Yesterday after a continental breakfast at our hotel (included), we took the subway to the Vatican. The square (well actually it’s more of a circle) where the Pope says Mass sometimes is huge and mostly surrounded by a double ring of immense stone columns. Apparently 300,000 people can fit into the square at one time. We joined the lineup that stretched almost the length of half the square. There’s no fee to get into St Peter’s Basilica but you have to go through metal detectors first. Then there’s a station where guards make sure that you’re appropriately dressed - no short shorts or bare shoulders. The line was really long for the metal detectors but actually moved very quickly so it only took about half an hour. We didn’t bother to line up or pay for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel because that might have taken hours.
St Peter’s Basilica must be unique in the world. It’s the length of 2 football fields inside and there are sculptures, paintings, side chapels, painted domes and ornate finish absolutely everywhere. It took me (this is Bill talking) a little while to get used to the idea that it was so lavish when the original premise for Christianity was a fairly simple message but soon I decided to forget that and just appreciate it as a work of art. And it is definitely worth seeing by anyone because it is so rich in art and architecture, no matter what your personal beliefs are. Everywhere you look there’s something to see.
After we left the Vatican we walked down by the Castle Sant Angelo by the Tiber River for our usual picnic lunch of cheese, bread, olives, tomatoes and water. As you walk away from the Vatican or any other tourist site in Rome there are always beggars and buskers. Yesterday we saw another old crone covered head to toe in black and bent over her cane, just quivering with fatigue. We took a closer look and realized that the little bit of her face and hands that we could see was very smooth, young skin. We were tempted to steal her collection plate. I bet she could run like a track star to retrieve it.
Then we headed by subway back to our hotel to cool down for the afternoon. Yesterday evening was another good meal of lamb, cannelloni and tomato salad with wine and beer. Again, total cost 29 euros. It’s not too hard to find good dinners in fairly modest restaurants.
After breakfast today we walked around a bunch of sites we hadn’t yet seen. There are so many things to see in Rome you could trip over them. This morning the most impressive site was the Trevi Fountain. It’s in a small square but is really beautiful. Another tourist (there are many) took our picture for us. We also saw the Pantheon, built in 27 BC and the only building of ancient Rome that’s still intact. We went to Piazza Navona where there’s an Egyptian obelisk brought back by one of the ancient emperors (I forget which one). Then we went up on some huge public building (the Monumento a Vittorio Emmanuelle II, I think) and looked down over several ancient Roman forums built by different emperors. We also saw emperor Trajan’s Column which is a huge stone column with intricate scenes carved all the way up it in a spiral.
After that we wandered back to the hotel to cool off. It’s best to tour hard in the morning and relax in the afternoon, it’s so hot. Tonight we’ll go out for dinner and a stroll and get ready to leave tomorrow for Florence (Firenze). We’re ready to gradually move north toward Austria over the next week, seeing Florence, Venice and Verona in Italy before heading up to Innsbruck.
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