Doesn’t matter where I am, I always wake up at 5 a.m. I lay there for awhile but finally got up and gathered all my charging stuff in the bathroom and found out that everything is working, and I can recharge everything with out a problem. What a relief to know that all the necessary technology of traveling will be able to keep runnning
Next was breakfast. A pretty stale affair really. The bread was a little old and the cake was dry, but the meats and yogurt are always good. So was the automatically made push-button cappuccino.
Breakfast faire at the hotel. Not sure about the red mystery juice
Trastevere walk to the Vatican Museum
The street our hotel was on in Trastevere
Our reservation at the Vatican Museum was for 10:45 so we leisurely started walking through Trastrevere and along the Tiber. It was a gloriously sunny morning-cool with a light breeze and it was great fun meandering through the streets just to see what we could see.
Street art
What a trooper!
St. Peter's Square
Another Rome fountain
At the Vatican Museum there was barely a line and we quickly got in and got our group tickets and were told to come back to the meeting area to leave with our group at 10:30. We had a great guide and she took us off to the side to explain all the detail of the Sistine Chapel since she would not be able to talk once we got in there.
In the courtyard of the Vatican Museum
The giant Pinecone
We saw much of the same stuff including the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, and the Belvedere torso all of which had a profound influence on Michelangelo, but this time we al so got to see the Raphael paintings in the Papal Apartments including the one I remembered from before, The School of Athens.
Apollo Belvedere
Laocoon
Wandering through the museum courtyard
Belvedere Torso
Raphael's School of Athens
From there we wound our way back down to the ground level and turned in our headset to our guide and then entered the Sistine Chapel on our own. The previous two times we had been in there I remember it being super crowed and I felt rushed. This time was different. We waited to get spots on the wall to sit and we took out our ipods and listened to the 30 minute Rick Steves audio tour which was fun and informative. It gave us full descriptions of the nine center panels along with much of the other elements. I also loved learning more about the Last Judgment scene on the west wall.
Purloined Sistine Chapel photos. No flash. Off my knee.
Moved by the Spirit on the Scavi Tour
From there we went out and tried to get a handle on where to go for the Scavi tour at 1:45. By this time I think it was about 1. Luckily we did not exit (uscita) because there was a whole new place to leave your bags. You can not even take a backpack into the Scavi tour, It was actually on the right hand side as you face the Basilica. By the way I lugged my computer around everywhere today in the hopes of finding free wifi. We had seen a sign near the Largo Argentina that it was a free WiFi zone and thought we would stop there on our way back.
We got back to the entry point for the tour and the rather surly Swiss Guard said he wouldn’t let us through until exactly 1:30. So we waited and watched people try to get pictures with then and being asked to keep their distance. We finally got in and checked in at the Officio Scavi to confirm our reservation and get our tickets.
We waited outside for quite a while and finally our guide arrived who wasn’t really our guide. Our English-speaking guide had not yet arrived so another woman was going to try and lead the tour although it was the first time she had done it in English. She tried valiantly but we were glad when the actual guide showed up. Apparently his bus showed up late for the two hour bus ride into the city. The difference between the two was like the difference between elementary and graduate level discussion.
We learned about the three levels: the necropolis, the crypt and the actual level of the current St. Peter’s. We saw several tombs in the original necropolis and traced the levels of where St. Peter had been buried and the “trophy” that had be built around it, followed by the altar of Constantine, then the current high altar in the Basilica today. We learned of the columns of the trophy and saw one of them, saw a slit of light of the actually burial place of St.Peter. The red wall. The grafitti wall and a niche that held what they believe are some of the actual bones of Peter.
As we were standing in this one room where we were looking at the grafitti wall and the few bone fragments, I actually felt moved by the spirit. The idea that all this had been built to honor Christ trough the apostle Peter who Christ had said was the rock on which he would build his church was very moving to me at that moment. Then almost simultaneously the guide offered us some time to pray if we so chose. It was quite moving. God is still at work in the world. Christ is still the answer to men’s needs.
And then we all silently left the room.
From there we looked an John Paul II’s tomb and then saw what has been mentioned as the mosaic on the red wall and then we moved out to the exit. From there we went into the Basilica and looked around a bit. Saw the huge crowds around the glassed in Pieta, stood in line to rub Peter’s feet, took a look at the high altar and then left to reclaim my backpack.
Crowds at Michelangelo's Pieta.
As it was approaching 4 p.m. we filtered down and out of the St. Peter's area. We stopped and had a coca cola light and a pizza pannini thing and then walked down to cross the Tiber at the Castello St Angelo on the walking bridge there.
America Wins a Great Match
As we were heading toward Camp di Fiori we found a bar with the World Cup US v. Algeria game playing and we went inside and camped out to watch. The game had been going just about 15 minutes or so and the score was 0-0. I got a beer Christine had a wine and we settled in to watch. As we sat more people stopped in. One woman sat at the bar and spoke only Italian, but she seemed to be American. Then a guy from NY who came in with his rolling duffel bag and then last a group of girls from George Mason University. It was still 0-0 at half time and even though we had at least three good scoring opportunities. One great one glanced off the far right post and just would not go in. It appeared that we were going to be doomed to a time and leave our fate in the hands of England, but in stoppage time London Donovan punched one in from a rebound off a missed shot and we won 1-0. Pretty cool to be in rome watching the game in Italian with a bunch of Americans. A meaningful World Cup win. Who ever would have thought. On to the round of 16.
From there we stopped at a farmacia and bought sunscreen for about 16 bucks. Then went back to largo Argentina to see if we could get some free leakage, but no such luck. Then it was back to our place in Trastevere for a well earned nap before heading out for dinner.
Great Pizza in Trastevere
We slept until after 7:30 and then headed out to find a pizzeria that I have read about in many guide books and web sites including Rick Steve’s called Dar Poeta. I got turned around a bit a walked us quite a ways away from where we were supposed to be, but we finally got back on track and we finally found the little side alley the place was on. I thought we might have to wait but since we would sit in side we got right in. Amazingly most of the people in there we Romans-at least 80%. We started with a liter of the house wine and had a creamy pecorino bruschetta as an appetizer.
I had a pizza called the Dar Poeta that had mozarella, garlic, zuchinni, sausage, and chili pepper. Christine had one with sausage, cream cheese, and porcini mushrooms. It all was delicious.
The Dar Poeta. Mozzarella, sausage, garlic,zucchini, chili peppers
Porcini pizzi
As we took our time to finish the wine, we eventually finished every bite of pizza. We passed on the dessert chocolate calzoni, but that may have been a mistake. It looked pretty good.
We got back easily with a moonlit stroll and Christine got some Euros along the way and it was pretty close to 11 when we arrived back at the hotel.
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