Day 23: Vatican City/Rome

Piazza San Pietro in front of St. Peter's Basilica @ Vatican City
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We woke up in Florence and had to hurry to check out as our train left at around 9:30 a.m.  Thankfully our hotel is only a few minutes away from the train station.  After about an hour and a half ride to Rome, we easily found our hotel - Hotel Colors - in a quiet neighborhood right by Vatican City (about a five minute walk).  At the hotel, we found out about a walking tour that they advertise and we decided on booking that tour, which started at around 6:30 p.m.  In the meantime, we decided to check out the Vatican and its many splendors.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica
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We found ourselves at Piazza San Pietro, the Vatican's so-called incredible jaw-dropping entryway piazza.  The piazza was designed by Bernini in the 1600s.  We decided to head for the massively long lie to enter St. Peter's Basilica.  They do a thorough security check before going in, so the lines were quite long.  TJ was heavily annoyed at some of the people who kept pushing and cutting in line...jeez.. everyone would get in eventually!  The line was long, but thankfully we didn't have to wait long.  The basilica is made of marble, gold, bronze, and different mosaics and frescoes all over the place.  Works by Bernini and Michaelangelo grace the massive and beautiful basilica.  It was definitely one of the most beautiful on the trip that we've experienced.  We heard that the climb to the dome of St. Peter's was not worth the long wait and the view was unimpressive, so we decided to save our money and not climb the dome and instead head for the Vatican Museums.

Vatican Museum
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They say the Vatican Museums is the richest museum in the world - in quality and quantity.  We can see why.  It holds an impressive collection of artwork by Raphael, Michaelangelo, and so many other artists whose names escapes us.  Of course, the Vatican Museum's most prized and visited attraction - - the Sistine Chapel.  Sure, it's overly crowded but we found ourselves wanting to stay there and just sit in the room to admire its beauty also.  The stories of creation, Noah, and Adam and Eve are told in about nine frames that are absolutely eye-popping in color still to this day.  Even along the altar walls are some amazing works, like Michaelangelo's Last Judgment.  You could honestly sit in there all day long and study every detail and you'd still be in awe!  We were quite hungry leaving the museum so we stopped at a tiny mom & pop Italian restaurant where an angry looking older Italian couple greeted us.  TJ ordered the fettucine to which the woman said (very authoritatively) "NO .. spaghetti".  TJ, being intimidated by the old large Italian woman, said spaghetti was fine.  Melissa ordered the gnocchi to which the woman yelled "NO... ravioli".  Ravioli was fine by Melissa since Melissa was not about to argue with her.  Luckily we love pasta of all sorts and the food was good, so our lunch ended up being rather pleasant.

The Pantheon
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After having lunch, we walked on to Piazza Navona to the start of our walking tour.  Piazza Navona is a perfectly oval piazza and it's nickname is Stadium of Domition.  This used to be a place where Olympic-like competitions were held and the present, more modern buildings have respected the original shape of the stadium.  This piazza is incredibly large and our tour guide tells us its the stage for an artistic smackdown between Berromini and Bernini.  Borromini's large baroque Sant'Agnese in Agone church towers on one side of the square while Bernini's busy Fountain of the Four Rivers dominates the center.  We then walked on, with our great tour guide who told us years and years of history, to the Pantheon.  This is considered the best preserved and elegant ancient building in the city (some say in the world).  It is so well preserved since one of the emperors gave it to a pope some gajillion years ago and it has since been considered a church with bishop after bishop taking care of the church.  It's still called the Pantheon, although its "church" name is the Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres (Basilica of Martyrs).  It so happens that it is the site where Raphael was buried also.  You can actually see his coffin on display in behind a glass compartment.  While other domes are topped with some sort of mini-dome or cross, the Pantheon has a wide circular opening that lets in the sunlight.  This was to directly connect the gods with earth.  What happens when it rains?  The inside gets wet and there are tiny holes in the floor to drain the water!  We then walked on to the Fontana di Trevi ... yup, the Trevi Fountain.  Our tour guide explained that Nicola Salvi designed this fountain and built it in the mid 1700s.  Yes, there are LOADS of tourists and hawkers everywhere, but that doesn't take away from the sheer beauty of the fountain.  The fountain is geniously designed - with all these falling boulders - so that the fountain is powered by and still powered by the ancient Roman aqueducts.  The water feeds the Trevi Fountain as well as the Barcaccia fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps.  We then headed on to Piazza Venezia where there is a huge monument to the first King of Italy - Vittorio Emanuele.  This piazza is also home to Palazzo Venezia where Mussolini, under the fascist government, made his own little palace and made all his speeches to the masses.  We then walked on to Campidoglio or Capitoline Hill.  Considered the most sacred of Rome's seven hills and gives an amazing view of the Roman Forum, our next stop.  The Roman Forum is definitely not well-preserved but it's beautiful nonetheless.  2,000 year old temples, markets, monuments, and courts stand here and you can imagine how it all used to look.  We ended our tour at the biggest tourist attraction of them all - - the Colosseum.  TJ couldn't have been more excited.  TJ kept reciting lines from the movie Gladiator and was jittery just seeing it!  You can still see the roman numerals above the lower archways, just like in modern stadiums, to let people know where their "tickets" would allow them to sit.  They are still finding remains of old "tickets" made of terracotta to this day!  We ended the tour around 9 p.m. and decided it was definitely time for dinner.

Trevi Fountain
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We followed a guidebook recommendation and went to Isidoro, a pasta palace!!  We heard they had a Taste of Italy Pasta Sample.  For a minimum of two people, they bring out pasta dishes one at a time chosen by the chef.  You share the pasta dish and when its done... they KEEP bringing out more pasta.  This time a different pasta dish.  They will keep bringing more and more different dishes out until you tell them to stop.  Then they count how many pasta dishes you ate and calculate the cost (which, is INCREDIBLY cheap!).  We shared an impressive five plates of pasta (before you go WHOA, each plate was the size of an appetizer dish!!).  Our first, a gnocchi in a creamy tomato sauce that we fell in love with.  Our second, a targliatelle in an artichoke sauce.  This one was ok...TJ was definitely not a fan of the artichokes!  But it was definitely still edible.  Our third was an amazing risotto in a spinach sauce . . creamy and colorful.  Our fourth, a penne in a creamy walnut sauce that TJ adored.  After our fourth dish, Melissa wanted to stop, but TJ asked for just one more dish.  So our nice waiter brought out a penne-ish (a huge fat penne) in a creamy broccoli sauce that was so good we couldn't stop eating!  We were definitely done by this point and with a shared wine, our whole bill was only about 30 Euros!!!!  We waddled ourselves back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the next day.