What I didn't know is that these strikes are often planned far in advance and then advertised.
I know. It's bizarre.
So a couple of days earlier, while we were still in Florence, I was trying to figure out how we would get to the Vatican. It was pretty far and I didn't want to walk since I knew we'd be walking a ton while there. Google Maps kept giving me warnings about any public transit route I tried to take, and a little bit of Google Translate later and I discovered that there was going to be a public transit strike the day we wanted to go to the Vatican.
What the what!?
Not only that, but all the information could be found on a strike website, for the public's convenience. And not only that, but services would still be available during rush hour in the morning and evening. For the public's convenience.
I must say, I was frustrated and charmed and annoyed and entertained by this all at once. (This is a fairly accurate description for visiting Italy in general, I think, only heavier emphasis on the charmed and entertained factors because I really do like Italy.)
So instead of a lazy morning and getting to the Vatican whenever, we decided we'd get up early enough to take a bus. This wasn't that big of a deal, especially since we had our Roma Passes. But we hadn't activated them yet, which means we would need to once we got on the bus.
Here's when I realized what great travel companions Lance and I are for each other. Sometimes one of us will kind of freak out over something and then the other will take over and be calm and handle the situation. Waiting for our first Roman bus ride was Lance's turn to freak out. (I've been trying to think of times I freaked out on this trip, but I can't. This is ridiculous because I know I did! I'll have to ask Lance...) Anyways, not knowing exactly how to activate our Roma Passes really worried Lance. He kept asking me to Google it, but we couldn't find anything definitive. I figured that since the passes had RFID, and that we definitely knew we could activate them on a bus, then there'd be a little box or something for us on the bus and it'd be fairly obvious. But Lance kept fretting about it, and I kept trying to reassure him, until the bus finally came and guess what? There was an obvious RFID reader and we activated our passes and that was that.
Bus rides in Rome are super bumpy, mainly because the roads are all cobblestone like this. But they also generally have a fairly interesting clientele, which more than makes up for any bumps. That morning there was lots of locals and an Asian nun in a brown habit. (I don't know why I remember that, but I do!)
So we finally got off at our stop, oriented ourselves, and made our way to St. Peter's Basilica.
We got to St. Peter's Square (which is really an oval) around 8:30, and it was pretty empty!
And HUGE. That's going to be a common thread on this post. Everything about the Vatican is just GIANT. I can't stress that enough. It sounds like hyperbole. It's not.
So we turned on our trusty Rick Steve's audio guide and started touring.
The guide said we should probably go get in the security line while we listened. There was no line - we walked right up to security, went through, and were on our merry way! (This will seem more important later.)
A Swiss guard at one of the doors.
We stood on the steps of the basilica for a bit, listening to our guide. It was a gloomy day, but still beautiful.
Notice the amazing lack of people.
This is the balcony where the Pope stands.
And then... we went in. And my jaw basically dropped. And my head kind of buzzed, trying to comprehend everything I was seeing.
I have visited A LOT of basilicas and cathedrals and churches and whatnot. I've been in big buildings before. I've been in grand buildings. But this? This blew them all away. (As Rick Steves says, just calling St. Peter's big is like just calling Einstein smart. Giant understatement!)
And look! It's so empty. There were maybe a couple of hundred people in the basilica with us, which is practically nothing.
Even though it was out of order for our audio guide, one of the first things I wanted to see was Michelangelo's Pieta. There's bullet proof glass in front to protect it - poor Michelangelo's statues seem to attract crazy guys with hammers; the same thing happened to David, too. But that didn't matter; it was so pretty! I just stared and stared. Lance doesn't really like this statue, but I do. I really, really do.
You just can't properly capture the magnitude of the building. Those letters up there? SEVEN FEET TALL.
The basilica was actually designed to not look as big as it is. And it does a good job; it's like a ginormous optical illusion.
Those cherubs? Bigger than Lance.
The bronze canopy over Peter's tomb was really impressive. Fun fact: part of the bronze used in this was pilfered from the Pantheon.
Along the floor of the nave are little signs where you can see where other Catholic churches would fit inside St. Peter's. (In other words, if you put those buildings at the beginning of the nave, how does their length compare?) My beloved Florence Duomo? Didn't even make it halfway.
I think where the canopy is is where St. Peter was thought to have been crucified.
More of his tomb.
Here's a really famous statue of St. Peter. Its hard to tell here, but his left foot has been rubbed down so it looks like he has no toes - just kind of this club thing. People like to rub or even kiss his foot. I declined either; I was feeling rather anti-germy that day. (In fact, I was trying all I could to NOT get sick on this trip. This included lots of hand washing, lots of hand sanitizer, and lots of not touching stuff that tons of other people touch. It worked - I didn't get sick!) Anywho, this lady right behind me came up and totally kissed Peter's foot. Erlack.
Our one selfie in the basilica. During this time a guy on a little floor cleaning zamboni kept zipping around. I wish I had gotten a picture of him!
One of the bases of the canopy.
I really like the spirals.
I don't know who this guy is. But he looks like he's about to break out in song!
There were all of these little side chapels with fancy sculptures and little altars. One of them had to body of some Pope. (He was a really popular one, but before my time.) There was also one with a sarcophagus for Pope John II, which is the Pope I remember growing up. (Not that I'm Catholic, but he was pretty famous and for good reason - he seemed to be a really good guy.)
The famous Chair or Throne of St. Peter.
We wandered the basilica for quite a while, listening to the audio guide and gawking at everything. (Maybe it was just me that gawked.) We eventually had to leave because we had a reservation at 10am for the Vatican Museums and, though just around the corner, it was a good 15 minute walk from where we were.
The Vatican Museums are probably just always crowded, and that day was no exception. However, I had pre-ordered my tickets online, so we really didn't have much of a wait. Security was a bit confusing and trying to find the right window was harder than it should have been. And the lady who printed out our tickets acted as though we were bothering her by making her do her job. But finally, finally we got in!
I think it's probably redundant to say this now, but these museums ARE SO BIG! There's something like 4 miles of museum you can see. That's a lot of museum. Fortunately, we had Rick to take us on an audio tour of the most important/interesting stuff. Like this giant, ancient bronze pine cone.
There's just hallway after hallway of busts and statues and art and stuff.
Interspersed among these hallways are little courtyards and rooms and such.
This room had lots of animal statues. See the camel head in the window?
And there's a pig; I took the picture for Tess.
And don't mind us, we're just walking on a 1400 year old mosaic floor. No big deal.
This is some giant bath made of the most precious marble ever.
I think it belonged to Emporer Nero. And it is so big and heavy that instead of moving it they just built this building around it. Or so Rick told me.
Every once in a while we'd pause the audio guide and sidetrack to things we were interested in. Like this Egypt section.
More hallways of stuff.
And even more!
Turns out the Vatican likes map walls, too.
Just before the Sistine Chapel are a few rooms painted by Raphael, including probably his most famous painting, The School of Athens. It was incredible seeing it, and it's just so bright and vibrant.
So, after the Raphael rooms you have to wander a bit more to get to the Sistine Chapel. There were all these signs with arrows and it made it seem like the Sistine was just around the corner, but nope. But we finally got there.
And it. Was. AMAZING!!!!
Bucket list item - checked.
So you're not allowed to take pictures in there, but really, could any picture I take do it justice? No. No it could not. Besides, I was too busy gawking at this wonder with several hundred of my closest tourist friends. It was packed.
And there were these docent guys in there wandering around, getting after people who were trying (unsuccessfully) to take pictures. And every five minutes or so one of them would yell "SILENCE" in several different languages, reminding us that we were, in fact, still in a chapel.
Rick's audio guide for this chapel alone is 30 minutes long. And exceptional. I loved every minute of the whole experience, and I really don't like big crowds in confined spaces. My neck got a crick in it and it was totally worth it. Seeing these famous paintings in person was wonderful and surreal.
I stole a few pics from the interwebs. Yep, this is pretty much what it was like. Only with a ton of people packed in.
Michelangelo was a master, in every sense of the word.
So, once we had our fill we had a choice. See, there are two doors that lead out of the Sistine Chapel. Once is for the general public, and it leads you back to the museum. (I think.) And that's fine if you want to see more of the museum or are done with the Vatican. But if you want to see more of the basilica, then you have a problem. Because if you go out that door, then you have to go through the security at St. Peter's square to get back into the basilica again. And the line for security was ALL THE WAY AROUND the square when we left the basilica the first time.
Yeah, no thanks.
But the second door - well, it leads right back to the basilica, no security or anything. However, this magical door is supposed to be just for tour groups. But my buddy Rick told us that they generally don't make a fuss or check tickets or anything for this door, so if you really want to you can go through it and save yourself quite a bit of time and effort.
So that's what we did.
At first the only tour group going through that door was Asian, which presented a bit of a blending in problem. But then a Russian tour group started to go through as well, so we just inserted ourselves in with them and went on our merry way, totally acting as if we knew what we were doing.
And it worked!
And we were so very pleased with ourselves, which is ridiculous. And we felt even more smug when we saw that outrageous security line again.
Totally worth it.
So why did we want to get back into the basilica? Because it was time to climb one more dome!!!
Climbing St. Peter's dome was almost easy in comparison to the other things we had climbed, mainly because the stairs weren't medieval and tiny line those others. In fact, they had traffic move in such a way that you never had to people going up and down on the same staircase at the same time. So modern! (Hah!)
Even though it felt easier, it was actually more steps than we had ever done all at once - 551!
The views both inside and out were glorious and worth the effort.
Here's looking down into Vatican City.
I later learned that my mom climbed this dome just a few weeks after one of her rounds of chemo. I had previously thought she'd climbed the duomo and not this one. Nope. But after having climbed both, I can see why she saved her strength for St. Peter's. I'm kind of awed by that kind of strength, but also not surprised. My mom was the type of person that if she wanted to do something she did it. (Even if perhaps not medically recommended!) I'd say it was totally worth it.
Looking down on the Sistine Chapel and the museum.
It's hard not to be impressed by this view!
After using some rather questionable toilets on the roof just outside of the dome (Lance's was a hole in the floor; mine was just kinda gross), we made our way back down. Just in time to see a changing of the guard!
And we walked along the columned portico for a bit.
And Lance tried to figure out my phone's camera. But hey, there's the obelisk!
And I got one last picture.
And then we walked down the Via della Conciliazione, kind of overloaded by everything we had seen!
It was late and it was lunchtime. And public transportation was closed because of the strike. Fortunately, we walked for not too long and found a bakery to get some lunch. Lance had a panini and this yummy dessert.
I had DELICIOUS white mushroom pizza, which you buy by the kg. I watched someone in front of me order about 200 kg and decided I only wanted 150 and it was perfect. So they cut it from a long pizza and then fold it in half and put it in the panini press so it comes out crusty and warm and perfection.
We ate out on the street, as the Roman's do.
I also got a chocolate biscotti and some chocolate dipped candied orange, but neither lasted for a picture!
A bit revived from lunch, we slowly meandered around Rome.
I just love the streets and alleys!
We came across several famous squares and fountains.
Some more weird than others...
Here's Bernini's famous Four Rivers fountain.
We eventually made our way back to our apartment. (This is some medieval tower nearby.) We collapsed and rested for a bit.
But we eventually regained consciousness and decided to go explore a bit more. We went up to the Borghese gardens, which is kind of shabby but had some good views!
And this is kind of up by the Spanish steps. What a view with all those domes!
It was such a pleasant night out. Cool, but still nice.
The Spanish Steps street lamps also have feet.
Here's the top of the Spanish Steps. This is when I decided I never wanted to climb up them if only so I could say that I had never climbed up them but had gone down.
It was pretty crowded. All of Rome was out that evening!
We had had a late lunch and no restaurants really open until 7:30, which meant we had a lot of time to kill and wander.
In our wanderings we saw the Victor Emmanuel Monument at the end of one street. We had been talking about going to it because we kept seeing it off in the distance when we were out and about. And it didn't seem that far away, so we started walking to it.
And we walked and walked and walked. Because we didn't consider that because it's just so HUGE that it looked closer than it really was.
Anyways, after risking life and limb to get across a crazy traffic circle with no street lights or pedestrian crossings, we finally made it!
This is a monument to Italy's first king, Victor Emmanuel, who unified Italy. I think he might be buried there. I'm not sure, because most of the inside was closed by the time we got there. Also, Lance was a little obsessed with that giant horse statue.
It was pretty impressive!
There's the traffic circle I mentioned. We both decided we were super glad we didn't have to drive in Italy. It was insane.
The views from on top were really great - there's the Colosseum!
We eventually worked our way to this restaurant that Rick Steves recommended, only to discover they were full! But we found a decent place nearby. The pasta was good and the waiter was over-the-top friendly, if a little disappointed that we didn't order any wine, and a little confused when we didn't get any coffee or cappuccino after the meal. (This was fairly common with all our waiters.) ((The confusion, not us not ordering those things.))
It was probably 9:30 by the time we finally made it home. Not that late for Romans, but we were exhausted.
And understandably so - we had walked 14 miles that day!!!
So. The Vatican. I highly recommend it. I really liked Rome, but I don't know that I would make a special effort to go back there again. I saw pretty much everything I wanted to and don't have any great desire to see it again. But I totally would go back to see the Vatican again.
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