Rome: Part III

They're all here, guys, the pictures are all here. They were never really gone... Anyone notice the date on yesterday's post? ;)

For real, now:

Rome: Part III

or, how my motto became I Can Always Sleep Later

Alright, here we go with everything you ever wanted to know about my next day in Rome. I promise you I will try make it fun. I will even include a few handy tips in case you soon find yourself at the Pope's front door. You see, this day was centered around going to Vatican City, and -- let's face it -- going to Vatican city left me with a lot of handy tips.

Handy tip #1:

GO EARLY

We knew the Vatican was a long walk from our hostel, so we budgeted an hour to get there. (Only later did we look it up online and see that the distance was THREE MILES. Sheesh). Eric, Ed, Anna, and I were physically walking out the door of our hostel at 7:05 am.

Round of applause, please. I never get moving this early.

Leaving at such an ungodly hour was worth it, worth it, worth it. We got to the Vatican shortly after 8:00 and had NO LINE to get in. Walking out of the basilica a mere two hours later, we saw that the line now stretched HALFWAY AROUND THE SQUARE and by some accounts was TWO HOURS LONG. The moral of the story is that, for St. Peter's, even 10:00am is not early enough. Get there sooner. Get there at 7:00 when it opens if you want to. It will be worth it.

I realize that I have been using a lot of CAPS WRITING even this short way into the post, and I apologize. The Vatican deserves better. Now I will just let you gaze upon some pictures of the square and the basilica (which we entered after waiting in no line, have I mentioned that?)




































See? At 8:00 in the morning, you get this place nearly to yourself.









































































Amazing. St. Peter's, all of it and everything around it, was my favorite "big moment" of going to Rome. It's on a physical and symbolic scale of such enormity, not much else compares.

Now on to...

Handy tip #2

Climb the Cupola!

Although the trip up was 551 winding, sloping, narrowing stairs, it was worth every drop of sweat and every eurocent. We climbed first to an inside view of the basilica:




































(Just can't get away from that grate keeping us in.)

Then it was up, up, up to the best view at the very top!



























































(Notice, in the last picture, how far the line has stretched! Handy tip #1, I'm telling you!)

After climbing halfway back down, there is (surprise, surprise) a gift shop and the chance to check out where you just were. We were up above the blueish part, just below the vertical column piece...things:

























After our ascent up to the cupola, we descended down into the grottoes where the popes of ages past are buried. Mostly the area was quiet (we kept getting told over the intercom system to be silent and respectful) and everyone walked past a majority of graves without stopping, mainly for me since I didn't know who they were or what they did. Except for John Paul II. Everyone was waiting to walk past his tomb, and some were even allowed into a roped-off area where they could pray for an extended period of time. For many people, it was an extremely emotional event (tears, etc.).

And I was struck by a thought: As much as visiting St. Peter's was a dream of mine, and as inspired and awe-struck as I was by it, the experience will never come close to meaning for me what it means for millions of others. This place was more than just a tourist spot. A lot more.

Whew, with that off my chest, let's get out of the grottoes and get some fresh air. Time to head out of St. Peter's square and over to the Vatican Museum, everyone! And also time for:

Handy tip #3

If you have enough time in Rome, do St. Peter's and the Vatican Museum on different days. Both were a lot of walking in their own right, and combined the two made for about five hours of non-stop foot-use. Also, we used our get-in-early card on St. Peter's, and by the time we arrived at the museum there was a line waiting for us. With a week or so, it would be wise to take things at a slower pace, maybe enjoy them more.

But I didn't have a week. And I regret nothing. Bring on the endless museum!

I say endless because the Vatican Museum has learned a thing or two from Disney World. Everyone, at least %99.99 of visitors, come to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. It's a fact that I don't even have to look up. Yet the Vatican Museum has hundreds, thousands of other artifacts for people to see that will get ignored as tourists fly by on their way to the Michelangelo wonder-room.

The Vatican Museum has a solution, though, and that is to make every visitor walk through every single room of the museum to get to la Cappella Sistina. This even includes an outdoor walkway for part of the journey to keep you from short-cutting your way around five rooms. I will not bore you with thousands of pictures, but instead I will say that nearly every room was a version of this:



















and every single room was amazing and worthy of more attention than I gave them.

But walking through all the rooms was worth it, because we eventually made it to this:





















No, I didn't take this picture. I didn't even try join the I-took-an-illegal-picture-of-the-Sistine-Chapel club. I was too busy looking up, up, and up. While some places tend to disappoint in real life compared to the hyped-up version you hear about, this was not one of them. At least not for me. Amazing.

So there you have Vatican City, along with a few handy tips that I hope might someday come in handy to SOMEONE. But maybe these posts will convince you all to hope on a plane to Rome in the near future :)

At this point, Anna and I split of to do our own girl thing. Mainly, shopping. But we also fit a couple other things in there, too. One was to officially try Italian coffee (it had to be good, right? I mean, where did the words espresso, cappuccino, and latte come from?):



















Our waiter took the picture. He was special. When he gave Anna her caffe latte, he said "This is for my heart." I thought, great, what does that make me? Then he told me, "And this is for my other heart." Classy, waiter man, classy.

We also made our way to the Trevi fountain:



















We had to pull the classic move and throw a coin into the fountain. Now we're guaranteed to return to Rome! ;)

Action shot!
























Next it was time for probably my favorite "small moment" of the trip, called small only because it did not center around a world-famous landmark. Anna and I bought a cheap bottle of wine (and a cheap corkscrew from a tourist shop) and went back to the Spanish Steps:

























We found a spot in the sun



















And enjoyed this view for almost two hours!



















It was a great people-watching spot!

After a long, relaxing sit on the Spanish steps, we randomly ran into Nick, Adam, and Matteo on a random street near the river. We soon met up with Eric, and it was time for our (last!) nightly dinner experience. We didn't like the first restaurant we ended up at, so we switched locations to a place that worked out much better:






































(It was at THIS POINT in the trip that I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of Nick, Adam, and Matteo. So here they are! They really were there for the whole thing, I promise!)

The night needed to end with one last trip to Giolitti -- it was a requirement.



















I finally gave in and tried the Bailey's Irish Cream flavor, and it was a worthwhile decision. By this point, it was time to head back to the hostel and call it a night since we'd already lost an hour due to daylight saving time starting the next day. Our adventures in Italy were over...


...or were they?