DAY 22 - Rome I

Wednesday, 11 May 2005

Our hotel has parking (yeah!!) and is so much easier to get to than our Florence hotel.

Vatican/Vaticano
- St Peter's Square & Wednesday Mass
We were going to wait for the papal mass but it would have meant sitting in the sun for 2.5 hours (1.5 hours of waiting + 1 hour mass) which we weren't prepared for because of all the other scheduled events for the day. So we end up changing our plans and going to the Vatican Museum instead.
Keep in mind that Pope John Paul II passed away in April and the Vatican just selected Pope Benedict XVI while we were in Europe...this was his third Wednesday mass and there was still a feeling of excitement in the air.

St Peter's Square/Piazza San Pietro
The focal point of the Catholic world...
Vatican Museum/Museo
Definitely worth going through. A lot of interesting art and history combined. I'm not a big art buff but I was very impressed by the amount of time spent on the murals and artwork in the Vatican – especially paintings by both Rafael and Michelangelo.

- Sistine Chapel
This is worth the wait. It's best to sit down around the edge of the chapel and then observe the ceiling where Michelangelo's most famous artwork resides at. You can easily spend 15 minutes just staring and soaking it in.

Ancient Rome/Roma
- Coliseum/Colosseo
- Roman Forum/Foro Romano
- Capitoline Hill/Campodiglio
- Pantheon
Unfortunately, pollution and vandalism have eaten into a lot of the historical monuments here. It was interesting walking around inside the ruins...just avoid the trinket sellers and people who want you to go on their tour. I was expecting a lot more so I was a little disappointed but it was still very interesting. On a side note...we recommend that you tour Rome early in the day since the car pollution builds up to a point that there is a gray smog over the city in the afternoon. It affects both your health and pictures... :(

Roman Forum/Foro Romano
The ancient city of Rome in its full glory...

Modern Rome/Roma
- First Jesuit Church/Gesu
Beautiful inside. Definitely worth a look. They were working on the outside of the church when we visited it.

- Trevi Fountain
This IS truly beautiful. We could see why people just wanted to hang around the fountain and chat, watch the waters or people-watch.

- Spanish Steps/Spagna Steps
Another favorite place for locals and tourists to just hangout. Unfortunately, you again have to avoid the trinket sellers who are one step ahead of the Italian Police/Polizia who are trying to move them out of the tourist centers.

I wash the third load of laundry while Locke gets us two take-out pizzas that we scarf down. Though manual labor is never fun, the welcome relief of clean clothes awaits us... :)

-- Al & Locke