Rome Tour Day

Woke up early, before the alarm.  I have been waiting for this day for most of my life.  I dreamed as a child of seeing the Colloseum, the Forum, the Vatican.  This day, I will never forget.

We started our day at breakfast, the roof of the Hotel Diana has a view of St. Peter's Basilica.  Mama Mia!  Such a fantastically beautiful site!  I barely ate any breakfast, I was too excited.  The tour picked us up in the hotel and we headed out straight for the Vatican.  Mom stayed behind, she had been recently and knew it would be too many steps for her.  I was so sad to leave her behind, she being the reason for our collective trip and the reason we were all there in Roma together in the first place.

Immediately the tour guide started telling us about the history of Roma on our way over to Vatican City.  There is really no way to describe the feelings I was having.  Shoot, if I was tearing up after an overnight flight at the site of the Colloseum, how can I explain the euphoria I felt knowing we were headed to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's?

Our bus let us off around the corner from where we were going so we got a good idea of what it would be like to be there without a ticket.  The line wound down the street and around the corner into the blazing sun!  I took photos of the line just to show Mom how ridiculously long it was!

First stop (after restroom and bag check) was the outdoor patio at the top of the escalator.  Adriana showed us the pope's residence and then where the new pope had decided to live instead.  He did not move into the pope's residence.  He said it was too large for a single man to occupy.  I'm fairly certain I could be friends with this guy.  There was also a pinecone fountain (no longer working) that was nicknamed the Pinecone Piazza.  Dad asked her when were getting to the Sistine Chapel and she changed tacks and pulled out her book with the Michaelangelo paintings in it.

Adriana was patient with the kids questions (and the adults) and when she had the idea that we understood the order and the meaning of the ceiling and the wall painting in front, we headed out.  The hallways were crowded and became more so as we made our way to the Sistine Chapel.  We walked through some outdoor space with fountains and statues.  Halls with tapestries, then maps, then paintings.  As we got closer to the Sistine Chapel, it was a crazy bunch up.  When the crowd turned, Adriena asked a guard if Dad could cross and wait for us on the other side, avoiding walking another 30 feet over and back.  The guard let Dad cross.  We set off to make the bend and on the way watched people trying to cross the cords.  The guards let them think they got away with it, until they got to the end and then put them on the other side again and sent them around.  Clever!  Natural consequences at work in the Vatican!

The Sistine Chapel is lovely.  The ceilings very high and there was so much going on in that space I think I could have sat there for 2 days and still not seen everything.  Again the large wall painting was of Judgement Day and the thing pointed out to us by Adriana was that the priests standing up by Jesus look just as frightened as everyone else.

We left and went to St. Peter's and because we asked, Adriena took us under the chapel to see the relics of Peter, the Disciple whose bones were brought back from Arabia in trunks full of cabbage and pork (like in the mosaics in Venice).  There were many popes in their tombs down in the basement. :)  We all end up somewhere, I guess.

Met Mom for lunch in a little diner-ish place around the corner from the hotel.  We had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel for a rest before the afternoon Roma tour.

At 3:30, we left Dad snoring and headed out with Mom.  First stop, Colosseum.  Still an astonishing site.  next stop a secret place Adriena brought us up a hill to the gates of the garden of the Knights of Malta.  From the keyhole there, they had planted an arbor and at the end St. Peter's Dome.  What a treat!  On the way back down the hill, we passed a 1st Century apartment house.  There were at least 3 floors visible, and another 8 meters down to the ground floor.  Adriena said there were 1 million people living in Rome in the 1st Century (1/2 of the population were killed by the plague in 1400s)

Onward to the Forum and Capital Steps and then on to the Panthenon by way of a Bernini fountain of the Four Rivers.  Final stop, Trevi Fountain.  Mom joined us for this one and took photos of her kids throwing coins into the fountain.  Part of me wants to rearrange our trip so we don't return to Rome, but I know that's impossible as almost every train in Italy ends in Rome.

We had a sweet dinner back in a place around the other corner.  It appeared to look like some of the 1st-3rd century buildings we had seen on our tour.  The food was great and we toasted Mom for bringing all of us on this once-in-a-lifetime trip.  Huzzah Huzzah!