Our Favorite Day in Rome

I'll be honest: Rome has been a little rough on us. I was sick, then Dane was a different sick, it's really hot, and we realized we are not as interested in things to do in Rome as we thought we were. However, this day was
pretty awesome. The advice we were given about visiting vatican city was to get there and get in line at 6 am to make sure we could get in. Then we went online and found a blog on lonely planet that said that advice was hogwash and things have been much better line-wise since the Vatican changed their hours and the way they do tours, and that going later morning early afternoon was better because many people still follow the old advice. Because the lonely planet plan let us sleep in, we chose that one.

I'm sure I've said this already, but I really love how every restaurant and cafe serves awesome cappuccino.


When we arrived at the entrance to the Vatican museums (after a successful 2nd attempt at the metro- I don't remember if I told the story of our first attempt... it might have been too soon, still. it did not go well). We waited in a line for about 20 minutes, and it was in the shade. thanks lonely planet.


This was the crowd when we got in. It was only like this in a few places. The entrance, near and in the Sistine chapel, things like that.



Also, as a warning, a lot of the pictures are dark or slightly blurry. it's hard to take time to get a good picture with everyone constantly moving. Sorry.

Apparently the Vatican museums have a respectable collection of ancient artifacts.


The views out the windows were often pretty. We might have tried to find a way into this courtyard had it been cooler out.



Way off in the distance, we could recognize some monuments that we had seen near the colosseum, but they are too small to see here.



Dane was really excited by this tomb and I can't remember why.


I always like carvings of folds of cloth. I think they are impressive. If it's actually really easy to do, don't tell me. I like being impressed.





Ok, doesn't it look like one of my students took a pocket knife and then a red pen to this thing?



I don't know what this is exactly, but I want it as my bath tub.


can you read the second section? My favorite part is where it warns that if you wish to avoid the embarrassment of alarm signals, you are urged to observe the barriers.


This sculpture would not do anything to alleviate a person's fear of snakes.


I think this sculpture is in some way related to the story of Romulus and Remus.


There was an entire room (split by a center walkway) devoted to animal sculptures.


Above the walkway in the animal room was this scary face.



And then more animals.


Paintings on the ceilings are everywhere.






This room is modeled after the Pantheon (which held more meaning for me after actually visited the Pantheon). It has a domed ceiling, a variety of statues in little alcoves in the walls, a large basin in the center over an elaborate mosaic floor. The next few pictures are all this same room.










These were pretty cool. I doubt you can see the mosaic tiles easily in this picture, but thats what this is.








Sphinxes facing the right way, away from what they are guarding.


This seemed to be a room of creepy statues. Granted, if cherubim aren't creepy to you, it is probably less so. But there were still some weird ones.


A lot of headless things. And a giant toe.





There were also several beautiful marble floors throughout the museum.


This was in a hall of tapestries. If you have never been somewhere with a collection of tapestries, they are giant woven murals, often in a sequence, that depict an event of some kind (battles are pretty common subject matter, as well as biblical stories). This particular series showed the massacre of the innocents (Herod's decree that all males under 2 be killed). There were probably 6 or 7 of them, and they were so sad.


After the hall of tapestries was the hall of maps. You know that scene in Willy Wonka with the hallway that looks like it goes forever, but then it gets smaller and people are shoved even closer? That's what it was like.






About halfway down this hall was a window. We stopped for a breath of fresh air, and saw this beautiful little oasis. There was a small fountain in front of that building, and I can only assume that this is some special retreat for the pope. At least, if I was the pope, that is what it would be.


Almost to the end!


This was another tapestry (sorry, my pictures backtracked a little). Can anyone tell what they are eating? It looked like 2 little pigs, but that doesn't seem right...


Back to the maps. The maps, incidentally, were also tapestries.


As we got closer to the Sistine chapel, it got more crowded.


The path headed outside for a bit, which made Dane, who almost had a panic attack in the crowded, hot hallways, smile.


The last few rooms before the chapel are the galleries of Raphael. They are impressively painted as well, and probably get overlooked by anxious tourists. They details in the paintings are amazing.





And again with the cool floors. Floors that ten million feet walk over each year.





I think that part of what is impressive to me about art like this is that I am not one for slow, tedious craft. I would never have the stamina to get through this.






Finally!


This was the last picture I could take before going into the chapel.



So here's the thing about the Sistine Chapel. You can't take pictures. I mean, you can, people were sneaking them, or just blatantly taking them and getting yelled at. But you're not supposed to, and I followed the rules because I want to respect the fact that they let people into this amazing room. It really is incredible. I think if I spent all day in there, I would not see everything there is to see. The most famous part of the painting, God reaching out to touch man, is not as big as you would think. It was strange to see something that was so familiar and yet so special. Just to spend the 20 minutes looking up at the ceiling made my neck ache, I can't imagine trying to paint it (that and my arms give out after 10 minutes of drying my hair). It lived up to all the expectation. It was truly beautiful. We did cheat a little when we left. There are 2 exits, and this is one of the best pieces of advice from the blog (aside from not showing up at the crack of dawn). The exit that general visitors are supposed to use goes back out through the museum, and does lead to st. Peter's basilica (after winding for half a mile) but you have to go through a security check again, and that whole process takes around 45 minutes. There is another exit, though, reserved for tour groups that is 200 yards away from the basilica and does not require another security check and takes 5 minutes. We just happened to get caught up in the middle of a tour group that was leaving and got to use the shorter, easier exit. "Oops!"

Of course, that meant that there was not the helpful signage directing us into the basilica because in theory we had a guide. That's ok, though. It wasn't too difficult. More shots of the ceiling. This was actually outside in the entrance area in front of the church.


This was the view of that big round plaza area that in movies is always filled with people. However, at 1 pm in the heat of the day, it was pretty empty.






Dane took lots of pictures inside (because he could) because he has never seen churches like this before this trip. He loved Westminster Abbey, and he thought this was amazing as well. It's quite different from Westminster in that it is much 'richer' in color and design. In England, it is a lot of carved stone, and many tombs and memorial stones, almost piled on top of each other, and relative narrow walkways weaving in between those things. This place was quite spacious and open, with lots of colored marble and paintings. Most of the tombs or memorials in here honor saints or past popes.



This is a sculpture by Michelangelo of Mary holding Jesus (after he had been crucified) across her lap. This picture absolutely does not do it justice. it was gorgeous.


Dane's interpretation of the rule about pictures with people has become 'get Heather's head somewhere in the shot'. Anyway, these are a bunch of pictures we took inside just to help us remember what it looked like. We're not even sure what all of them are.












See the tall thing with four posts behind Dane? It's an altar (I think) and it was Dane's favorite thing here. He liked the carvings on it, and how dark the wood was. We didn't get much better of a picture than this because the church gets darker and darker as you get away from the door.













As far as we can tell, this is a list of all the popes and the years they died. It starts with St. Peter and lists two possible years of his death.








That's a baptismal.



It amazes me that this is the uniform these guards have to wear. It looks like a jester suit.


This building is massive (it's still the basilica ,we're just outside now).





I hadn't planned it this way, but it became helpful that I was wearing this kind of brightly colored shirt. It helps you find me in the pictures (don't be fooled by the pregnant lady also wearing green...that's definitely not me).






There were these fountains all over the place that people were drinking from, and when we first saw them, our reaction was basically, no way, not ever. But then there comes a time when you are so hot and thirsty, and you don't want to pay 5 bucks for a tepid pint of water, and you think, "I don't care if this water gives me cholera, I just need liquid now." When Dane got a little ill the next day, he wondered if it was from this, but I drank just as much of the water and I'm fine (and my immune system was already compromised) so I think it was something else.






After our nap (because we are like toddlers) we went out for dinner at this awesome restaurant whose name has something to do with mischief, as you will see in the picture below. It was so delicious. The vegetable plate appetizer almost made me cry.















Look! We have multiple pictures of both of us! It actually is a little strange to me to see that. I've gotten so used to one or the other of us.









This is how many people were at the Trevi Fountain every time we walked by. Seriously.


Also, just about anywhere you can buy a can of beer or bottle of wine, crack it open and drink it while you walk down the street.


This was the ceiling in our hotel room. It was fun to wake up to.


And this is also what we woke up to. Yum!



Ok, so actually, I've moved on to our last day in Rome as well because it was a short one. We had to catch a plane to Venice in the afternoon, so we wandered around the city a little more before heading out. This is the Pantheon. It was built in the first century a.d. Parts of it are 2000 years old. That's crazy.





















When we walked in, there was a boys choir performing a Capella music. (I just realized that the name means 'in a chapel'). It was gorgeous, and I took video, but I will have to wait until I have much better internet connectivity to post that.





Ok, remember how I said the room at the Vatican was modeled after the Pantheon? It's most obvious in the domes.










Dane did such a good job of pretending to be happy in the pictures. Now, though, it's starting to show that he's not feeling well. :(






I like this fountain because it has a little archway tunnel through the bottom



with a lion drinking the water!


Dane had to stop and rest. behind him are 2nd century ruins of the city discovered in an excavation in 1907.






We actually wound up heading to the airport a couple hours early because it was so stinking hot. It was a little boring, but air conditioned, which made it well worth it to Dane. Plus, I got to write most of this.




Ciao!

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