Italy Day Tredici

Our last day in Rome. We slept in and took our time getting ready. We were really tired because of all the walking we did. We walked to the neighborhood train station and then had to wait about 30 minutes for the next train into town.

We really wanted to see the Necropolis. It's a crypt below St. Peter’s Basilica—Peter (as in Simon Peter....as in Jesus' disciple) is buried there. We heard about this through a woman we sat next to on a train that was a historian for the Vatican. Little did we know, you have to have reservations several weeks, maybe even months in advance. So we go be-bopping into the tour office and asked for a tour for today, and they looked at us like we were devil worshippers or something. Fine. Whatever.

So we stood in line for a really long time to see St. Peter's Basilica. It was totally worth the wait.

Completely beautiful and gigantic.

I was in awe at how huge it was, yet it was very well decorated.

I was also in awe at the symbolism of the church. Jesus told Peter, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”—Matthew 16:18—and literally, the church, the mother Catholic church, is built upon Peter's remains. His bones are directly below the altar, which is pictured below.

That Bible verse is inscribed around the dome, but I couldn’t tell if it’s in Italian or Latin.

The Basilica was so incredible with the ornamentation. Michelangelo’s famous Pieta is in the Basilica as well, and it was really cool to see that.

Next, we went below the crypt, many former popes are buried there. Some of them had elaborate tombs, some with a marble carving of themselves on top. Pope John Paul is buried down there. I was pleased to see he had a very simple, white headstone that said Pope John Paul, 1920-2005. No photos allowed. Some visitors got a little emotional at his grave—he really was loved by masses of Catholics. Five years after his death, there were still photos and other John Paul trinkets for sale at the Vatican.

Next we went to the top of the cupola.

Thank you Jesus for an elevator. We were so tired, and it was so hot that day, that the million stairs would have been the death of me. The elevator got us a little more than halfway up, and at that point, we were able to get up close and personal with the artwork in the dome.

It was beautiful at that level, and it's all mosaic, not paint. This prevents fading from sunlight and flash photography, plus it's so pretty!

We lingered around the dome long enough to catch our breath, and then it was up...up....up.....toooooooo heaven (shameless reference to early 80s Reba hit).

Those stairs were horrible!

I don't usually have problems with tight spaces, but they bothered both of us. Plus they were tilted, going along with the shape of the dome.

I think Michelangelo created that stairway for idiot tourists to prove their faith, because I was praying the entire trip up. (Quick prayer: thank you God for preventing my heart attack at the top of the dome and for saving me the embarrassment of being carted down those stairs on a stretcher. Amen.)

Miley Cyrus was wrong--it's not the climb, it's the view when you get there.

We (mostly me) were dripping with sweat. Look closely and you can see me glistening.

It was totally worth the agony. The view was breathtaking (even though we didn't have much breath to take). We could see all of Rome and got a great view of it's beautiful monuments and ruins.

It was also great to get a bird's eye view of Vatican City. We had wonderful, unobstructed views of St. Peter's Square, the papal apartment, the Sistine Chapel,

the museum (holy moly that thing is huge),

the gardens, and the train stop. The gardens are available to tour by advance booking only, so we were thrilled to see them from the sky--so pretty!

The pope and/or his peeps can catch a train right in the back yard, and the Vatican has it's own radio station.

Following the dome climb, it was close to 4 p.m. and we were starving. We ate a piece of pizza (must say, Pizza Hut was better) and took the Metro to the Spanish Steps. It was raining, so we didn't really get to see them in all their glory, but we were really let down. They were just steps with pretty buildings at the top and expensive stores at the bottom.

Then we walked to the Trevi Fountain...now that was worth the walk! We had no idea how huge it would be! It was beautiful!

But then it started to pour, so we and a hundred other tourists took refuge in a tiny little church next to the fountain. We would have never given this church a thought, but we are so glad we went in. For such a small church, it really was beautiful. It was covered in Biblical artwork from floor to ceiling, and the walls and beams had a nice blue/grey color on them. It was lit with candles and the altar was covered with lilies, so it smelled wonderful in there. Music was playing, and it sounded like there was a choir of nuns and monks hidden somewhere singing just for us. It was very peaceful, and we just sat and stared at the ceiling and altar for 30 minutes or so.

Then we got hungry.

Everything that we found near the fountain was completely touristy, and we wanted our last Italian meal to be a good one, so we decided to go with what we knew. We took a very long, meandering bus ride and inadvertantly saw some beautiful parts of Rome, then changed buses, then walked several blocks back to Ponte Sisto--the restaurant Kate recommended. We ate there two days previously and knew it would be good. It was. All their pastas are homemade and so yummy! Scott had homemade spaghetti with shrimp, mussels and clams. I had homemade rigatoni with bacon and fava beans and a bit of Chianti. We had panna cotta with caramel for dessert. It was yummy, but Scotty said my panna cotta was better. Sweet, but I think he was lying.

We went back to the room a little early so that we could pack for our trip home :(

Italy Day Undici

Francesca and Frederica at the B&B stuffed us full this morning. Sweet pastries, yoghurt (that’s Italian for yogurt), cappuccino, and waffles with Nutella. I'm ashamed that I did not think of waffles with Nutella myself.

Francesca's husband took us to the metro stop. He doesn't speak a lick of English and we know four Italian words, so we said two words total: "ciao" and "grazie" for the entire 10 minute trip.

Our first stop was the Trastevere neighborhood.

Our friend Kate lived in that neighborhood during her semester in Rome and said it was a must-see. We spent about an hour being lost and wandering the streets, then Scott got his bearings and we found the church we were looking for.

Santa Maria de Tresteverre was a nice cathedral in the middle of a very old, very cool little neighborhood. The plaza in front of the church was really pretty. The interior of the church was awesome.

We didn't expect to see such amazing artwork in such a small church. The frescoes were gold; it looked similar to St. Mark's in Venice. The best part of the church was the wedding that we watched.

If I were that bride, I would have been very angry if a bunch of goofy tourists were barging into the church and gawking at my wedding, but everyone else was doing it and when in Rome....

We ate lunch at a cute little restaurant that Kate recommended. Super yummy!

One of the best meals of the trip. Ponte Sisto was the name of it. Homemade pasta and bread!

Next we took the train to the Pantheon neighborhood. En route to the Pantheon we stopped by a set of ruins in the middle of the city.

They have an official name, but everyone calls them the cat sanctuary because a bunch of feral cats roam all over the place. Someone makes sure they're vaccinated and taken care of.

Next was the Pantheon, a church built by the ancient Romans and continually used for 1,400 years.

Those Romans knew how to build a building! The dome was the inspiration for the Vatican, the Duomo in Florence, and the U.S. Capitol.

In fact, Michelangelo and Brunessci studied the Pantheon before they designed their domes. The Pantheon truly is one of the wonders of the world and it was so cool to see it.

We found Santini's tomb, but this was not the right tomb (again, if you don't know what I'm talking about you really need to see Angels and Demons).

Next we went to Piazza Novona to look at local artists peddling their wares. It was fun to look at, but we didn't buy anything. Some of those artists stuuuuuunk!

The next few hours were kind of a bust. We wanted to rent bikes and do a tour like we did in Munich. We walked and walked only to learn the tour we wanted to do was $60. EACH. So then we decided to see the Coliseum. We got all the way over there only to learn it closed in 30 minutes...it was starting to rain anyway, but we took some good pictures.

We kind of wanted a change of pace and taste, and we had some really great Italian food in Germany, so we decided to have German food in Italy. The food was good, not as good as it was in Germany of course, and actually, Hoffbrau Haus in Vegas is better, but this was still mighty tasty.

We took a short Metro ride to the Vatican because we wanted to get some good pictures while it was lit up at night. In the movies, it's so pretty at night. Well, Angels & Demons greatly misled us. It was just not as spectacular as we expected and hoped for.

To avoid the traveling pitfalls of the night before, Francesca very sweetly told us she would pick us up at the Metro stop nearest her house. When we got there, we hung out with her family. We didn’t understand much of what they said, but it was fun anyway.