Rome in a Day Part I

The famous saying states that Rome wasn't built in a day, but that didn't stop us from attempting to see much of Rome in a day. And what a day it was! We were showered, breakfasted, and riding the bus to Rome by 8:00 a.m. It was our last day and the mood on the bus was quiet as many took the hour drive to reflect, gaze out the window, or nap.

As we entered Rome, the change was apparent. We had left a quiet countryside and had just entered the most congested city in Europe. Our bus driver maneuvered around the city streets with frequent honks of the horn and Italian expletives. The contrast between our London bus driver and our Italian bus driver was stereotypical. In London, our bus driver was quiet, reserved and rarely said a word to us or to our tour director. In Italy, our bus driver was expressive and vocalized a lot to our tour director about the pedestrians and other drivers. It was all in Italian of course, but if you sat near the front, you got a pretty good idea of what was being said.

St. Peter's Basilica

We had a 10:30 appointment at the Vatican, so we were dropped off outside Vatican City's walls and joined the throngs coming to visit. We met up with our local tour guide, Simone who was the epitome of an Italian man. He was young, very handsome, and charming. He was by far our most engaging tour guide, and very nice to look at too. At one point, I asked him if you had to be a practicing Catholic to receive a license to be a tour guide at the Vatican. He told me no, but that he was one of the rare few who was a devout Catholic who attend church every week and is happily married with three children. In reality only 5%-15% of the Italian population attend church every week, which is consistent with the numbers across Europe. The United States has a higher percentage at 30-50%, but all of the countries tend to have higher self-reporting numbers compared to actual church attendance records. It seems that regardless of the country we live in, when asked we tend to report that we attend church more often than we actually do.

Belvedere Torso

Simone took us through the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museum) giving us the back stories, history, and interpretations of the many pieces of art we saw. The Vatican Museum is huge with many masterpieces. We saw collections of paintings, sculptures, and tapestries, and architecture. We saw ancient statues from the Roman empire, and learned why so many are missing arms and heads. When the Roman Empire fell and was invaded by the Barbarians many of the statues were overturned and the appendages were often broken at the weakest and thinnest points. We also saw statues where repairs had been attempted and the proportions or coloring weren't quite correct.

Eventually, we got to go into the Sistine Chapel and see the gorgeous frescos on the ceilings and the blue wall painted by Michelangelo. It was amazing. I wish I could have spent the day in there with binoculars. The lighting was dim and we weren't allowed to take any photos. This was to protect the paintings, but also because in 1980, Sony financed the cleaning of the frescos and there was a copyright agreement that doesn't allow any photos to be taken in the Sistine chapel until 2025. We actually got to see the before and after. The difference was stunning. Before the cleaning, the walls had a dingy grey cast to them. Once the soot and dirt was removed, the true colors are vibrant and beautiful. The Sistine Chapel is a showcase of Michelangelo's genius. Although he had never really painted before, he was pressured and threatened by the pope at the time to paint the ceiling. He had to learn how to paint frescos (where you paint on the wet plaster), and the result is breathtaking.

Baldacchino above the altar 

After the Sistine Chapel, we went into St. Peter's Basilica which was quite large. This church was built on what is believed the burial site of Peter. It has three levels built on top of each other. The lower levels are where the tombs are, but we stayed in the upper level where there was plenty to view. There is an altar that is reserved only for the pope. It was built by Bernini (another famous artist) who took travertine marble blocks from the Colosseum to build it and melted down bronze from the roof of the Pantheon to create this amazing canopy that stands over the altar. It appears that Italy was one of the first to recycle so many years ago.

Micro Mosaic reproductions

In St. Peter's we were allowed to take photos of the paintings. The reason is because they were not actual paintings. They were reproductions of paintings completed in tiny pieces of tile called micro mosaics. It was very impressive. Overall, the basilica is a beautiful building of the renaissance and baroque periods designed by and displaying the amazing talents of Michelangelo, Bernini, Donato, and Maderno.

The final stop at the Vatican was an official store where you could buy an item and even have it blessed. It would then be delivered to either your hotel or restaurant later in the day. There were many different rosaries and crosses that could be purchased along with jewelry, and figurines, and the store stayed very busy. I bought a pretty pair of earrings made from Murano glass that were 50% off the original price.

Lunch was a short walk a way from the area surrounding the Vatican to find some restaurants that were more reasonable in price. It was warm and humid in Rome, so we were ready to find a place where we could sit and have something cool to drink. The four of us ended up in a cute little restaurant and did our typical buffet style of ordering and eating. One thing we had to order was spaghetti alla carbonara which is Matt's favorite pasta dish from Italy. Janice's cousin had also told her to order it since it is different from what you can get in the U.S. That along with a sausage pizza, melon & prosciutto, and some gnocchi made for another delicious meal. I am hoping the miles of walking we had been doing would balance out the high calorie meals I was regularly consuming.