This was our third day in Rome. We started by having a cereal breakfast left by our amazing hosts. After breakfast we headed out to the Vatican city. It was a Sunday, and on Sunday the Vatican museums are free from 9-12:30 PM. We had already been though, so our destination was St Peter's Basilica.
This morning I learned for myself that I was over Rome. I didn't need to come back. I'm seeing all I want in these three days, and if I don't come back ever...I would be completely happy! I don't even need to see the completed trevi fountain.
As I got on another hot and stinky bus, with tight standing room only space...people rubbing all against me it was so crowded...the romance and attraction to Rome was gone. I wanted so badly to be back in Sweden, or Austria, or even Germany in that moment.
Anyways, after waiting 15 minutes for a bus and riding said bus for 30 minutes...We made it to the main train station, Termini, where we caught another overcrowded train to Vatican city. Not only were the museums free today, being the last Sunday of the month, but the pope was speaking at noon.
We made it to the Vatican around 11:15, and stood in line for the Basilica. It was hot, the line was long, and people were trying to cut. We had fun and took pictures anyways! The Vatican center started filling up as it got closer to noon. At 11:45, cheers roared as the pope 's tapestry rolled out from a window. The line moved forward, we were almost to security, when noon struck and the pope appeared! Crowds roared as he spoke in Italian. The people quieted to listen. It was quite a cool experience. We went through security around 12:10, and from our viewpoint, we could see the pope from his window. He looked very small from where we were, even though we were closer than anyone in the Vatican! Luckily, there were large screens of the pope in convenient places, and he was miked so people could hear him. Good timing for us!
See the Pope Tapestry? I said it was small :)
We then went into the Basilica, passing people with shorts on as they are not allowed in the church. So sad! As we entered, you immediately see the huge altar for st Peter. However, we were there for the La Peita! The statute of Mary holding the crucified Christ. It was beautiful and better than I could've ever imagined. The marble work and emotion seeping from the sculpture was just spectacular. It almost felt real, like I went back in time and watched this happen. This is a must see! If you venture to Rome just for this, the Colosseum, and the Roman forum...it would be totally worth the crowds! All this made it with it. As we walked away, we saw more statues of pope 's than Christ, kind of sad considering this was a church. We even saw the tombs of three dead popes...with the tombs have clear glass in front so you could see the preserved bodies. The older they were, the darker their skin...but they were still very well preserved! We then made our way to st Peter's tomb. However, as it was Sunday...mass was going on and you could not walk up to it. We admired from afar, knowing that we had already seen the best thing there. After spending over an hour here, pondering and looking, we decided it was time to leave.
From the Vatican, we went and got lunch! Two delicious paninis, with the best combination of bread, salami, and cheese. We refilled our water bottles with the refreshing water fountains placed around Rome.
Our next destination was castle San Angelo. This used to house the urns of Hadrian and his family...dating back to about 2000 years ago. The urns are no longer there, and no one knows what happened to them, but the building is still in great shape. About a millennium after Hadrian had built his part, different pope 's added onto the structure. The coolest part about the castle was the great views of the city and the walkway here connecting the Vatican and the castle. It was used by a pope to run from the Vatican to the castle to hide when the city was under attack. The pope his in the castle for seven months until he was safe. So cool! However, from the information we got, it sounds like they only open the walkway for people to walk on at night...sometimes. We admired the walkway from afar.
That...my friends...is a dead pope. There were three of them and it was crazy!!
See the runway below? That connects to the Vatican!
In the Castle!
The view!
A knight with GOOD protection!
Kevin's ready to run down the Pope walkway
Next, we headed near the trevi fountain to the Capuchin church. Here is a crypt with bones of friars and monks...or what other people would call catacombs...not them though, so don't get confused. This is one of the few places in Rome that still have bones in their catacombs. From what I've found, most places in Rome have emptied their catacombs, but you can still enter them to see. The great thing about this church is that it is a hidden gem for crazy people like me...with very few tourists! Also, you need to cover your knees here, just like st Peter's. I had to put my pants back on for here. You walk through the museum of the friars first and then enter the crypts! There are five rooms with bones, each with a different theme. The room of skulls, thighs, pelvis'...whatever! They are all cool. Also, everything down there was made from bones...all the designs, chandeliers, bones everywhere...even some of the dead friars were posed in standing positions! Kevin and I were trying to figure out if the person who made this was just an artist...or crazy. Either way, I'm glad it was made because we got to appreciate it.
No pictures are allowed here, but we tried to take some anyways. They turned out okay...We ended up just buying a postcard of the crypt at the end of the tour.
From here, our next destination was the villa borghese. After having walked and being on our feet for about 5 hours in the extreme heat, we were getting pretty tired. As we entered the park...We had no idea where to go and honestly we were too tired to walk very far. We found a"grassy" area where I slipped off my pants...I had shorts on underneath for those with dirty minds :-) and we sat for a little bit until ants sent us away. There was a bus on the park that we hopped on, hoping it would take us to a cool place in the park...it didn't...not surprising as the busses suck. There were some cool things we passed along the way, but had no desire to walk back to.
We exited the park, feeling perfectly satisfied with what we saw. Then stopped to get some delicious gelato...possibly the best so far followed by the lindt store gelato. We got a mixture of strawberry and dark chocolate gelato! Spectacular after a long and hot day!
Before heading home, we went into another square nearby the villa. It looked Egyptian, with two churches side by side in the square! Very cool. After walking enough, we caught the overcrowded metro and headed home. Next was the awful bus. When we got to our stop, we found a kebab wrap for dinner. It was unique as the shop also put French fries in the wrap! Very good!
We arrived home around 8 PM, tired with hurt feet, but relaxed after a nice shower. I will not miss Rome, but I have seen some great things. Tomorrow is Pompeii! Can't wait :-)
Ta ta for now!
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