelato and for another night-time blurry-photo of the Vittoriano monument. We ventured back out into the rain to pick up Chinese food because, you know, when in Rome!
One day left. And it was a bit slower-paced.
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