The Vatican Museum and sleep

Routine
We sleep until 5-6AM, leave around 8-9AM, sitesee, come back around 1-2PM, nap, wake up around 5-6PM, sitesee some more, and come back around 11PM and sleep again. Vacation heaven or jetlag hell? Our bed is really hard so sleeping is a challenge. After todays Vatican Museum trip, we had no problem taking our siesta. But we can't help but feel that we are missing some things because we are taking such a long nap in the afternoon. Oh well, maybe next time we come to Rome we can have things planned out a bit better.

The Vatican Museum
We weren't sure what the weather was going to be like today so we decided that we would play it safe and do something inside. Since we knew how to get to the Vatican, bus 40, which has a stop one block from our hotel, we thought that would be the best bet. The weather was great. Sunny and 40. Cold in the shadows, warm in the sun.


Lines
Even getting there early, around 9, there were lines, and they were long.

This particular line streched about a mile and took about an hour to get through.

The path to the Sistine Chapel
The Rick Steves book recommended that we focus our efforts around a few things. We had heard so much about the Sistine Chapel that we decided to see it first and then browse some of the other sections later. We walked through a maze of rooms, following the crowds. There were so many people that it was impossible to go the wrong way. Hoards came in one door and left out of another. Not an exhibit for claustrophobics or people with sore necks.

Frescos
It was the first time I got to see a fresco up close. A fresco is a painting where they mix the color with the plaster so it becomes part of the wall. It dries so fast that they can only paint a small section at a time. It was amazing to see it so close. There were so many beautiful murals. To think that the Popes would use some of the rooms as dining rooms or sitting rooms was incredible. I would put more pictures up, but this computer is so slow. I'll try to find a faster computer to upload some of my old posts later.

The Sistine Chapel
Close to the end of the exhibit was the Sistine Chapel. A very large and tall room with about 500 people gathered. You weren't allowed to take pictures or make any noise. In fact, I saw one guy and his family almost get ushered out because he took a picture. I had my camera on and one of the ushers came over and told me to turn it off. It was so beautiful and impossible to describe. I can see why it was rated as one of the best in Europe.

4 miles
The Rick Steves book said that there were 4 miles of exhibits. By the end of the Sistine, I was exhausted. Perhaps it was due to me being the pack mule. The backpack with our water, jackets, video camera and tour guides was killing me. We were both ready for our daily nap.

Lessons learned
Only eat at places recommended by the book. We found a great place several blocks from the Vatican. Perilli in Prati had a great one-trip buffet of traditional Italian food. I would say it was the best meal that we had so far. But I might have been delusional from the low blood sugar.


Metro home
We took the metro back to the hotel. Quick, easy, no hassle. At breakfast, we had learned that the metro was on strike the day before. And that was why it had been closed. They were on strike for 4 hours. Right when we tried to use the Metro.

La Dolce Vita Stroll
Later that evening we caught a bus to the Pantheon. And then we walked around town. We stopped by the Pantheon, San Ignazio Church, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We ate at another recommended restaurant, il Gabriello. We split everything, salad, entre and even dessert. It was Keri's favorite.

Tomorrow
If the weather is nice, we'll do the Forum walk. We have to see the Colosseum before we leave on Thursday. If the weather is bad we'll try to get into the Borghese Museum.

Finding our way around and getting ripped off by Grandma

Rain
We realized why so many people had hung their laundry out to dry. It wasn't raining. We had planned to see some of the outside sites on Monday as most of the museums were closed. The minute we walked outside, we knew we wanted to go someplace warm and dry. The weather is a lot like Seattle, the forecasted temperature is a bit higher. However, we don't typically walk around in it for hours so it feels colder here.
Here is Keri at the Piazza Nationale which was a block from our hotel.


We met some Seattlites at breakfast that were planning on going to St. Peter's Basilica. As soon as we stepped outside we knew that was where we wanted to go.

Public Buses
We had a fairly good idea of how to get to the Vatican. We're close to the metro, but for some reason we decided to take the bus. I think it was the time of day, and the route that we chose, but the busses were packed. The first one we tried to get on left the last few stragglers on the street. We waited for another one and decided to get a bit more pushy. We were the last two on the bus and Keri thought the door might crush her.

Not knowing the customs, I think we started an argument when some people wanted to get off the bus.

The bus stopped and we were standing in the door not wanting to lose our coveted last place position. I realized that no one could get by me so I finally stepped down off the bus, but at least held onto the handle so I could fight my way back on. That's when some of the locals started talking angrily at each other. It's nice not understanding the language sometimes.

Vatican City
Bus 64 dropped us off right by the side of the Vatican. We got there fairly early, around 9, so the lines weren't that long (about 100 yards).


We met a nice older Dutch couple in line that kept us occupied on something other than the cold so the line went quickly.

We just followed the crowd and ended up finding the audio guide place. At 5E a pop it seemed like an easy way to get a tour. Rick Steves doesn't recommend the audio guides but we got two anyway.

The Dome
Once inside, you can take the path up to the dome, or the path to the floor. We decided to take the path to the dome first. Mistake. Beautiful and recommended, but a mistake to do it first. 300 steps to the inner rim, and then another 300 steps to the outside rim.

The inner rim was fantastic. The paintings were made with bits and pieces of colored stone about the size of a pea. Here was one of the pictures on the inside of the dome. Close up, all of that was done with little rocks.


Getting to the outside rim was an adventure. You have to walk through these pathways that are 3ft wide and 6ft tall and angled depending on where you're at in the dome. One set of stairs were so tight that they had a rope that you had to hold on to. I got some good pictures of the angled walkway.


It was an experience. We finally made it to the top. Beautiful. 360 degrees of Rome. You get a feel for how big the city is when you can see it that way.


And here is a picture from the top of the dome. One of my favorites.


The Basilica
Our legs didn't start to get wobbly until the walk down from the dome. We had to sit for a bit once we got on the floor. Everywhere you looked was something beautiful. Too much to describe here. My favorite was a statue of one of the Popes sitting on a flowing marble blanket.

Another favorite was St. Peter's Tomb with the 70 foot high bronze canopy.

We plan to go back one more time because we didn't realize that we had missed the Vatican Museum. Rick Steves rates it as one of the top three in Europe. Maybe we'll go today.

Rummy
Once we got out of the Museum we were cold, tired and hungry and decided to check out one of the restaurants next the Vatican. Mistake #1. Don't choose any restaurant next to a popular place. We found a small restaurant about a block away and the menu looked ok. We were the only ones there. Mistake #2. Only go to the crowded restaurants where people appear to enjoy the food. We sat down and a little old lady started to talk to us in broken English, "You want spaghetti, meatballa, mushrooma?". We told her what we wanted, Gnochi, Lasagna, salad and water. She brought us meatballs and mushrooms too. Mistake #3. Ask if it is included with the meal.

The meal was nice, nothing to remember. She came back with the bill of 78E, and that didn't include the service. I looked at the bill and asked her to explain why it was so much. Apparently the meatballas and mushroomas where just as much as a full dish, each! She hovered over me while I got my credit card out like she was afraid we were going to dash.

I read that you aren't supposed to leave a tip anyway. Small consolation as we walked out of there in a hurry, leaving no tip, but much wiser as to how we would do things in the future.

I want to go back to take a picture of the place. I'm sure it will get funnier the older it gets.

Lost
We had a good idea of how to get to the metro from our restaurant. We walked north for a couple of blocks to the Ottaviano stop. The stop was closed and seeing all of the people around huddling under their umbrellas talking on the their cell phones, we didn't ask why. We just kept walking, and walking. The next stop Lepanto, was closed too. Something about it being cleaned. At that point we were both cold and tired and decided to take any bus that would take us back. By luck, we happened to take a bus that was going in the right direction. It was much easier to get our bearings once we were on the bus. Finally made it back to the hotel where we slept and thawed out.

Public Fountains
There are big and little fountains all over the town. More than once I've seen a local take a drink from a fountain. Keri got a picture of me taking a drink. It totally grosses her out. Fun.


Trevi Fountain
We made it out to the Trevi Fountain that night. Truly a beautiful sight. Not too crowded, and very romantic.


Tomorrow
Vatican, Pantheon, Capitol Hill and maybe the Forum walk. Depends on how cold it is.

Fly into Rome....and sleep

Long Flight
What a long flight! Keri and I flew to from Seattle to JFK which was about a four hour flight. With the time difference we didn't get there till 4PM. We had a short layover to stretch and grab something to eat. Then we got on a flight from JFK to Rome's Fiumicino airport. That was about an 8 hour flight. With the time difference, we didn't get in until 8AM the next morning. 8AM to 8AM. Not a full 24 hours, but you get the idea. Here is a picture from the plane of the Italy coast.


Note to self, don't use the automated bigliettos.
We took the train from the airport into Rome's Termini station, about 30 minutes. Finding the train was easy, however, we did try to order tickets through the automated biglietto (ticket) machine. At 9.5 euros a pop, both tries failed with the credit card. And then trying to get anyone to understand us would have been worth another 10. Finally, we went to the regular ticket counter and bought our tickets. But then spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to validate them. They don't do it at the ticket counter, and the validation machines are very picky about where you put the tickets in.

The trip from the station to Rome was interesting. Apparently, Sunday must be laundry day as we saw many houses with clothes hanging out.

Termini was a bit stinky for Keri. It is tough when your first experience with a town are the bad smells. Smelled a bit like downtown Tijuana. Part urine, part dirt.

Close Hotel
Our hotel is about a quarter mile from the Termini station. So the walk there wasn't that long. We're staying at the Hotel Aberdeen, chosen partly for the name. We didn't realize how convienient it would be to be so close to the Termini, which also happens to be the hub for the underground metro. I'm sure we'll be using the metro while were here. This is Keri outside of our hotel room.


Sleep
The room is very small, and the bed is very hard. But nothing else mattered when we got to the room. We got to the room at 10:30AM and slept until 5PM. And we could have kept sleeping! We decided to get up and walk around in order to shake off the jetlag.

Spanglish, only in Italian
We stopped by a little pastry shop, Terazza Boberelli, for some lattes and snacks. I got lucky when the waitress asked us what we wanted. Due latte, uno tiaramisu y uno profittorolè. After thinking about it a bit, I really wasn't sure that what Keri wanted was called profittorolè. She brought us the right thing. Small victories.

Spanish Steps
After walking around a bit later that night. We decided to see the Piazza Spagna. There were many people out and about for the night. Several hundred just sitting on the steps. Being Sunday, I think that some sort of church service was ending at the time we started walking. I was amazed to see so many people out. We stopped into several churches to view the frescos and statues.


Tomorrow
Most of the museos are closed on Monday, so we plan to do the ancient stuff. We're thinking we are going to do the Roman Forum Walk: Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, Forum's Main Square, Temple of Julius Ceasar, Temple of Antoninus, Basilica Aemilia, Caligula's Palace, Temple of Vesta, House of Vestal Virgins, the Senate House, Rostrum, Arch of Septimius Severus, Temple of Saturn and Column of Phocas. All in the first half of the day. Yah right.

Wacky Keyboards
oh, yah, and the keyboards have slightly different characters so I spend about as much time typing as I do hitting the backspace key. Although, after this post, I'm getting better. The special characters are the toughies. Trying to hit the @ key takes a ctrl-alt-where the semi-colon normally is.