vatican city, and italy: rome

Getting from Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria to Rome, Italy was easy but was annoying. First, a bus to Zell am See. Then a regional train to a small town. Then a two hour wait. Then a train that departed on time but arrived in Rome two hours late. Argh. The only good thing about being late was the bag of goodies they gave me in an effort to say sorry. Granted, the goodies came as we were getting off the train, which didn't help much in terms of my stress level while I was on the train.
I'm pretty sure that every time I've arrived or departed Italy by train, there has been a delay. Plus Italian train stations are not great. 

When I went to Egypt over the winter holidays I met a guy named Eric on my cruise on the Nile. He was currently living in Rome, so of course I had to visit. He met me at the train station and showed me how to get to his flat. I love public transport.

It was impossible not to notice the heat and humidity, which was far worse than what I'd had the past 10 days or so. Plus Rome is a big city with a gazillion people going every which way, with plenty of noise to match.

We got to the flat, which was directly across the street from the entrance to the Vatican Museums. Wow. It was great fun to watch people in the various queues. Basically, that was what I did for the rest of the day. The weather wore me out even though I wasn't really out in it. Eventually Eric and his flatmate Ramona (also American,) made a huge salad for dinner, and we watched a movie by streaming it from Eric's computer.

The next morning I got up and tried to figure out what I would do during the day. Eventually I was able to decide that I wanted to go to the Vatican Museums, then go for a walk with Eric and Ramona. I bought my ticket to the museums online, which made it so I didn't have to wait in the long queue.

The Vatican Museums are huge, and filled with art. Lots and lots of art. Much of it religious, but not all of it. Many of the ceilings were amazing. I'm not a huge art museum person, so I was definitely arted out by the time I was done. It took me nearly three hours to walk through everything, and I didn't even look that closely at much of it.

My favourite room hands down was the map room, which has a stunning ceiling. Plus when I walked through there I looked out the windows and realized that sometime I'd like to go back and take a garden tour.

I know it sounds crazy, but I don't love the Sistine Chapel. Yes, the artwork is amazing, but it isn't really my style. Plus, you see it at the end of your tour through the museums, so I was tired of art. Also, you're in there with what seemed like millions of your best friends, and no one is moving quickly. There are wide doorways through the rest of the museums, but getting into, through, and out of the Sistine chapel involves narrow doorways. Argh.
A Japanese company paid for the renovation of the ceiling years ago, and part of the deal is that they now hold the copyright, so you're not allowed to take photos.

That doesn't stop a lot of people, but it's really annoying that the reason for the photo prohibition isn't religious or respect, it's greed.

I loved the giant spiral ramp you go down to get out of the museums.

I walked back across the street to the flat, and ended up relaxing for a while because it rained on and off for several hours. Everytime we thought it would be good to start walking, it started raining and/or thundering again.

Eventually the rain stopped, and we went out. They showed me a great church, Santa Maria Theresa. Huge and Catholic. (Of course, this is Rome.) I loved it.

We saw a number of other churches, all slightly smaller but still beautiful. Even though I know heaps of people live in Rome, I still wonder how all of the churches survive. We also saw a few fountains, and went over a couple bridges.

Eventually it was time for us to split up for the evening. I'd made plans to meet up with Shanna, a girl I met when she stayed with me in Kyiv about a year earlier. She and I found each other in a piazza and chose a nearby cafe. It was awesome to catch up with her, and find out what was going on in her life. We also planned a future meet up in another country.

From there I walked home, and fell asleep pretty fast.

The next morning Ramona cooked oatmeal for breakfast for everyone, and I started walking around 1130. I walked along various streets, taking photos of all kinds of random things. It goes without saying that I stepped into a few churches.

One of the minor sights along the way was a pyramid. Apparently they're not just in Egypt, I had no idea. This one was only open for scheduled tours a few days a month, and it had to be scheduled ahead of time.

Eventually I got to my first sight of the day: St Paul's Cathedral is huge. Peter and Paul were the two apostles that made it to Rome, so it's fitting that they have two huge cathedrals named for them. I was surprised I hadn't heard of St Paul's previously, I'm glad Eric mentioned it.

To get into St Paul's I had to put my bag through an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. That was unexpected, to say the least.

I really liked this church too. The ceiling was amazing, and the sanctuary area was calming. I was surprised that it felt so calm, because it was big, and there were plenty of other visitors around.

The church itself is shaped like a T, with the main altar just before the spot where the two lines meet. On the back of the cross of the T are several smaller chapels. The long part of the T is actually three lines, created by columns. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of describing what I saw, oh well.

After taking a ridiculous number of photos, I left. I walked back toward the pyramid, and not long after turned onto another street. This took me up a hill, which left me huffing and puffing and sweating. Heat and humidity, I tell you.

Near the top of this hill I stepped into another church, which was being prepped for a wedding. Very cute.

I kept going, and noticed a queue of people, standing outside a gate. I had no idea what it was for, but I joined the queue. As each person stepped up to the gate, they bent down a little and looked through a keyhole.

The view through the keyhole is straight through the gardens of the Knights of Malta (or something along those lines,) and right to the dome of St Peter. I have to admit, it was pretty stunning.

Since the view is through a small keyhole I didn't bother trying to take a photo, though a few people did. My iphone would not have come close to doing it justice. I wonder if the gate is ever open to let people into the gardens?

After my view through the keyhole I kept walking, to another church. There were other visitors in this one, but it didn't look as if it is currently used as a place of worship.

The altar area was in decent shape, but the rest of the church was fairly empty.

The grounds of this church had a nice park, and since it is on the edge of a 'cliff' there were great views to the rest of the city. After looking through both the church and the park, I kept walking. The road led downhill, and eventually to circus massimo.

I should've read up ahead of time in order to know what this was, but judging from the long lines in the dirt I'm guessing racing of some sort took place here? (I should do some research.) There isn't much there now.

After this area I was starting to get hungry, so I had a sandwich and ice cream from a nearby shop. Amazing what a little food can do when you're tired.

More walking brought me to more ancient stuff. This is Rome after all, where you're bound to trip over something old if you're not paying attention. I took a couple photos, and kept following the road which curves and goes upward.

At the top of this bit I had the choice of two long-ish sets of stairs. One led to a monument in a platz in front of an official looking building, the other led to a church. Of course I went up both of them, sweating all the way.

Both were crowded with tourists, so they weren't much fun.

I don't know why I forgot ahead of time that this would be the busy season for Rome and tourism. I'm not sure the city ever has a quiet time of year, but there are soooo many visitors in June. Maybe it just seemed like too much to me because of the places from which I'd just come, which were so much quieter. Maybe it's because I've been living in Ukraine for six years, and there aren't nearly so many international tourists there. Everywhere I went in Rome it felt like I was with millions of people. Argh. I know I'm just contributing to the numbers by visiting at this time, but just because I am a tourist doesn't mean I like the rest of them.

These two areas at the top of sets of stairs were just behind the Altare della Patria which also had a giant set of stairs. I went down the church stairs, circled around, and went up the Altare della Patria stairs. It's huge.

As far as I could tell, one poor lady had the job of yelling at tourists not to sit on the steps. That would not be fun, and would be never ending.

From there I walked straight up via Corso, all the way to the other end, at the piazza del Popolo. The street has shops and churches, not much else. It's pedestrian mostly, but I was able to get through the crowds fairly quickly.

In the middle of the piazza del Popolo there is an Egyptian obelisk, complete with heiroglyphics carved into the stone. I could probably look up what it says. Ancient empires came together more often than people know.

Since this was Rome, of course there were churches here too. At my count there were three alone around this platz! I went into one, skipped another, and the third was closed for mass. The outside of one of them is currently being redone, so there is a giant sign advertising Samsung there at the moment, I think it looks awful.

From there I walked home, which was a relatively easy walk. I got to cross a bridge, and be hassled by touts who wanted me to buy a scarf to cover my legs in the Vatican Museums. (When they wouldn't stop picking on me I had to point out that I'd already been there.)

For dinner that night I had ice cream with strawberries. Yum. And we watched another movie being streamed from Eric's computer.

The next morning Eric and I were up really early, this is something he does regularly. We were out the door of the flat at 0410, to go for a walk before the city wakes up. Eric has walked many times and knows the streets to follow to get to many of the major sights, it was nice to just follow someone, and not have to dodge other tourists.

We started by skirting around the platz in front of St Peter's basilica, which is all lit up at night. It's also blocked off and guarded, so you don't get to wander through there in the middle of the night.

We kept going a bit further, to Castel San Angelo, which was also lit up. The bridge leading to/from the castle is fairly iconic, it's on a lot of postcards. It was lit up as well.

Our next area was the piazza Navona, which has a big church on one side, and an interesting fountain in the middle. Obviously the church was not open for visitors at that hour.

More walking brought us to a government building, protected by guards. It was blocked off with actual barriers, I wonder what it was. (I could look it up, I know.)

It wasn't far from the government building to the next sight, the Pantheon. It didn't look that big to me, but when Eric described it I understood the feat of engineering the building is, and how amazing it was to have been done so far back in time. The ancient empires were really fantastic in all they created and built without the benefit of modern technology and assistance.

From there we walked to the Trevi fountain. It's really big, you can't get the whole thing in your camera frame without getting pretty far back, which pretty much guarantees you'll get people in your photo.

We were there before dawn and I already counted two couples and two proper looking photographers, (judging by the size of their lenses and tripods.) Is there a time of year when you're less likely to run into someone else at that hour? The fountain was lit up, which was nice.

From the fountain we walked down via Corso, all the way to the Altare della Patria. Since there was very little traffic at that hour I was able to take a couple panoramic shots of the whole thing without anyone else in the photo, yay!

We veered off to the left of the stairs and followed that street through a whole bunch of ruins, the Roman Palatine. Some of the ruins are being rebuilt to look like what archaeologists think they looked like back then; I have really mixed feelings when this is done to something ancient. You can always tell when something has been rebuilt, but if you leave ruins alone they fall apart even more and eventually you have nothing left.

This road leads straight to the Colosseum. When you think of Rome, the Colosseum is probably one of the first thing that pops into your mind. Gladiators fighting to the death, massive crowds of people cheering them on, etc... The architecture and engineering for this massive building is really impressive.

At this point Eric and I got on the subway, but we split up because I got off a few stops earlier than he did. I wanted to see the Spanish steps, he wasn't much interested. I got off at my stop, and followed the signage to the steps.

When I saw someone was already there I was a bit disappointed, but immediately I realized it was a couple having wedding photos taken, which I could see straightaway were beautiful. I snuck one photo of the back of the bride, looking up the steps. I definitely didn't mind waiting for them.

They left pretty quickly, and then I did have the steps to myself. It was actually a bit of a surprise to have them to myself, since it was now dawn. Somehow I expected a few others to be there as well. Fortunately one other couple came along, and we took photos of each other on the steps. I guess sometimes other tourists aren't so bad, just not in big numbers!!

It was an easy walk home from there, where Ramona again made oatmeal for all of us. We watched a movie, then went out shopping as a trio. It was my last day in Rome, and they needed food. We stopped at a store that sells fresh pasta, which was amazing. Each day they have something different, you never know what you'll get until you arrive at the store.

As we were walking along I asked Eric and Ramona if they'd noticed the gold coloured markers on the sidewalks. Since I'd seen these in Austria and Germany I knew what they were, and what they meant. They are called stolpersteine (I think,) and are put in front of buildings from which people were deported during World War II.

The markers have a name, as well as other known information, like the date of deportation, where they were sent, if they died, and if so, when. Never forget, never again.

We also visited a local market for fresh veggies, which was fun. In the early evening Eric and Ramona made the meal, which I loved. How stereotypical that I was having fresh pasta as my last meal in Rome?

After eating I went for one last walk. I'd hoped to get to one last church, but it ended up being too far. Not too far for me to walk, but too far in the time I had to do the walk. Oh well. I headed back to the flat, showered and packed up, then headed to the airport.

I wouldn't mind coming back to Rome, but I want to do it at a different time of year.